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An agreeably told story of the domestic upheavals on the home front during the second world war. The cast is a good one: Stewart Granger, as the war dodging Romeo who makes a play for a neglected soldier's wife (Joy Shelton); Alastair Sim as the local g.p. on hand to offer his sage advice; George Carney as the lodger, trying to dodge the warring females in the household and happiest when he's with his pigeons; Beatrice Varley as the worried mother trying desperately to make ends meet and do right by her family; Alison Leggatt as the interfering sister-in-law and Vera Francis as the nosey sister. John Mills and Shelton hold the piece together as Mr and Mrs Ordinary Man and Woman, and there is a nice comic turn from Wylie Watson as a Tattooist. Best of all we have Jean Kent, wisecracking her way through the war as Toni, the discarded girlfriend of Granger, who's done very nicely thank you, having been set up in her own hairdressing business.

Waterloo Road is a tidily produced picture that is telling a pretty prickly story. The plot revolves around John Mills everyman railway worker Jim Colte, he gets called up to do his service in the army, leaving behind his recently wedded bride, Tillie. The local Lothario, Ted Purvis (Stewart Granger) has his eye on Tillie, and with Tillie feeling alone and vulnerable, Purvis may just get his wicked way with her. But Jim gets wind of this and after being refused compassionate leave by his superiors, he goes AWOL and intends to track Purvis down. We are told this story by Alastair Sim's wonderfully astute Dr.Montgomery, who has been sent a fair bit of work from previous Purvis doings.

The film plays out with Jim dodging the military police and lurching from one Purvis haunt to another, inter cut with this is us following Purvis and Tillie out on the town as the day of reckoning for all three of them draws near. When the finale comes it's well worth the wait, mighty midget John Mills (brilliant here) facing off against the tall and fulsome Stewart Granger, just as Adolf decides to bomb London! A smashing little film that is risqué with it's themes of unfaithful wives and soldiers absconding from service. 7/10

A most satisfying film ,well acted and produced,a simple story of a wartime incident when the husband(john mills) came on leave.The fight scene between John Mills and Stewart Granger was the highlight.In those unsophisticated days audiences often applauded and cheered a good film.It was the only entertainment for the hard working people in those wartime years.

Waterloo Road is an enjoyable and underrated film I think. It is not perfect as it is too short and occasionally too rushed. However, the cinematography and scenery are agreeable and the soundtrack is bouncy and energetic. The script is witty yet does a good job in the more serious bits, the story is interesting and well crafted with some risqué themes for the time and the direction is competent. The acting is fine, John Mills is delightful and I was surprised at his energy here, Stewart Granger is dashing and Alastair Sim as always is a joy. The best comes from Jean Kent, who is delicious and Ben Williams, who provides some of the most entertaining bits of the film. My favourite bit? The climax was hilarious I thought. Overall, if a little flawed it is good fun. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I wonder how daring this film was for wartime with a sympathetic treatment of soldiers AWOL? Also unfaithful wifes, a worry to many soldiers, the ones that weren't frollicking with girls in liberated countries of course. My interest were lots of authentic outdoor scenes in wartime London. Only criticism was the requirement for the cad to be doubly punished!! (Villains had to be seen to punished for it to get by the censor). Alister Sims seemed menacing even though he was playing a good guy.

"Waterloo Road" deserves to be better known than it is. If, like me, you were born after the war, it is a fascinating glimpse of a time gone by, but don't watch it for that alone. It is a story about ordinary people in wartime, without heroics and melodrama, but with an abundance of character and incident. The characters struck me as being true to life, and I didn't find a jarring line of dialogue or a scene which dragged. John Mills gave a fine performance as a soldier gone AWOL, and Stewart Granger as the cad out to seduce his wife. All in all, a wonderful little film.

Soldier Jim Colter, called up to fight in World War Two, goes AWOL to get to his home near Waterloo station after hearing that his wife is seeing a philandering conscription dodger Ted Purvis. Can he avoid being caught and save his marriage?

Wartime drama, not untypical of British films of this era, and watchable to the end. John Mills and Joy Shelton star as the couple but Stewart Granger excels as the charmer. Fine cameo by Alastair Sim who commands the screen each time he appears.

Waterloo Road is sometimes forgotten among the hundreds of films made by the late, great Sir John Mills, but it gave him one of his best roles at a time when British Film studios were churning out a handful of films each week for to satisfy the public.

He plays Jim Colter, a former railway employee, now called up who goes AWOL to find Ted Purvis (Stewart Granger), a spiv and draft dodger who is seeing his wife (an excellent performance by Joy Shelton). The action takes place over a single day in, and around, Waterloo Station. In almost social realism style the camera follows the action through real streets, and includes an early amusement arcade (check those machines and the customers), a dance hall, tea shop and a tattoo parlour in a road called 'The Cut'. I watched this with my Mother(now 79)as its her favourite John Mills Film, and she remembers passing by this parlour and seeing the 'tattooed lady' poster when, as a 14 year old shop assistant, she worked at Waterloo Station during the blitz.

It is a well crafted film: not many scenes are wasted and the script is tight and balanced between light and serious dialogue. Another surprise is how energetic Mills is. He leaps across tables and through windows like an acrobat. The fight scene is as well filmed and choreographed as any American Film Noir of the time, and even allowing for library clips of the blitz (which can be seen in other wartime films), the bombing sequence is as close to the real thing as the studio could make it.

My favourite performance and /or character? Ben Williams playing the hapless Military Policeman Corporal Lewis forever chasing Mills around 'The Cut'. How often are films today enhanced by the Extra Players?

An interesting and watchable British feature which provides interesting insights into the wartime lifestyles and attitudes of the working class. John Mills is the soldier who goes AWOL during the Blitz to return home to check up on his pretty young wife Joy Shelton after his nosey sister sends him a letter accusing her of having an affair in his absence with Stewart Granger's spivvy draft-dodger.

That's about all the plot there is, apart from a little padding which sees Alastair Sim's G. P. act as the moral conscience of the film, subtly guiding Mills to his wife's whereabouts on the arm of the scheming Granger and even on how to defend himself in the anticipated fisticuffs with his rival.

There's also an encounter between Mills and a U. S. counterpart although significantly the Yank has only gone missing because he wants to see some fighting action, as if American soldiers never committed adultery, especially when in old Blighty!

It's interesting to witness the conflicting treatment of two able-bodied males of the time and almost see the film as part of a recruitment drive for the British forces whilst shaming shirkers like Granger's character. We see this in the way that Mills's character benefits from the pursuing military police almost looking the other way as he tries to sort out his domestic situation and are even given to believe that little Johnny can win a bare-knuckle fight with the much bigger Granger who we're told is a champion boxer.

The contemporary attitude towards women is also interesting to observe as we see Shelton's fading resistance to Granger's charms almost excused by not only the obvious device of his wining and dining her but more pertinently demonstrating some understanding of the sense of loneliness and physical and emotional needs of a young woman deprived of her husband's company for long periods of time.

Naturally it all ends up as it should with the married couple reconciled and the bounder getting a thick ear, but it was nevertheless interesting to view this less than rosy picture of marital life during the war.

Sydney Gilliat, this time without the aid of his long-time associate Frank Launder, wrote the screenplay and directed the action. Just over 70 minutes long, even then it feels slightly padded as Mills and his American army pal try to avoid detection, but nevertheless it doesn't gild the lily in painting its true to life family portrait. There's one particularly fine shot early in the film when Sim's character introduces the extended flashback as we see the present-day part-flattened Waterloo Road restored to completion to begin the story and the film elsewhere makes good use of actual physical locations.

Not the kind of feature normally associated with the Gainsborough studio but definitely a welcome change from its more usual overripe costume melodramas.

When John Mills gets a letter from his sister that his wife, Joy Shelton, is carrying on with local sporting man Stewart Granger, he goes AWOL back to his home to track them down and deal with the situation.

I've passed up numerous chances to see this movie before I realized that it had John Mills in it. "Huh! Is there a third movie version of WATERLOO BRIDGE?" No, it's a domestic drama directed and co-written by Sidney Gilliat, so it has a good, rough sense of humor, abetted by Alastair Sim as the local doctor, and one of every three characters who recognize local boy Mills. This being released before the end of the War, it also has a morale-boosting bit of propaganda at the end, enlarging Sim's role a bit.

There are lots of faces familiar to movie fans, including Jean Kent, Wallace Lupino, Ben Williams, and Kathleen Harrison. It's not a very deep or important film, but it will interest and amuse fans of the talented cast and crew.

A young English soldier early in World War II (John Mills), learning his wife is stepping out with a spiv (Stewart Grainger, in a different sort of role) goes AWOL to have it out with the wife-stealer.

For Americans it's an eye-opening peek into wartime London. It wasn't all sing-songs in the Underground. It was also people dodging the army with phony certificates, homebodies romancing the wives of men at the front and illicit sales on the black market.

The slang may be difficult for Americans who aren't Anglophiles.

The best parts are when Alistair Sim pops in as the kindly doctor and (infrequent) narrator.

It has nicely comic touches to relieve the melodrama and plenty of odd British characters. Thank goodness. And at the end Sim has a curious explanation for Hitler.

"Waterloo Road" is a most unusual film for when it was made. After all, it was made in the final months of WWII and is a story about a soldier on AWOL...and you are supposed to be pulling for the guy! This is a far cry from the usual jingoistic propaganda war film of the day!!

When the story begins, Private Colter (John Mills) receives word that his wife is spending time with a local playboy, Ted Purvis (Stewart Granger). The problem is that the Private cannot get leave...so he heads home anyway! When he's caught, he tries to explain the situation but isn't granted leave. In fact, he's being escorted back to his unit when he slips away and heads to London looking for his wife and the rotter. The film consists of his adventures leading up to the eventual confrontation scene.

The acting is good and the film well made. As for Granger, it's interesting to see him here in his pre-Hollywood days....as he's very thin and gangly. In fact, he really didn't seem nearly as handsome as he would just a few years later after he filled out a bit and perfected a prettier accent. The only weakness I noticed in the script is that the wife seemed like an empty-headed woman who had no ability to say no to the playboy. I wish they'd written her a bit better...with more personality and grit. Still, an enjoyable little curio...a film I just didn't expect to see coming from early 1945.

While this is a good film, I couldn't help but wishing "Waterloo Road" had captions. After all, the accents in this British movie are those of working class blokes....and they aren't quite so easy to always understand to us Yanks.

People get nostalgic for a bygone era where supposedly everyone rooted together, conveniently forgetting how much people were in it for themselves and the spiv culture ruled. The blitz spirit is bit of a myth.

Here comes a slice of life film that was made when the war was still on. Not sure how this one went past the censor as the subject matter involves an AWOL soldier who wants to find his wife after he gets wind that she is being wooed by a supposedly invalid playboy type draft dodger excellently played by Stewart Granger who is also an ex boxer.

Granger is trying to get his wicked ways by spinning whatever yarn he can and showing her a good time. Add to this, some mishaps, John Mills AWOL soldier being pursued by military policemen and a mixture of comedy and drama makes this an easy going gem.

There is a rather brutal fight scene at the end and Alistair Sim gives a nice cameo as well as Jean Kent wearing not a lot, not sure what the censor was doing when her scene turned up!

The humour in this film is top notch and mostly not commented upon. Highly enjoyable film and totally recommended... top acting... love these black and white British films from this era.

This is a highly compressed social drama in wartime involving the lives of many different characters from various social layers of London, excluding only every glimpse of any upper class. Doctor Alastair Sim introduces the events from a view after the war, whereupon you are miraculously transferred from a bombed out London street to what it was before the ruins. He has a fairly good view of the whole chart of ingredients of the human destinies involved. The main characters are Stewart Granger and John Mills, both as very young men och rivals of the same woman, who is John Mills' wife, but he is in the army. He gets an alarm letter of the situation from home and takes leave without leave to handle the situation in his own way, with his fists.

Action is very fast from beginning to end, you have to keep very alert not to miss any detail, also the father with his doves tells a special story of his own, and all the beautiful young ladies... One just giving a glimpse of herself is Jean Kent as a hairdresser with a beauty and intelligence of her own. She is the only one apart from Dr. Sim to see through the debatable character of Stewart Granger.

He makes a villain but not without charming and sympathetic traits, you must admit he has to be successful, until the verdict comes...

Above all, it's a brilliant story told with impressive efficiency, nothing is lost on the way to the towering finale with its advanced acrobatics for a settlement, and every story is told to the full. Even the doves are finally satisfied, and the Doctor finalizes this masterpiece of a kaleidoscopic human record with the same charm as he introduced it with. It's a film well worth seeing several times, since you have to miss something every time...

A young soldier (John Mills) during World War II thinks his wife might be cheating and goes absent without leave in "Waterloo Road," also starring Stewart Granger, Jean Kent, and Alistair Sim. This film is from 1945, directed by Sidney Gilliat.

Jim and Tillie Colter (Mills and Joy Shelton) are newlyweds and very much in love, as Dr. Montgomery (Sims) stands on Waterloo Road remembering it as it was pre-war.

Tillie wants a home and family. She doesn't care if it's one room to start, as long as it's theirs. Jim feels the war is in the way of settling down and starting a family. They move in with his mother and his sister Ruby, and Jim goes off to fight.

Ruby believes Tillie has been seduced by the town playboy, Ted Purvis (Granger), a slimeball who purchased a medical certificate to stay out of the service. She writes to Jim, who immediately takes off for home.

He spends the entire day looking for Tillie and avoiding the military police. Tillie is indeed hanging with Ted - she's bored. He takes her dancing and buys her drinks. She doesn't want to cheat on Jim, which angers Ted.

Toward the end of the film, there is a massive fight which may have taken days to film. The end is very satisfying.

Some reviewers think this is a lost treasure. Frankly, there wasn't much to it.

Dated now but a smart looking and reasonably well acted WW11 home-front propaganda drama - looking at how it was for serving men and their families left to carry on. The stark British landscapes, wearing their battle scars show us the extent of the battering Britain was subjected to while going it alone - against a ruthless and almost unstoppable enemy of the entire world.

Sidney Gilliatt (State Secret '50) directs with some flair. The ITV DVD is not re-Mastered but features digital enhancement to give clear images and sound.