The Shipbuilders

Made during the war looking to the future but largely set during the thirties when John Baxter was one of the few directors showing an interest in the struggling poor rather than the idle rich.

That Margot Grahame's role as Pagan's daughter was cut before the film was released and Hay Petrie makes only a fleeting non-speaking appearance suggests the original cut was substantially much longer.

Clive Brook headlines this rather dry wartime flagwaver, but Morland Graham probably bags mores screen time as a modest riveter whose unwavering faith in the shipbuilding industry helps him overcome numerous domestic difficulties. The first two-thirds of the film feels like filler for the final third, which rams home the importance of shipbuilding to national defence with stern speeches from Brook and a ceaseless wave of montage sequences.