Old Bill and Son

When young Bill Busby enlists after the Nazis invade Poland, his father old Bill wants to do his part. So Old Bill And Son played by Morland Graham and John Mills both do their bit for King and country.

As Graham was in the first World War it takes a bit of doing, but Graham is not without contacts and he gets in the two serve over in France.

As we know this is the part called the 'phony war' after Hitler successfully conquered Poland and the Allies and Axis just stared at each other. An interesting aspect of this is that the attitude demonstrated here is that they expected it to be a static war of troops in trenches like the last one. Even with Hitler's blitzkrieg of armor rolling over Poland this was what was expected. It came, but in the spring of 1940

In the meantime things settle down and Old Bill And Son turns to comedy and I'm sure the 'phony war' had its share of it.

Mills and Graham have a nice chemistry and there's a wonderful scene with Mary Clare as wife and mother telling Graham why Hitler isn't about to send her off to the country and have her abandon home and hearth.

Old Bill And Son, a nice stiff upper lip British morale booster still quite entertaining today.

Filmed during WW11 when Germany had the initiative and was invading Russia, a number of the actors (apart from John Mills) were familiar to me.There was Renee Houston a music hall artiste (Gloria in "A Girl Must Live 1939), Renee Ray ,"Miss Fulham" a bathing beauty queen who renounces her chance of competing in "Bank Holiday" (1938), Gus McNaughton a newspaper editor in "Storm in a teacup" (1937), Roland Culver a well known character actor in "The Moon's a Balloon" (1940)and many other titles and finally Ronald Shiner "Dry Rot" (1951).

We had to raise the nation's morale in 1941 (the year H.M.S.Hood was sunk by "Bismark" and this film (based on a WW1 cartoon)is where the entire family and friends of John Mills enter the army and most magically are all posted together to France.This was helpful for filming as it is mostly a studio bound production with little or no expensive location shots or big stars salaries to pay.Obviously a propaganda film produced to raise the nation's morale but it was mildly entertaining so I rated it 6/10.

Bruce Bairnsfather sends his old campaigner out looking for a better 'ole for the Second World War in this movie, under the direction of Ian Dalyrimple. After John Mills, playing Young Bill, joins up when war is declared, Old Bill, played by Morland Graham tries to get in. He's told he's too old, but a series of senior officers were his junior officers in the last fight, so he winds up on the front in France, scrounging and getting into trouble in this service comedy.

This was a good effort at the time it was released -- in March of 1940, when the fighting, so far as the British were concerned, was on the Eastern Front, and a failed campaign in Norway. The French were still waiting in the Maginot Line, facing the Siegfried Line. It would take another couple of months before the Germans launched their blitzkrieg, took Belgium and the real war began, so far as British history was concerned, at Dunkirk.

As a result this looks like a very peculiar view of the Second World War, like Jan de Hartog's ERGENS IN NEDERLAND. Like many a movie made for the moment, its moment has passed.

Young Bill (John Mills) has just joined the British Army, as he wants to do his part now that war has arrived. Well, Old Bill (Morland Graham), his father, wants to do his part as well...though no one takes him seriously due to his age. Plus, he already fought in WWI like a good patriotic Brit would have done. At first he's rejected but ultimately joins up...and ends up serving with his son.

It is hard to believe that a many pushing 50 would be inducted into the regular army, though the Home Guard (volunteers who drilled and trained in case the country was actually invaded) would have loved to have had Old Bill. Regardless, you should suspend your disbelief and just watch this pleasant comedy. Not a great film by any standard but a nice propaganda film made to stir up British pride and patriotism when things were their worst.

A film that once did its bit in cheering up a Britain at war, it is unlikely to have them rolling in the aisles at the multiplex. This is not to say that it couldn't still raise a few laughs, if it was ever shown again.

From what I have read of the contemporary novelisation, and seen of the 12 production stills included in that volume - which appears to be a very faithful adaptation - , it is a jolly effort all round, and might well appeal to anyone who enjoys 'Dad's Army'. Perhaps a television audience would appreciate its quaint charms.

Certainly, it is redolent of its era. Old Bill reminds one of an elderly if slightly dotty relative, whom we should be more sorry than we are to see shuffle off into oblivion. I would go so far as to say that we would be altogether nicer and more interesting people if we made the past generations more welcome at our flickering electronic hearth. But I suppose someone over fifty would be prone to such opinions. The under-forties probably find such ordinary old films too creepily remote from the common light of current fashion for comfortable viewing. There is, truly, nothing more disturbing than being forced to observe the precursors of your own flimsy wisps of existence in that dusty shaft of relentless ephemerality!

But for all those out there who habitually prowl the graveyards of long-forgotten tears and laughter, illuminated by the unnatural light of other days, you might try second-hand booksellers for the next-best thing to seeing the film itself:

Old Bill & son : the story of the film /by Bruce Bairnsfather and Ian Dalrymple. - London : Hutchinson & Co., [1941]