Waterloo Road

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

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

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.

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.

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.