Prismark10 Noel Coward was a toff, one of those elitists who believed they were born to rule and lord it over the lower classes.In his biography Coward was rather upset with the Labour landslide of 1945, not a surprise. It would had hurt him to see the working classes get a taste of power but it also shows how he fundamentally failed to understand the attitude of the British people after all they had endured through the second world war.This is a flag waving propaganda film that Coward co-directed with David Lean. Coward's portrayal of Captain Kinross, commander of the destroyer HMS Torrin is based on the experiences of Lord Mountbatten on the HMS Kelly. Mountbatten was another elitist toff who after the war, royally messed up as the last viceroy of India.In Which We Serve tells the story of several crew members of the Torrin's personal lives in flashback after it has been sunk in the Mediterranean. It is meant to show steely resolve, the stiff upper lip from both the crew and their families. Only Richard Attenborough's cowardly sailor lets the side down.It is a stiff and starch film but rather unsentimental. The film was critically lauded and regarded as a classic but now looks aged and of its era. The story is too thin and Coward, who always loved a sailor was a stiff actor.

Alex da Silva Noel Coward is captain of HMS Torrin, a British Navy destroyer, and he expects his crew to obey his philosophy. His ships are happy and efficient, so he likes to believe. The story is told in flashbacks as survivors cling to a dinghy after HMS Torrin is sunk.It's a propaganda film that is meant to rouse feelings of discipline and dedication to country in time of war. Everyone seems to put the ship before themselves or their loved ones. Even the sailor's wives put the ship first and understand that there is a higher purpose beyond their own personal happiness. From that perspective, it's all a bit ghastly for me, I'm afraid. I found the film dragged and also was very choppy – a bit here then another bit there. It could have had a more focused storyline.All the women are pretty awful in this. Celia Johnson who plays Coward's wife speaks in that laughably bad clipped English and seaman John Mill's mother as depicted by Kathleen Harrison (Mrs Blake) is just plain annoying. Coward's delivery is machine gunned at you so it's not always clear what he is saying. However, set against this, there is some amusing dialogue in parts. Overall, the film is too long and I'm not sure about the propaganda message of join the war effort and expect heartbreak. Err, OK, it's a no thanks from me then.

froberts73-379-217403 I became an Anglophile during WW2. I was a teener and this movie served Noel Coward's purpose - to show the spirit of the Brits both at home and abroad. The cast was letter perfect, particularly Coward and my all-time favorite Jn. Mills, who made it until he was 98. The 'couples' in the movie, all of them, were perfect matches, particularly Mills and the soft, lovely Kay Walsh, a real 'bring-tears-to-your-eyes' couple. As far as I'm concerned this was the perfect movie. By the way, if the English accent scares you, carry on. The entire cast was easy to understand. "In Which We Serve" will keep you enthralled, top to bottom. Put it on your A-plus list.

rhinocerosfive-1 Opportunities to see Noel Coward recite Noel Coward were necessarily inhibited by his death, but he has left among his filmed artifacts this stunning little achievement, perhaps the quietest war film, probably the most British. To be sure, it veers maudlin once or twice, and the whole production is suffused with the blood of righteousness - but not self-righteousness. This is the kind of movie that makes me want to join the Navy, I who get seasick in the bath.How does a middle-aged homosexual song-and-dance man support the war effort? By producing a bang-up answer to Wyler and Ford, a vivid recruitment poster for the side of decency and respect. Brutal, tender, horrible, and full of hope, IN WHICH WE SERVE sings the victory song of both shellfire and home fire without mention of glory or distinction. Noel Coward's acting is a marvel of disinterested conviction. Nobody could speak faster, or with more precision, and that with the stiffest of upper lips.No one wrote dialog at once so arch and comfortable, either, except maybe Kipling. Coward celebrates the most sophisticated level of civilization, the blithe, eloquent man of society who has managed not to become jaded. He embraces his England with a respectfully familiar pinch on the cheek, and he kisses her with the most restrained of passions in front of the children. But he also loves with all his heart the simple proletarian bedrock, and he allows the working classes to display as much humanity and emotion as he denies his own character.There is much stage-like, not to say stagey, in the production, which shouldn't be very surprising given its principal antecedents. The film is sometimes expressionistic in design, the angles and sets a terrifying collage of unsettling, theatrical images in contrast to the reassuring tea cozy and the ramrod-straight captain on the quarterdeck. The symbols are profoundly simple and the effect is disarmingly true. As Coward says over a drink, "Perfect; it's not a bit too sweet." Well, it is rather, but mix another pitcher of Bovril and sherry and don't complain, there's a good chap.