Robert J. Maxwell It's long but it's good. For a British film from 1944 the production values are amazingly high. Whole buildings -- real ones -- collapse. The special effects at sea are convincing. And what a cast! Actually, the story itself is hardly new. A diverse group of men are drafted into the Duke of Glendons, go through a training camp periods, their transport is torpedoed, and they fight a small-scale defensive battle among the ruins of a village in North Africa. Writers Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov have whipped it into entertaining shape.None of the men is regular army except the tough sergeant who has eyes like a lizard but the heart of a Rogerian therapist. David Niven has risen from the ranks and is a lieutenant. The men themselves, with their winsome misapprehensions, are brought into a state of readiness by a combination of strict physical demands and compassion. The leaders are stern but fair. I won't bother describing the draftees because you can already guess their nature from a dozen other war movies -- the grumbler, the show-off, the snob, the Welshman, the earnest patriot.If you didn't know that it was directed by Carol Reed, you'd still probably notice some unusual directorial touches. A sleepy backwater little town. An old man, half asleep, brushing the flies from his face. A dog sleeping in the street. And then the distant sound of motorcycles and bren carriers growing louder. And soon a stream of British vehicles lumbering loudly through the main street and stirring the dust, with the dog lazily moping away and a disheveled Peter Ustinov emerging from the Cafe Rispoli to stare sullenly at the pageant.It may or may not sound promising in a synopsis but in fact it's pretty good.

krishkmenon What a film! It packs a punch even today and one can just imagine what a morale booster it would have been to the war effort for England. Carol Reed as always is top notch in direction and the portrayals by David Niven, Stanley Holloway and in a very small role Peter Ustinov not necessarily in that order is remarkable. Niven I am given to understand was lent out by the army to make this movie which was incidentally scripted by a very young Ustinov. The narrative is simple yet effective. It brings about the story of a collection of men from various parts of British society drafted into the infantry, undergoing training and being bombed out of a troop carrier in the Mediterranean and then being baptised by fire in North Africa after El-Alamein. Top class to say the least. The standouts are the sceptical old-timers who keep following the progress of the war from 1939 to 1942(when the film ends) in the newspapers with their cryptic criticism about the regiment of which they were a part earlier, but in the final scene are obviously impressed by the regiments performance. Reed sees to it that there is no dialogue in this scene but just a close up of the old-timers recording their admiration and approval - Excellent. The final scene where the trainee soldiers fit their bayonets and prepare to attack into the mist is another Reed masterpiece.

MartinHafer This is a film about a seemingly run of the mill sort of group. After the Brits were involved in WWII and saw how bad the going would be, the government was forced to draft men who would traditionally have been exempt. Men who were a bit old or involved with careers that might be deemed 'useful' to the effort were suddenly being called to duty, as times were dire. The beginning of the film shows these men being selected for service.Unfortunately, this is a rather motley group and they tended to complain quite a bit as well (mostly by Stanley Holloway's character). How they could become a productive unit seemed pretty doubtful and I doubt if such an unimpressive group of men would have been used as actors had this propaganda film been made a few years earlier--when things looked really bad for the British. However, now that the war was appearing win-able, I can understand the choices of actors.There is nothing particularly magical about any of the film--their selection, their training or their combat experience in North Africa. However, all of it was very well handled and excelled because they tried to make it believable--normal, everyday men rising to the occasion. In many ways, it reminded me of a landlocked version of "In Which We Serve"--with fine acting and writing instead of jingoism and super-human exploits. Very well done.There are a few interesting actors in the film. Peter Ustinov is in his first film and he plays a French-speaking man. While his French isn't 100% fluid, it was decent and a bit of a surprise. Apparently, he was in real life David Niven's assistant in the British Army and somehow ended up in the film--and thus began his career. Also, Dr. Who fans will appreciate that the Sergeant is played by Dr. #1, William Hartnell.By the way, this is a little explanation for those who are not British or familiar with British history. Early in the film, someone asks Stanley Holloway's character who he liked in Parliament. Holloway indicates the only one he liked was Guy Fawkes! Fawkes was part of a plot to blow up Parliament in 1605, but was caught and executed--and the Brits celebrate this to this day with Guy Fawkes Day--as day of merry-making, bonfires and fireworks! Obviously Holloway's character wasn't exactly fond of the government, eh?!

ianlouisiana Cockneys,Jocks,Toffs and ordinary geezers unite to thrash the Hun.We can all laugh now but that was how it was.We all knew who the enemy was and it wasn't some snooty bloke from Eton or some oik from Hackney,it was the Germans. Marvellously,in "The Way Ahead" we can see the Walmington on sea platoon in embryo.Close your eyes and Raymond Huntley could be Captain Mainwaring with his careful enunciation and strangled vowels.The Chelsea Pensioner surely Cpl Jones and of course the wonderful John Laurie is present in person. All of British society in the 1940s is represented.It may be unrecognisable as such now,but the sacrifices made by that generation have allowed us to become the totally different people we are today. An accurate social document then,and a true representation of army training at the time. Simply,one of the truest of British Cinema's portraits of the country in extremis. Most of the cast were going on to delight us a few years into the future at Ealing,Gainsborough or Rank or,in the case of William Hartnell,he would give a straight repetition of his role in this movie in the seminal "Carry on,Sergeant" 14 years later. Nobody would have believed Carol Reed if he's shown the Brits as cold - eyed killing machines,but by portraying them as reluctant,sometimes diffident,but always quietly patriotic and determined ordinary men he struck a chord that still reverberates 65 years on.