In Which We Serve (1942)

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In Which We Serve tells the story of the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Torrin and those that serve in her.

In the Battle of Crete she is dive-bombed while steaming at thirty knots and goes down fighting. The survivors tell their own stories, at war and on the home front, as they wait for rescue from their lifeboat.

Created by actor-writer-director-producer Noel Coward as a morale booster for Britain at war, the film is rightly recognised as a classic of its genre. Coward received the Honorary Academy Award for his “outstanding production achievement”.

An outstanding cast includes John Mills (best performance in the film by a country mile apart from the magnificiently creepily cowardly Richard Attenborough though his role is very small), Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson and Coward himself. The film was co-directed by David Lean.

Survivors from a torpedoed destroyer recall their life at sea and on leave ... Dated (very) but splendid flag-waver; an archetypical British war film of almost limitless propaganda value … Halliwell’s … The story and the Coward character were based on the experiences of Lord Louis Mountbatten, whose ship HMS Kelly was sunk under him . . . Alternate Reviews and remarks: ”One of the screen’s proudest achievements at any time and in any country” - Newsweek ~ ”Never at any time has there been a reconstruction of human experience which could touch the savage grandeur and compassion of this production” - Howard Barnes, New York Herald Tribune ~ Special Academy Award® Oscar©, to Noel Coward . .

From a personal point of view this is a solid film rather than a classic. As British war films go this is not in the same class as Carol Reed's The Way Ahead but then neither co-director, Coward or Lean, good as they were, had the same capacity to take risks that Reed so did in abundance. What we are left with is a good for its time kind of film that does not transcend its era as so many of Reed's films do.

Two other points are a drawback for me. 1) The story is told in flashback. Having that as a frame for the film irritates the hell out of me. To me it's just plain lazy as it's yawningly easy to tell all the individual stories in that context. You can go anywhere with that. Take 'flashback' away and then both the directors and writers would have had a far harder job telling the stories and it would have been far more interesting to see how they tackled it.

2) Is it just me or was Coward not that great an actor? His clipped delivery becomes boring after a while and he just looks wooden. Seeing Celia Johnson act him off the screen near the start sealed it for me: as a leader of men he wouldn't inspire me to light one of his cigarettes.

Having said all that, others pull it away from the abyss of mediocrity. Mills and Kay Walsh are endearing, sweet and almost angelic as sweethearts cum newlyweds; Wilding a masterclass to Hugh Grant in how foppish should be done; and names like James Donald and Bernard Miles show glimpses in early roles (well quite early for Miles) on why they would become such important supporting actors in British films.

3 stars out of 5