Even though this came out towards the end of the war, it’s still a jolt to see a film where the hero is a deserter – even if he’s played by likeable boy-next-door Johnny Mills, and he’s deserted for good reason: his wife is probably going to have sex with a smarmy black market operator.
The role of the operator is played by Stewart Granger, who is perfectly cast with his impossible good looks – I’m sure many British blokes whose girlfriends fancied Granger wanted to smash him in the face, so they would have cheered at the end. Even though Granger normally played aristocrats he puts on a Cockney accent and ends up giving one of his best performances. Mills is also ideal, though the girl isn’t much.
The story is simple – basically Mills trying to track down his wife and Granger. The main interest of the film comes from the depiction of British society at the time: the black out, the black market, MPs on the prowl, running into other deserters, more sexually aggressive women (Mills is propositioned during his search).
The final fight between Mills and Granger is also very good – Granger claimed in his memoirs that it wasn’t believable Mills could beat him, and he is a lot taller, but they make allowances for that in the film (eg Alistair Sim gives Mills some advice on how to beat Granger, and it’s clear that Granger would have won if he wasn’t so cocky). During the fight we see Mill’s bald spot – wouldn’t have had that in a Hollywood film.
Alistair Sim’s all-wise all-knowing doctor who steps in and out of the story is a little irritating. Love it how Sim comments on the baby at the end and wonders how they will judge his parent’s generation; he’s going to be a baby boomer – and will blame his parents for everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment