Waterloo Road (1944)

Director

• Sidney Gilliat

Starring

• John Mills
• Stewart Granger
• Alastair Sim
• Joy Shelton
• Beatrice Varley

Last On

11:00-12:35 Wed 15th Sep 2021 75m
Film4

Synopsis

This is best remembered today as the wartime movie with a terrific fist-fighting climax as tiny John Mills beats up his wife's lover, six-foot-plus spiv Stewart Granger. If you believe that, you'll probably believe in the rest of this stodgy Sidney Gilliat production. It is told in a woolly flashback structure by Alastair Sim's kindly philosophising doctor, and Arthur Crabtree's stark photography fails to disguise the fact that much of the film is shot in cramped studio interiors. That said, the plot is realistic for its day - many soldiers received that dread "Dear John" letter - and it's fascinating to watch the star-making performance from Granger, Britain's most glamorous male export to Hollywood between Ronald Colman and Sean Connery.