Legend has it that Winston Churchill wanted a morale boosting film doing for the British Army what IN WHICH WE SERVE did for the Royal Navy . In short this is a patriotic flag waving patriotic movie that takes no prisoners as to showing what makes Great Britain great is its sense of humour - take that Adolph . The problem is that in its agenda to entertain the audience while waving the Union Flag it fails to inject much reality in to the proceedings
From the outset everything has a humorous tone from the Chelsea pensioners lamenting the youth of today to the rather unconvincing caricatures of the men conscripted in to the army . Apparently in the early stages of the war you were exempt from conscription if you were under 35 years old . Right away it's very difficult to believe in these characters as being real people with the exception of James Donald as Private Lloyd . The characters are also rather one note . It goes without saying you know where the story is heading where a group of diverse men conscripted in to the army become efficient and battle hardened soldiers and this is probably the point in that if Britain is threatened with tyranny you can expect despite some initial setbacks that Britain's citizen army will kick your backside
One interesting aspect is that it brings up reworking of one of those urban myths we've all heard off such as a man being due up in court the next day having a good booze up , staggering home , physically bumping in to a stranger who he then remonstrates with only to find the next morning that the stranger just happens to be the judge he's sitting in front of . Another one is the bloke who goes in to a chemist to buy a pack of condoms , pops round to his dates house only to find the person answering the door is the person who bought the condoms from . Here with THE WAY AHEAD it involves an army sergeant played by William Hartnell who became very typecast in this role
From the outset everything has a humorous tone from the Chelsea pensioners lamenting the youth of today to the rather unconvincing caricatures of the men conscripted in to the army . Apparently in the early stages of the war you were exempt from conscription if you were under 35 years old . Right away it's very difficult to believe in these characters as being real people with the exception of James Donald as Private Lloyd . The characters are also rather one note . It goes without saying you know where the story is heading where a group of diverse men conscripted in to the army become efficient and battle hardened soldiers and this is probably the point in that if Britain is threatened with tyranny you can expect despite some initial setbacks that Britain's citizen army will kick your backside
One interesting aspect is that it brings up reworking of one of those urban myths we've all heard off such as a man being due up in court the next day having a good booze up , staggering home , physically bumping in to a stranger who he then remonstrates with only to find the next morning that the stranger just happens to be the judge he's sitting in front of . Another one is the bloke who goes in to a chemist to buy a pack of condoms , pops round to his dates house only to find the person answering the door is the person who bought the condoms from . Here with THE WAY AHEAD it involves an army sergeant played by William Hartnell who became very typecast in this role