The Way Ahead

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The Way Ahead
The Way Ahead VideoCover.jpeg
Film poster
Directed by Carol Reed
Written by
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Guy Green
Edited by Fergus McDonell
Music by William Alwyn
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release dates
  • 9 June 1944 (1944-06-09)(UK)
  • 3 June 1945 (1945-06-03)(U.S.)
Running time
115 min. / 91 min. (US)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£252,500 [1]
Box office£183,700 [2]

The Way Ahead (also known as Immortal Battalion) (1944) is a British Second World War drama film directed by Carol Reed. The screenplay was written by Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov. The film stars David Niven, Stanley Holloway and William Hartnell along with an ensemble cast of other British actors, including Ustinov in one of his earliest roles. The Way Ahead follows a group of civilians who are conscripted into the British Army and, after training, are shipped to North Africa where they are involved in a battle against the Afrika Korps.

Contents

Plot

In the days after the Dunkirk evacuation in the Second World War, recently commissioned Second Lieutenant Jim Perry (Niven), a pre-war Territorial private soldier, is posted to the Duke of Glendon's Light Infantry, known as the "Dogs", to train replacements to fill its depleted ranks. He is joined by Sergeant Ned Fletcher (Hartnell), a veteran of the British Expeditionary Force.

In contrast to Perry, the rest of the squad is shocked to have been conscripted to the army. Evan Lloyd (James Donald), a phlegmatic rent collector, Sid Beck (Leslie Dwyer), a loquacious travel agent, Geoffrey Stainer (Jimmy Hanley), a boastful friend of Lloyd's, Ted Brewer (Stanley Holloway), a heating engineer working in the Houses of Parliament, Herbert Davenport (Raymond Huntley), a department store manager with his young employee Bill Parsons (Hugh Burden), and finally Scottish farm labourer Luke (John Laurie).

A mild-mannered officer, Perry patiently does his best to turn the resentful conscripts into soldiers, despite their belief drill sergeant Fletcher is treating them harshly. Despite petty complaints by the men about him, Fletcher tells Perry he's pleased with their development and believes some could be future NCOs. Perry defends Parsons at a court martial for deserting his post, sympathetic to his wife being threatened by debt collectors. Oblivious to Perry's intervention, the other men sabotage a field exercise, deliberately making the battalion look bad to poorly reflect on Perry's command. The men's respect for both Fletcher and Perry grows by the time their training is complete, as they come to understand the reasons for many of the things they've experienced..

The battalion's troopship is torpedoed on the way to Operation Torch in North Africa. Sergeant Fletcher, trapped below deck, is saved by Perry and Private Luke and the survivors are rescued and taken to Gibraltar, where they miss the landings. After arrival in North Africa, the platoon is assigned to guard a small town and Perry appropriates a cafe as battalion headquarters, to the disgust of the pacifist owner, Rispoli (Peter Ustinov). The men develop a fondness for Rispoli over games of darts.

When the Germans attack, Perry and his men fiercely defend their positions, aided by Rispoli. When the Germans approach under a white flag to demand Perry's surrender, he tells the Germans to "Go to Hell" and the British defenders launch a bayonet charge. The film ends with two veteran "Dogs" appreciatively reading about the men's bravery.

Cast

Platoon

Wives

Others

Production

The Way Ahead was written by Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov, and directed by Carol Reed. The three had originally produced the 1943 44-minute training film The New Lot , which was produced for the Army Kinematograph Service. The Way Ahead was an expanded remake of their earlier film, this time intended for a commercial audience. The two films featured some of the same actors, including Laurie and Huntley, and a 23-year-old Peter Ustinov played one of the recruits. [3]

The driving force behind the film was David Niven, a 1930 graduate of Sandhurst, who at the time was a major in the British Army working with the Army Film Unit and later served in Normandy with GHQ Liaison Regiment. Niven was the executive producer on The Way Ahead. [4]

The last scene in The Way Ahead shows the soldiers advancing in a counter-attack. Instead of the film ending with the words "The End", it concludes with "The Beginning". In a film made and released during the war, this was an effort to galvanise public support for the final push in the war effort, [4] with a perhaps not unintended reference to one of Winston Churchill's famous quotations: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

In the United States, an edited version of The Way Ahead, with an introduction by journalist Quentin Reynolds, was released as Immortal Battalion. [5]

Reception

According to trade papers, The Way Ahead was a success at the British box office in 1944. [6] According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winners' at the box office in 1944 Britain were For Whom the Bell Tolls , This Happy Breed , The Song of Bernadette , Going My Way , This Is the Army , Jane Eyre , The Story of Dr. Wassell , Cover Girl , The White Cliffs of Dover , Sweet Rosie O'Grady and Fanny By Gaslight . The biggest British hits of the year were, in order, This Happy Breed, Fanny By Gaslight, The Way Ahead and Love Story . [7] [8]

In 1945, The Way Ahead (referred to as Immortal Battalion) was listed as one of the Top Ten Films by the USA National Board of Review. [9]

As Immortal Battalion, film critic and historian Leonard Maltin noted: "Exhilarating wartime British film showing how disparate civilians come to work together as a fighting unit; full of spirit and charm, with an outstanding cast, and fine script by Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov." [5]

The final scene of the advancing soldiers was imitated for the closing credits of the long-running BBC sitcom Dad's Army . [10] John Laurie appeared in both productions and his performance in the sitcom credits replicates this film. [11]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Trevor Howard made his film debut in The Way Ahead. [3]

Citations

  1. ↑ James Chapman ‘The Billings verdict’: Kine Weekly and the British Box Office, 1936–62' Journal of British Cinema and Television, Volume 20 Issue 2, Page 200-238, p 210
  2. ↑ Chapman p 210
  3. 1 2 Evans 2000, p. 199.
  4. 1 2 McGee, Scott. ""Article: 'Immortal Battalion'. TCM. Retrieved: 9 July 2017.
  5. 1 2 Maltin, Leonard. "Leonard Maltin Ratings & Review: Immortal Battalion'." TCM. Retrieved: 9 July 2017.
  6. ↑ Murphy 2003, p. 207.
  7. ↑ Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema. Princeton University Press. p. 231=232.
  8. ↑ Billings, Josh (11 January 1945). "That is the result (very close) of the 1944 box office stakes". Kinematograph Weekly. p. 44. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  9. ↑ Awards" 'The Way Ahead'." IMDb, 1945. Retrieved: 9 July 2017.
  10. ↑ Morgan-Russell 2004, p. 40.
  11. ↑ Pertwee 2009, pp. 55–56.

Bibliography

  • Evans, Alun. Brassey's Guide to War Films. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2000. ISBN   1-57488-263-5.
  • Howe, David J., Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker. The Handbook: The First Doctor — The William Hartnell Years 1963–1966. London: Virgin Books, 1994. ISBN   978-0-4262-0430-5.
  • Morgan-Russell, Simon. Jimmy Perry and David Croft. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2004. ISBN   978-0-7190-6556-9.
  • Murphy, Robert. Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939–48. London: Routledge, 2003. ISBN   978-1-1349-0150-0.
  • Pertwee, Bill. Dad's Army: The Making of a Television Legend. London: Conway, 2009. ISBN   978-1-8448-6105-7.
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