Though agit-prop and sentimental, this UK WWII drama is superior to Hollywood's patriotic flagwavers, and it's important historically, featuring the directorial debut of David Lean (with Noel Coward), who became a major international figure in the 1950s
In Which We Serve (1942)
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Reviews Counted:12
Fresh:11
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7.6/10
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: Partially based on an actual naval disaster, this documentary-style drama uses real combat footage to tell the story of the destroyer Torrin and its crew. After enemy torpedoes sink the British... Partially based on an actual naval disaster, this documentary-style drama uses real combat footage to tell the story of the destroyer Torrin and its crew. After enemy torpedoes sink the British ship, Captain Kinross, Chief Petty Officer Hardy and Shorty Blake reminisce in a lifeboat. While the three navy men pray they'll come out of this alive... back home during the Blitz, Shorty's wife Freda gives birth to their child. [More]
Starring: Noël Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson
Starring: Noël Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson
Director: Noël Coward, David Lean
Director: Noël Coward, David Lean
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Reviews for In Which We Serve
Noel Coward performed with unexpected brilliance here as co-director, writer, musical composer, and star of this stirring WWII drama.
No less than half a dozen credits for this film go to Noel Coward. And they're well earned.
Staged with what passed at the time for honest understatement, it now looks impossibly patronising, the epitome of stiff upper lip.
Coward's tribute to the Royal Navy during World War II is as stirring as it is human. He puts a face on war and those who fight it.
In Which We Serve is not only one of the greatest of all British war movies but also marks the mighty David Lean's first major contribution to cinema.
One of the most eloquent motion pictures of these or any other times had its American premiére at the Capitol Theatre last night.
Sentimental, to be sure, and a tad too stiff-upper-lipped at times, but it is a moving portrait of a navy destroyer, the men who served on it.
Perhaps the most honored propaganda film of World War II, in which the survivors of a torpedoed British battleship recall their reasons for fighting through individual flashbacks.
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