SALUTE JOHN CITIZEN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 255, 12 May 1944, Page 25

SALUTE JOHN CITIZEN

(British Empire Films)

HIS might be described as the Mrs. Miniver of the lower income groups, showing how a very ordinary

famiiy in a London suburb stood up to the big blitz. Many of the situations that happen to the Buntings of Laburnum Villa, Kilworth, are the same kind of situations as happened to the Minivers in their charming country village-the night in an air-raid shelter, the service in the bombed church, and so on — but since they happen at the level of £6 a week instead of £30, and since this film was made in England, whereas Mrs. Miniver came from Hollywood, Salute John Citizen is probably a more truly representative picture as well as a more genuine tribute to the spirit of England. This does not mean that it is a better-made picture. The family life of the Buntings will remind many onlookers of their own, whatever their income group; but the propaganda is too obvious, while some of the acting is so crude, and some of the sentiment so naive, that several scenes are actually embarrassing (I refer particularly to the "tender moments" between the daughter of the house and her boyfriend, and the philosophising of the Bunting sons). Still less does it mean that it will be more popular entertainment: the gentry almost invariably have stronger box-office magnetism than people of such common clay as the Buntings. Mediocrity is, indeed, the dominating quality of the residents of Laburnum Villa and their neighbours, and it is focused in Bunting Senior. He has worked for 48 years at Brockley’s Stores and is head of the ironmongery department. He hates "new-fangled ideas"; he can’t stand that music fellow Bee-toven; he muddles placidly along in his same old rut, almost glorying in his lack of imagination. But because of all this, rather than in spite of it, he is able to "stick it out and see it | agi when Hitler’s bombs begin to all. Any faults which Salute John Citizen has are not to be found in the performance of Edward Rigby, who holds the whole story together and gives it point and meaning. There is no subtlety in the character of Mr. Bunting, but there is much in Rigby’s portrayal of him. Looking at it/ from one angle, of course, it is perhaps not very inspiring to find a glorification of John Citizen, the average man, expressed in these terms, especially as one cannot help feeling that the Buntings of Britain, with their aversion to change, are just as likely to clog the wheels of post-war progress as to grease them. Yet if Bunting really does represent the average man, we might as well recognise the fact. Though it may be natural to prefer a thoroughbred racer to a plodding draught-horse, the draught-horses are in the majority, and do most of the work, and are therefore entitled to an occasional tribute, Because this film offers them one, it is to be welcomed. As a picture of courage and blind endurance,

I think you will find Salute John Citizen moving-even if you are sometimes moved to impatience that the Buntings of this world should be so complacent, and wooden, and stolidly good-natured.