WATERLOO ROAD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 355, 12 April 1946, Page 28

WATERLOO ROAD

(Gainsborough)

HIS is one of Mr. Rank’s efforts, and it is the sort of British film that I sincerely hope Mr. Rank will go on making, in spite of all tempt-

ations to expand to other nations, Lhe idiom of Waterloo Road is so essentially and unmistakably English that it is not likely to win big markets in the U.S.A., but it may win a lot of respect in the right quarters, just as many French films have won respect overseas-and for the same fundamental reason: because they do not ape the Hollywood manner but are content to make their own modest way in the world. Harking back to something I wrote two weeks ago, I would suggest that, although the English-speaking world is now so accustomed to the Hollywood idiom, having heard little else for the past 40 years, that any deviation from it seems strange, if British studios were to keep on making films like Waterloo Road it would take considerably less time than that for them to break into America. And such a victory, gained by native merit, would be far more worthwhile and lasting than an immediate success secured by compromise and the sacrifice of national character. % * ATERLOO ROAD is a good film on several counts. It is a comparatively simple, but far from dull, story about ordinary people-working people, not the upper-crust formerly so beloved by British scenario writers. Its observation of these ordinary people is informed with humanity, humour, and _ respect: there is no suggestion here of snobbishness and patronage. Very effective use is also made of genuine local colour; which is something that has happened all too seldom in the past in British films, with their concentration on the Stately Homes of Old England rather than on places like the Waterloo Road, where the majority of really impértant people in the population live. And as its third special virtue, this film has paceagain a comparatively rare quality in British films. The story lends itself to speedy action, and under Sidney Gilliat’s direction a kind of triple fugue of pursuit and escape is developed at a lively tempo. There is the theme of the bored and restless wife (Joy Shelton) pursued by the flashy fellow (Stewart Granger), who takes advantage of her husband’s absence with the Forces. Combined with this is the theme of the. husband’s effort to catch up with his wife and the ladykiller. And weaving in and out, and carrying the audience into many corners of the Waterloo Road district, there is the chase by the military police after the husband (John Mills), who has broken camp in order to find out what his wife is up to, and, having found out, to knock the block " her se aa eeduene, N element of sordidness is inevitable in any honest treatment of such a ‘theme in such a setting. Sidney Gilliat has not sought to evade it. At the same time, this is far from being a depressing ‘picture. There is sympathy, humour, and good rousing excitement-the lastnamed, especially, in the rough-and-tumble sequence where the soldier fin-

ally catches up with the lady-killer, an ex-pugilist, and uses his training in commando tactics to advantage. The acting is as honest and unpretentiously successful as the direction: no false glamour about any of the characters, but no condescension towards them either. In particular I admired Stewart Granger’s portrayal of the bad lot; a nasty, loose-lipped piece of work, but with something not entirely unlikable about him. It is not difficult to believe in the fascination he supposedly exercises over the heroine and other girls of the neighbourhood. Even the philosophic musings of Alastair Sim (as the doctor who observes with a fatherly eye all that happens in Waterloo Road) do not come entirely amiss, though I think the film would have been better without his post-war postscript.