In Which We Serve (1942)

Waste of time

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Let's be realistic.

Lack of good storyline.

A morale boosting wartime film and an epitome of the British stiff upper lip. The British destroyer might well have been a rival to its seamans' wartime sweethearts, but it also puts it plainly that they do it all for what lies back in Blighty. It's stagey, jaunty heroism of Coward, and sentimentality, and old fashioned outlook doesn't diminish the satisying drama. But for some key sequences, the overall direction credit goes to film editor and debut director David Lean.

First time watching In Which We Serve, it struck me as a very good film, though with some draggy moments in the first half, some of the clipped dialogue seeming stilted and Noël Coward seemed a little stiff at first. Re-watching again as part of a David Lean marathon, In Which We Serve held up much better on re-watch.It does drag still a tad in the first half-hour or so, but the initial problems had with some of the dialogue and Coward at first weren't apparent this time. The script- courtesy of Coward- this time around was very nuanced and stirring, the speeches could easily have been too preachy, and instead what the film has to say is told in an intelligent, poignant and sometimes uplifting way. Coward's initial stiffness struck me on re-watch as something that suited the character, who was written as quite dour at first anyway, and it is a very authoritative, caring and moving lead performance on the whole, his HMS Torin speech is a classic and if the lower lip doesn't tremble (or more) during his incredibly emotional farewell I'm not sure what will.Coward is wonderfully supported by the rest of the cast, especially from the shimmering film debut of Celia Johnson, a sympathetic Bernard Miles and John Mills in one of his better Lean film performances. Richard Attenborough (who never looked so young than in this film) also makes his screen debut, and a memorably powerful one it is too. The story is riveting, often thoroughly entertaining and immensely moving, notably Coward's farewell and the men from Dunkirk being unloaded at portside. Who can't help love the values that it shows too? Coward was aiming to inspire, and he definitely succeeds. His co-direction with Lean works just fine, with his more nuanced style contrasting well with Lean's more vivid action style.In Which We Serve is beautifully filmed in sumptuous black and white, the Royal Navy details and settings being more than convincing, and Coward also provides a stirring and hauntingly beautiful music score. Overall, a great and very moving film and much more than just wartime propaganda (a distinction more suited to something like Dangerous Moonlight). 9/10 Bethany Cox

I am amazed that so many IMDb reviewers feel this film has aged well??? What I saw was a film that is rotten from age and reeks of standards left behind! Seriously, the picture quality is horrible … the sound quality is bad … the acting quality is horrible (especially Noel Coward who mumbles his lines at a thousand miles per hour) … the special effects (battle scenes) are sophomoric (unless you like those little models flipping over in tanks) … and mostly the scripted was horrible (not all Brits were such morons).I get this was an important propaganda film for Great Britain's WW2 efforts (thus the "honorary award" at the 43 Oscars) yet this film can't stand in the same room with its contemporaries (Mrs. Miniver won best picture in 42 & Casablanca won it in 44). So ya, shelf life expired … do not waste your time ... 2/10!

Noel Coward's take on naval warfare brings what is surely the stiffest upper lip to the silver screen. In fact every one of his features is an object lesson in emotional restraint. I am surprised he wasn't used more often. Coward apparently co-directed and starred, and it is very much his baby. His domineering personality dominates the movie. His is a very apt representation of the upper middle-class of the day. A sort of understated arrogance, a modest but stoical assumption of superiority. You could easily see why Colonel Sito threw exasperated tantrums at the River Kwai. Others have mentioned how this subtly manifests itself in English class hierarchy. The middle classes manage with a benign authority, whilst the working classes work - manually - and take orders. Things have changed - but not necessarily for the better; unless you're a fan of the inner cities being overwhelmed by drunken louts. There are some very good combat sequences which, eventually, sink the destroyer, and much of the movie is shown in flash-back from the view-points of various crew members. It is well done, but not to my taste. I find it breaks up the narrative flow too much. Throughout the movie, Coward presents an image of unflappable professionalism, and you wonder how this stratum of human society became extinct so quickly. The 1960's have a lot to answer for.That same stoicism - though to a lesser extent - is expected of everyone else. In a particularly poignant scene one crew member learns of the death of another's wife and is obliged to tell him even as he is writing her a letter. His bereaved response is to 'just go on deck for a bit'. Back home, the ladies knit and bicker as the bombs fall, terrified but resolute. John Mills' more regular stiff upper lip co-stars, as indeed does that of a very boyish and uncredited Richard Attenborough, who actually cracks up. It makes an interesting comparison with the equally dated 'Went The Day Well?' in which that same British restraint is seen to dissolve in a very unbecoming bloodthirsty slaughter. And also the much more realistic 'The Cruel Sea' which, coming 11 years later in 1953, is no longer propaganda, but gritty and honest. Still, 'In Which We Serve' is well worth a watch both as an entertaining war movie in its own right and as an educational archive, a commentary on social and moral attitudes of the time.