Millions Like Us (1943)

That was an excellent one.

People are voting emotionally.

Nice effects though.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There will be a propagandist's agenda behind any film made in and concerning WWII Britain but, where others use a shovel, 'Millions Like Us' lays it on with a velvet glove. It finds no need to make a hero of everyone in British uniform or to chest-thump over every patriotic act. Instead, it warms us to real and ordinary people – people like "us" in the factories, dance halls and Dad's Army – each playing his or her usually unremarked role during the siege of Britain.Here is the writer/director pairing of Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder at its best. Their dialogue is wonderfully natural, and they allow their expert cast to play for authenticity, with only as much commotion and comedy as will keep us involved in their characters.The evolution of Celia (the delightful Patricia Roc) is particular engaging: the mousy member of an otherwise colourful family becomes our romantic lead while changing believably and almost imperceptibly. With air gunner Fred (Gordon Jackson, wonderful as always) complementing her honesty and shyness, we find a couple about whom we soon care greatly. Any foreigner who would comprehend how Britons relate to each other need merely study Celia's "I don't mind" in answer to both to the most mundane questions and to the longed-for proposal of marriage: this is the level of nuance and understatement from which we come in only a couple of generations.Bigger characters provide a light in which to notice how unassuming Celia and Fred matter to us. Jennifer (Anne Crawford) and Charlie (Eric Portman) play out a side-story, asking what role this war will have in breaking down the classes as the Great War had before it and, with strange prescience, it is the aspiring, salt-of-the-earth Charlie who will not commit to girl-about-town Jenny, foreshadowing the real-world Labour landslide two years later when the have-nots established themselves. While I could mention of any of the supporting players, I shall finish with the low-key comedy of Celia's father Jim (Moore Marriott) and the forever train-travelling double-act of Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, keeping austere Britain from being sombre.That this story of quite ordinary people turns out to be so compelling while still delivering to the propagandist's brief is a great tribute to all involved. (8.5/10)

I was quite taken with the various Fantasy sequences of Celia. The courtship scene between the two leads captured the awkwardness of that time, I think, much better than any of,say the Andy Hardy films. I also like that this film tried to reclaim Beethoven, I think. Though some may find this movie too leisurely, I feel this film lets itself breathe, much as real life is, sometimes, leisurely. Also, we watched this after two weeks of 2008 Convention coverage, and enjoyed getting back to ideas. I wondered why this film started at the beaches in 1939 but realized there was a real payback for that.Does anyone know if there is a good book covering the BRITWAR films (for want of a better name) including the Michael Powell, etc. films.There just seems so much more substance in them than many of the rah rah American WWI flicks. This may just be the ones I've seen, which are basically TCM. (I'm exempting the Seventh Cross and Uncertain Glory, which are both wondrous cinema, to cite two examples.)

When World War II breaks out, one working class family (The Crowson's) find themselves playing their part in the war effort. Dad joins the war effort, elder daughter Celia signs up to serve and youngest daughter Elsie is to work in a factory. While the two daughters try to fit in where they are placed, it is Elsie that takes to the working class labour better, even thought some of her colleagues from the upper classes don't fit in as well. Meanwhile, back at home, Dad finds the battle against dishes and housework to be even more of a challenge than the battle against the Hun.Although it is clearly a propaganda film in essence, this wartime drama is quite interesting for not being as simplistic as some of its peers. In this family drama we don't really have a message pushed that hard but are instead left to draw out own warmth from a narrative that has a surprising amount about class within it. In this regard it does produce some interesting threads although those looking back for sharp comment will not find it because this is still a melodrama with a propaganda edge. As such it is a bit plodding at times but I still quite enjoyed it for what it was although I can understand why some viewers have found it a bit dull and lacking in sharpness.The cast are pretty good with the material. Roc and Dunn give good if unspectacular turns as the daughters while Marriott provides a working class comic relief to proceedings as the father. Te support cast features good work from Jackson, Crawford and others but the performances are not as good as I would have liked just because the script doesn't cut as deep as it could have – although perhaps understandably so.Overall then a solid wartime melodrama with the heavy propaganda scaled back to allow for a more natural and convincing story delivered with solid turns. Aside from the touch of class politics there isn't that much to set the screen on fire but it should make good as a matinée on a weekend afternoon sort of thing.

The basis of this film may be spine stiffening patriotism, but don't write it off on that basis alone.The theme is about the sacrifices made by the English during WWII, and the impact of the war on their lives. So many people ended up having their lives changes in ways that they didn't like, but the demand was to carry on. The story follows one family, and particularly the eldest daughter, who leaves home to work in a regional factory, meets and marries a young pilot.Sounds trite? The film has a surprising balance of drama and war-time humour, and will be enjoyed by Beethoven fans. He should get a credit.