Millions Like Us [1943]

£3.52
FREE Shipping

Millions Like Us [1943]

Millions Like Us [1943]

RRP: £7.04
Price: £3.52
£3.52 FREE Shipping

In stock

We accept the following payment methods

Description

From the Four Corners in 1941 - a 15 minute non-combat film celebrating the contributions made by Commonwealth Allies.

Just after returning to the factory, they find furnished rooms nearby to set up house together, but then Fred is killed in a bombing raid over Germany. Celia receives the news while working at the factory and at a mealtime shortly afterwards the band plays Waiting at the Church, without realising it had been played at Celia's wedding reception. About to break down, Celia is comforted by her fellow workers, as bombers from Fred's squadron overfly the factory en route to another raid. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. So much for the uplift. Rarely has a pill been so deftly sugared, however. The scene-setting in the widower's house is an index of the film's almost obsessive determination to avoid overt uplift. Wikipedia mentions that the movie was a "hit" in the USSR, which was also fighting Hitler. And the reason (to me) is simple: it's about regular people, the plight of the working class. There are few pretensions here (if any). And the filming is unusually tightly framed, by which I mean the compositions fill the frame, almost cramping the space on the screen, and it makes for a pleasure to watch, and makes for a lot to look at in every frame. And then the acting itself, without star power, is so straight forward and believable, even the slower moments make you pay attention. a b Millions Like Us, In: Programme book for Made in London Early Evening Films at the Museum of London (Museum of London and The National Film Archive), 24th season, 1992.McFarlane, Brian (1997). An autobiography of British cinema: as told by the filmmakers and actors who made it. p.225. ISBN 9780413705204. Fortunataely, the Daily Mail gave a DVD of the film away free in early 2009, so getting hold of a copy should not be too hard for folks in reach of a British charity shop. I don't know if the DVD is region-restricted, so readers in other parts of the world may have greater difficulty getting a copy if this. FILM CABLE FROM LONDON:". Sunday Times (Perth, WA: 1902 – 1954). Perth, WA: National Library of Australia. 17 March 1946. p.13 Supplement: The Sunday Times MAGAZINE . Retrieved 11 July 2012.

a b Brown G. Launder and Gilliat, quoted in Programme book for Made in London Early Evening Films at the Museum of London (Museum of London and The National Film Archive), 24th season, 1992. I rated this film 7/10 and in my opinion is Patricia Roc's best film as Celia Crowson.She gives a sensitive performance of an every day girl caught up in WWII who must do her bit for the war effort.While waiting for her assessment interview she sees a poster and fantasises being accepted into the WRAF/Wrens/Womens army corps/Land Girls or nursing assisting good looking officers, only to be asked to prosaically help out in a factory as "Mr Bevan needs a million women" to make the weapons, aeroplanes and assorted war material. A further propaganda message included in the film was to represent the different regions and classes of the British people all working together for the common good of Britain, and therefore included representatives of all nations and all classes rather than the upper middle classes which usually represented the British people in films of the era. Characters included Gwen from Wales, Fred from Glasgow, a Welsh male voice choir, a massed dance to the tune of Loch Lomond. The north of England was represented by Eric Portman playing Charlie Forbes and Terry Randall in her role of Annie Earnshaw – and as northerners they were ‘obviously’ working class and had a degree of comedy about them. Patricia Roc was cast as a working class girl, but being the star of the film came across as more middle class. The upper middle class were represented by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as the army officers Charters and Caldicott. During the same period they worked together on several Ministry of Information propaganda shorts in support of the British War effort –A nearby RAF bomber station sends some of its men to a staff dance at the factory, during which Celia meets and falls in love with an equally shy young Scottish flight sergeant Fred Blake. Their relationship encounters a crisis when Fred refuses to tell Celia when he is sent out on his first mission, but soon afterwards they meet and make up, with Fred asking Celia to marry him. After the wedding they spend their honeymoon at the same south coast resort as the Crowsons went to in 1939, finding it much changed with minefields and barbed wire defending against the expected German invasion. One of the many war effort films Britain churned out between 1940 and 1945, this one attempted to get women recruited into industry. We watch Celia as she gets her call-up and has to leave her family to work in a factory and stay in a hostel. There she meets college graduate Gwen, flighty Sloane Jenny, and common as brass Annie, amongst others. She grows to like her job, and also finds love with a Scots flyer, Fred Blake. But this being a semi-documentary war film, things don't end up as happily as you'd hope. Occasionally, there are flashes of mild interest. Eric Portman and Anne Crawford have a couple of tense sequences together and manage to perk the proceedings somewhat. Ditto 'Millions Like Us' by another talented duo. Launder and Gilliat, well established as scriptwriters, ventured into feature direction (the only time they took a joint credit) with this episodic and fascinating study of life on the home front.



  • Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
  • EAN: 764486781913
  • Sold by: Fruugo

Delivery & Returns

Fruugo

Address: UK
All products: Visit Fruugo Shop