The Way Ahead (a.k.a The Immortal Battalion) (1944)

Directed by Carol Reed; produced by John Sutro and Norman Walker

Two years into the Second World War, Britain found itself pressed for manpower, and forced to conscript men from previously reserved occupations, and unqualified physical and age groups. These unwilling soldiers include a boiler-man (Stanley Holloway), a department store executive (Raymond Huntley), a travel agent (Leslie Dwyer), a rent-collector (James Donald) and a farm-labourer (John Laurie). Placed under an experienced Territorial officer (David Niven) and a Regular sergeant (William Hartnell), this platoon of civilians will need to become the tough fighters that will help save their country.

If seen as a propaganda piece, as it is sometimes described, The Way Ahead must rate as one of the best ever produced. As a straightforward war-movie, it is even better. Though made when the war was still being fought, there is little waving of the flag here. What stands out most is the realistic depiction of men dragged from familiar and more or less comfortable lives, forced into dangerous situations and made to do things they don’t want to do, all in a good cause.

The talent that went into the film was formidable. The director was of course later responsible for The Third Man and Odd Man Out. The Way Ahead is a much expanded version of his short The New Lot, and easily mixes drama with humour. Like the soldiers, one may wonder if there will ever be fighting, but when it comes, it is sharp and tense. Clive Donner worked as an uncredited editor.

The writers were Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov, the former already well-established as a novelist and the latter, only 23 at the time, soon to be known as a renaissance man of the arts. Their script creates a series of characters, each full and distinct; in an ensemble cast, it is sometimes important to allow the audience to see a personality quickly, with just a few lines, and that is a talent demonstrated well here.

The writers clearly had help in the military aspect of the script, not just from the credited technical advisors but from the star, David Niven. His first choice of career was the Army, but a couple of years of peacetime soldiering in the early 1930s bored him. Resigning his commission (he had been a Regular, passing out of Sandhurst), he hurried back to England in 1939, and was assigned, among other billets, to the staff of the Combined Operations Directorate, then the Army Film Unit, which was how he became involved with The Way Ahead. He later served in GHQ Liaision Regiment, the innocuously named armoured-car-based reconnaissance unit that scouted in enemy territory, ahead of conventional formations.

Aside from the actors mentioned, Penelope Dudley-Ward, later Carol Reed’s wife, is an officer’s wife; Renée Asherson (as Renee Ascherson) a canteen operator; Leo Genn a captain, Trevor Howard a merchant marine officer, and screenwriter Ustinov plays a café-owner.

One of the most remarkable things about The Way Ahead is its realism. These days, that often means blood and guts; here, it means the demonstration of real people in real situations. The platoon shown is made up of the least probable warriors. Huntley, who often played officious bureaucrats and the like, looks like a shop floor-walker, yet when he has a conversation about leave while cleaning his rifle, he becomes a soldier. All the men change, yet their evolution is gradual, entirely credible. When quietly disdainful Private Lloyd (James Donald) becomes his section’s spokesman, and starts leading the men, his eventual corporal’s stripes are the natural result. The men’s development of pride in themselves, in their regiment, in being infantrymen, doesn’t happen over night, yet by the end of their training they are pleased at their achievements, and ready for action. Yet the story doesn’t shy from showing the jarring change men experience becoming soldiers, one commenting that the uniform made one feel like a convict.

William Hartnell (credited as ‘Billy Hartnell’) fills the first of his many ‘sergeant’ roles (both army and police), and the script shows him as human, too. Alternately bellowing and glowering at the men, he has praise for these same men when talking to his officer, and is all smiles at a mess party. (I am reminded of an acquaintance who, having been in the Canadian Forces some years ago, remarked on his surprise when he met his hard-driving drill-corporal off-duty, as opposed to on.)

Not many films show as many aspects of the Second World War British Army, or of the gradual molding of a small unit, as successfully as The Way Ahead. It may be seen as propaganda, a history lesson, an collective character study or a war movie; whatever its category, it is excellent entertainment.