The Way Ahead (1944) [War] [Drama]

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If you like this movie and our channel, please subscribe: | “The Way Ahead” is a British Second World War drama released in 1944. It stars David Niven and Stanley Holloway and follows a group of civilians who are conscripted into the British Army to fight in North Africa. In the U.S., an edited version was released as “The Immortal Battalion”. The film was written by Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov and directed by Carol Reed. The three had originally produced the 1943 training film “The New Lot”, which was produced for the Army Kinematograph Service. “The Way Ahead” was an expanded remake of their earlier film, this time intended for a commercial audience. The two films featured some of the same actors, including John Laurie, Raymond Huntley and Peter Ustinov.

In the days after the Dunkirk evacuation in Second World War, Lieutenant Jim Perry (David Niven), a veteran of the British Expeditionary Force, is posted to the Duke of Glendon’s Light Infantry to train replacements to fill its depleted ranks. A patient, mild-mannered officer, he does his strenuous best to turn the bunch of grumbling ex-civilians into soldiers, earning himself their intense dislike. Eventually however, the men come to respect their officer.

After their training is completed, their battalion is shipped out to North Africa to face Rommel’s Afrika Korps. However, their ship is torpedoed en route, and they miss the fighting. They are assigned to guard a small town. Perry appropriates a cafe as his headquarters, much to the disgust of the pacifist owner, Rispoli (Peter Ustinov). When the Germans attack, Perry and his men fiercely defend their positions, aided by Rispoli. The last scene shows them advancing in a counter-attack. Instead of the film ending with the words “The End”, it concludes with the more uplifting “The Beginning”, an attempt to galvanize support for the final push in the war effort. The final scene of the advancing soldiers was also copied for the closing credits of the long-running sitcom Dad’s Army; John Laurie appeared in both and his performance in the sitcom credits mirrors this film.

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Directed by Carol Reed, produced by John Sutro and Norman Walker, written by Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov, starring David Niven, Stanley Holloway and William Hartnell.

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Source: “The Way Ahead” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 21 June 2012. Web. 3 August 2012.

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37 Replies to “The Way Ahead (1944) [War] [Drama]”

  4. Ha ha hah get a move on your light infantry not marines also film made 1944 no such place as acclesfield or duke of glendons but it is accurate to one thing they are going to Shrewsbury copthrone barracks home of light infantry listen to train announcements which Niven knew as he was Highland light infantry

  7. Excellent, really enjoyed this! Very realistic (as possible) depiction of the road from civilian to eager Army soldier – great work by a young David Niven. Thanks!

  11. Love the first piece of background music.
    'Old soldiers never die, the young ones wish they would'.,
    The words spoken are exactly the same as my dear old Dad said to me.
    'The young generation are spoiled and too soft to fight a war'.
    However…..even in this weird day and age it's the 'Young Generation' (Christ, I never imagined I would be saying this. Dads aren't cool, youngsters know everything but they die just the same) that hold the line when the enemy comes over the hill.
    Respects…

  14. This is romanticized. (The government looking for recruits from the few remaining men left at home). You were spat on here, if not in uniform. My dad was on the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea when it was filmed. I was born that year. Dad didn't speak of it for fifty years, except when stressed. Then he would curse and shriek at the Japanese, while I worked milking cows and tending the calves chickens, and pigs alongside him. In 1993 after Mum died he spoke of bombed Palm Trees split in half, of dead bodies, of fellow Australian soldiers laying in blood, guts out, days old, in tropical heat. Of burying them. Dad lived in fear. Suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) untreated, in those days, for the rest of his life — Rest in peace Dad.

  15. The British should have NEVER EVER fought war one. They didn't have to but decided to. The long draw out war hurt France and especially England financially very badly. This led directly to the extremely harsh armistice that focused on trying to wring as much money from the Germans as they possibly could. This in turn made the Germans extremely bitter and angry and completely prevented any healing that was possible, as it would have with any proud nation… They made it where not only would many tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Germans would starve but also tried to engineer things where it would be completely impossible for them to recover for decades, it ever. The United states, who was totally against the treaty but was fun over by France and England tried to end run the consequences by loaning Germany huge sums, over 7 billion. This lasted until the market collapse and then made things actually worse than they would have been. England didn't even stop think blockade that was starving Germany until long after the war, greatly increasing the bigger feelings as Germans starved.
    If France and England would have been even slightly humanr war two would never have happened.
    As it was it condemned the British empire to a slow death that began then and finally completed with England's near bankruptcy at the end of the second war.

  17. Niven (one of my brother's favorite actors) was in an elevator one time. And a woman looked at him and said, "Didn't you used to be David Niven?"…from his autobiography. He seemed like a decent "chap".

  22. I can't watch these old war films anymore. The men who fought in them, on both sides, are now considered by their privileged and pestilential grandchildren to be nothing but straight white male oppressive racist homophobes. Their descendants are freely and without external constraint destroying the homelands these men, again, on both sides, fought for; and all the while congratulating themselves on their uniquely superior morality. It's too sad.

  32. Written by the author of such classic spy novels as Journey into Fear, Topkapi, The Mask of Dimitrios, Cause for Alarm, Judgement at Delchev…Eric Ambler

  36. Good work lads…….from an American cousin. Sorry about that dust up in 1776 , but you have to admit you had it coming. Next pint on the U.S. .

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