British film photo galley for War

British films War

The Four Feathers (1939)

The fourth and best of the seven screen adaptations of A.E.W. Mason’s popular adventure novel, The Four Feathers marked one of the highpoints of British cinema in the 1930s and was a personal triumph for its producer, Alexander Korda. With the kind of lavish production values that are now taken for granted but which were then exceptionally rare in British cinema... [More...]

The Spy in Black (1939)

This atmospheric wartime thriller marked the first collaboration of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, a duo who would have an enormous impact on British cinema in the 1940s, with films such as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and The Red Shoes... [More...]

Night Train to Munich (1940)

Night Train to Munich is another sterling effort from the great writing team Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, evoking memories of their earlier train-based thriller, The Lady Vanishes (1938), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Carol Reed may have directed this later film, but it is the mischievous Gilliat-Launder imprint that is more noticeable... [More...]

49th Parallel (1941)

On the strength of his previous wartime films, The Spy in Black (1939) and Contraband (1940), director Michael Powell was invited to make a war propaganda film by the British Ministry of Information. The result was 49th Parallel. The intention was that this film would foster the Anglo-Canadian alliance and encourage the United States to enter the war and join the fight against fascism... [More...]

Cottage to Let (1941)

The wartime propaganda and homeland defence messages are laid on a bit thick in this thriller mystery, but not enough to spoil its entertainment value. In a remarkable film debut, 16-year-old George Cole manages to out-shine a cast which includes some of the finest British actors of the period: Alastair Sim, John Mills and Leslie Banks... [More...]

In Which We Serve (1942)

The memorable wartime drama In Which We Serve gave Noël Coward ample scope to demonstrate his remarkable range of talents. Not only does Coward give an impressive performance in the leading role, but he also co-directed the film, wrote the screenplay and composed its score. At the time, Coward had won acclaim for his London stage plays... [More...]

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing is one of the great wartime propaganda films of British cinema, an effective drama that provided a much-needed boost to the morale of the British people in the early years of WWII. It was the first film that Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger made for their newly formed production company... [More...]

Went the Day Well? (1942)

Graham Greene’s short story The Lieutenant Died Last was the inspiration for this effective wartime propaganda film which presented contemporary audiences with the ultimate nightmare scenario: what would happen if the Nazis walked into your back yard? The film was directed by the Brazilian born filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti during his stint at Ealing Studios... [More...]

Millions Like Us (1943)

Millions Like Us is one of a plethora of wartime propaganda films made in England during the Second World War. This one stands out from the crowd for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is concerned not with the battlefield heroics of the armed services but with the hardship and sacrifice of those – mainly women – who stayed behind to support the war effort in a less adventurous... [More...]

San Demetrio London (1943)

Inspired by a true story, San Demetrio London is typical of the wartime dramas that came out of Ealing Studios during WWII – a subtle propaganda film that championed the role of the ordinary man and showed that circumstances and character, not background, are the things that made someone a hero. The film’s stark realist approach typifies the Ealing house style at this time... [More...]

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is one of the remarkable films to come out of the legendary partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, two of the most important figures in British cinema. Although it belongs to the impressive series of wartime dramas made by Powell and Pressburger in the 1940s, it stands apart... [More...]

A Canterbury Tale (1944)

Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th Century work The Canterbury Tales was the inspiration for this lyrical wartime drama from the celebrated independent filmmaking duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, a.k.a. The Archers. Like many of their productions, the film has a distinct propagandist slant, and it’s not difficult to see that this one is intended to help cement Anglo-American relations... [More...]

The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift (1944)

The definitive screen adaptation of the most patriotic of Shakespeare’s great historical plays. Of the three Shakespeare films that Laurence Olivier directed, his Henry V is the most inspired and the most visually arresting, a spectacle of pageant and poetry that brought the Bard to an appreciative mass audience and galvanised the morale of the British in the darkest days of WWII... [More...]

The Way Ahead (1944)

The Way Ahead, one of the most popular of the war propaganda films made in Britain during WWII, offers a vivid and moving depiction of raw recruits experiencing their first taste of army life. It features an ensemble cast of some of the finest British acting talent of the time and was directed with flair by Carol Reed, one of the most respected filmmakers of his generation... [More...]

Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)

When Gabriel Pascal embarked on his most ambitious production, an epic adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s play Caesar and Cleopatra, you could be mistaken for thinking that he saw himself as the Cecil B. DeMille of British cinema. The most expensive film to have been made in Britain up until that time, this Technicolor monolith to overweening self-indulgence proved to be a spectacular... [More...]

The Captive Heart (1946)

Ealing Studio’s Went the Day Well? (1943) is widely considered to be one of the best British war films, but another war film from the same company, The Captive Heart, is just as deserving of praise and attention. This was one of the first films to portray life in the prisoner-of-war camps and is a forerunner to films such as The Colditz Story (1955) and The Great Escape (1963)... [More...]

The Small Back Room (1949)

After an acrimonious falling out with the Rank Organisation, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger returned to Alexanda Korda’s London Films to make this compelling and almost unremittingly bleak film noir thriller set in Britain during the darkest days of WWII. The Small Back Room is a complete contrast to The Archers’ most recent films... [More...]

The African Queen (1951)

John Huston’s fifth collaboration with Humphrey Bogart stays with the quest motif (which forms the basis for most of their films) in this inspired tongue-in-cheek adaptation of C.S. Forester’s 1935 novel The African Queen. This is the film which earned Bogey his one and only Oscar, playing opposite... [More...]

The Cruel Sea (1953)

One of Ealing Studios’ more ambitious war films is this startlingly realist adaptation of Nicholas Monsarrat’s popular novel The Cruel Sea. Its director, Charles Frend, had previously made another notable wartime drama for Ealing, The Big Blockade (1940), as well as Scott of the Antarctic (1948) and The Magnet (1950)... [More...]

Richard III (1955)

Of the three Shakespearean films that Laurence Olivier directed, Richard III is now considered to be the finest, although it was the least successful when it was first released. Lacking the grand cinematic bravado of Henry V (1944) and the brooding stylisation of Hamlet (1948), Olivier’s Richard III is much closer to a traditional stage production of the play... [More...]

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