Waterloo Road (film)

Waterloo Road
Directed by Sidney Gilliat
Produced by Edward Black
Written by Sidney Gilliat
Story by Val Valentine
Starring John Mills
Stewart Granger
Joy Shelton
Jean Kent
Alastair Sim
Cinematography Arthur Crabtree
Edited by Alfred Roome
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release date
  • 5 February 1945 (1945-02-05)
Running time
 73 mins
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Box office 522,090 admissions (France)[1]

Waterloo Road (1945) is a British film based on the Waterloo area of South London, starring John Mills, Stewart Granger, and Alistair Sim, and directed by Sidney Gilliat. According to the British Film Institute database, this is the third in an "unofficial trilogy" by Gilliat, preceded by Millions Like Us (1943) and Two Thousand Women (1944).[2]

Plot

A soldier, Jim Colter (Mills), goes AWOL to return to south London to save his wife from the advances of Ted Purvis (Granger), a philandering conscription-dodger.

Cast

Production

The film was originally known as Blue for Waterloo.[3]

Stewart Granger later said the film was one of his favourites as his role "was a heel, but a real character".[4] He says the film was made in ten days while he was also making Love Story. He was particularly proud of the fight scene with John Mills.[5]

Sidney Gilliat says he was taken off the film before it was finished. Production was stopped and there were still some exteriors to be shot. Ted Black had gone and the Ostrers put the film at the end of the dubbing schedule. However, Earl St John who was in charge of Odeon cinemas liked the film and got the dubbing done.[6]

Gilliat says the idea of using Alastair Sim's character as a commentator was his, though based on the original Val Valentine story. However, he thought the device "proved a bit of a mess".[6]

Reception

According to Kinematograph Weekly the film performed well at the British box office in 1945.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Box office information for Stewart Granger films in France at Box Office Story
  2. ↑ BFI Database entry
  3. ↑ "Motion Picture Herald (via: Lantern: Search, Visualize & Explore the Media History Digital Library)". Motion Picture Herald; lantern.mediahist.org. Nov–Dec 1943. Retrieved 2017-04-08.
  4. ↑ GRANGER'S RANGE: At Home and Abroad With A Rising British Star By HOWARD THOMPSON. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 8 November 1953: X5.
  5. ↑ Brian MacFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema, Methuen 1997 p 230
  6. 1 2 Brian MacFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema, Methuen 1997 p 225
  7. ↑ Robert Murphy, Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48 2003 p 208
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