The Way Ahead (1944) on Netflix
After Dunkirk, Second Lieutenant Jim Perry is sent to the Duke of Glendon's Light Infantry to train replacements. The conscripts resent the call-up; Sergeant Ned Fletcher drills them.
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- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb6.9/102,538 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
After the Dunkirk evacuation, Second Lieutenant Jim Perry, a pre-war Territorial soldier, is sent to the Duke of Glendon's Light Infantry to train replacements for its depleted ranks, and Sergeant Ned Fletcher, who fought with the British Expeditionary Force, joins him. The men who arrive are conscripts who never expected army life: rent collector Evan Lloyd and his boastful friend Geoffrey Stainer, travel agent Sid Beck, heating engineer Ted Brewer, department store manager Herbert Davenport and his young employee Bill Parsons, and Scottish farm laborer Luke. Perry, mild-mannered, sets about turning resentful civilians into soldiers while the squad bristles at Fletcher's drilling, convinced the sergeant is treating them harshly.
Cast
- John Ruddockas Old Chelsea Soldier
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Way Ahead (1944)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Peter Ustinov described how the air-raid bombing shots were created by real demolition: American engineers blew up buildings at Bizerte in Tunisia that had been damaged when the port was fought over in 1943.
- Instead of the words "The End", the film closes with "The Beginning", a wartime effort to galvanise support for the final push, with a nod to Winston Churchill's "end of the beginning" speech.
- The closing shot of the soldiers advancing was copied for the titles of the long-running BBC sitcom Dad's Army; John Laurie, who appeared in both, repeats the march in the sitcom's credits.
