Wartime and postwar morale-raiser films

No matter whether if your response to political craziness is to fight, looks for answers, help others, or to simply endure, the film industries of the United States and Britain have provided movies to lift your spirits and give you a little gumption.

Let's start with 1950's "The Flame and The Arrow." 

Burt Lancaster, as Dardo the Archer, is a dab hand with a flaming torch. (That's not him in the thumbnail picture.)  "The Flame and The Arrow" is good fun, especially if you've already seen Robin Hood too many times. This swashbuckler was directed by Jack Turner (actual name Jacques Tourneur), who was great at low-budget films. Below is a list of just his full-length feature films. Wikipedia has another whole list of Turner's short films.

Now we move to a more serious movie. 1940's "Night Train to Munich," based on a story by novelist Gordon Wellesley and his screenwriter wife Katherine Strueby, is a tale of strength and courage and also a good suspense film. It has Rex Harrison in it. 

Here's a link to the film online.

Screenwriter Wellesley's full name, by the way, was Gordon Wong Wellesley and he was a native of Australia and of Chinese descent. He preferred the British-sounding version of his name when working in both Britain and in Hollywood because, he said, otherwise he was only given projects with Asian settings.


Next, a set of three British movies. As you may or may not remember, the previous Saturday C7 movie post had an Alastair Sims movie in it, and so does this one. 

Sims, most famous for playing Scrooge in a film version of "A Christmas Carol," co-stars with John Mills (father of Hayley Mills) in 1945's "Waterloo Road." Some kind soul has uploaded it to dailymotion in two parts.

Here is Part 1.


Here is Part 2.



"Waterloo Road" (the 1945 film just mentioned, not the BBC television series) was third in a series of three films.  Going backwards in the trilogy, we come to "Two Thousand Women." 

Reversing makes sense here because the person who uploaded the movie to dailymotion has the film in backward, which only matters during the title sequence. "Two Thousand Women" is about the experience of British women being sent to Nazi-run prison camps in France during the war.

Here's the first part of "Two Thousand Women"


Here's the second part of "Two Thousand Women."



We've gone backward to the first flick. The film trilogy begins with "Millions Like Us."

"Millions Like Us," part 1


"Millions Like Us," part 2 



Happy viewing, and may your spirit grow a bit stronger! 

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