THE CINEMA
EVEN Mr. James Agate would be bound to agree that This is the Army is a slice of popular, hand-holding entertainment more suited to Stage than screen. The reason lies not in the intellectual calibre of the work but in the confinement of its artifice. How tired we are long before the end to find the screen—a very window on the world—utilised only to display the infinite permutations and com- binations of too many soldiers manoeuvring within the over-narrow limits of boards and backcloth. A brave attempt has been made to widen the horizons of this all-male American Army revue by linking it with a similarly patriotic piece of the last war and by telling a slim back-stage story of the sons and daughters of veteran performers who find love as well as satisfaction in turning soldiers into singers, dancers and acrobats in aid of war relief fends.
This is the Army might well have been left on the stage. Singing soldiers are likely to be more at home there than on the screen, which is wont to portray more serious aspects of military activity. The cinema continues to provide us with pictures of the way the war is being fought, which often give more information than artistry, but are none the less widely welcome for that. The Nelson Touch (the unhappy English title of an American film called Corvette K225) is a straightforward, spectacular yet unglamorous account of convoy duty in the North Atlantic. The warding off of aircraft and the gun and depth-charge duels with submarines are somewhat cluttered up by a fragile network of personal relationships, but these are not over-obtrusive. The film is adorned with a wealth of technical detail, and the sufferings of the ocean-going sailor (in merchantmen as well as naval vessels) are not minimised.
Glancing over the list of last year's productions we find that realistic films about the war, its causes and consequences, have made a much stronger impression than more peaceful productions. Once again Britain can claim to have contributed the year's most inspiring piece of work. In 1942 we led the field with /n, Which We Serve and this year Launder and Gilliatt's Millions Like Us can stand
without shame beside it. Here, in a probable story of industrial England, real people show their quality within an accurate repre- sentation of their environment. The American film Bataan can claim second place, largely on the score of its fine dramatic shape and skilful characterisation. Edge of Darkness, Lewis Milestone's production, which represents the only successful attempt I know to translate to the screen the problem of Occupied Europe, shared the same virtues of credible protagonists and masterly screen crafts- manship. The other story—films of the year which stay in the mind are The Magnificent Ambersons (to my mind Orson Welles's best work so far), Keeper of the Flame, Strange Incident and I Married a Witch, in which Rene Clair showed signs of returning to his early form and contributed the only comedy which I cap remember this year as having been of more than ephemeral interest. Strange Incident finds a place as much for its courageous novelty in taking the psychological implications of lynching for its raw material as for its balanced _technique and its creation of an appro- priate mood. For the same reasons we should perhaps include The Moon and Sixpence with its magnificent acting by George Sanders. Nineteen forty-three.was a good year for documentaries. First and foremost comes Paul Rotha's World of Plenty, a colourful examina- tion of the economics of an international social problem. March cf Time's Inside Fascist Spain was the most eloquent picture of Fascism at work ever brought to the screen whilst Fires Were Started from the Crown Film Unit showed Humphrey Jennings at last finding his director's feet in the fires and friendliness of blitzed London. Desert Victory must, of course, be included amongst the year's outstanding films. That it does not rank higher in the list is perhaps because it owes more to military skill than to the craft of
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