Millions Like Us [1943]

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Today's audience will have it driven home just how much danger of invasion the United Kingdom was in when they see the direction signs on roads cut down and painted over. The better for the enemy not to be helped should he land. Anne Crawford's a sexy thing used who's been around. She's not taking to factory work at all, but in spite of herself and in spite of himself, she's taking nicely to factory foreman Eric Portman and he, her. Ditto 'Millions Like Us' by another talented duo. Launder and Gilliat, well established as scriptwriters, ventured into feature direction (the only time they took a joint credit) with this episodic and fascinating study of life on the home front.

On the American home-front, my mother freshly graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in Rochester, worked in the Bausch&Lomb factory, making all kinds of optical lenses for war production as that was all Bausch&Lomb was doing in 1943 when this film was made. Before that she worked after school there part time. Still it was a voluntary thing because she had a brother in the service. It was hardly the regimented lives you see these women leading, moved to far away location with new factories springing up in the country to avoid bombing. There's a reference in the film to Mr. Bevin's manpower needs filled by women and they are referring to Ernest Bevin, trade union leader, Labor MP, and in charge in the wartime Coalition Cabinet of such mobilization. Roc is best remembered by Americans in her one and only Hollywood film, the western Canyon Passage. And Crawford before she died tragically at the age of 36 made her mark across the pond as Morgan LeFay in Knights of the Round Table with Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner. Anne didn't yield an inch to Ava in the beauty department. A further propaganda message included in the film was to represent the different regions and classes of the British people all working together for the common good of Britain, and therefore included representatives of all nations and all classes rather than the upper middle classes which usually represented the British people in films of the era. Characters included Gwen from Wales, Fred from Glasgow, a Welsh male voice choir, a massed dance to the tune of Loch Lomond. The north of England was represented by Eric Portman playing Charlie Forbes and Terry Randall in her role of Annie Earnshaw – and as northerners they were ‘obviously’ working class and had a degree of comedy about them. Patricia Roc was cast as a working class girl, but being the star of the film came across as more middle class. The upper middle class were represented by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as the army officers Charters and Caldicott. Celia Crowson and her family go on holiday to the south coast of England in the summer of 1939, staying in the guest house they visit every year. Soon afterwards, the Second World War breaks out and Celia's father joins what was to become the Home Guard. Her more confident sister Phyllis joins the Auxiliary Territorial Service. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.Millions Like Us" is an awfully good film because it is so incredibly ordinary and simple. That's because it's goal is to provide a snapshot of what life was like for seemingly ordinary women during WWII. It follows one woman in particular, but you also see quite a bit about the other women and their lives as well--and is an invaluable documentary-like look into the WWII era. Just after returning to the factory, they find furnished rooms nearby to set up house together, but then Fred is killed in a bombing raid over Germany. Celia receives the news while working at the factory and at a mealtime shortly afterwards the band plays Waiting at the Church, without realising it had been played at Celia's wedding reception. About to break down, Celia is comforted by her fellow workers, as bombers from Fred's squadron overfly the factory en route to another raid. When you watch a film made in 1943 you realise, they had no idea how things would play out. Or for how long. The constant fear of invasion and the Blitz (the V1 and V2s would soon start landing on the citizens of Britain.) was gone and they had to stay focused and sacrifice and fight for...how long? Amazing people. And this movie gives such a delightful view of the great leveling that took place in both world wars efforts. Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat shared a directing credit for their debut in that capacity, a film that looks at the effect of World War II on ordinary British people (especially women), where anyone could be called up and pressed into service.

Does anyone know if there is a good book covering the BRITWAR films (for want of a better name) including the Michael Powell, etc. films. Occasionally, there are flashes of mild interest. Eric Portman and Anne Crawford have a couple of tense sequences together and manage to perk the proceedings somewhat. I rated this film 7/10 and in my opinion is Patricia Roc's best film as Celia Crowson.She gives a sensitive performance of an every day girl caught up in WWII who must do her bit for the war effort.While waiting for her assessment interview she sees a poster and fantasises being accepted into the WRAF/Wrens/Womens army corps/Land Girls or nursing assisting good looking officers, only to be asked to prosaically help out in a factory as "Mr Bevan needs a million women" to make the weapons, aeroplanes and assorted war material. A film about and for women in the workplace may sound like a step forward from the usual patriarchal portrayal of the female sex. Yet, at its heart this is a deeply conservative film. Ultimately Celia finds fulfillment with and through a man and whilst the companionship of women is important, all the female characters are searching for a husband. During World War II, young Celia is separated from her family when she is called up to work in an aircraft components factory, but finds love in the arms of an RAF pilot. Show full synopsis

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There will be a propagandist's agenda behind any film made in and concerning WWII Britain but, where others use a shovel, 'Millions Like Us' lays it on with a velvet glove. It finds no need to make a hero of everyone in British uniform or to chest-thump over every patriotic act. Instead, it warms us to real and ordinary people – people like "us" in the factories, dance halls and Dad's Army – each playing his or her usually unremarked role during the siege of Britain. This movie is part love story and part propaganda-flic. The propaganda elements are more subtle than in many 40s films eg 'The Next of Kin'. However the life of the factory girl is glamourized. This is Celia's escape from the domestic drudgery of caring for her elderly father and allows her to find true love. Also the togetherness of the factory girls is emphasised throughout the film. The contrast between shots of Celia demure and alone that we see at the start of the film and the final scene of her as an integral part of the group is marked. Not only is munitions work vital to the war effort, we are being told, but it also provides companionship, an outlet and fulfillment for women. During the same period they worked together on several Ministry of Information propaganda shorts in support of the British War effort – The acting, especially in the home sequences, is low-key in the same manner as Lean's 'This Happy Breed'. A far cry from the stagey histrionics of pre-war British cinema, it anticipates the naturalism of TV drama. There are no big speeches or characters, just commonplace folk muddling through. The interpolation of Naunton and Wayne, whom L&G had made a crosstalk team in 'The Lady Vanishes', is the only concession to a 1930s conception of entertainment.