Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

SimonJack This British war movie hit theaters in England on June 16, 1945 – just five weeks after VE Day. The film had been in production for some time, and no doubt the filmmakers could see the war slowly coming to an end in Europe. Still, it seems something of a risk to produce and release this type of film near war's end. Coming right on the heels of the war, it must have evoked deep emotions from Brits and Americans alike. Anyone who lost a loved one—spouse, son, father, brother, would identify with "The Way to the Stars." And, for all of us – then and now, the film remains a moving, heartfelt story of love, strength, sorrow and carrying on in the face of loss. Released as "Johnny in the Clouds" in England, the film is also a wonderful portrait of friendly British and American relations, both militarily and amidst the public. It has a feel of reality in the rural setting around a small bomber airfield. The film develops each of several characters in detail. The men and women of the small British town are as much a part of the lives of the airmen as are their comrades in uniform. And the Brits welcome the Yanks who later replace them with new American Flying Fortresses.Excellent performances are given by all in the large cast. Among those who stand out are John Mills, Rosamund John, Stanley Holloway, Douglass Montgomery, Renée Asherson, and Bonar Colleano. This is one of a few excellent war movies that isn't centered on combat action, but that tells the human story on a home front that's close to the action. The direction, script and plot, cinematography and other technical aspects of the film are all excellent.

Jem Odewahn Excellent wartime film, designed as propaganda, but so well-made that it's a lasting British classic. John Mills and Michael Redgrave star as the fliers who become firm friends. We are let into their lives and loves and it's a warm film that feels genuine. Like the trial scene in Powell & Pressburger's magical "A Matter Of Life And Death" director Anthony Asquith also has something to stay about British-American relations during WW2, finding humour in the differences yet also heart. Mills may slip under people's radar because he's always so quiet and efficient, Redgrave is magnetic on screen. Very well edited and shot, it's one you must check out.

ella-48 One of my all-time favourites, and always will be. Made in the months immediately after WW2, it charts the history of a typical RAF airfield, with particular emphasis on the 1942 arrival of US bomber crews. Their huge social impact on a rural English community is treated with warmth and much wry humour.Those looking for an exercise in gritty documentary realism, though, should look elsewhere! This is essentially a 'relationships' movie, deliberately and finely calculated to tug at the heart strings. A very fine script (by Terence Rattigan, no less) is brought to vivid life by lovely performances from all concerned.Sentimental? Undeniably, but in the best possible way: I defy even the hardest-bitten cynic to remain unmoved.

writers_reign This is one of those 'period' films replete with the kind of dialogue that we've heard 'sent up' a thousand times and responded to the send ups by laughing at them but this film that SHOULD be faintly risible holds the attention and inspires tears rather than laughter. This is probably because it is as finely crafted as a Faberge egg or a Louis VIII commode. The screenplay is the work of Terence Rattigan, one of the finest English playwrights of the 20th century - indeed even a cursory glance at the relationship between Joyce Cary and her niece Renee Asherson reveals a blueprint for the Mrs Railton-Bell and daughter Sybil in Rattigan's Separate Tables which lay a good ten years in the future - who could and did turn his hand to the screenplay usually successfully as in The Sound Barrier. Michael Redgrave, destined to star magnificently in Rattigan's The Browning Version (directed, as here, by Puffin Asquith)stands out as the dashing and charming pilot who disappears far too soon having flown without his 'lucky' lighter and gone down in flames. Rattigan's strength as a writer of wartime drama is in concentrating on the people rather than the battles so that the planes are seen taking off and landing at Halfpenny Field and that is all. The ensemble cast complement each other perfectly from John Mills raw recruit maturing into a leader to Stanley Holloway's hotel bore. One of the finest of its kind.