Turning raw recruits into a warlike fighting unit is effectively portrayed in the wartime film, ‘The Way Ahead’, Phil Jarman looks at the origins of this morale boosting movie.
The brief set by Prime Minister Winston Churchill for the creators of an uplifting screenplay was to inspire public support for the British Army in the same manner that ‘In Which We Serve’ had achieved for the Royal Navy earlier in the Second World War. Looking to movie actor and Army Officer David Niven to realise his ambition, Churchill’s task was fulfilled in the acclaimed film, ‘The Way Ahead’ which was released in 1944.
Starting life as a 44-minute training film entitled, ‘The New Lot’, and produced for the Army Kinematograph Service by Carol Reed, Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov, this film was reworked into a full-length screenplay by the principal driving force, Niven, in his role as Executive Producer.
A graduate from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in 1930, and commissioned as a Lieutenant, Niven served with a Commando unit in the Highlands until he was seconded into helping the war effort in his pre-war role as an actor and movie maker.
Portraying an RAF Officer and test pilot in the 1942 film, ‘The First of the …
