The Way Ahead is a British film released in 1944 that shows a group of draftees (conscripts? Call upees? I don’t know how Britain works) who conveniently meet at a railway station on the way to basic training. We follow their development from civilians to an effective fighting unit in North Africa. It is reworking and expansion of an earlier propaganda short, The New Lot.

Immortal Battalion is the American version of the British film released in 1944 that shows a group of draftees who conveniently meet at a railway station on the way to basic training. We follow their development from civilians to an effective fighting unit in North Africa. It’s shorter and not quite as good as The Way Ahead.

I believe these gentlemen are moving ahead.

The plot is formulaic and predictable, which is really two ways of saying predictable. The draftees are resistant to the work and discipline required in the military and complain nearly incessantly. The gruff sergeant will help whip them into shape. They are truculent, resentful and resistant throughout training and are terrible soldiers until the lieutenant gives the big speech. These everymen become a cohesive and effective fighting unit just like all our patriotic lads. Go team!

It is not an outstanding, life-changing or groundbreaking film. It is, nonetheless, an entertaining and well-made one. Its obvious plot is realized almost perfectly. I can’t point to a mistake. Maybe one of the recruits is initially a little too much of a truculent do-nothing blowhard.

Maybe the way the movie mentions and retreats from class is a flaw. David Niven (The Guns of Navarone, Spitfire) plays Lieutenant Jim Perry, and even though he sounds like David Niven and is a commissioned officer in the British Army, he does not appear to be upper class; he works in a garage.

The closest thing to an overt mention of class is from a snooty assistant manager at a department store, who ends up in the same unit as one of his employees. On the train to camp, he suggests, “it might be less, shall I say, embarrassing to both of us if we forget and disregard any differences in status which may have existed at the store.” and continues, “I must say I think it’s very, to put it mildly, thoughtless of the powers that be to allow such a situation to arise.” His odd and clearly ridiculous pretension is, I think, an attempt to minimize any class conflicts that may have actually existed. Unlike Mrs. Miniver or Went the Day Well? which acknowledge class distinctions, the film asks us to believe class is irrelevant.

I don’t think I can make any other valid complaint about the film. Even though there is a great deal of barracks life and training before the men get to the action, things I am perhaps less patient with than others, it isn’t too much, and it all propels the plot forward.

There are a number of scenes at a local private home where the lady of the house makes tea and allows them to bathe, while they complain about their officers and the army–not while they’re bathing; most of the complaining is in the sitting room. They complain to a pilot they meet there; they say he’s lucky to be on leave, only to hear he is because he got “shot up a bit.” He’s alright now though. Someone found his wristwatch five miles away from where he crashed, and it still works–isn’t that a bit of luck?

Of course this diffident and charming pilot is dating the young attractive woman who lives there. As they they are about to go out, he mentions they’re going to see a movie about the merchant navy and says, “Marvelous job those chaps do, and they don’t wear uniforms.” We are constantly and not subtly reminded that the new soldiers have the improper attitude and that everyone is vital to the war effort.

The plot consistently moves forward as the whiny civilians become soldiers and a family before they enter combat, and it’s a tight movie. There aren’t a bunch of needless subplots; the scenes we see reveal character or deliver messages about the importance of the military and the sacrifices everyone should be making. There isn’t any comic relief for the sake of comic relief (I’m looking at you Breakthrough and Hell Is for Heroes); the parts that may be funny are properly motivated and have a point. Every bit of the movie points them away from their selfish attitudes and towards the way they should be moving, you know, ahead.

One subplot is nearly entirely removed from the American version. One private goes AWOL because his wife is being harassed by creditors. Perry talks to the soldier after he returns and helps him solve the problem and speaks for him when they meet with the Colonel. The soldier finally receives no punishment for being AWOL.

This scene shows a military that is not an inflexible system of mindless rules. Niven gives us nice little speech about how you’re never alone when you’re in the military and about programs in place to help soldiers in financial need. Unsurprisingly, Niven is tremendously charming throughout the film, in a diffident yet earnest way. The scene appeals to the wartime audience and helps the men see the lieutenant and the sergeant as something other than adversaries.

I want to highlight this scene because it is also one of the scenes cut out from Immortal Battalion, to its deficit. The scene is cut while subsequent references to his plight remain and are a little confusing. The two movies are not vastly different—one other scene where Niven and the men bond is cut, inexplicably. The American version makes Niven more distant from his men and so is a little less endearing.

The largest difference is in the beginning. The Way Ahead begins with some old stuffy retired soldiers harrumphing about these kids today and at the end of the film speaking proudly of their accomplishments. It is both more entertaining and cohesive than Immortal Battalion, which begins with a reporter (Quentin Reynolds (The Big Blockade, London Can Take It), who uses the phrase “the way ahead”)  sitting behind a desk giving a jingoistic speech.

Hearing these cranky old men talk is significantly more entertaining than listening to a guy sitting behind a desk.

The trailer for The Way Ahead–most of this footage does not appear in Immortal Battalion

There are some stirring moments in the action sequences and, for the time, some are very well realized. The British have all the right equipment and the Germans are generally distant figures in the dark or the smoke; one night attack where the Germans are lit only by flares is particularly convincing.  Movies made during the war often have strong action sequences because, I think, of the responsibility the filmmakers felt both to be somewhat realistic and not to make the enemy too easy to defeat. How can they be brave if the enemy is inept? Some propaganda films make the mistake of presenting a relatively non-threatening and ineffective enemy. (I’m looking at you, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing).

Recommendation

You should watch The Way Ahead, or Immortal Battalion, but if you only watch one, and you certainly don’t need to watch both, see The Way Ahead. Both are currently available on Tubi, which is kind of my new favorite streaming platform. They are likely to be available on another streaming service you enjoy as well.

Immortal Battalion is in the Combat Classics DVD set that was the impetus for this site, which doesn’t mean you should buy it.  This is a movie I would generally not recommend spending money on, but if you’re looking at some DVD set of X number of war movies that includes The Way Ahead (and there is more than one of those) that should nudge you more towards buying that compilation. If you’re a completionist, or only sort of a completionist, you’re going to buy it anyway, so why am I adding this sentence?