Charming and brutal

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Much admired in its day for its frank depiction of a somewhat seamy side of wartime London, "Waterloo Road" now seems to be a slow-paced, over-talkative, war-time propaganda piece that tries to take in too much territory. Too often the script avoids controversy and is content to shape up as a domestic romantic drama, so it's actually no wonder that the direction lacks confidence and that the fight scenes are so clumsily staged – although admittedly no doubles are used! The script's flashback-within-a-flashback construction also hinders our involvement in the plot. On the other hand, the movie's actuality photography and its authentic wartime milieu certainly give "Waterloo Road" a must-see curiosity appeal. And admittedly, John Mills and Stewart Granger are in their element here, although Alastair Sim struggles to make the best of being miscast.

Plot: A British soldier goes AWOL in order to stop his wife cuckolding him with a criminal.This film is a Gainsborough melodrama, and if you know what that means then you know what you'll get. So expect female hysterics and an unconvincingly nasty criminal played by Stewart Granger. John Mills, as an everyman squaddie, holds the piece together with some solid work. The setting is Waterloo station and most of the film is shot on location, which gives it a nice edge of social realism as the story winds through the markets and streets. The plot isn't up to much but it does express one of the great worries of British soldiers: what were their girls up to whilst they were away? Many were on active service for years at a time, and they knew England was full of Yanks, Canadians, spivs and other sorts who were flush with cash, glamour and amorous intentions. It isn't a very good film, with the climactic fist fight being particularly unconvincing, but it's a nice insight into what was a pressing issue at the time.

It may well have passed muster at the tail end of the war but seen today the flaws are there for all to see. Stewart Granger's working class accent is a joke and his wooden, over-the-top acting little better. John Mills phones it in as the 'decent' man who goes AWOL when he hears that wife, Joy Shelton, is stepping out with Granger's spiv whilst he, Mills, is doing his bit. The two best performances by a mile are turned in by Beatrice Varley and Alison Leggatt as Mills' mother and sister and Jean Kent weighs in with a passable cameo but the climactic fist fight between Purvis (Granger) and Colter (Mills) is embarrassing. Definitely a Waterloo sunset.

Waterloo Road, made towards the end of World War II, tells the story of a young squaddie played by Sir John Mills, who having heard about his wife running around with a no good local operator, goes AWOL to basically find his erring wife and give the chap in question a good old thick ear.Despite that being the entire plot in a nut shell, it is a fantastic piece of wartime nostalgia and a rather entertaining and charming little film to boot.It is chockablock full of air raids, wardens, shelters, old fashion saloon bars, and its cast list is practically a cinematic who's who of British Wartime cinema, although it is the two male leads that really steal the film.Stewart Granger is a thoroughly unlikable fellow in this film as the draft dodging spiv with a million brave guys wives to chose from and he plays his part magnificently, although at times his cockney slang-ridden accent does slip into his more characteristic well spoken Britisher.Sir John Mills was never really used much in the guise of a physical tough guy, and after watching Waterloo Road it is not too hard to understand why. Despite the consummate and expert actor he undoubtedly was, he was on the whole, officer/ministry material and the fisty cuffs he displays in Waterloo Road, although well choreographed is not how the most majestic of our British acting knights should be perceived or indeed behave.The final outcome of the Mills/Granger bout was also a little unbelievable, which is why they probably had Granger clasp his heart halfway through, as I'm sure in reality, Granger would have torn him to shreds, with the audience all to aware of the fact.But still a pleasant little wartime ditty in to South London. Give it a go.