John Chard

John Mills, Alastair Sim and Stewart Granger, quite a trio. Waterloo Road is a tidily produced picture that is telling a pretty prickly story. The plot revolves around John Mills everyman railway worker Jim Colte, he gets called up to do his service in the army, leaving behind his recently wedded bride, Tillie. The local Lothario, Ted Purvis (Stewart Granger) has his eye on Tillie, and with Tillie feeling alone and vulnerable, Purvis may just get his wicked way with her. But Jim gets wind of this and after being refused compassionate leave by his superiors, he goes AWOL and intends to track Purvis down. We are told this story by Alastair Sim's wonderfully astute Dr.Montgomery, who has been sent a fair bit of work from previous Purvis doings. The film plays out with Jim dodging the military police and lurching from one Purvis haunt to another, inter cut with this is us following Purvis and Tillie out on the town as the day of reckoning for all three of them draws near. When the finale comes it's well worth the wait, mighty midget John Mills (brilliant here) facing off against the tall and fulsome Stewart Granger, just as Adolf decides to bomb London! A smashing little film that is risqué with it's themes of unfaithful wives and soldiers absconding from service. 7/10