Hello from Golden Age Classics! Today we are excited to announce the release of “The Way Ahead” (1944), the classic David Niven war film, now in 4K UHD! Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK5il_uXUPA
Read more about the movie below!
The Way Ahead (also known as Immortal Battalion) (1944) is a British World War II drama film directed by Carol Reed. The film features an ensemble cast of other British actors including David Niven, Stanley Holloway and William Hartnell, as well as Ustinov in one of his first roles. The Way Ahead is about a group conscripted into the British Army, trained, and sent to North Africa to follow a group of civilians engaged in combat with the African Legion.
“The Way Ahead” was written by Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov and directed by Carol Reed. The three produced The New Lot, a 44-minute training film originally produced for the Army Cinematograph Service in 1943. The Way Ahead is an extended remake of her previous film, this time aimed at a commercial audience. The two films starred several of the same actors, including John Laurie, Raymond Huntley, and 23-year-old Peter Ustinov. The driving force behind the film was David Niven, who graduated from Sandhurst in 1930. He was a Major in the British Army at the time, working in the Army Film Corps and later serving Normandy in the GHQ Liaison Regiment. Niven was the executive producer of The Way Ahead. The final scene of The Way Ahead shows a soldier moving forward in a counterattack. Instead of a movie ending with the word “The End”, it ends with “The Beginning”. In a film produced and released during the war, this was an attempt to evoke public support for the final promotion of the war effort, perhaps unintentionally referring to one of Winston Churchill’s famous quotations. “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Cast:
David Niven as Lieutenant Jim Perry
William Hartnell as Sergeant Ned Fletcher (as Billy Hartnell)
Hugh Burden as Private Bill Parsons
James Donald as Private/Corporal Evan Lloyd
Leslie Dwyer as Private Sid Beck
Jimmy Hanley as Private Geoffrey Stainer (as Jimmie Hanley)
Stanley Holloway as Private Ted Brewer
Raymond Huntley as Private Herbert Davenport
John Laurie as Private Luke
