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TWO MEN WENT TO WAR Send This Review to a Friend
This adventure film looms as the tallest of tales, but it purports to be based on the actual exploits of two real British servicemen in World War II. Director John Henderson, with a screenplay by Richard Everett and Christopher Villiers, sets a tone akin to the whimsical, renowned Ealing Studios comedies that became favorite British film exports in the 1950s.
Private Leslie Cuthbertson (Leo Bill) and Sergeant Peter King (Kenneth Cranham) are totally bored as they sit out the war in the army dental corps. They decide that if they aren't going to be sent to fight in France, they'll invade on their own. They send their ID documents with a letter to Winston Churchill announcing their plans, and off they go in a tiny boat across the English Channel. Not bloody likely.
But it apparently happened even if not exactly as depicted. In France their bumbling turns to heroism, except that when they are brought back, nobody believes them and they face a court marital as deserters. But in the nick of time Derek Jacobi turns up as Churchill's chief intelligence advisor.
Notations at the end of the film tell us what happened to the real blokes. Bill and Cranham play them with likable understatement in tune with the film's gingerly tone that avoids ham-handedness. Inclusion of some World War II songs provide a bit of nostalgia, and the film comes across as pleasantly amusing. An Indican Pictures release.
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