Waterloo Road – 1944 | 73 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Enjoyable World War II melodrama set during 1941, an honest British soldier on active service, Jim Colter (John Mills), receives a ‘Dear John’ letter from his sister Ruby informing him that his wife has betrayed him by having an affair. Determined to get her back, Jim goes AWOL to sort out his marital problems.

His wife, Tillie (Joy Sheldon), lives with Jim’s mother and sister, and is desperately missing her absent husband. As a consequence, she begins seeing too much of smooth spiv Ted Purvis (Stewart Granger), who used fake medical papers to avoid a call-up to the armed forces. When Jim arrives home he immediately makes a start looking for Purvis at his usual haunts, and becomes involved in a fight with some friends of Purvis’ at The Lucky Star, the injured Jim is then taken to receive treatment from sympathetic Dr. Montgomery (Alastair Sim). Jim spends the rest of the day searching for his wife, and the problem is finally resolved during an evening air-raid when Jim takes on his love rival in a bloody fist-fight. Purvis receives a final ironic surprise when Dr. Montgomery examines him after studying his falsified medical records.