In Which We Serve

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Overview

David Lean and Noël Coward's In Which We Serve (1942) makes its first appearance on DVD in America courtesy of Diamond Entertainment, which has treated it as a public domain title. It's also added a brace of extras, including a history of the picture, bios on Coward and John Mills, and an array of facts and trivia about the movie, all accessible through a simple two-layer menu. It's difficult to say for certain, but the film itself appears to have been mastered from a laserdisc source, to judge from the ...
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More About This Product

Overview

David Lean and Noël Coward's In Which We Serve (1942) makes its first appearance on DVD in America courtesy of Diamond Entertainment, which has treated it as a public domain title. It's also added a brace of extras, including a history of the picture, bios on Coward and John Mills, and an array of facts and trivia about the movie, all accessible through a simple two-layer menu. It's difficult to say for certain, but the film itself appears to have been mastered from a laserdisc source, to judge from the combination of clarity and anomalies that show up in the image. The result is a picture that, though somewhat softer than it would be if mastered from a proper source, is also very consistent and balanced, and offers a better quality than is typical for these unauthorized DVD releases. The audio has also been mastered at a good, healthy volume, with above-average clarity. The 114-minute movie has been given eight chapters, a bare minimum for a film of this complexity. On the other hand, the fact that it's a budget-priced release overcomes that one lack of attention, at least until an authorized version with some serious extras shows up, if ever.
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Special Features

Interactive menus; Original graphics; Film information; Chapters with direct scene access; Biography; Facts & trivia; Special collector's photo gallery
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Editorial Reviews

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder
Noël Coward and David Lean's In Which We Serve was a landmark film on several levels, some of them deceptive. It marked the official directorial debut of top-flight editor Lean, who had previously directed much of the Gabriel Pascal adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara. And it brought Coward, then the leading light of the theater on both sides of the Atlantic, to the screen as an actor/director, performing a role modeled closely on Lord Mountbatten. But its most important attribute was also its least appreciated: its structure, which owed a great deal to Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941) in breaking up the action into flashback vignettes and non-linear storytelling. Coward and Lean had studied the Welles film closely in pre-production, and they applied its lessons about film narrative to a topical, contemporary action setting. In Which We Serve is arguably the popular film that best took the breakthroughs of Citizen Kane and ran with them into new dramatic territory.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 12/2/2003
  • UPC: 011891970327
  • Original Release: 1942

    • Rating:

  • Source: Tgg Direct
  • Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
  • Presentation: Black & White
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Language: English
  • Time: 1:54:00
  • Format: DVD
  • Sales rank: 23,849

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Noël Coward Captain Kinross
John Mills Ordinary Seaman Shorty Blake
Bernard Miles Chief Petty Officer Walter Hardy
Celia Johnson Alix Kinross
Joyce Carey Mrs. Hardy
Kay Walsh Freda Lewis
Derek Elphinstone Number One
Richard Attenborough Young Sailor
Robert Sansom "Guns"
Michael Wilding "Flags"
Philip Friend "Torps"
Ballard Berkeley Engineer Commander
James Donald Doctor
George Carney Mr. Blake
Kathleen Harrison Mrs. Blake
Hubert Gregg Pilot
John Boxer Hollett
Kenneth Carton Sub. Lieut. R.N.V.R.
Gerald Case Capt. Jasper Fry
Penelope Dudley-Ward Maureen Fenwick
Leslie Dwyer Parkinson
Walter Fitzgerald Col. Lumsden
Geraldo's Orchestra Themselves
Everley Gregg Nurse
Dora Gregory Mrs. Lemmon
Lionel Grose Reynolds
Geoffrey Hibbert Joey Mackeridge
Roddy Hughes Photographer
Daniel Massey Bobby Kinross
Juliet Mills Frieda's Baby
Robert Moreton Coombe
Brefni O'Rorke Dr. Drake
Lesley Osmond Nell Fosdick
Wally Patch Uncle Fred
Eileen Peel Mrs. Farrell
Norman Pierce Mr. Satterthwaite
Frederick Piper Edgecombe
Charles Russell Fisher
Johnnie Schofield Coxswain
Jonathan Singer Moran
Ann Stephens Lavinia Kinross
John Varley Secco
Barbara Waring Mrs. Macadoo
Caven Watson Brodie
Michael Whittaker Sub
Kay Young Barmaid
Technical Credits
Noël Coward Director, Score Composer, Producer, Screenwriter
David Lean Director, Editor
Anthony Havelock-Allan Associate Producer
Thelma Myers Editor
Ronald Neame Cinematographer
Tony Sforzini Makeup
Sydney Streeter Production Manager
Douglas Woolsey Special Effects
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Scene Index

Side #1 --
1. The Story of a Ship [14:19]
2. H.M.S. Torrin [15:23]
3. State of War [14:30]
4. Honeymoon [13:06]
5. Torpedo Amidships [13:41]
6. Time Marches On [13:16]
7. Blitzkrieg [15:20]
8. Eternal Pride [14:36]
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Menu

Side #1 --
   Play
   Chapters
   Extras
      Film Info
      Facts & Trivia
      Trailer
      John Mills Bio
      Noel Coward Bio
      Photo Gallery
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