Waterloo Road | |
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Directed by | Sidney Gilliat |
Produced by | Edward Black |
Starring |
John Mills Stewart Granger Joy Shelton Jean Kent Alastair Sim |
Cinematography | Arthur Crabtree |
Edited by | Alfred Roome |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | General Film Distributors |
Release date
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Running time
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73 mins |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | 522,090 admissions (France) |
Waterloo Road (1945) is a British film based on the Waterloo area of South London, starring John Mills, Stewart Granger, and Alistair Sim, and directed by Sidney Gilliat. Per the British Film Institute database, this is the third in an "unofficial trilogy" by Gilliat of Millions Like Us (1943), Two Thousand Women (1944), and Waterloo Road.
John Mills plays an AWOL soldier who returns to south London to save his wife from the advances of a philandering draft-dodger played by Stewart Granger.
The film was originally known as Blue for Waterloo.
Stewart Granger later said the film was one of his favorites as his role "was a heel, but a real character". He says the film was made in ten days while he was also making Love Story. He was particularly proud of the fight scene with John Mills.
Sidney Gilliat says he was taken off the film before it was finished. Production was stopped and there were still some exteriors to be shot. Ted Black had gone and the Ostrers put the film at the end of the dubbing schedule. However Earl St John who was in charge of Odeon cinemas liked the film and got the dubbing done.
Gilliat says the idea of using Alastair Sim's character as a commentator was his, though based on the original Val Valentine story. However he thought the device "proved a bit of a mess".
According to Kinematograph Weekly the film performed well at the British box office in 1945.