This film is part of Rentals

Waterloo Road PG rating

John Mills is the soldier who goes AWOL upon hearing of his wife’s affair, returning home to confront Stewart Granger’s home-wrecking spiv.

War 1945 76 mins

Director: Sidney Gilliat

Overview

Long before BBC’s Rochdale school series of the same name, John Mills angrily strutted the streets of South London in this 1940s favourite. He plays Private Jim Colter, a soldier who goes AWOL when he hears his wife might be having a fling, returning to Waterloo to confront Stewart Granger’s home-wrecking spiv.

This dynamic Gainsborough production was a popular success towards the end of WWII, cannily exploiting prevalent fears around war-time infidelity. It marked the final entry in an unofficial trilogy of war-themed dramas from creative partners Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder and Edward Black, following Millions Like Us (1943) and Two Thousand Women (1944).