- Actors: John Mills, Noel Coward, James Donald, Bernard Miles, Sylvia Syms
- Directors: Noel Coward, David Lean, Roy Ward Baker, Anthony Asquith, Walter Forde
- Language English
- Classification: PG
- Studio: Carlton
- VHS Release Date: 29 Oct 2001
- Run Time: 465 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- ASIN: B00005NFDN
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 46,140 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
This John Mills collection offers a chance to see one of Britain's top film stars of the 1930s to the 1970s in some of his early film roles.
As Albert Brown in Forever England (1935), also known as Brown on Resolution and Born to Glory, Mills plays the first of many military roles. This film belongs with the British propaganda movies of the Second World War deploying typically patriotic images and themes, films which reached their zenith with In Which We Serve and The Way To The Stars (also starring Mills).
Cottage to Let (1941), almost unknown now, is a remarkable example of a British film of the war period, and despite its dated quality, is a good adventure story, with a military theme relevant to the war, and first-rate performances from a top-notch cast list.
In the classic In Which We Serve (1942), he plays ordinary seaman Shorty Blake alongside Noel Coward and the contrast between the inexperienced sailor and the jaded naval commander is beautifully drawn. This film enhanced Mills's reputation as one of the best-loved heroes of British war movies.
Two years later as Pip in David Lean's Great Expectations Mills brings a resonant quality to the Dickens character, from love-lorn devotee of cruel Estella, to the jaunty young lawyer spending his mysterious inheritance in London, playing against the young Alex Guinness as his new friend. This film belongs in the group which includes Hobson's Choice, The History of Mr Polly and This Happy Breed, in which Mills established a second reputation for character acting which continued through to the 1970s culminating in his Oscar-winning performance as 'village idiot' Michael in David Lean's Ryan's Daughter.
During the fifties and sixties Mills's quintessential English qualities made him ideal for roles such as Jacko Palmer in the Flame in the Streets (1961), a pithy film about working class values, and the then controversial issues of racism and union prejudice. (See also The Angry Silence starring Richard Attenborough, a contemporary of John Mills and one of his greatest friends.)
These five films provide an excellent introduction to perennial favourite John Mills and his particularly lasting acting qualities.
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