TWO MEN WENT TO WAR
Directed by: John Henderson.
Produced by: Ira Trattner & Pat Harding.
Written by: Richard Everett & Christopher Villiers.
Director of Photography: John Ignatius.
Edited by: David Yardley.
Music by: Richard Harvey.
Released by: Indican Pictures.
Country of Origin: UK. 109 min. Not Rated.
With: Kenneth Cranham, Leo Bill & Derek Jacobi.

Britain, 1942: While other young men are going off to fight the Good War, young Leslie Cuthbertson’s (Bill) assigned role is to dentistry. His commanding officer intones, "An army that can't bite, can't fight." Tall and gangly, he's like the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, but with fewer smarts. Walking by the arsenal, he notices the door ajar, enters and is caught red-handed with a grenade by Sergeant Peter King (Cranham), an imposing officer with a perpetual scowl. The grenade pin snaps, testing both men's mettle.

Like the young man, King wants to serve his country in battle, but has been denied seeing action because of his age. King takes matters into his own hands by ordering Cuthbertson out of bed to march with him out of the training camp. With guns and a bag full of grenades, King’s goal is to personally invade Nazi-controlled France. Their adventure lightheartedly begins when they first must explain why they are the only two soldiers on a train, and then continues to a coastal village, where they must steal a fishing boat, avoiding the low tide and the attention of an overly-solicitous young woman.

The film ricochets from comedy to robust war film. The eventual crossing is one of the most suspenseful scenes I’ve seen in some time. Although the hapless duo is predictably depicted (they behave like a dominating father and a rebelling son in no time), their adventure is quite compelling. Far from an anti-war film, Two Men is more in line with In Which We Serve (1942) than Oh! What a Lovely War (1969). (Even Winston Churchill makes an appearance.) Only the ending is trite, with Churchill’s chief intelligence advisor (Jacobi) coming to the men's rescue by delivering a grandstanding speech. The time period is handsomely recreated, much like it was in the similarly set Enigma (2001). But because of its consistent tone, Two Men is a more entertaining film. Thoroughly amicable, it is like tea in the afternoon - something to lift the spirits. Kent Turner
March 26, 2004