The Gentle Sex *** (1943, Joan Greenwood, Joan Gates, Rosamund John, Jean Gillie, Lilli Palmer) – Classic Movie Review 12,888

The vivid 1943 British wartime drama film The Gentle Sex stars Joan Gates, Jean Gillie, Joan Greenwood, Joyce Howard, Rosamund John, Lilli Palmer and Barbara Waring as diverse women who meet at an Auxiliary Territorial Service training camp. 

Directors Leslie Howard and Adrian Brunel’s 1943 British black-and-white romantic comedy-drama war film The Gentle Sex stars Joan Gates, Jean Gillie, Joan Greenwood, Joyce Howard, Rosamund John, Lilli Palmer, and Barbara Waring as seven young women from different backgrounds who meet at an Auxiliary Territorial Service training camp. John Justin also stars as Flying Officer David Sheridan.

Actors Derrick De Marney and Leslie Howard produced this wartime plea for women to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), the British women’s army. Leslie Howard also and co-directs with Adrian Brunel. Give or take the popular entertainment romantic comedy elements, it is a realistic documentary-drama film that shows the women drilling, driving lorries and manning ack-ack batteries (anti-aircraft warfare), and doesn’t shirk from showing the probability of tough times ahead.

The Gentle Sex stars Joan Gates as Gwen Hayden, Jean Gillie as Dot Hopkins, Joan Greenwood as Betty Miller, Joyce Howard as Anne Lawrence, Rosamund John as Maggie Fraser, Lilli Palmer as Erna Debruski, and Barbara Waring as Joan Simpson. The original story and screenplay is by Moie Charles, with input by Aimée Stuart (additional dialogue), Phyllis Rose (uncredited) and Roland Pertwee (uncredited).

The slimly plotted film follows the fortunes of the seven very different women who all join the ATS on the same day, banding together for the war effort. The story follows them through training to their eventual postings, and the group is re-united at an anti-aircraft station. The women also take part with soldiers in organised dances with big band swing music, and some of them find romance, but ‘war is never kind to lovers’.

The fragrant World War Two documentary-style drama has a smashing cast most notably headed by Joan Greenwood, Rosamund John and Lilli Palmer, all of whom give most appealing performances. The film itself is perhaps most appealing as a revealing, vivid snapshot of the time and place. It has immense nostalgia value. And it packs a lot in to its 92 minutes.

Leslie Howard can be seen in profile in the opening and closing sequences, and he also does the wry voice-over (‘observations of a mere man’).  It was his last film before his death in 1943 when the Luftwaffe shot down BOAC Flight 777 over the Atlantic, on which he was a passenger.

Also in the cast are Frederick Leister, Mary Jerrold, Everley Gregg, Miles Malleson, John Laurie, Jimmy Hanley, Ronald Shiner, Eliot Mason, Harry Welchman, Meriel Forbes, Rosalyn Boulter, Peter Cotes, Roland Pertwee, and Leslie Howard.

Release date: 15 April 1943.

Running time: 92 minutes.

The Gentle Sex is directed by Leslie Howard and Adrian Brunel, runs 92 minutes, is made by Two Cities Films and Concanen Productions [Derrick De Marney Productions], is released by General Film Distributors, is written by Moie Charles (original story and screenplay), Aimée Stuart (additional dialogue), Phyllis Rose (uncredited) and Roland Pertwee (uncredited), is shot in black-and-white by Robert Krasker, Cyril J Knowles and Ray Sturges, is produced by Leslie Howard and Derrick De Marney, is scored by John D H Greenwood, and is designed by Carmen Dillon and C P Norman.

The cast are Joan Gates as Gwen Hayden, Jean Gillie as Dot Hopkins, Joan Greenwood as Betty Miller, Joyce Howard as Anne Lawrence, Rosamund John as Maggie Fraser, Lilli Palmer as Erna Debruski, and Barbara Waring as Joan Simpson, John Justin as Flying Officer David Sheridan, Mary Jerrold as Mrs Sheridan, John Laurie as Corporal Alexander Balfour, Elliott Mason as Mrs Fraser, Harry Welchman as Captain Ferrier, Miles Malleson as train guard, Jimmy Hanley as first soldier on train, Meriel Forbes as junior commander Davis, Rosalyn Boulter as telephonist Sally, Tony Bazell as Ted, Frederick Leister as Colonel Lawrence, Everley Gregg as Miss Simpson, Noreen Craven as convoy sergeant, Frederick Peisley as second soldier on train, Ronald Shiner [Ronnie Shiner] as racing punter in pub, Roland Pertwee as captain, Nicholas Stuart as Canadian private, Frank Atkinson as lorry driver, Peter Cotes as Taffy, Maud Dunham as Mrs Miller, and Leslie Howard as narrator.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,888

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