One week a month, Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by the week’s new releases or premieres. This week: In honor of Kenneth Lonergan’s magnificent Manchester By The Sea, we’re giving a standing ovation to other movies written and/or directed by playwrights.
In Which We Serve (1942)
Playwright/songwriter/performer Noël Coward was born in 1899, and spent much of the 20th century documenting modern life in Great Britain. He wrote and sang about the rich and poor, finding commonalities of character across the social classes. He believed in the inherent virtue of his people—even when he found English folk funny or sad—and he converted his affection into activism during two world wars, offering his gifts to the military to use however they liked. By many accounts, Coward was willing to fight. But his country preferred that he entertain and uplift.
Coward made the most of that arrangement when he wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in In Which We Serve, the only motion picture that can fully be called “a Noël Coward film.” His plays have been adapted to the screen fairly often—sometimes with his direct participation—but this World War II movie remains the purest expression of what could’ve become an entire Coward filmography, had he carried on in that direction. Though he had help from cinematographer Ronald Name and editor/co-director David Lean—both of whom would go on to stellar careers in the British film industry—Coward was largely responsible for the many long dialogue scenes, keeping the energy high and the actors framed to their best advantage.