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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1960s
    Movies - 1960s Movies - R 2 Mins Read

    Reach for Glory (1962)

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    In Britain during World War II, thousands of children are evacuated by their families to the safety of remote villages.Β In a small Suffolk coastal town, teenage boys – members of their school cadet regiment – are eager to join the army but too young to do so yet.

    Subjected to continuous war propaganda, they view the conflict in Europe as a glorious, heroic struggle and are consumed by brutal homemade war games while awaiting their happy chance to slaughter Germans.

    A local youth called John Curlew (Martin Tomlinson) invites Austrian Jewish refugee Mark Stein (Oliver Grimm) to take part in the games.Β At first, Stein is scorned because of his Germanic heritage but is later allowed to join in.

    When Stein runs off during a fight, the youths decide to give him a court-martial and fake execution by firing squad, but – in a freak mistake – a real bullet is used and Stein is killed.

    Director Philip Leacock’s sympathetic treatment of child actors – he also made The KidnappersΒ (1953) – again pays off in this engrossing film and Oliver Grimm, Martin Tomlinson and Michael Anderson Jr. play their roles with conviction.

    The adult members of the cast give the boys considerable support, particularly Harry Andrews as a retired Army officer, Kay Walsh as his unhappy, complaining wife, mother of a conscientious objector of whom she is ashamed, and who is embittered because her husband is no longer eligible to serve at the front, and Michael Trubshawe as the boys’ military instructor.

    The film – adapted from the novel The Custard BoysΒ by John Rae – is made cheaply but with patience and passion, and demonstrates superbly the terrifying dangers of the death-and-glory ethos applied to young minds.

    Mark Stein
    Oliver Grimm
    John Curlew
    Martin Tomlinson
    Captain Curlew
    Harry Andrews
    Mrs Curlew
    Kay Walsh
    Lewis Craig
    Michael Anderson Jr
    Steven
    Alexis Kanner
    Willy Aldrich
    Freddy Eldrett
    Major Burton
    Michael Trubshawe
    Peter Joy
    John Coker
    Mr Stein
    George Pravda
    Dr Aldrich
    Richard Vernon
    Arthur Chettle
    Peter Furnell
    Michael Freen
    James Luck
    Crabtree
    Allan Jeayes
    Felix
    John Pike
    Mrs Freeman
    Patricia Hayes
    Lance Freeman
    John Rae
    Mr Freeman
    Russell Waters
    Policeman
    Frederick Piper
    Headmaster
    Cameron Hall
    Vicar
    Arthur Hewlett
    Chettle’s Lieutenant
    Melvin Baker
    Diana Aldrich
    Olivia Breeze

    Director
    Philip Leacock

    Video

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