The Foreman Went to France

Ealing Studio were finally hitting their stride as purveyors of wartime propaganda when they despatched Clifford Evans to France to do his bit for blighty.

Evans being Welsh, Gordon Jackson Scotch and Tommy Trinder being English meant that all the nationalities were covered (with the Irish conspicuous by their absence); while Constance Cummings played a bolshy neutral Yank (who actually uses the word 'Capitalist') to keep American audiences happy.

The French are initially portrayed as a bunch of indolent characters in berets who just shrug their shoulders (one of whom bears a suspicious resemblance to Pierre Laval) apart from Robert Morley who fleetingly appears as a Vichyite mayor in a bowler hat; but the tone darkens considerably when they encounter roads lined with refugees.