Sword of Honour

Maurice Elvey salutes the flag - literally. The Union Jack is forever being run up and fluttering in the breeze.

Plot has third generation soldier Geoffrey Toone leaving the home of grandfather Gordon Begg, proud of being at Mafeking and dad Wally Patch who is amazed to be at the station sending his son off for officer training, as Geof takes the train for Berkshire and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

Of course our hero aces all the training but he has a flaw. He won't join the riding exercises. They all think it's funk.

Conviction is already strained and doesn't get better when things are elaborated with the romantic sub plot where he's out biking and finds glamorous Sally Gray in the mud, thrown by her horse. To stop the animal's rich new owner shooting it Geof undertakes to train it for the Grand National, while he's still doing Sando.

The officers spot him being brought back in the rich man's car and don't elevate him despite his good grades. "A boy can't expect a Rolls Royce, the Grand National and a promotion, all in one term."

Toone needs an act of heroism to get the his sword of honor

The film is an implausible promo for the British way with WW2 approaching. A working class boy gets to achieve among the striped blazer titled heirs and comic toffs - cf. ENGLISH WITHOUT TEARS and later The GUINEA PIG. It has all the British scene elements of Elvey's films - the pubs, the hunt pack, traditional music, military rituals.

They keep on hammering the new democracy, as with soldier Gramps palling with the Major General who led the relief of Mafeking, coming across as propaganda content. Still it does hold attention, propped up by OK cast and production values.