The Way to the Stars
Encyclopedia
The Way to the Stars, also known as Johnny in the Clouds, is a 1945
British
war
drama film
made by Two Cities Films
and released by United Artists
. It was produced by Anatole de Grunwald
and directed by Anthony Asquith
. The screenplay
was written by Terence Rattigan
, a significant reworking of his 1942 play
Flare Path
, which incorporated his Royal Air Force
(RAF) experiences as a flight lieutenant. The film stars Michael Redgrave
, John Mills
, Rosamund John
and Stanley Holloway
The title, The Way to the Stars, is taken from the Latin
motto of the RAF, Per ardua ad astra
. The alternative title, Johnny in the Clouds, is derived from the poem recited in the film as tribute to a dead American airman.
Pilot Officer Peter Penrose (John Mills
) is posted in the summer of 1940 to (the fictional) 720 Squadron
, at a new airfield, RAF Halfpenny Field, as a very green "15 hour sprog" Bristol Blenheim
pilot, and is assigned to B Flight
, under Flight Lieutenant
David Archdale (Michael Redgrave
).
When 720 Sqn.'s commanding officer, Squadron Leader
Carter (Trevor Howard
, in his second but first credited film role) is shot down, Archdale takes over. Whilst Penrose develops into a first-class pilot, he meets Iris Winterton (Renee Asherson
), a young woman staying with her domineering aunt at the Golden Lion pub in the nearby village. Archdale marries Miss Todd (Rosamund John
), the popular manageress of the hotel, who is known to everyone as "Toddy". The Archdales later have a son, Peter.
The action flashes forward to May 1942. 720 Sqn is now flying Douglas Bostons. When Penrose shows signs of strain from extensive combat, Archdale has him posted to controller school, but is himself shot down and killed over France on Penrose's last mission. Penrose had been courting Iris, despite her aunt's disapproval, but Archdale's fate weighs heavily on his mind. Not wanting Iris to suffer if the same happened to him, he stops seeing her.
720 Sqn is sent to the Middle East
, but Penrose remains behind as a ground controller for a United States Army Air Forces
B-17 Flying Fortress bombardment group, which takes over the base. Despite cultural differences, Penrose befriends USAAF Captain Johnny Hollis (Douglass Montgomery
) and Lieutenant Joe Friselli (Bonar Colleano
). On August 17, 1942 the American airmen participate in the first attack by the USAAF on Occupied France, ruefully acknowledging that they underestimated the difficulties involved. Afterwards, Penrose is posted to flying duties with an RAF Avro Lancaster
bomber unit .
In 1944, Penrose, now a Squadron Leader
and pathfinder
pilot, makes an emergency landing at Halfpenny Field, where he meets Iris again. Iris had decided to leave her aunt for good and join up. Toddy persuades a still reluctant Penrose to propose to Iris, saying that she did not regret her own marriage in spite of her husband's death. Hollis, who has formed a platonic relationship with Toddy, is killed while crash-landing a damaged returning bomber, rather than bail out and risk it crashing in the village.
. It is found on a piece of paper and given by Penrose to Toddy after her husband's death. Later, she gives it to Hollis's friend to read after he is killed.
FOR JOHNNY
Do not despair.........For Johnny-head-in-air;
He sleeps as sound.....As Johnny underground.
Fetch out no shroud....For Johnny-in-the-cloud;
And keep your tears....For him in after years.
Better by far..........For Johnny-the-bright-star,
To keep your head......And see his children fed.
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
British
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
war
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
made by Two Cities Films
Two Cities Films
Two Cities Films was a British film production company. Formed in 1937, it was originally envisaged as a production company operating in the two cities of London and Rome which gave the company its name....
and released by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
. It was produced by Anatole de Grunwald
Anatole de Grunwald
Anatole "Tolly" de Grunwald was a British film producer and screenwriter.Anatole de Grunwald was born in Petrograd , Russia, the son of a diplomat in the service of Tsar Nicholas II. He was seven years old when his father was forced to flee with his family to England during the 1917 Bolshevik...
and directed by Anthony Asquith
Anthony Asquith
Anthony Asquith was a leading English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on The Winslow Boy and The Browning Version , among other adaptations...
. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was written by Terence Rattigan
Terence Rattigan
Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan CBE was one of England's most popular 20th-century dramatists. His plays are generally set in an upper-middle-class background...
, a significant reworking of his 1942 play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
Flare Path
Flare Path (play)
-1942–43 Broadway production:Flare Path had a short run on Broadway at Henry Miller's Theatre from December 1942 to January 1943. Alec Guinness played Teddy and Nancy Kelly played Patricia. The play was Guinness's Broadway debut, and he was granted leave from the Royal Navy in order to take the role...
, which incorporated his Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
(RAF) experiences as a flight lieutenant. The film stars Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
, John Mills
John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
, Rosamund John
Rosamund John
Rosamund John , born Nora Rosamund Jones, was an English film and stage actress.She was brought up in Tottenham and became a popular film and stage actress who was known for playing gentle mannered women. John was twice married, first to film editor Russell Lloyd, from 1943–1949, and then to the...
and Stanley Holloway
Stanley Holloway
Stanley Augustus Holloway, OBE was an English stage and film actor, comedian, singer, poet and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady...
The title, The Way to the Stars, is taken from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
motto of the RAF, Per ardua ad astra
Per ardua ad astra
Per ardua ad astra is the motto of the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces such as the RAAF, RCAF, and RNZAF. It dates from 1912 and was used by the newly formed Royal Flying Corps.-Origin:The first Commanding Officer of the Royal Flying Corps was Colonel Frederick Sykes...
. The alternative title, Johnny in the Clouds, is derived from the poem recited in the film as tribute to a dead American airman.
Plot
The setting of the film is an airfield called RAF Halfpenny Field . The action takes place in 1940, 1942, and 1944.Pilot Officer Peter Penrose (John Mills
John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
) is posted in the summer of 1940 to (the fictional) 720 Squadron
Squadron (aviation)
A squadron in air force, army aviation or naval aviation is mainly a unit comprising a number of military aircraft, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, depending on aircraft type and air force...
, at a new airfield, RAF Halfpenny Field, as a very green "15 hour sprog" Bristol Blenheim
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
pilot, and is assigned to B Flight
Flight (military unit)
A flight is a military unit in an air force, naval air service, or army air corps. It usually comprises three to six aircraft, with their aircrews and ground staff; or, in the case of a non-flying ground flight, no aircraft and a roughly equivalent number of support personnel. In most usages,...
, under Flight Lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. It ranks above flying officer and immediately below squadron leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "lieutenant"...
David Archdale (Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
).
When 720 Sqn.'s commanding officer, Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...
Carter (Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
, in his second but first credited film role) is shot down, Archdale takes over. Whilst Penrose develops into a first-class pilot, he meets Iris Winterton (Renee Asherson
Renee Asherson
Renée Asherson , born Dorothy Renée Ascherson, is an English actress of stage, film and television.Much of Asherson's theatrical career was spent in Shakespearean plays, appearing at such venues as the Old Vic, the Liverpool Playhouse and the Westminster Theatre...
), a young woman staying with her domineering aunt at the Golden Lion pub in the nearby village. Archdale marries Miss Todd (Rosamund John
Rosamund John
Rosamund John , born Nora Rosamund Jones, was an English film and stage actress.She was brought up in Tottenham and became a popular film and stage actress who was known for playing gentle mannered women. John was twice married, first to film editor Russell Lloyd, from 1943–1949, and then to the...
), the popular manageress of the hotel, who is known to everyone as "Toddy". The Archdales later have a son, Peter.
The action flashes forward to May 1942. 720 Sqn is now flying Douglas Bostons. When Penrose shows signs of strain from extensive combat, Archdale has him posted to controller school, but is himself shot down and killed over France on Penrose's last mission. Penrose had been courting Iris, despite her aunt's disapproval, but Archdale's fate weighs heavily on his mind. Not wanting Iris to suffer if the same happened to him, he stops seeing her.
720 Sqn is sent to the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, but Penrose remains behind as a ground controller for a United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
B-17 Flying Fortress bombardment group, which takes over the base. Despite cultural differences, Penrose befriends USAAF Captain Johnny Hollis (Douglass Montgomery
Douglass Montgomery
Robert Douglass Montgomery was an American film actor.-Career:Son of a jeweler, he used the stage name of Douglass Montgomery when he first acted on stage in New York. He appeared as a ruggedly handsome fair-haired man, often slightly naive. He started his career in Hollywood, often playing the...
) and Lieutenant Joe Friselli (Bonar Colleano
Bonar Colleano
Bonar Colleano was an American-born British stage and motion-picture performer.-Early life:Colleano was born Bonar Sullivan in New York City. Following childhood experiences with the Ringling Brothers Circus and in his family's famous circus, he entered films in 1944...
). On August 17, 1942 the American airmen participate in the first attack by the USAAF on Occupied France, ruefully acknowledging that they underestimated the difficulties involved. Afterwards, Penrose is posted to flying duties with an RAF Avro Lancaster
Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...
bomber unit .
In 1944, Penrose, now a Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...
and pathfinder
Pathfinder (RAF)
The Pathfinders were elite squadrons in RAF Bomber Command during World War II. They located and marked targets with flares, which a main bomber force could aim at, increasing the accuracy of their bombing...
pilot, makes an emergency landing at Halfpenny Field, where he meets Iris again. Iris had decided to leave her aunt for good and join up. Toddy persuades a still reluctant Penrose to propose to Iris, saying that she did not regret her own marriage in spite of her husband's death. Hollis, who has formed a platonic relationship with Toddy, is killed while crash-landing a damaged returning bomber, rather than bail out and risk it crashing in the village.
Cast
- Michael RedgraveMichael RedgraveSir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
as David Archdale - John MillsJohn MillsSir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
as Peter Penrose - Rosamund JohnRosamund JohnRosamund John , born Nora Rosamund Jones, was an English film and stage actress.She was brought up in Tottenham and became a popular film and stage actress who was known for playing gentle mannered women. John was twice married, first to film editor Russell Lloyd, from 1943–1949, and then to the...
as Miss Todd - Douglass MontgomeryDouglass MontgomeryRobert Douglass Montgomery was an American film actor.-Career:Son of a jeweler, he used the stage name of Douglass Montgomery when he first acted on stage in New York. He appeared as a ruggedly handsome fair-haired man, often slightly naive. He started his career in Hollywood, often playing the...
as Johnny Hollis - Stanley HollowayStanley HollowayStanley Augustus Holloway, OBE was an English stage and film actor, comedian, singer, poet and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady...
as Mr. Palmer - Renée AshersonRenee AshersonRenée Asherson , born Dorothy Renée Ascherson, is an English actress of stage, film and television.Much of Asherson's theatrical career was spent in Shakespearean plays, appearing at such venues as the Old Vic, the Liverpool Playhouse and the Westminster Theatre...
as Iris Winterton - Felix AylmerFelix AylmerSir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television.-Early life and career:...
as Reverend Charles Moss - Basil RadfordBasil RadfordBasil Radford was an English character actor who featured in many British films of the 1930s and 1940s. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his first stage appearance in July 1924...
as 'Tiny' Williams - Bonar ColleanoBonar ColleanoBonar Colleano was an American-born British stage and motion-picture performer.-Early life:Colleano was born Bonar Sullivan in New York City. Following childhood experiences with the Ringling Brothers Circus and in his family's famous circus, he entered films in 1944...
as Joe Friselli - Joyce CareyJoyce CareyJoyce Carey, OBE was a British actress, best known for her long professional and personal relationship with Noël Coward. Her stage career lasted from 1916 until 1984, and she was performing on television in her nineties. Though never a star, she was a familiar face both on stage and screen...
as Miss Winterton - Trevor HowardTrevor HowardTrevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
as Squadron Leader Carter - David TomlinsonDavid TomlinsonDavid Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson was an English film actor. He is primarily remembered for his roles as authority figure George Banks in Mary Poppins, fraudulent magician Professor Emelius Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and as hapless antagonist Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug.-Early life:Born...
as 'Prune' Parsons - Nicholas Stuart as Colonel Rogers (as Tryon Nichol)
- Bill Owen as 'Nobby' Clarke (as Bill Rowbotham)
- Grant Miller as Lt. Wally Becker
- Jean SimmonsJean SimmonsJean Merilyn Simmons, OBE was an English actress. She appeared predominantly in motion pictures, beginning with films made in Great Britain during and after World War II – she was one of J...
as a singer
Poem
The following poetry, supposedly written by Archdale, was penned by John PudneyJohn Pudney
John Sleigh Pudney was a British journalist and writer. He was known for short stories, poetry, non-fiction and children's fiction .-Education:...
. It is found on a piece of paper and given by Penrose to Toddy after her husband's death. Later, she gives it to Hollis's friend to read after he is killed.
FOR JOHNNY
Do not despair.........For Johnny-head-in-air;
He sleeps as sound.....As Johnny underground.
Fetch out no shroud....For Johnny-in-the-cloud;
And keep your tears....For him in after years.
Better by far..........For Johnny-the-bright-star,
To keep your head......And see his children fed.