The Gentle Sex (1943)

You won't be disappointed!

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Films showing the effect war had on the ordinary person in the street were extremely popular - "Perfect Strangers", "Millions Like Us" - even Leslie Howard, before his mysterious death, directed and narrated this blatant propaganda piece about life in the woman's army, "The Gentle Sex".Too episodic to hold viewer's attention with only a slight attempt to give the seven main girls distinctive characteristics, this was really a film designed to show that women could do their bit every bit as well as the men. Rosamund Johns plays against type (I have never seen her in a role like this) as an unsophisticated Scots girl who finds fleeting romance with John Laurie at a staff dance. Joyce Howard was probably at the peak of her popularity around this time, forming a team with James Mason in a couple of mystery thrillers. Her "Anne" may have been the most detailed role - a girl from an Army family who falls in love with John Justin, an impossibly handsome soldier!!You are tantalized at the start by Joan Greenwood's "Betty", an innocent rich kid who had never been away from mummy but unfortunately that interesting storyline just petered out. Greenwood was light years away from the sultry star I remember with the husky voice and the "come hither" eyes, the one chosen by Empire Magazine (1995) as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in Film History (No. 63). Jean Gillis' "Dot" was another who at the start made you take notice - she was joining up to get away from the sordid life of night clubs and cabarets plus a persistent boyfriend. A small scene midway through involving a enthusiastic punter and you realise that she is married and her husband has just been wounded. Jean Gillis was to become Great Britain's answer to Ann Savage, she had a modest career in England before coming to the States and wowing everyone in "Decoy".Producer Derrick de Marney had co-starred in Alfred Hitchcock's very under rated "Young and Innocent"(1937).

This film should be watched with an understanding of its intentions, which was to bolster morale and pay tribute to the ordinary British women serving in the ATS, as well as encourage recruitment. There were many propaganda films made around this time, some better than others, but they all had a huge impact on helping the war effort. These were not career soldiers, remember. They'd been called up from offices, shops and factories from all over Britain and did a fantastic job. Practically every British family had at least one female member serving in the ATS during the second world war. We're reminded over and over again, that these women were doing the kind of work normally reserved for men and more important were valued for it! Every so often, a bystander will remark on how hard they work. The film lost no opportunity to remind a tired and increasingly demoralised British public what the war was about and why it was important not to give in.

I imagine this film was originally made as a tool to inform the contemporary public of what war work for those women who enlisted would actually consist; as it happens, to the modern descendants of those largely-forgotten ATS volunteers, it performs the same service.The answer, apparently, is that they underwent quasi-military training in order to fit them to take over auxiliary roles performed in pace-time by men, thus releasing more soldiers for actual combat: they served as mechanics and drivers, tea-orderlies and telephonists, and, in a rare show of belligerence, assisted as anti-aircraft gunners. I must confess to never being quite clear how the drilling and marching fitted into all this, save to inculcate a general sense of military identity!'The Gentle Sex' is basically a documentary about these women's lives and training, and there is very little plot as such. There is one dance and a couple of romances, a marathon drive in which no-one falls asleep at the wheel and no-one is left behind, and a bombing raid in which none of the characters are hurt. The women are drawn from a cross-section of types: bossy Joan and gentle Scots Maggie, the pampered baby and the damaged refugee, the sharp shop-girl and the officer's daughter.Perhaps the most striking moment is when the latter, Anne, goes off into an artificial-sounding speech about how her generation are the first in history to be truly liberated and serve alongside men that had my hackles rising instinctively with its too-obvious message... and then she is quietly deflated by her fiancé's mother mentioning how she herself met her husband after she was wounded while on service at the front in the previous war, and still has the piece of shrapnel to show for it! It's just as much propaganda as the other, of course, but it's an astute acknowledgement and subversion of the film's own potentially preachy effect.The only reason I initially sat down to watch this picture was because of its curiosity status as 'Leslie Howard's last film', although his on-screen appearance is limited to supplying the voice of the sceptical but finally won-over 'mere male observer' who provides the linking commentary. I can't honestly recommend it as a gripping thriller, and it comes to emotional life only in a couple of places: but it remains what it was made to be, an informative and somewhat idealised glimpse into women's military contribution to the Second World War, in a branch of the service often eclipsed by the WRNS and the WAAF. I am reminded -- in a not uncomplimentary comparison -- of the well-presented British Transport Films documentaries.Worth seeing, but don't expect too much.

The trick in this movie is keeping track of the seven girls - seven dual main characters. All are very different young ladies who, by chance, manage to travel in the same train compartment off to their base. What makes this extra fun is the commentary by Leslie Howard throughout - he spies on the bustling station and selects six candidates, so is it any coincidence that these six strangers end up together? (The seventh, Gwen, almost misses the train and is the last addition to the group)The easiest four to keep track of are the lorry drivers. Beautiful blonde Anne who loses a loved one in the war, foreigner Erna who is desperate for revenge on the Nazis that destroyed her family, chirpy Scots lass Maggie, who always has a sweet and a smile, and no-nonsense Joan, who comes across as bossy and stand-offish, hiding the fact that she's just as shy and lonely as the rest.Then we have the remaining three - good time girl Dot, Gwen who "won't be left behind any more" and the little half-pint, Miller, who "finally gets her gun". She's the baby of the group, and is the hardest to keep track of because she is practically Lilli Palmer's twin - it's only when they speak that one can tell the difference!If you enjoyed films like "Millions Like Us" and "2000 Women" then you'll love this one. An easy 10/10!