The Way to the Stars

The Way to the Stars is a 1945 British war drama film made by Two Cities Films. In the United States it was known as Johnny in the Clouds and distributed by United Artists.[2] It was produced by Anatole de Grunwald and directed by Anthony Asquith. The screenplay was co-written by noted dramatist, Terence Rattigan, as 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 Way to the Stars
British DVD cover
Directed byAnthony Asquith
Produced byAnatole de Grunwald
Written byTerence Rattigan
Anatole de Grunwald
Richard Sherman
John Pudney (poems)
StarringMichael Redgrave
John Mills
Rosamund John
Stanley Holloway
Music byNicholas Brodszky
Charles Williams
CinematographyDerrick Williams
Edited byFergus McDonell
Production
company
Distributed byRank Organisation (UK)
United Artists (U.S.)
Release date
8 June 1945 (Premiere, London)
16 June 1945 (UK)
15 November 1945 (U.S.)
Running time
109 minutes (UK)
87 minutes (U.S.)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$63,434 (U.S. rentals)[1]

The title, The Way to the Stars, is often assumed to have been taken from the Latin motto of the RAF, Per ardua ad astra. However, the literal translation of the RAF motto is "Through adversity to the stars". The alternative title, Johnny in the Clouds, is derived from the poem recited in the film as tribute to a dead aviator.

Plot

Pilot Officer Peter Penrose (John Mills) is posted in the summer of 1940 as a pilot to (the fictional) No. 720 Squadron,[N 1] at a new airfield, RAF Station Halfpenny Field. He is a very green "15-hour sprog" Bristol Blenheim pilot and is assigned to B Flight, under Flight Lieutenant David Archdale (Michael Redgrave).

When No. 720 Squadron's commanding officer, Squadron Leader Carter (Trevor Howard, in his second but first credited film role), is shot down, Archdale takes over. While Penrose develops into a first-class pilot, he meets Iris Winterton (Renee Asherson), a young woman living with her domineering aunt at the Golden Lion hotel in the nearby town. Archdale marries Miss Todd (Rosamund John), the popular manager of the hotel, who is known to everyone as Toddy. The Archdales later have a son, Peter.

The action flashes forward to May 1942. The squadron is now flying Douglas Boston bombers. 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.

No. 720 Squadron 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 airfield. He befriends USAAF Captain Johnny Hollis (Douglass Montgomery) and Lieutenant Joe Friselli (Bonar Colleano). On 17 August 1942, the American airmen participate in the first attack by the USAAF on Occupied France, later ruefully acknowledging that they underestimated the difficulties involved. Afterwards, Penrose is posted to flying duties with an RAF Avro Lancaster bomber squadron.

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 trying to land a damaged returning bomber with a large bomb still on board rather than bail out and risk it crashing into the village.

Poetry

Two poems supposedly written by David Archdale were used in the film. They were written by John Pudney earlier in 1941 or 1942.[3] The first poem is Missing. Archdale is portrayed as reciting it to Toddy shortly before their marriage, after his close friend Squadron Leader Carter is killed in action. Archdale tells Toddy that "I try and say things I feel that way sometimes. Sort of hobby" and tells her she's the only one who knows he writes poetry.

Missing

Less said the better.
The bill unpaid, the dead letter,
No roses at the end,
Of Smith, my friend.

Last words don't matter,
And there are none to flatter
Words will not fill the post
Of Smith, the ghost.

For Smith, our brother,
Only son of loving mother,
The ocean lifted, stirred
Leaving no word.


The second and most well-known of the two poems in the film is For Johnnny, portrayed as having been found by Peter Penrose on a piece of paper after David Archdale's death. Penrose gives it to Toddy Archdale, who later in the film gives it to Johnny Hollis' friend Joe Friselli to read after Hollis 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.

Cast

Production

During the war, Rattigan served in the Royal Air Force as a tail gunner, and used his wartime experiences to help inspire his earlier stage play, Flare Path. In 1945, he was released from the service to help rewrite it with Anatole De Grunwald as a film screenplay of The Way to the Stars. Although Michael Redgrave and John Mills were the leads, the film offers very early performances from two actors who would themselves become international film stars in later years: Jean Simmons and Trevor Howard.[4]

Filming was mainly in North Yorkshire and some of the locations remain little changed.[5] RAF Catterick was used to film the RAF Halfpenny Field scenes,[6] Bedale was used for street scenes outside the pub in the local small town, the Golden Lion Hotel in Northallerton was used as the pub, and Constable Burton Hall was used as the USAAF headquarters.[7]

Footage of B-17 Flying Fortresses landing and taking off was filmed at RAF Grafton Underwood in Northamptonshire.[8] One of the USAAF aircrew involved recorded in his diary seeing B-17s of the 384th Bombardment Group (Heavy) and ground scenes including the crash of Captain Holliss' B-17 being filmed at Grafton Underwood.[9]

As well as B-17s, the other aircraft used in filming were Avro Ansons, Bristol Blenheims, Hawker Hurricanes, and a Douglas Boston. They came from a variety of training and operational USAAF, RAF and Free French units, the Boston being from 342 Squadron, RAF / Groupe de bombardement Lorraine. [10]

There was a real airfield with a name resembling the fictional RAF Halfpenny Field, RAF Halfpenny Green airfield in Staffordshire. This was not used for filming and was used for training pilots, unlike the fictional airfield's role as a bomber airfield. That airfield is now home to Wolverhampton Halfpenny Green Airport.

Reception

On initial release, the film was popular in Britain, but performed poorly in the U.S. where it was released post-war as Johnny in the Clouds with a prologue added.[1][11]

According to Kinematograph Weekly the film performed well at the British box office in 1945.[12][13] The 'biggest winners' at the box office in 1945 Britain were The Seventh Veil, with "runners up" being (in release order), Madonna of the Seven Moons, Old Acquaintance, Frenchman's Creek, Mrs Parkington, Arsenic and Old Lace, Meet Me in St Louis, A Song to Remember, Since You Went Away, Here Come the Waves, Tonight and Every Night, Hollywood Canteen, They Were Sisters, The Princess and the Pirate, The Adventures of Susan, National Velvet, Mrs Skefflington, I Live in Grosvenor Square, Nob Hill, Perfect Strangers, Valley of Decision, Conflict and Duffy's Tavern. British "runners up" were They Were Sisters, I Live in Grosvenor Square, Perfect Strangers, Madonna of the Seven Moons, Waterloo Road, Blithe Spirit, The Way to the Stars, I'll Be Your Sweetheart, Dead of Night, Waltz Time and Henry V.[14]

Later reviews considered the film "... one of the more thoughtful of British war movies ..."[15] and an "excellent drama about a British airfield and the men stationed there, focusing mainly on personal relationships in wartime."[16]

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References

Notes
  1. There were two units by that name during the Second World War: No. 720 Squadron RAF was a non-flying, airfield defence unit of the RAF Regiment. The only British flying unit known as 720 Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm squadron; during the war it was a flying boat unit attached to the Royal New Zealand Navy.

Citations
  1. Macnab 1993, p. 164.
  2. Variety film review; 20 June 1945, p. 11.
  3. "John Pudney 'For Johnny' and other 'Songs'". WorldWar2poetry. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  4. Shiach 2006, p, 34.
  5. "Way to the Stars, The". Reelstreets. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  6. "RAF Catterick airfield - The Way to the Stars". Control Towers.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  7. "The Way to the Stars (1945)". British Film Locations. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  8. "The Way to the Stars (US "Johnny in The Clouds")". Military Aviation Movie List. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  9. "Personal Diary, S/Sgt. Robert "Hoggy" Alderman, 12/15/1944 though 9/8/1945". 384th Bombardment Group (Heavy). Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  10. "LE CHEMIN DES ETOILES Vo. The way to the stars". AeroMovies Le site des Films d'Aviation. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  11. Harrison's Reports film review; 24 November 1945, p. 186.
  12. Robert Murphy, Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48 2003 p 208
  13. Thumim, Janet. "The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry". Screen. Vol. 32 no. 3. p. 258.
  14. Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema. Princeton University Press. p. 232.
  15. Shiach 2006, p, 31.
  16. Maltin, Leonard. "Leonard Maltin Movie Review." Turner Classic Movies.

Bibliography
  • Macnab, Geoffrey. J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry. London: Routledge, 1994, First edition 1993. ISBN 978-0-41511-711-1.
  • Shiach, Don. Great British Movies. Harpenden, Herts, UK: Pocket Essentials, 2006. ISBN 978-1-904048-59-6.
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