The Way to the Stars (1945)

Anthony Asquith directs a Terence Rattigan screenplay in this classic, which explores marriage in an age when death was just around the corner.
The fatality of British and American pilots is brought to the fore in this taut and darkly amusing drama. Rosamund John, as the ultimate British stoic and bereaved wife, and JohnMills (the role model for Hugh Grant’s tongue-twisted romantic sap) sum up a middle-class dilemma: how can you honourably marry when death is just around the corner? The moral horror of social stigmatisation that hovers over Brief Encounter (1945) invades this entertaining Anthony Asquith classic, scripted by Terence Rattigan, with strong echoes of Rattigan’s play Flight Path.
1945 United Kingdom
Directed by
Anthony Asquith
Produced by
Anatole de Grunwald, Filippo Del Giudice
Written by
Terence Rattigan
Featuring
Michael Redgrave, John Mills, Rosamund John
Running time
109 minutes