In Which We Serve (1942) January 20, 2009

An enormous success in Britain and the US, David Lean's debut as director also initiated his collaboration with writer-producer Noel Coward. 'In Which We Serve' is introduced as "the story of a ship"--one that has been sunk when the film begins and whose story is unfolded in a series of episodic flashbacks. Lean and Coward's moving portrait of a crew of ordinary but heroic British sailors both defined and humanized England's defiant stoicism during World War II.