Tell England (1931)

"Ray" (Tony Bruce) and his lifelong friend "Doe" (Carl Harbord) are enjoying the upper class privileges of life in England. Punting on the river, playing tennis and generally lolling about enjoying the most pleasing of bucolic lifestyles. Suddenly, the outbreak of the Great War arrives and, like so many across the land, they enlist. Now being from the upper echelons of society, they are given commissions that put them in command of soldiers older and wiser than themselves, and are sent to serve in various theatres of war as the film progresses and shows the startlingly sudden fashion in which these spoiled young men have to grow up. It's told using some actuality, but for the most part is actually quite a compelling drama the watches these two boys become men - amongst some of the most gruesome and terrifying circumstances. It's not devoid of comedy - not least their musical names - Doe, Ray... and their wise cracking batman who has catarrh - "his nose runs in the family!", and that also helps to authenticate the stoic and optimistic attitudes taken by many who hadn't the faintest idea of what they were letting themselves into at the start of the war that would be over by Christmas. The production is basic, indeed it looks quite often as if it were originally intended to be a silent film (it uses captions occasionally to update us on where we are) but it still works fine and I couldn't help thinking, as I watched it, that if it had been widely circulated around the European continent at the time, perhaps folks might have been more wary of Nazi rearmament.