War Movie Theatre | for Fans of Classic War Films and Cinema History

Watching the war movies that stiffened our upper lips, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon . This time: What do you mean, it’s not a war movie? It’s got Nazis in it. What more do you want? Our manly duo are tempted by political journalist Helen Lewis into watching the 1965 nuns, guns and arias extravaganza The Sound of Music . Will their emotionless exterior crack beneath Julie Andrews’ rele...

Watching the war movies that stiffened our upper lips, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon . This time: Jude Law is a young Russian sniper in the somewhat messy yet highly entertaining ‘ Enemy At The Gates ’ from 2001. Why does Kill Your Friends author John Niven love it despite its many shortcomings? Would anyone have time for a love triangle in the middle of a war, much less a knee-tremble...

Watching the war movies that made us the men* we are today, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon . This time: “Broadsword calling Danny Boy!” It’s the big one as we skydive in on the Platonic ideal of the war-action pic, the 1968 classic Where Eagles Dare . Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton must break Allied asset General Carnaby out of Nazi prison the Schloß Adler with the pulchritudinous ai...

We’re back with a brand new name but the same doughty, never-say-die attitude, to watch the war movies that made us the men* we are today. Every week authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon gather under the blackout curtain to view a classic war film – and now they’re joined by equally battle-fixated chums too. This time on the podcast formerly known as A Pod Too Far : Darryl F. Zanuck’s 1962 D-Day m...

If it’s December 1941 in the podcast, what time is it in New York? Rob Hutton sticks his neck out for no one. Duncan Weldon ’s killed two German couriers in an effort to impress him. But of all the gin joints in all the world, who’s this walking into theirs? For our Christmas special, we’re joined by the journalist and author Hadley Freeman as we watch Casablanca , a war movie disguised as a roman...

It’s Christmas 1944, and Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon are in a muddy, frozen POW camp, dreaming of Betty Grable. But is one of them a rat? We’re watching Billy Wilder’s Stalag 17 , the film that won William Holden an Oscar and may have inspired the sitcom Hogan’s Heroes. Comedy? Drama? Escape movie? Or a mix of all three? A Pod Too Far was written and presented by Robert Hutton and Duncan Weldon....

This week Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon are fighting seasickness and dodging torpedoes as they take the podcast on a submarine hunt. We’re watching the 1953 classic The Cruel Sea , a frank picture of the terror and exhaustion of convoy duty, and the toll it took on the men and women of the Navy. Was Donald Sinden ever better, and did Jack Hawkins organise the worst pub quiz ever? A Pod Too Far was...

It’s 1944, and  Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon are trying to take the podcast 750 miles through the Burmese jungle for reasons that no one can really explain to them. This week we’re watching the 1962 movie Merrill’s Marauders , the tale of a heroic American unit going through hell. Who will win Best Death? Who won’t?! A Pod Too Far was written and presented by Robert Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio...

It’s 1916, and Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon have failed to capture an impossible target in the trenches of France. One of them must now be shot for cowardice, but who? (Duncan, obviously.) We’re watching Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece Paths of Glory. But is it a war movie or a courtroom drama, or is it really a film about office life? A Pod Too Far was written and presented by Robert Hutton and Dun...

It’s 1815, and Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon have liberated the podcast from Elba in a final bid for glory. But first they must face the Duke of Wellington. With Ridley Scott’s Napoleon in the cinemas, we’ve wheeled the TV into the classroom to watch Waterloo . Has there ever been a better movie of cavalry charges? Does any of the first hour matter? And just how many Soviet soldiers were involved i...

It’s 1943, and Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon have realised that the only way to save their podcast is to blow up a dam in Yugoslavia. It’s time for Force 10 From Navarone , the first war movie Rob can remember watching. Does any part of it make sense? Any part of it at all? And could Harrison Ford find a single nice thing to say about it? A Pod Too Far was written and presented by Robert Hutton and...

It’s late 1944, and as the Allies advance through France, Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon have spotted a lucrative business opportunity. There’s a bank vault full of podcasts for the taking. The only problem is that it’s 30 miles behind enemy lines. This week, we’re talking about Kelly’s Heroes. Is it based on a true story? Was a Tiger tank really a piece of junk? And did anyone tell Clint Eastwood h...

It’s 1945, and as the war draws to a close, Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon are just trying to stay alive in a Japanese POW camp by trading pieces of the podcast for food. We’re watching King Rat , the 1965 film based on James Clavell’s novel-memoir about his own years in a camp. It’s a film about hunger, class, desperation and survival, but it’s also a key moment in the James Donald Extended Univers...

June 1942. Tobruk has fallen, Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon struggle to get their podcast back through the desert to Alexandria where a barman is keeping a chilled bottle of Carlsberg for them. This week, we’re watching Ice Cold In Alex , undoubtedly the best movie ever to be used as a beer commercial. Did Sylvia Syms ever have a better role? Has there been a worse spy than Anthony Quayle? And does...

June 1940, and the podcast stands alone, facing a Nazi horde just across the Channel. A Pod Too Far returns with a new series, and this week, Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon are joined by historian James Holland in his trusty Spitfire as they watch 1969’s Battle of Britain . Is it simply a series of brilliant aerial sequences mashed together with some composite characters? What’s the real claim to fa...

This week Rob and Duncan are washing up on the shores of Spain with The Man Who Never Was ! This 1956 spy thriller is the first cinematic telling of the story of Operation Mincemeat – popularised, of late, in a Ben Macintyre book and a subsequent movie version – and starred Clifton Webb and Gloria Grahame. What was the best death in a film about a corpse? What was Noël Coward's epitaph for Cliffor...

This week, Rob and Duncan are marching through Europe, led by a certifiable madman. It's Patton! Franklin J. Shaffner's 1970 film (from a Francis Ford Coppola script) won George C. Scott an Oscar for his portrayal of the WWII general (an Oscar that he turned down) but how much did Richard Nixon like this film? How much did Patton hate Montie? And, finally, have be arrived at the operation that cha...

This week, Rob and Duncan are venturing out with twelve of the nastiest sods the Allies had to offer – it's The Dirty Dozen . This 1967 film, directed by Robert Aldrich and adapted from E.M.Nathanson's novel, featured an all-star cast playing a squadron of death row reprobates sent to bomb a chateau full of Nazi generals (an inspiration for later films like Inglourious Basterds and The Suicide Squ...

This week, Rob and Duncan are telling the story of a ship... or, at least, the story of Noël Coward's story of a ship. It's In Which We Serve ! Directed by Coward and David Lean (shipped in, no pun intended, for the action sequences) and starring Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson and Richard Attenborough, this 1942 movie (yes, the war is still raging) tells what was then a very fres...

On this week's episode, Rob and Duncan are hobnobbing with stars including Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall for The Eagle Has Landed ! Based on the 1975 novel by Jack Higgins (and released only a year later) John Sturges' film tells the story of a fiendish German plot to kidnap Winston Churchill. Michael Caine is a German! Donald Sutherland is an Irishman! The whole world is tops...

This week, Rob and Duncan are fighting back against the ruthless German paratroopers with the 1942 (yes, mid-war) film, Went the Day Well? Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and adapted from a Graham Greene story, this is Ealing Studios at its war propaganda finest. Leslie Banks, Mervyn Johns and Basil Sydney both star *and* offer viewers the greatest array of 1940s men's names ever assembled on scree...

Today, Rob and Duncan are off to Argentina, a strange, exotic land where the only thing they talk about more than Lionel Messi, is the 1956 movie The Battle of the River Plate (known to our American listeners as Pursuit of the Graf Spee ). Is this the only film in history where battleships are given full acting credits? Does it have the nicest of all the Nazis? And – crucially – is this the operat...

Today, Rob and Duncan are flying in low and back to 1955 for The Dam Busters ! The true story of Guy Gibson, Barnes Wallis and the famous bouncing bomb – brought to life by director Michael Anderson and a cast including Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave. How did The Dam Busters inspire Star Wars ? Were the men in suits the real antagonists? And did they really have to keep saying the dog's name?!...

On this week's episode of A Pod Too Far, Rob and Duncan are going to Greece for The Guns of Navarone ! J. Lee Thompson's 1961 thriller, loosely set around the Dodecanese campaign and the fictional German fortress on the island of Navarone, brought together an all-star cast including Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Richard Harris and Stanley Baker. So, how big were these big guns? Why wer...

Ho ho ho! It's Christmas, and what is more festive and merry than The Great Escape? A perennial Boxing Day favourite (except for Rob, who was forced on family walks), John Sturges' 1963 prisoner of war caper featured one of the great ensemble casts in cinema history: Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasance and many more. They were all trying to break ou...