Tunes of Glory

In a Scottish regiment the acting commander Jock Sinclair is a soldier risen through the war, a drinker who speaks his men's language. He is replaced by Basil Barrow, properly trained and bound to the rules. Barrow tries to impose discipline, the officers stand with Sinclair, and a quiet war begins in the barracks. The subject is not soldiering but a community needing to break no rule at all in order to exclude a newcomer. Nobody opposes Barrow openly; they laugh, arrive late, and carry out his orders to the letter. The destruction happens entirely inside that politeness. The form is enclosed: barracks, officers' mess, corridor. The outside is barely seen, which underlines that the pressure comes from within. The best-known detail is the casting. Alec Guinness was offered the rule-bound Barrow first; he asked for the reverse and played the coarse, loud Sinclair. Barrow went to John Mills, usually associated with exactly that type. The two actors swapping their expected places set the film's tension. Mills won the best actor prize at Venice for it. Ronald Neame directs. Dennis Price is in the cast. Who it is for: viewers who like British character drama and two-hander conflict. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action; the film advances entirely on talk and looks.