Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Kenneth Cranham | ... | Sergeant Peter King | |
Leo Bill | ... | Pvt. Leslie Cuthbertson | |
Anthony Valentine | ... | Sergeant Major Dudley | |
James Fleet | ... | Major Bates | |
Richard Sutton | ... | Private Horrocks | |
Anthony O'Donnell | ... | Chief armourer | |
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Glen Davies | ... | Corporal at bomb crater |
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Paul Bayfield | ... | Dental trainee 1 |
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Jason Round | ... | Dental Trainee 2 |
Julian Glover | ... | Colonel Hatchard | |
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Tim 'Nobby' Clarke | ... | Young sergeant |
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Nick Miles | ... | Sergeant Mowat |
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Brian Bosley | ... | Drill sergeant |
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Dickon Tolson | ... | Bar Steward |
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Nick Hussey | ... | Sentry |
Based on a true story, Sergeant Peter King of the Army Dental Corps, too old to fight, and Private Leslie Cuthbertson, a trainee dental mechanic in the Corps, are thrown together by their passionate desire to see active service. Armed with just two revolvers and a dozen grenades, King persuades Cuthbertson to join him on a mission to occupied France. In a letter to Sir Winston Churchill, King explains their intention to invade France and fight the Germans. After several failed attempts, they finally arrive by boat and stumble across a German radar station. They succeed in blowing up what they believe to be the main Operations Room, but are soon forced to make their escape as the entire compound unexpectedly erupts with gunfire and explosions. After narrow escapes from the Germans and a stray mine in the Channel, the two men are picked up at sea and interrogated as spies. Identified as deserters, they are returned to their barracks to be court-martialled. At the last minute King and ... Written by Ira Trattner
Two Men Went To War is a based-on-fact WW2 story about a couple of disgruntled British Army dentists who decide to 'invade' France and cause havoc among the enemy. Purloining a load of hand-grenades, the pair go AWOL and travel down to Cornwall, where they steal a boat. Setting off for France in the dead of night, the sequence of shots features the hotel where they had stayed and the harbour they were departing - all picked out with 'practical' lights blazing through the hotel's windows and other bright lights strung all around the harbour walls! This, in wartime blackout Britain, on a coastline facing enemy-occupied France, in waters regularly patrolled by German e-boats! Another commenter in this section states that the lighting was authentic in that the Cornish locals at the time figured that as they had never been attacked before, there was no reason to assume that they ever would be attacked then or in the future. However, even is this is true, the script should have made reference to this hard to believe 'fact' in dialogue, simply because the situation was so unusual and would have breached the strictly enforced wartime regulations concerning the blackout. Usually in movies, such 'blackout lighting', considering a story's authenticity, would be restricted to moonlight effect only. Another oversight in the film is the lack of anti-shatter window tapes which criss-crossed every pane of glass in Britain during the war. It's hard to believe that this glaring error went unnoticed by cast and crew. I suspect someone in authority said, 'Oh, they'll never realise," and simply let it go.