--- title: "In Which We Serve: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/in-which-we-serve/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/in-which-we-serve" critics_score: 61 critics_reviews: 7 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # In Which We Serve (1942): what the critics said Critics' score 61 from 7 reviews: 4 positive, 2 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics take In Which We Serve as a sincere, well-acted record of a destroyer’s crew and their families, and the wartime reviews are the warmest. The praise clusters on the ensemble: Bernard Miles’s chief petty officer, John Mills and Celia Johnson, and the sense of a classless, credible patriotism running through the cast. Noël Coward’s several credits are generally judged earned, with his character work singled out more often than his direction. Several reviews value the domestic scenes for catching Britain’s 1942 mood and the dangers of the Blitz. The reservations come from later critics, and they cluster on how the film has aged. Empire credits David Lean’s co-direction with keeping it durable despite Coward’s inexperience, while calling the flashbacks dated. Time Out is the lone negative, finding the class snobbery and stiff-upper-lip attitudes patronising and the film interesting mainly as a social record. The spread is fairly wide, with the 1942 notices well above the modern ones. ## The New Yorker — David Lardner Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 19 December 1942. The grim subject of a destroyer's history had a positive effect on Coward, leading to a film with excitement and consistently good acting. Minor issues are offset by strong performances, including Bernard Miles as a chief petty officer. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1942/12/26/1942-12-26-051-tny-cards-000011277) ## The New York Times Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 24 December 1942. The film depicts the cruel realities of war through the story of a British destroyer and its crew. It highlights the experiences of the men and their families amid the conflict. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1942/12/24/archives/in-which-we-serve-depicting-cruel-realities-of-this-war-is.html) ## Variety Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 1942. No less than half a dozen credits for this film go to Noel Coward, and they are well earned. It is a grim tale sincerely picturized and splendidly acted throughout, with stark realism as the keynote. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1941/film/reviews/in-which-we-serve-1200413872/) ## Empire — David Parkinson Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The critic credits David Lean's co-direction with making this stiff-lipped flagwaver durable despite Coward's inexperience, and praises the credible classless patriotism from the ensemble cast including John Mills and Celia Johnson. The flashback scenes are noted as dated but valuable for documenting a vanished way of life. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/serve-review/) ## Time Out — TM Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 3 May 2011. The film follows a destroyer crew's flashbacks after their ship is sunk in the Battle of Crete. It now appears patronising in its depiction of class snobbery and stiff-upper-lip attitudes, interesting mainly as a historical reminder of social structures that influenced postwar politics. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/in-which-we-serve) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 5 February 2002. The critic finds the film dated but effective at capturing Britain's 1942 mood through its focus on the crew and their families. Praise goes to the stiff-upper-lip stoicism and domestic scenes that convey the Blitz's dangers and community spirit. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/in-which-we-serve-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) ## Collider — Andre Dellamorte Fi1m's normalised score 55/100 (inferred from the text). 21 May 2012. The critic is lukewarm on the film, viewing it as a solid but period-specific propaganda piece with strong characterization that does not always flatter its subjects. They single out the deep character work brought by Noël Coward for praise amid the wartime context. [Read the review](https://collider.com/david-lean-noel-coward-criterion-blu-ray-review/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/in-which-we-serve.md