Salute John Citizen 1942
Despite its fervently flag-waving title, the British Salute John Citizen is a simple, low-pressure study of the wartime “home front.” Edward Rigby plays Mr. Bunting, an out-of-work clerk who is rehired during the manpower shortage of World War II. Bunting’s son Ernest (Jimmy Hanley) is determined to stay out of the line of fire, but changes his mind after witnessing the horrors of the London Blitz. In its own quiet, unassuming war, Salute John Citizen paints a truer portrait of a proud populace besieged by war than the more celebrated Mrs. Miniver. The film was based on a brace of novels by Robert Greenwood.