This war has already produced a few great pictures. So has Noel Coward. But "In Which We Serve," the first result of their collaboration, should surpass any creative achievement produced by one of them alone. This picture is the definitive answer to those who proclaim that good propaganda can not be great art, or that the movies in catering to the public taste have crippled their original creative talents.

Built like a symphony of innumerable themes skillfully interwoven, "In Which We Serve" gains a unity never before achieved in the episodic form. Borrowing the best from the techniques of the documentary, the saga of H.M.S. Torrin attains a dramatic realism which may well gain for it the title of best picture of the war. At no point easy watching, this is not the sort of film which you can enter in the middle. From the opening scene, the laying of the keel, to the final death of the destroyer off Crete and the dispersing of the remainder of the crew "In Which We Serve" has a mosaic unity which must be understood to be appreciated.

The Torrin is the hub about which the episode flashbacks revolve. Commissioned at the outbreak of war, the destroyer and its crew see action from the start. Dunkirk, the raids on England, all are viewed through the eyes of the crew and their families. Three men, Captain, Chief Petty Officer, and Able Seaman, achieve a completeness of characterization seldom realized on the screen. Through them, on ship and ashore, wartime Britain is seen with a clarity which has seldom been equalled.

Noel Coward, as director, script writer, producer, and lead, is the backbone of the picture. But his greatest accomplishment is the restraint with which he plays his role. At no point does he overshadow the efforts of a magnificent cast, and it is from the unity of their effort that the picture gains its unique merit. John Mills, as Seaman Blake, nearly steals the honors from Coward himself, and C.P.O. Hardy personifies naval tradition. The women, from Captain's wife to tart, are simply women, suffering in wartime the strains and tortures of war. For this picture is not built by "stars," but by consumately competent actors and actresses.