The documentary-drama follows seven women from different backgrounds who meet at an Auxiliary Territorial Service training camp. "Gentle" British girls, they are now doing their bit to help out in World War II: driving lorries and manning ack-ack batteries. Leslie Howard provides slightly sarcastic narration throughout the film.[4][5]
The girls are allowed to socialise at organised dances with local male troops. Music is contemporary (big band swing) and dancing includes the jitterbug. Several of the girls find romance. The narrator points out that "war is never kind to lovers".
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The emotional content is suggested more often than fully exploited, but it is so true and of such general appeal that the story holds the interest. It is a story which demands considerable directorial ingeniousness – bringing together the threads of these seven lives, separating them, reuniting them. By picking the girls out of a Victoria station crowd with camera and commentary (spoken by himself), Howard has adroitly given each of them background depth almost before the film is under way. ... The strength of the film, however, is the subtlety of its direction. A number of small details rather than one obvious statement are preferred in making essential points of story, of character or of background fact. Judicious mixing of sound and a wide variety of camera angles are used to enrich for the initiated and convey to the uninitiated the experiences of A.T.S. life. ... Remarkable also is the smooth blending of the seven professional actresses with the reallife A.T.S. personnel with whom they train, drill, work and live."[7]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Viewed today, this drama seems patronising in its depiction of the contribution made to the war effort by seven socially diverse women, who volunteer for service on the same day. Yet it served its purpose both as a morale booster and as a recruitment advertisement, thanks to some astute appeals to the patriotic spirit and some spunky acting by a top-notch cast."[8]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959David Quinlan rated the film as "very good", writing: "A well-made film: the emotional content rings true, and the action scenes – the air raid, an all-night lorry convoy – are vividly done."[9]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Unassuming war propaganda, quite pleasantly done and historically very interesting."[10]
TV Guide noted "some lucid and funny moments in a capable and intelligent production for its time."[11]
Billy Mowbray wrote for Film 4, "if only social history was this good at school. Funny, fascinating and probably unlike any film you've seen before, The Gentle Sex is a bona fide cultural treasure."[12]
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