While There Is Still Time

While There is Still Time is a 1942 short Australian dramatised documentary about Australian soldiers during World War II directed by Charles Chauvel.

It was the second in a series of films produced by the Austerity Loan Campaign.

A young woman, Gracie, is bored with her factory work and dissatisfied with war life. Her soldier boyfriend, Jim, is blinded while fighting overseas, and writes her a letter which inspires Gracie and her workmates to make sacrifices and win the war.

• Nola Warren as Gracie
• Peter Finch as Jim
• Chips Rafferty
• John Nugent
• Beatrice Wenban
• Bobbie Hunt
• Grant Taylor

The film was known during production as Five Minutes to Midnight.

The Sydney Morning Herald called it:

The Brisbane Telegraph said Chauvel "made it well".

The Sydney Daily Telegraph called it "more human, shrewder, and moving than any previous such documentary" praising "Nola Warren's extraordinarily real heroine" and the "Skilfully blending its home scenes with a most effective shot of Libya, the film keeps its message reasonably within bounds until the final scene. Why doesn't someone inform the D.O.I. heads that indirect propaganda is the best?"

Smith's Weekly thought it "suffers from over-dramatisation, and from the fact that too much footage is given to Nola Warren, the munition worker, and her father, played by Nugent Hayward. Peter Finch does a good job, and Chips Rafferty only needs to lift an eyebrow to put punch into a scene. '"While There Is Still Time" would have been more valuable to the Austerity Loan Campaign if it had had a - severe pruning. Claude Flemming gives effect to the commentary."

• While There is Still Time at IMDB
• While There is Still Time at Australian Screen Online
• While There is Still Time at National Film and Sound Archive
• Various scripts, treatments and production details (under "Five Minutes to Midnight") at National Archives of Australia