MovieChat Forums > Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) Discussion > All the Smith men die (apparently)...so ...

All the Smith men die (apparently)...so where's Dickie Smith?

posted 16 years ago by onedaymore_hmeyer
6 replies | jump to latest

You know the end of the film where you see all the Smith family men who have died? Well, I remember there was another lad in the Smith family (not counting Grandpa, who probably might've died of natural causes--we dunno), Dickie Smith, but as far as I know, he didn't go to the war. Apparently the women we see are all who are left (Flo Smith; Mary Smith; Betty Smith and that little girl).

We see pretty much most of the younger Smith males lying on the ground, about to dissolve into the crosses: Bertie, George, Jack, Harry and Freddie. Dickie looks rather young to have been in the war at all, yet he's not at the picnic, and YET, we don't see him with the other dead men? Are we led to believe perhaps he was wounded in some way and was unable to come to the women's picnic? What do you think? Or perhaps succumbed to the influenza epidemic....that's what I think anyway.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] AmyLouise 15 years ago

You're right, he's not shown at the end, although we're given to understand
that all the young men of the Smith family died. He did go to war though -
he was one of the young recruits serving refreshments at the ball - as that
was around 1916, that left another couple of years before the war ended, so
young Dickie was probably old enough by then to be sent to the trenches. But
let's hope that he survived - wounded perhaps, and unable to go to the picnic,
but alive.

[–] KarlMaldensNose 15 years ago

Dickie did serve, and die in the war.

He grows up as the war and film progress. He is seen serving drinks at the General's party, wearing a dress uniform.

Then he is seen on leave and drunk with an older soldier and they decide to go around to see his sister-in-law Flo.

Finally he takes part in the final attack where the older soldier says "I'd like to catch the blighter who threw that bleedin' smoke bomb." Dickie says to the new frightened soldier "When the next shell lands in front of us you follow me into the hole" and gets up to do so saying to his pal "See you after the war, at your sister-in-law Flo's place". The ubiquitous red poppy appears and so we know that he doesn't make it.

Paradise is exactly like where you are now, only much, much better.

[–] Altho73 10 years ago

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He did go to war though - he was one of the young recruits serving refreshments at the ball - as that was around 1916, that left another couple of years before the war ended, so young Dickie was probably old enough by then to be sent to the trenches.
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NO. That is not correct. The teenage boy in dress uniform serving drinks at the party was Frederick, the second youngest of the six Smith brothers. That party was in fact dated December 1915, the point at which Sir John French was fired as Commander in Chief to be replaced by Idiot Haig.

A little later on in the movie you see Dickie Smith, still a young boy of around twelve dressed in a nautical outfit with his mother looking at viewfinders of the battles of Verdun, Vimy Ridge etc which would have made it 1916 just before the battle of the Somme.

It is Frederick Smith who is seen in a drunken state later on and it is again Frederick who takes part in one of the last battles and is killed.

Dickie Smith looked about eleven in 1914 so there is no way he would have been in the war. What happens to him? We are never told.

[–] pmiano100 10 years ago

He probably served and got killed in WWII.

[–] the_sculptor_1 10 years ago

Dickie died of the flu.

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