Hanover Street (1979)

What is this mess? Is it a romantic wartime comedy, perhaps a drama? The writers have gone to extreme lengths to add a touch of humor with lengthy conversation during a war in which London was to be bombed to dust, 50 to 70 million souls were to be given a return ticket to their maker. It doesn't work as a romance, war story, or comedy. There is one exhaustive dialogue with Richard Masur continuing his role as Rhoda Morgenstern's goofy sister's idiot boyfriend. Now this will really get you....you see it's a Christmas Party and Dance at the 8th Army AirForce headquarters outside London 2nd Lt Jerry Colombo played by Masur, calls this girl Sally or some name he thinks up, she corrects him saying "No, it's Phillys, he then introduces her as Molly, Diane, Trisha, to a succession of his crew members who walk up and she corrects him yet again "No, I'm Phillys" That scene takes up 2-3 minutes, then Good Ole Jerry starts up with his offers to take her to bed, she shoots him down on each one, rather nastily I would say. Finally he takes the direct approach, "Ya Wanna make love?". Phillys really lights up and says YES. That bit of belly laughs eats up another 2-4 minutes of sheer boredom. Hans Solo or Harrison Ford returns to play his American Graffiti character, he's moody with a few temper tantrums playing the understated loner. Only this isn't American Grafitti. The plot has Ford becoming pocessive of a married woman (Downs), married to Christopher Plummer, to then have Ford and Plummer's character meeting. WW II film lovers, will find zillions of errors, the 8th Army Air Force flew B-17's and B-24's not the B-26's used in the film. If you are a spy parachuting into the enemy's lair you don't leave your chute in the trees or peel off and drop on the ground, items that would lead the enemy to your location. Nor do you dash through enemy territory in broad daylight. Find a copy of The War Lover, or 12 O'Clock High.

Any comments I include will not have enough info to ruin the movie. Myself, I don't like to read reviews with spoilers because I don't want to know how a movie ends before I see it.I gave this an 8 because of the way it moved me. Some will find fault with details but that was not what I came for. I came to see a movie that portrayed what it was like to be alive in the 1940's and this did not disappoint. It starts out a bit sarcastic regarding some Americans who are based in England flying bombing raids on Germany installations in France. An American pilot has a chance meeting with an English woman during a very terrifying bombing raid. Something clicked between them. The fear, the excitement, loneliness, who knows. But it pushed them together in a way that would never have happened otherwise.Maybe you had have been in the military to understand and appreciate the bantering between the servicemen. It made me laugh. Maybe you had to hear older folks talk about how horrible it was to have the whole world at war. That was scary because back then you did NOT know how it was going to turn out. Maybe you had to have been IN a war with real shooting for your guts to shrivel up when the shooting starts in the movie. Until you have been shot at with real bullets you do NOT know what it does to you. When our heroes walked into a Nazi headquarters I could feel my skin crawl. Later when they were running for their lives I could feel myself getting more tense by the second.The English woman and the American become so deeply attached they keep telling themselves they should stop meeting but they can't imagine life without each other. Later her husband and her lover end up in Nazi occupied France on a very important secret mission and have to depend on each other to survive.There is sweet romance, terror, laughter, and thrills.It gave me goosebumps to see the old airplanes lined up on the runway, droning their engines. Knowing that not long ago men boarded planes like those and gallantly flew off to risk their lives so others could live free.Very few people younger than 75 years of age know what it was like to live through that war so it is not likely they will get as deep into this movie as I did. Even though I was born after the war, I have heard numerous relatives talk about what it was like. Rationing of tires, gasoline, sugar, flour, all the things we take for granted. There was even a drive on for people to put their left over grease from cooking in containers. That was used to make numerous things, most of all gun powder. Many people had black out restrictions meaning if you lived near any important installations, your windows had to be covered so no light was showing.The stories my relatives told helped me truly grasp what it was like to live back then. The soldiers, sailors, and a couple of air force members helped me feel what they lived through and I will always be grateful to them for their dedication, and perseverance. This movie does a fair job of showing that if you can imagine yourself IN the movie, living through what is being depicted.I somehow missed this movie till just tonight. I saw it by chance at a video rental store. I very much like both Christopher Plummer and Harrison Ford. I plan to watch it again before I return it in five days.

A very familiar John Barry score accompanies this war time romance between an American pilot and a British nurse. Writer/director Peter Hyams takes us back to London, 1943, where the chance meeting between these two pawns of World War II begins what can only be a doomed love affair.Lt. David Halloran (Harrison Ford), Margaret Sellinger (Lesley-Anne Down) and husband Paul Sellinger (Christopher Plummer) are the three caught in this tragic love triangle. Ford fits well into the role of reluctant hero, and actually manages to create some chemistry with his co-star (at least he doesn't look twice her age - "Sabrina" 1995). Miss Down is easy to like as the married mother who finds herself falling in love like she never has before, and Christopher Plummer plays well the part of the husband and father who just wants to shake his feelings of inadequacy and prove himself to be more than a 'nice British man'.These three, along with a strong tech. team, are able to pull off what is essentially a run of the mill, old fashioned romance. A nice idea from Hyams, but he was never going to achieve anything more than pleasant entertainment. Fortunately he never aims too high, and thus avoids shooting the whole thing down in flames. Hyam's knew his pic's potential well, and fulfils it.John Barry's music is enjoyable and melodic, David Watkin's photography most sharp and the editing from James Mitchell is efficient. Special effects are effective.Wednesday, February 28, 1996 - Video

A soldier is put into the position of accompanying his lover's husband on a dangerous mission in "Hanover Street," starting Harrison Ford and Lesley-Anne Down. This film was done at the beginning of Harrison Ford's career as a star, and the results are disappointing. It plays more as a made-for-TV movie, especially with the casting of some actors mainly known for television work, including Down and Richard Masur.The object, it seems, was to recreate the '40s World War II film, and in this, it is partially successful. There are some exciting scenes, particularly toward the end. However, the film takes about an hour to get going, and in the slow first hour, we don't get much back story. What, for instance, is the problem with Down's marriage to Christopher Plummer? I know there's a war on, but Down and Ford seem to fall for one another immediately, and we really don't get to see the love story develop. Before we know it, there are lines like "I don't know where you leave off and I begin." Lesley-Anne Down, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful women ever on TV or film - those eyes, her coloring - she's gorgeous. She's not particularly made up or photographed to advantage in this, but she's still amazing. Her acting is very good, particularly in scenes with her daughter. Christopher Plummer, as a man who feels he's not exciting enough for his wife, is its usual excellent self in a part that isn't really fleshed out. He and Ford do an excellent job in their scenes together. Harrison Ford is Harrison Ford, his star persona established early on - he's very natural, jaunty, and macho. His casting is perfection - a true movie star in the fashion of Hollywood's golden era in an old-fashioned romance. I just wish the movie had been better. And by the way, the last action scene in the film is ridiculous.