The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)

Directed by Clarence Brown, this patriotic World War II film boasts a cast of a dozen or more familiar faces including Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Roddy McDowall, Frank Morgan, Van Johnson, C. Aubrey Smith, Dame May Witty, Gladys Cooper, Norma Varden, and Peter Lawford. And that's just the credited cast. Tom Drake, June Lockhart, Elizabeth Taylor, and Ian Wolfe also appear.The story is told mostly in retrospect by Susan Dunn (Dunne), who is evidently a head nurse at a London hospital in WW II, on the eve of D-Day. Though she was born and raised by her newspaperman father Hiram (Morgan) in Oklahoma, she's saying that it seems like she's lived all her life in England. She recalls coming to the "green land" as a young woman on an ocean liner in April, 1914, with her father and a young man (Johnson) who'd made their acquaintance. Hiram is "proud to be an American", and has a lot of grumbling to do about the differences between the two countries and their cultures. After nearly two weeks on vacation, Susan hasn't seen very much of London outside of museums, nor met anyone besides those living in the boarding house (run by Varden) where she and her father have stayed. That all changes on the last evening, when an old gentleman, the Colonel (Smith), decides to take her to an exclusive party which includes the Queen!At the party, Susan meets Sir John Ashwood (Marshal), who sweeps her off her feet and convinces his mother, Lady Ashwood (Cooper), to invite her to stay. Hiram begrudgingly allows her to stay an additional week, but returns to America himself. After days of idyllic life on the Ashwood's large estate, John proposes to Susan. Though she doesn't accept immediately, sighting the differences between them, he more or less "forces" her to accept by chasing her back to London and insisting. Hiram toasts them at the wedding, and the young couple goes yachting on their honeymoon (Wolfe is the boat's Captain). However, WW I breaks out and John must report to his unit to serve as an officer. For three years, Susan lives with Lady Ashley and Nanny (Whitty), the woman who'd raised John and his brother Reggie (John Warburton), who's killed in the war. Later, Susan is allowed to travel to France to spend a weekend with John. Nanny tells Susan they should "take care of business" while they see each other. While in a seaside hotel in Dieppe together, they learn that the United States has entered the war. A French band actually plays our National Anthem.Susan returns to England, and nine months later has a child, a boy. She and Nanny bring the baby to see the Colonel at the boarding house in London. They hear a band playing American patriotic music and go to the window. The "Yanks" are marching down the street in perfect formation while a proud Susan, holding her baby, looks on. The British are grateful. The next scene shows the Colonel phoning the Ashwood's to inform them of the Armistice, and learning that John had been killed in action. Susan is distraught, but encouraged by Lady Ashwood to tough it out. So, she raises her boy John Jr. (McDowall) with help from the Lady, Nanny, and her father, who seems to have come to stay with them. John Jr. rides his horse around the large estate, stopping to see a young girl Betsy (Taylor). There is an odd scene at a luncheon outdoors to which John Jr. has invited two neighborhood boys, who happen to be German. The implication is that they are proud of their heritage and are aware of their country's plans to try & conquer the world again. Hiram warns Susan of the inevitability of another war, prompting her to make plans to sell the estate and return to America with John Jr.. But, the boy convinces her otherwise and they stay. Betsy and John Jr. grow up together, then WW II breaks out. We see John Jr. in uniform (Lawford now) saying goodbye to Betsy (Lockhart now).The story returns to the present, with Susan examining D-Day casualties as they arrive to assign them to the appropriate wards. Of course, John Jr. is one of them. Later, on his deathbed, he relates how he was injured to his mother, telling of a young American (Drake) in his bunker, located in the same general area of his conception in France.The film closes with Susan looking out the window thinking platitudes about honoring the dead by continuing the fight.

I am only giving a 5 due to the performance of Irene. But yet again through the years the projection of America as all there is to this world is ridiculous. As if any Scot or Englishman would actually accept the words mentioned in the film. Disgusting. On the other hand its more of a romance novel than a war movie as war is like a sidewalk into this film. The story line overall is nice but it should be filmed in a difference scene than use the theme of war to input this romance story. presenting the power of actors and words in the art of cinema is one thing, but using it as political brainwashing a propaganda is another. As a scene from the film America is a circus just like the band marches when war is announced by them.

Keep the home fires burning. Emotional and reflective. We need to look back every fifty years or so to look for values. There are a lot of contemporary connections. Look for Roddy McDowell and Elizabeth Taylor. A good picture of the UK in the first half of the last century, even if only through the the eyes of the early forties. Although in large part a sentimental movie, somewhat in the mode of a soap opera, it deals with the larger issues of life on the home-front. It speaks to the twenty-first century where those of us with money have few participating in the military either personally or financially. Irene Dunne carries the action and supports the sentimentality without undue exaggeration. Some really spectacular patriotic sentiment. Look for the bit about the chess set. Compare Susan Dunn's (Irene Dunne's)father-in-law with the Major in Keeping Up Appearances. Frank Morgan offers a nice contrast to the English scene; one would like to visit Toliver, Rhode Island, which would have existed if it could.

The only reference to the White Cliffs of Dover comes in at the beginning of the film as we watch Susan and her friend, Sam Bennet, as they are approaching England by sea. The magnificent cliffs are seen in the distance in all their splendor. Susan, clearly moved by the sight, revels on the many things that await her in London where she and her father are going to spend two weeks vacation.Alas, when they arrive, they are treated to the typical rainy weather, that puts a damp, no pun intended, in her enjoyment of a city and all things English she has always admired. Instead of finding a place that meets all her expectations, Susan has to endure the weather and the prospect of going back without seeing the sights and places she really wanted to see.Enter the kind Colonel, the man living in the modest hotel where the Dunns are staying. He invites Susan to a society ball where she meets Sir John Ashwood, the man who will become her husband. John is instrumental in her staying in England. Susan never expected to be married into the rich gentry that John belongs to. In fact, the beginning of her life in the family country estate convinces her she doesn't belong.It's 1915 and WWI arrives without warning. Susan sees in horror how John goes to his regiment and to the front. He eventually dies, but the son that arrives for her is, in a way, a painful reminder of the great loss she suffered. Like his father, the boy grows up and has to go to war, as it's expected of his kind."The White Cliffs of Dover" was directed by Clarence Brown, who gave it a great look. Irene Dunne makes a good impression as Susan, the courageous woman who stays in a strange country and has to make a new life for herself and her new family. Alan Marshal is perfect as the dashing John Ashwood.In minor roles we see Roddy McDowall, who plays the young John Ashwood. Harry Morgan is Susan's father. Gladys Cooper, May Witty, Peter Lawford, Van Johnson, C. Aubrey Smith, and the rest of the cast do good work. The young Elizabeth Taylor is seen as the young Betsy and June Lockhart appears as the grown up girl in uncredited roles."The White Cliffs of Dover" is about loyalty for one's country and how tradition plays a role in the lives of all the people one meets in the story, even during the difficult times these characters had to live.