Perfect Strangers (1945)

One of the differences between the World War II experiences of the United Kingdom and America was that our war was thousands of miles away and their's was right at home. As a result our cinema produced a lot of comedies as well as drama in films about the war. In the UK the war was no subject for humor before final victory. When victory did come Alexander Korda produced and directed a delightful comedy that starred Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr about a married couple who have to adjust themselves to the fact that war has made them different people.Donat had a ship shot out from under him and survived. During his hospital convalescence temptation hits him big time in the person of nurse Ann Todd. In fact he did a bit of succumbing and who wouldn't. Ann Todd who is probably best known for American audiences as Gregory Peck's wife in The Paradine Case was one of the most strikingly beautiful women who ever was on the big screen. She was an exquisite porcelain blond goddess as you'll see here.As for Kerr she joins the WRENS the British equivalent of the WAVES to do her wartime service in a country that was united and determined to withstand a foreign invader. She's a doormat of a housewife, but with roommate and friend Glynis Johns, Kerr develops a nice self assurance. At the end of the war when they reunite Donat and Kerr are not sure they're suitable for each other. That has to all be worked out if it can.Vacation From Marriage was at a turning point in the career of Deborah Kerr. This film was produced by MGM as well as Korda and Kerr would shortly be off to Hollywood and an MGM contract. This film was preview of what American audiences would enjoy for the next twenty years.As for Donat most movie fans know he suffered his whole life from crippling asthma. Yet he still carries off his military scenes well even though he could never not project a certain frailty in any role he ever undertook. And he was never bad in any film role.Vacation From Marriage got an Oscar nomination for original screenplay. The story is good and the characters are people the writer, director, and players make you care about. See this one when it's broadcast.

There is, I feel, scholarly research required as to why so many British films of this vintage are so risible, why some - In Which We Serve, The Way To The Stars, Brief Encounter, The Fallen Idol, The Browning Version - are magnificent and a handful of others like Perfect Strangers are eight-out-of-tens in anyone's book. In the last couple of years I've watched some real dogs, Carol Reed in particular has a bad track record via Climbing High and Night Train To Munich, and never having even heard of Perfect Strangers I was prepared for the worst especially since it is being screened as part of a Deborah Kerr season at the National Film Theatre in London and I have never seen the point of Deborah Kerr despite the fact that she has appeared in some excellent films. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and I don't care who knows it. Although it centres on two adults, probably meant to be in the late twenties it is, in one respect, a bildungsroman, because during the running time these two mature, much-married people do come of age albeit it took something as traumatic as a world war to effect the transition from dull to vibrant. The original director, American Wesley Ruggles departed early by mutual agreement and was replaced by Sandy Korda who despite having his directorial name attached to some iconic titles was at best a journeyman, light years short of Puffin Asquith for example, yet here he turns in what is arguably his finest directing. Neither of the two leads test high on my list of favourite actors but I must confess that I could fault neither of them albeit the best performance by a country mile was that of Glynis Johns, ironically someone else I can take or leave. Roland Culver, alas, just doesn't do 'romantic lover', fine actor though he is and in 2010 the metaphoric element - in the aftermath of war things like cities and marriages need rebuilding in equal measure - is a tad twee it must have pushed all the right buttons in 1945. Should it appear on DVD I would have no hesitation in bagging a copy.

Deborah Kerr gets to say one of the best examples of stiff-upper-lip understatement I've ever heard. I won't give it away; you'll have to see it in context. Someone here wondered why "Perfect Strangers" has never been remade, and someone else accused it of trivializing the horrors of war. And so it does, but British audiences were entitled to make light of war--they had lived through the bombardment. We haven't, and that's why we don't deserve to re-tell this story. And so it remains, I hope forever, as a genuine wartime memento to be cherished. And since I've two more lines to fill, I'll offer a plug for "Sullivan's Travels" as another film made for an audience that didn't need to be told what it had recently endured.

"Perfect Strangers" probably told a very true tale for many married people who got together after WWII. Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr are married before WWII and get back together again to find out they are strangers. It is a well-told story and well cast. Mr. Donat had three legendary leading ladies in this movie: Deborah Kerr, Glynis Johns, and Ann Todd. All three ladies were starting their careers. Mr. Donat seem to be cast well with all his leading ladies in all his few movies.