The White Cliffs of Dover

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Movie
Original title The White Cliffs of Dover
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1944
length 127 minutes
Rod
Director Clarence Brown
script Claudine West
Jan Lustig
George Froeschel
production Sidney Franklin for MGM
music Herbert Stothart
camera George J. Folsey
cut Robert Kern
occupation

The White Cliffs of Dover is an American film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Irene Dunne from 1944. The film follows the tradition of patriotic films such as Mrs. Miniver and The Lion Has Wings , which show the bond between the allies United States and Britain should express during World War II . The film is based on the poem of the same name by Alice Duer Miller .

action

1944. A hospital in England. As the staff prepare for the arrival of new wounded, Lady Susan Ashwood, who works as a volunteer for the Red Cross, is plagued by concerns for her son John. Her thoughts wander back to April 1914, when her name was Susan Dunn and she traveled to London for two weeks with her father, a newspaper publisher from the USA. The holiday is initially badly starred because it rains continuously and Susan's father stays in bed most of the time.

On the last day, Susan is invited by Colonel Walter Forsythe to accompany him on a visit to the Duke of Waverly. At the company, Susan meets the handsome noble Sir John Ashwood and they both fall in love. Just as Susan and her father are about to leave the next morning, Sir John stands at the door and invites them to spend a weekend at his mother's, Lady Jean Ashwood's, estate. However, the meeting with his family is not very pleasant and some members are shouting anti-American slogans. Deeply hurt, Susan wants to return to Rhode Island, but John can convince her of his love at the last minute. They both get married, but the First World War breaks out during their honeymoon . The two have a son who, like his father, is baptized John Ashwood. Shortly before the end of the war, John Senior dies in combat. Susan then falls into deep depression. Only Lady Jean can convince the young mother that John sacrificed his life for freedom and peace and therefore not in vain. A good twenty years later, Susan wants to travel to the USA with her son when the Second World War breaks out. Like his father, John joins the military. The flashback ends with the arrival of the wounded. As Susan feared, her son is among them. John is badly injured and has only a few hours to live. He is deeply unsure whether his commitment was aimed at the right cause. Susan explains to him that formations of American and English soldiers are now marching side by side through the camp and that, like his father before him, he had fought for a just cause.

background

Irene Dunne was a highly paid star in the mid-1940s and enjoyed success in both comedies and tearful melodramas. In 1943 she had decided to sign a non-exclusive contract with MGM , whereupon Louis B. Mayer wanted to build her up as a replacement for Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford . After Mayer had initially provided Dunne for the lead role in Mrs. Miniver and then in The House of Lady Alquist , the actress finally directed the film Fight in the Clouds alongside Spencer Tracy .

Alice Duer Miller's patriotic poem The White Cliffs from 1940 became particularly popular in 1942 after the well-known theater actress Lynn Fontanne gave a rousing lecture during a radio show. Ronald Colman then acquired the rights from the author and initially wanted to appear in the film together with Bette Davis . Colman intended to turn all profits over to the American and British Red Cross. But his plan failed and in the end the rights ended up with MGM. The studio, which had already produced a successful film with Mrs. Miniver about the problems of English civil society during the chaos of war, planned to turn the poem into a story about the bond between the two peoples on both sides of the Atlantic.

By Clarence Brown the then prestigious director of the studio took over the implementation, while Sidney Franklin was responsible as producer, The White Cliffs of Dover in the tradition of Irving Thalberg to conceive as a prestige production with high film budgeting, excellent supporting cast and first-class amenities. Due to delays in the shooting schedule, the shooting of Kampf in den Wolken overlapped with that of The White Cliffs of Dover , which meant a lot of stress and work in two shifts for Dunne. Elizabeth Taylor played one of her first roles. In 1947 she and Irene Dunne were to stand in front of the camera again in Our Life with Father .

Awards

The film was nominated for the Academy Awards in 1945 :

Theatrical release

Production costs of $ 2,342,000 made The White Cliffs of Dover an expensive production, even by MGM standards . With $ 4,045,000 in domestic receipts and an additional $ 2,249,000 in overseas receipts, the film ended up being one of the movie stars with total revenues of $ 6,294,000 and a profit of $ 1,784,000 most successful productions of the decade.

Reviews

The reviews were not as overwhelmingly positive as they were for Mrs. Miniver .

Bosley Crowther found in the New York Times :

“This magnificent film […] is such a tribute to the English way of life that only an American film studio would dare to do. But it is not modern England that the film tells about so sensitively [...], but the England of the great aristocratic residences, the noble and elegant nobles. "

James Agee wasn't particularly fond of either. The film is:

"Like enjoying lukewarm tea in a rainy garden party in the middle of the deepest English province."

Web links

Footnotes

  • James Robert Parish: The RKO Girls . Arlington House Publishers, 1974, 896 pp.
  1. ↑ cf. on the information: The White Cliffs of Dover. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved April 9, 2019 .
  2. ↑ cf. on the information: Mark H. Glancy: When Hollywood Loved Britain: The Hollywood 'British' Film 1939–1945 , Manchester University Press 1999
  3. ↑ This sterling-silver picture […] is such a tribute to English gentility as only an American studio would dare to make. But it is not of the modern England that this film most affectionately tells […] it is an England of grand baronial estates, of gracious and elegant patricians.
  4. ↑ Like drinking tepid orange pekoe at a rained-out garden party staged by some deep-provincial local of the English-speaking Union.