I know every movie released during the WWII years, no matter what it was ostensibly about, had to serve as a bit of pro-America propaganda. But even at that, it's almost disturbing how aggressively pro-American "The White Cliffs of Dover" is.
Irene Dunne is terrific as always as an American woman in England who sees first her husband and then her son die in wars. I give the movie credit for having some serious chutzpah -- even though its glamorizing of the American military is almost fetishistic in its idolatry, it's also very matter of fact about the specter of death hanging over every serviceman. After killing off her husband, it would have been tempting for the movie to let her son live and offer a ray of hope to its audience, all of whom would have been dreading in their own lives the very events playing out in the movie. But it doesn't do that. It instead asks everyone to accept that the deads' sacrifice is worth it if it maintains America's might in the world. A kind of bitter pill to swallow when you're sitting in the theater just praying that your boy will come back home in one piece.
Frank Morgan is an always-welcome presence in a characteristically blustery performance as Dunne's father, and Gladys Cooper is good as well as her mother-in-law. There's a great scene when Dunne is staying with her husband's English family and they're all passively aggressively throwing shade at her for being an American, and she lets them all have it in a forthright American way. Dunne pulls it off beautifully.
George Folsey received one of two Oscar nominations for cinematography he would earn that year, the one for this in the black and white category and the other in the color category for "Meet Me in St. Louis," one of the best looking color films to come out of the 40s. The man had range, you have to give him that.
Grade: A-
Irene Dunne is terrific as always as an American woman in England who sees first her husband and then her son die in wars. I give the movie credit for having some serious chutzpah -- even though its glamorizing of the American military is almost fetishistic in its idolatry, it's also very matter of fact about the specter of death hanging over every serviceman. After killing off her husband, it would have been tempting for the movie to let her son live and offer a ray of hope to its audience, all of whom would have been dreading in their own lives the very events playing out in the movie. But it doesn't do that. It instead asks everyone to accept that the deads' sacrifice is worth it if it maintains America's might in the world. A kind of bitter pill to swallow when you're sitting in the theater just praying that your boy will come back home in one piece.
Frank Morgan is an always-welcome presence in a characteristically blustery performance as Dunne's father, and Gladys Cooper is good as well as her mother-in-law. There's a great scene when Dunne is staying with her husband's English family and they're all passively aggressively throwing shade at her for being an American, and she lets them all have it in a forthright American way. Dunne pulls it off beautifully.
George Folsey received one of two Oscar nominations for cinematography he would earn that year, the one for this in the black and white category and the other in the color category for "Meet Me in St. Louis," one of the best looking color films to come out of the 40s. The man had range, you have to give him that.
Grade: A-