Main Cast: Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Frank Morgan, Roddy McDowall, Ralph Morgan, Van Johnson
Release Year: 1944
Country: US
Run Time: 126 minutes
Plot
The White Cliffs of Dover is one of those overlong MGM wartime films that everyone seems to have seen a part of, but no one can remember the film as a sum total. Based on a poem by Alice Duer Miller, the story chronicles the trials and tribulations of one courageous woman through two world wars. Irene Dunne plays an American girl who, in 1914, falls in love with titled Englishman Alan Marshal. At the end of World War 1 in 1918, it is painfully clear that Marshal will not be returning from the battlefields. Remaining loyal to her husband, Irene vows to raise their child in England. Played by Roddy McDowell in his early scenes, Irene's son grows up to be Peter Lawford. At the outbreak of World War 2, Irene despairs at the thought of losing another loved one, but Lawford convinces her that his dad would have wanted him to answer his country's call to the colors. While working as a Red Cross volunteer, Irene finds that she must tend her own mortally wounded son. Unable to save his life, she is grief-stricken, but is gratified with the notion that neither her husband nor her boy have died in vain. Like many films of its ilk and era, White Cliffs of Dover struck a responsive chord with filmgoers, to the tune of a $4 million profit. Watch for a touching scene between Roddy McDowell and 12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor; 19 years later, lifelong friends Roddy and Liz would be playing mortal enemies in Cleopatra (1963). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The White Cliffs of Dover undoubtedly struck very responsive chords with its audience when released in 1944. On a more modern take, Dover is decent entertainment, but the of-its-era tendency toward propaganda makes it less effective (and affecting) as a drama. The screenplay simply tries too hard, and the manipulations become wearing after a while, even though individual sequences are quite moving. Fortunately, Dover has an exceptionally fine cast, led by the perennially underappreciated Irene Dunne. Looking smashing, Dunne delivers one of her customarily sterling performances, one that calls upon her to move through a wide range of emotions which she does with ease. (One of Dunne's nicest qualities is that she does everything with ease, giving an effortlessness to her work that is a welcome relief from the show-stopping histrionics of more obvious performers.) Dunne gets very able support from the always-entertaining Frank Morgan, as well as from such marvelous players as Dame May Whitty and Gladys Cooper. Lumsden Hare and Clarence Brown direct with appropriate sensitivity, and Cedric Gibbons' and Randall Duell's designs are detailed and, when necessary, stunning. Dover is dated and goes on a bit too long, but Dunne makes it well worth the time. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Randall Duell - Art Director, Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, Irene - Costume Designer, Clarence Brown - Director, Robert J. Kern - Editor, Al Jennings - Editor, Herbert Stothart - Composer (Music Score), Jack Dawn - Makeup, George Folsey - Cinematographer, Sidney Franklin - Producer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, Jacques Mesereau - Set Designer, Arnold A. Gillespie - Special Effects, Warren Newcombe - Special Effects, George Froeschel - Screenwriter, Claudine West - Screenwriter, Jan Lustig - Screenwriter, Alice Duer Miller - Play Author
It tells the story of an American girl who travels abroad to England and falls in love with an English aristocrat. The girl marries the Englishman but their honeymoon is cut short on its first day as World War I breaks out. The husband goes to war in France, sees his bride only once more and then is killed in action near the end of the war. In the meantime the wife has his son, that she raises along with the father's mother. A scene in the movie approximating the early 30s shows adolescent German boys, part of an exchange program, visitng the English family's country estate. Insinuating they were part of early Nazi invasion plans, the movie has the boys let it slip in conversation that they are contemplating how the estate's large lawns would be ideal for troop gliders to land on.
White Cliffs of Dover was adapted as a radio play on the September 18, 1946 episode of Academy Award Theater, starring Irene Dunne in her original film role.
