The White Cliffs of Dover (film)
| The White Cliffs of Dover | |
|---|---|
 VHS cover | |
| Directed by | Clarence Brown |
| Written by | Claudine West Jan Lustig George Froeschel |
| Produced by | Clarence Brown Sidney Franklin |
| Starring | Irene Dunne Alan Marshal |
| Music by | Herbert Stothart |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date | May 11, 1944 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,342,000[1] |
| Box office | $4,045,000 (Domestic earnings)[1] $2,249,000 (Foreign earnings)[1] |
The White Cliffs of Dover is a 1944 film made by Loew's and MGM. It was directed by Clarence Brown and produced by Clarence Brown and Sidney Franklin. The screenplay was by Claudine West, Jan Lustig and George Froeschel, based on the Alice Duer Miller poem titled The White Cliffs with additional poetry by Robert Nathan.
Plot summary
American newspaper publisher Hiram P. Dunn and his daughter Susan visit England, intending to stay a week. She meets and falls in love with an army officer, Sir John Ashwood. The honeymoon is cut short as World War I breaks out. John goes to war in France, sees his bride only once more, and is then killed in action near the end of the war. In the meantime, Lady Susan gives birth to a son, also named John (although the eldest son has always traditionally been named Percy), who never knew his father.
Susan and John continue to live in the family manor house with Lady Jean, Sir John's Mother. After she dies, they decide to sell the manor and return to America, but young John is in love with Betsy Kenney (Elizabeth Taylor), the daughter of tenant farmers on the estate. They decide to stay after all.
As World War II begins, John, after Eton and Sandhurst, joins his father's regiment. Betsy becomes a WREN and Susan becomes a nurse. John is badly wounded on the Dieppe Raid and is brought to the hospital where Susan is now a nursing sister. As American troops march through London, Susan gazes proudly at them and John slips quietly away.
A scene in the movie approximating the early '30s shows adolescent German boys, part of an exchange program, visiting 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.
Starring Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Roddy McDowall, Frank Morgan, Van Johnson, C. Aubrey Smith, Gladys Cooper, Peter Lawford, Dame May Whitty, Elizabeth Taylor, Norma Varden and Victor Lafata (baby), the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography in Black and White.
Adaptations
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.
See also
Notes
External links
- The White Cliffs of Dover at IMDb
- The White Cliffs of Dover at AllMovie
- The White Cliffs of Dover at the TCM Movie Database
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