The White Cliffs of Dover

1944 "The greatest love story of our time!"
7| 2h6m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 11 May 1944 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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American Susan travels with her father to England for a vacation. Invited to a society ball, Susan meets Sir John Ashwood and marries him after a whirlwind romance. However, she never quite adjusts to life as a new member of the British gentry. At the outbreak of World War I, John is sent to the trenches and never returns. When her son goes off to fight in World War II, Susan fears the same tragic fate may befall him too.

Genre

Drama, Romance, War

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Director

Clarence Brown

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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The White Cliffs of Dover Audience Reviews

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.
Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
JohnHowardReid I don't really object to tosh. Everyone knows that Hollywood's currency is counterfeit. No-one really gets upset that Hollywood has no sense of history, no interest in Truth and but the scantiest regard for facts. You would have to be mighty naive to accept as gospel any of the details - even date of birth - presented in a Hollywood "biography". But that surely is one of the pleasures of movie-going. The fancy and creativity of the artist is not held back by mundane facts. What we usually see on the screen has precious little in common with the real world. And that's a good thing. That's why we go to the movies in the first place. We don't want to see real life in a mirror, but a beautifully contrived romantic illusion. And that's why I don't like The White Cliffs of Dover. The movie offers an illusion all right, but it's not artistically attractive. It's clumsy, heavy-handed, embarrassing and inept. The propaganda here is laid on with a trowel. With two trowels. With both hands. One searches in vain for subtlety, for cleverness, for craftsmanship. The musical clichés for example do nothing but draw further attention to the elephantinely-plotted twists of the script. And what a script! its dime-novelettish plot, its unspeakable dialogue and cardboard characters thrown into even greater relief by the inane, doggerel verse the heroine spouts at every contrived opportunity. You can't even turn to the actors to shed some talent on this gloom. On paper, the cast looks great. But you sit there watching the screen in expectation and nothing of interest happens. Gladys Cooper, for instance, whom we are all expecting to spark up the tedious proceedings with her usual masterful portrait of aristocratic villainy, is here lumbered with a sympathetic role.
nikolasaelg I am only giving a 5 due to the performance of Irene. But yet again through the years the projection of America as all there is to this world is ridiculous. As if any Scot or Englishman would actually accept the words mentioned in the film. Disgusting. On the other hand its more of a romance novel than a war movie as war is like a sidewalk into this film. The story line overall is nice but it should be filmed in a difference scene than use the theme of war to input this romance story. presenting the power of actors and words in the art of cinema is one thing, but using it as political brainwashing a propaganda is another. As a scene from the film America is a circus just like the band marches when war is announced by them.
mark.waltz Women in war were just as important as the men off in combat, even if these women were at home. This is the story of one of those women, an American who has gained a noble title, and is utilizing it to give her all to the causes of protecting the home in England she has come to love.An American millionaire (Frank Morgan) has come to England with his daughter (Irene Dunne) for a holiday, and due to lousy weather (and boiled potatoes), pops is in a bad mood. But thanks to a British nobleman (C. Aubrey Smith), Dunne gets to go to a local ball, where she meets the man of her dreams (Alan Marshal) and agrees to marry him much to daddy's dismay. But can an American fit in with British society? After a shaky start, Dunne comes to love her new family, especially her kind-hearted mother-in-law (the very gracious Gladys Cooper) and the family retainer, nanny/nurse/companion Dame May Witty. Through World War I (during which she is widowed) through the onslaught of World War II, she perseveres, becoming as legendary a lady as those in the portraits which hang on her country home's corridor walls.Roddy McDowall plays the young son (who grows up to be Peter Lawford), paired with a freckle-faced youngster named Elizabeth Taylor for a youthful romance. Van Johnson appears in several scenes as an American attracted to Dunne, while scenes between Morgan and Smith offer a comical running gag concerning a priceless chessboard which was obtained in a very amusing way.Sweetly sentimental, this is a love story, not only of man and woman, but humanity and tradition, beautifully directed by Clarence Brown, one of MGM's greatest directors. It is poignant yet entertaining. In fact, fans of BBC's popular "Downton Abbey" will appreciate this as it covers similar territory with similar themes, particularly Gladys Cooper's more gentle version of Maggie Smith's family matriarch.
nyescape This was an incredible War movie which spanned WWI and WWII. It was a romance/drama. Irene Dunne is the female lead who falls in love with and marries a man who soon goes off to fight in France during World War I. He dies and she had his child, a boy.The boy grows to manhood and is played by Peter Lawford. As the movie ends, Dunne is seeing her son, Lawford go off to fight in WWII. You can see the pain and the pride in Dunne's eyes.It was a fabulous movie. It dramatizes the great sacrifices made by the British in both World Wars. Britain lost so many of her sons in WWI, I believe the stats were approximately 50% of men between the ages of 18 and 45. The movies points up the fact that the loses, pain and suffering of the English were about to be revisited in WWII.I can appreciate this and other war movies as I am the mother of a Marine who is about to be sent to Iraq.