D-Day the Sixth of June

This is one of those movies where history (IWW II) seems to get in the way of romance (Taylor and Wynter). He's a married American officer stationed in England, falling in love with a beautiful young Red Cross worker (Wynter), while she's already in love with a gung ho British officer (Todd). Wow! All that with bombs falling, guns firing and secret missions. Taylor and Wynter pull it off nicely, but the movie as a whole will leave you a little disappointed. Mind you, it is a good way to kill a couple of hours.

This movie's opening prologue states: "1944 . Half a million men awaited the signal to cross the English Channel. For many it was to be the last day of their lives. It was D-day the sixth of June" . One ship , transporting Special Force Six , is assigned on a dangerous mission , and ahead the main invasion . On board are British Colonel Wynter (Richard Todd who actually took part in the invasion as a parachutist) and American Captain Parker (Robert Taylor who gives a surprisingly fine acting) , both of whom remember their lives in flashbacks . The coming battle results to be a dangerous and nearly impossible assignment into French territory occupied by the Nazis . Five beaches -codenamed Utah , Omaha , Gold , Juno and Sword- were selected as the landings points for the British , Canadian and US Corps , the operation will be preceded by a month-long bombing campaign to disrupt communications , preventing reinforcements from moving quickly into the threatened area and destroy vital bridges and gun positions . As the two American and a British officers reminisce in flashbacks about their previous romances with the same woman , in special their separate involvements with Valerie Russel (Dana Wynter , though Jean Simmons was originally cast in the lead female acting character) .

This dramatic film about an unresolved love story , is narrated aboard a ship , en route to Normandy , by means of flashbacks in with two officers reminisce about a triangular love story , including a dramatisation of the Normandy landings . The movie utilizes an often-used plot of the war movie genre which has two soldiers , here Richard Todd and Robert Taylor , in love with the same woman , the gorgeous Dana Wynter . Impressive and breathtaking final scenes when there takes place the Normandy invasion , being confined to the film's last fifteen minutes , though filmmaker used only eighty soldiers and two Higgins Boats or Landing Crafts . The ending images will determine the surprising denouement in which one comes together to her . Trio protagonist is pretty good , Robert Taylor gives a restrained interpretation as the enamored captain who falls deeply with the beauteous Dana Wynter and Richard Tood is nice as the upright and brave Lt. Col. John Wynter . Support cast is frankly well , such as : Edmond O'Brien , John Williams , Jerry Paris and Richard Wyler .

Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Lynn Murray . Colorful cinematography in Technicolor by the splendid director of photography Lee Garmes . Shot on location in California , the naval scenes were filmed at the former Long Beach Naval Shipyard at Terminal Island California, and at the Fox Studio back-lot . The motion picture based on the fictional 1955 romantic war novel, 'The Sixth of June' by Lionel Shapiro (who had been a World War II Canadian war correspondent) was professional but slowly directed by Henry Koster . He was an expert on super-productions and epic biographies , such as he proved in : ¨Desiree¨, ¨The Virgin Queen¨, ¨A man called Peter¨, ¨The story of Ruth¨ , ¨The Naked Maja¨ and the successful ¨The Robe¨ . He directed what was his biggest success to date , the James Stewart comedy ¨Invisible Harvey¨ (1950) . Koster directed a few more costume dramas , such as ¨Desirée¨ (1954) with Marlon Brando , then went back to family comedies and musicals, such as ¨Flower Drum Song¨ (1961) . After he finished ¨Dominique¨ or ¨The singing nun¨ (1966) he retired from the film business .

Okay, we'll keep this one short: lots of big stars (Robert Taylor, Dana Wynter, Edmund O'Brien, et al), lots of extras, lots and lots of talking, but absolutely no sense of urgency or feeling of impending action is present in this hour and 46 minute blabfest. In fact, for the first 80 minutes, nothing much happens. Yes, Taylor is quite handsome in his military uniform and, yes, Ms. Wynter is very fetching in her military uniform and, yes, a predictable romance develops with an equally predictable ending, but THAT'S IT!! That's the whole plodding film in a nutshell. Believe us, if movies about the greatest invasion in history are the sort of thing that floats your boat, you would be much better advised to stick with "The Longest Day". This over-processed turkey spread shoulda stayed in the can.

This WWII tear-jerker romance centered around the Normandy invasion in 1944 is one of my all time favorites of this genre. Most notably, the pairing of Robert Taylor and Dana Wynter seemed perfect casting. They are very natural together, real old pros. They exemplified the difficult relationships couples shared in wartime, grabbing a piece of life in the few moments available between battles.

The main issue i have with this film is that 98% of the film has nothing to do with D-DAY , it's about two officers on a boat talking about their romance with a woman. If the film had suggested that this would be the story that would have made it much better like if the title had been say "Two soldiers and a lady" that would have been good but calling it D-day the sixth of June is just totally wrong. It's like calling Manhunter the life of Hannibal Lector (for those of you who didn't get that joke Hannibal only shows up for about five minutes in Manhunter). Aside from the title being wrong the story is really uninteresting mainly because you want the film to show you you the bits with D-day in them because that's what the film has promised in the title but it never bloody shows them. If you want a really boring melodrama about love then yeah it's for you but other wise don't watch it and ignore the title completely.