Le bianche scogliere di Dover

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.

This film is both tender and powerful-with a very moving score. If, like me, you enjoy lying down at night just listening to the voices and music coming from an old classic film-this is the one for you. At the beginning when Ms. Dunne is telling her story and reflecting on her life in England-the music fits perfectly, the mood is wonderful, and her voice just makes you want to melt. Then, before you know it, even though you thought you just might want to "half" watch this film on a lazy night-you find yourself caught up in it all. The English/American bickering becomes quite funny, the romance, the war, the drama, the sadness, the next war... Irene Dunne at her best-and beautiful as ever-with that strange, knowing almost mischievous look in her eyes. I truly believe that films like these are healthy for us(sort of like watching fish in an aquarium-or shopping for antiques, petting a dog, etc.) Do yourself a favor and watch/listen to this lovely movie. If you're an Anglophile then you are really denying yourself a great pleasure by not seeing it.

One of the great crimes of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is that Dunne was never given an Oscar....not even an honorary one! Most of her performances transcend time and come off as fresh and natural today as when they were first delivered. She just must have made it look too easy. The woman could do everything! At any rate, this film features another strong performance from her. She plays a young American girl who comes to England with her father (the irascible Morgan) and is soon swept off her feet by dashing and wealthy Marshall. Before they can enjoy any sort of life together, he is called to serve in WWI and they are separated. This is only part of the story as her life unfolds through the next decades and she struggles with letting her son (McDowall, then Lawford) serve in WWII. The film is obviously patriotic and propaganda filled, but understandably so as WWII was still being waged! Dunne is luminescent in the role and is surrounded by a strong array of familiar supporting actors. Notable are Cooper (endlessly watchable in anything!) and Witty (wonderfully crotchety, yet sentimental.) It is a touch jarring to see Taylor grow into Lockhart (young Taylor barely says anything, but "Yes, Sir John".) Lawford is at his most youthful and appealing. The film has a lot of sentiment and melodrama, but also a lot of heart and a little humor. It winds up being quite touching at times and displays a time long gone, but a patriotism that can still be resurrected when events call for it.

With a title based on a very popular song on both sides of the pond in those World War II years, The White Cliffs Of Dover is seen in flashback by Irene Dunne of her life as an American in Great Britain in the years covering two World Wars. It was one of those hands across the oceans films so popular in those days.

I heard it said that the main fact about the 20th Century that one should realize in studying it is that the United States and Great Britain both spoke a common language. That fact made us overcome a few cultural differences and was the reason America entered two World Wars to save a Great Britain from invasion.

Thus it was for Irene Dunne who came over with her father Frank Morgan on holiday in 1914 and met and married a minor titled fellow played by Alan Marshal. Marshal is killed and she spends a long widowhood raising their son and heir to his title. She lives with her mother-in-law, Gladys Cooper and raises her son who at various times is played by Roddy McDowall and Peter Lawford. The son rather fancies the daughter of one of their tenants played at various times by Elizabeth Taylor and June Lockhart.

Of course this interoceanic love feast has a rather rocky beginning, especially when Frank Morgan while arguing chess with C. Aubrey Smith gets confronted with the fact that the chess board and pieces were the property of the looted White House from the War of 1812. It's my favorite scene in the film.

Dunne who ages gracefully and magnificently gives a stirring performance as a woman who lost what she loved in one war and is ready to sacrifice again for her adopted country. I've a feeling that the folks at MGM might have had her character as an answer to that real female American expatriate, Lady Nancy Astor and that we were all not members in good standing of the Nazi appeasing Cliveden set.

There's also a scene similar to the one in Mrs. Miniver where Greer Garson has to entertain a wounded German flier, Helmut Dantine where he's made a symbol of what they're at war against. Dunne, Morgan, and McDowall entertain a pair of German boys on holiday and when the discussion turns to politics it gets pretty heated. These two are thinking nothing more than winning what they should have won back in 1918.

The White Cliffs Of Dover is a nice film, typical of the era it came out of. You do wonder though if Irene Dunne had met a nice German guy from the Weimar Republic days how that might have been dealt with.

It is almost Christmas 2002, a difficult year for Americans and a perfect time for World War II nostalgia. I was 16 years old when this moviecame out, I am 76 now and "Cliffs" is as fresh today as it was then. The songs, English and American are marvelous, and Irene Dunne shines. Supporting cast is typical of the wonderful character actors of the time plus Elizabeth Taylor. We are moved by an American woman (Dunne) who loses a husband in World War I and a son in World War II. Frank Morgan, who is always Frank Morgan even in the "Wizard of Oz" is marvelous as Dunne's Father. Dame Mae Whittey, Gladys Cooper, Allain Marshall, C. Aubrey Smith as the very British Colonel -- everyone adds to the beauty of this movie, and we must not forget that Irene Dunne is the narrator of the famous poem of World War II, "The White Cliffs of Dover" which is still available in bookstores. I would put this movie in well-done Black and White, right up there with "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (Van Johnson has a bit part in "Cliffs"), "Mrs. Miniver" with Greer Garson, and the magnificent World War 2 Series, "War and Remembrance" and "Winds of War". I am amazed that "black and white" is still effective. I hope this movie is presented as often as "It's a Wonderful Life" every year in the future.