Amor em Chamas

I don't understand all of the negative comments about this movie. It's not like they set out to make another Gone With The Wind, people. I usually hate this kind of movie, but I loved this one! Ford was just beginning to come into his own as an actor, and did a wonderfully believable job. The plot, though a bit predictable, at least went about it in a reasonable way. Entertaining way to spend a couple of hours. I guess I'm just one of those people who doesn't understand what movie making "art" is all about. I've seen a lot of critically acclaimed films that I wouldn't use to balance a short table leg.

This film has many great elements, but the whole things fails primarily due to overwrought dialogue that is very soap operatic with words put in character's mouths that mostly teenage girls would think of. Without John Barry's romantic score, this film would be pathetic, leaning towards hilarious.

In any film, when two characters meet and fall in love there is a certain amount of time and shared experiences that pass in the story before the love between them is credible. In this film, the love is instant, deeply romantic -- yet torrid, and lasting. Completely impossible! Having said all that, the film still provides some great military movie sequences. There are some funny bits with Halloran and his co-pilot Cimino mouthing off during their missions and briefings. And a whole military caper pulled off by Halloran (Ford) and Mr. Sallinger (Plummer) which is both exciting and easy to follow.

After a while, one realizes that Margaret Sallinger, (Down) never speaks her lines, she whispers them in a plaintive, teary voice, always on the verge of boo-hoo. This becomes grating after a while. Further, it makes the audience wonder what Halloran sees in her.

Well, the answer to what the attraction is never comes, but the noble dialogue at the end is a struggle to listen to and is a riff on the immortal Casablanca "Hill of beans/Here's lookin' at you" farewell between Rick and Ilsa. It is well that this Hanover Street high-road sign-off sequence comes last as it is the most indulgent in melodrama. Still, Ford and Plummer work so effectively to make this movie almost passable that you really have to give them credit for their commitment to their characters.

When I read the synopsis for the plot of 'Pearl' I thought of 'Hanover Street' right away. I saw this movie when I was 10 years old and was impressed by it's pacing, the plot twist, and the fact that in the end it is just as it is billed, a romantic war movie. For a guy like me who cant stand romantic war movies I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed this obscure film not once but the many times I have watched it. If during the course of a film you feel that same longing a character experiences then it has made it's mark. When David Halloran, Harrison's character, transitions from cocky bomber pilot to reluctant pilot who begins to hear the concerns of his bombardier as well as his heart, from the unhealthy romance of two people in need of something concrete in a time of uncertainty, from the struggle to get back to the one you love this movie runs the gammit of what war is like for lovers, soldiers, and ordinary civilians caught up in it. Think of loving someone so much they make you ache then throw in the fact that they are someone elses lover and the knowledge that you will have to turn and walk away from them forever.

One of my female friends once told she hated "Memphis Belle but she liked this film. It is not hard to see why. It is more of a Barbara Cartland style romance than an action adventure movie.

One interesting point is that former RAF /USAAF airfield at Bovingdon was used for filming. It was previously used as the location for a number of air movies such as "633 Squadron","Mosquito Squadron" and "The War Lover". By the time "Hanover Street" started filming in 1978 it was disused and derelict so the aircraft were only filmed with very long lenses to avoid showing the background clearly.

The film suffers from too many historical and technical errors to be taken seriously by WW2 buffs. For example there is a discussion about "light " and "heavy flak" which makes it clear that writer/director Peter Hyams thinks these terms refer to the number of guns employed whereas in fact they refer to the calibre of the weapons. For example a target defended by 100 x 20 mm guns is defended by "light" flak while a target defended by a single 88mm gun is defended by "heavy" flak.

There is also a scene where the two heroes are pursued by a Hetzer tank destroyer,a vehicle whose only role is the destruction of enemy armour and would be singularly unsuited to the task of pursuing enemy agents.

On the credit side John Barry delivers his usual excellent score.

Hanover Street is one of those old fashioned wartime romances so popular on both sides of the pond during and after World War II. At a time when a lot of people and nations united to defeat a generally recognized menace to civilization folks were in a sacrificing mood.

American flier Harrison Ford and British army nurse Lesley Anne Down meet on Hanover Street and the chemistry is high voltage electric. Soon they are in an affair, but Down doesn't tell Ford she's already slightly married to Christopher Plummer.

Plummer is in British Intelligence, a researcher and a trainer, but yearns for some field action feeling that Down might see him in a better life as he has suspicions that she's drifting away. Wouldn't you know it he takes on a field mission that involves him pretending to be an S.S. officer and he's to go to some S.S. headquarters in occupied France and steal some vital plans. This is the kind of plot that was popular during World War II years. The most famous were those sought after 'letters of transit' in Casablanca.

That field mission puts him on Harrison Ford's bomber and when it's hit both have to bail out and Ford becomes part of the mission.

Hanover Street is so old fashioned though Ford seems to borrow a bit of Han Solo from the future in his portrayal of the flier that it really belongs in the Forties. Only that Ford and Down are actually shown if discreetly having a sexual relationship that the Code would never permit you would swear this was a Forties film. In fact think Casablanca if want to know how this ends.

If you like romances, Hanover Street is for you.