For You Alone | |
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Promotional poster
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Directed by | Geoffrey Faithfull |
Produced by | F.W. Baker |
Written by |
Kathleen Butler Montgomery Tully |
Starring |
Lesley Brook Dinah Sheridan Jimmy Hanley |
Music by | Harry Bidgood |
Cinematography | Ernest Palmer |
Distributed by | Butcher's Film Service |
Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
For You Alone is a 1945 British World War II romance melodrama, one of only two films directed by cinematographer Geoffrey Faithfull, starring Lesley Brook, Dinah Sheridan and Jimmy Hanley. The film was made by a smaller studio, Butcher's Films – more known for turning out quickly and cheaply shot B-movies – and had a lack of (at the time) star names, but appears to have been a relatively sophisticated and well-financed production. On its release, three weeks after V-E Day, the film became a huge popular success, seeming to catch the mood of a nation just beginning to emerge from war.
For You Alone is often categorised as a musical, and indeed was promoted as such, but this is somewhat misleading; in crucial concert scenes the film features singers Heddle Nash and Helen Hill with accompaniment from the London Symphony Orchestra; however, none of the film's actors sing.
John Bradshaw (Robert Griffith), a young naval officer, attends a lunchtime concert at Westminster Central Hall where he meets Reverend Peter Britton (G.H. Mulcaster) and his daughter Katherine (Brook). After the concert the three share a taxi, and after seeing her father off on the train to a conference Katherine agrees to have tea with John. They enjoy each other's company and later go to see a film, followed by dinner and a stroll along the Thames Embankment. John impulsively tells Katherine that he has fallen in love with her, but she reminds him that they hardly know one another, and since her brother's death in the Far East she has to devote herself to her father.
The couple finally part, agreeing to meet again the following day. However Katherine receives a telegram at her hotel, stating that her brother Dennis (Hanley) has turned up alive and will be arriving home the next day. She returns home early the next morning, leaving a note of explanation for John. Unfortunately John forgets the name of Katherine's hotel, so does not receive the note and is distraught when she fails to turn up for their rendezvous. Meanwhile back at home, Katherine finds that Dennis is accompanied by Max Borrow (Manning Whiley), an old admirer who still wants to marry her. He has sustained serious eye injuries while saving Dennis' life, and Katherine as a result feels she must accept him. Dennis himself immediately rekindles his courtship with local schoolteacher Stella White (Sheridan).