The White Cliffs of Dover | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Clarence Brown |
Produced by |
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Screenplay by | |
Based on | "The White Cliffs" (1940 poem) by Alice Duer Miller |
Starring | |
Music by | Herbert Stothart |
Cinematography |
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Edited by | Robert Kern |
Production
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Release date
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Running time
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126 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2,342,000 |
Box office | $4,045,000 (domestic) $2,249,000 (foreign) |
The White Cliffs of Dover is a 1944 film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Clarence Brown and produced by Clarence Brown and Sidney Franklin. The screenplay was by Claudine West, Jan Lustig and George Froeschel, based on the Alice Duer Miller poem titled The White Cliffs with the credit of additional poetry by Robert Nathan. Nathan stated in an interview that he wrote the screenplay in his first work as a contract writer for MGM but the studio credited Claudine West who died in 1943 as a tribute to her. The role of Betsy was shared. Betsy as a little girl at age 10 was played by Elizabeth Taylor and Betsy as a young woman was played by June Lockhart.
At the height of World War II, Lady Susan Ashwood (Irene Dunne) is a nurse in a British hospital, awaiting the arrival of some wounded men. She thinks back to how she came to Britain many years before.
In 1914, Susan and her father Hiram P. Dunn (Frank Morgan) (publisher of a small-town newspaper) came to Britain, intending to stay for two weeks. Old Colonel Forsythe (C. Aubrey Smith) introduces Susan to Sir John Ashwood (Alan Marshal), a baronet and one of the landed gentry, with an estate and manor house. They fall in love, and despite some friction over her being American, they marry.
Their honeymoon is cut short when World War I breaks out. John is also an army officer; he rejoins his regiment and goes to war in France. Susan and John's mother, Lady Jean (Gladys Cooper) must wait for news, good or bad. John's brother Reggie (John Warburton) is killed in action. John finally gets a chance to be with Susan for a few days in France, which they spend in Dieppe. During their stay, the United States declares war on Germany.