This Above All | |
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Film poster
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Directed by | Anatole Litvak |
Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck |
Written by |
Eric Knight (novel) R. C. Sherriff |
Starring |
Tyrone Power Joan Fontaine |
Music by | Alfred Newman |
Cinematography | Arthur Miller |
Edited by | Walter Thompson |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date
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Running time
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110 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $2.4 million (US rentals) |
This Above All is a 1942 American romance film set in World War II adapted from the Eric Knight novel of the same name, directed by Anatole Litvak, and starring Tyrone Power and Joan Fontaine as a couple from different social classes who fall in love in wartime England. The supporting cast features Thomas Mitchell, Nigel Bruce, and Gladys Cooper.
Prudence Cathaway (Joan Fontaine) a strong-willed young woman from a privileged background, joins the WAF, a women's paramilitary group, over family protests. On a blind date one inky black night, she meets Clive Briggs (Tyrone Power), a moody mysterious man with a dark secret. When she subsequently sees her date in the daylight, the romance inevitably ensues. Despite Briggs' criticism of her own aristocratic background, Prudence tolerates Briggs' cynical nature and his ambivalence about fighting to retain the English class system that supports the rich and privileged.
Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright, and Thomas Little won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction, Black-and-White. The film was also nominated for Cinematography (Arthur Miller), Editing (Walter Thompson), and Sound Recording (E. H. Hansen).