The Very Thought of You (1944)

[moira finnie]

Do you like Homefront movies?

Eleanor Parker & Dennis Morgan in "The Very Thought of You" (1944).

Diverse movies such as Since You Went Away, Tender Comrade, Mr. Lucky, The Human Comedy, Sunday Dinner With a Soldier and the second movie directed by Delmer Daves, The Very Thought of You (1944) seemed to catch some of the feeling of wartime society stateside, usually by looking at one town, a family or a couple. The latter movie, which airs tomorrow, May 13th at 12:30 PM EDT does a decent job of creating a situation in which two GIs (Dennis Morgan & Dane Clark) find themselves at dinner with Eleanor Parker's pretty dysfunctional family (Henry Travers & Beulah Bondi play her bickering, sharp-tongued parents, Andrea King & John Alvin play some restless siblings & Faye Emerson rounds out the cast).

There's some nice tension, appealing actors & be prepared for some overflowing tear ducts (yours) in this one as the reality of separation & death intrude on the low key story, which is, of course, propaganda, but still has some appeal as a human story.

Eleanor Parker.

It may be a long way from Parker's sterling work in Caged (1950) & Detective Story (1951), but when working with writer-director Daves during this period of her career at Warners, she gave some hints of better things to come in this film as well as in the exceptional Pride of the Marines (1945) with John Garfield. I wouldn't call The Very Thought of You a must-see, but as a glimpse of the WWII period and an observation of a situation that is sadly eternal, it captures something worthwhile in some scenes. There's also good work by scenarists Alvah Bessie (& Delmer Daves) from a story by Lionel Wiggam. And then, of course, there is that haunting Ray Noble song, with the poignant melody that seems to hang in the air throughout the film thanks to Franz Waxman.

I guess all these elements make this romantic propaganda.

[Ollie]

You had me on "home-front movies", my dear Miss Buttonpusher!

[Ollie]

Ah yes, I've seen this a few times, and enjoy the much-needed transformations of Beulah Bondi and Andrea King. This isn't up to BEST YEARS stature in my books, but does a pretty good job on the Dear John defniition and recovery. I really don't need to see Fredric and Myrna, or Harold Russell giving a salute in every home-front film. sniff sniff

As long as they're going to tug at my sympathies, I'm glad they did a pretty good job of it.

[moira finnie]

I'd forgotten about the overly clownish aspects of Dane Clark's character, somewhat redeemed by the restraint shown by Faye Emerson. (Wow, did Faye have the broadest, smoothest forehead in movies, or what?). I think that Warner's saw Clark as a potential comedic John Garfield for a time in Action in the North Atlantic, Stage Door Canteen, Destination Tokyo and this movie, but he was not really funny. I like him more when the brashness gets toned down a bit in quasi-serious stuff as in Pride of the Marines, Moonrise, Whiplash, and especially in Deep Valley, (which airs this Friday 5/16 at 10am EDT on TCM).

Two 1940's touches that I liked in The Very Thought of You:

1.) The young black woman (Sybil Lewis) working side by side with Parker & Emerson in the parachute factory whose name was Hope and who addressed the two white women as friendly equals, not as superiors. Of course, this was probably the kind of thing that would later be cited as subversive commie propaganda by the HUAC boys bedeviling Alvah Bessie after the war.

2.) The other was the hotel manager (I think the actor's name was Henry Sharp) who, in an unlikely but gentle moment of fantasy, found that a $50 a night suite was suddenly available for $10--all because he hoped that some small act of kindness might filter down to his son in a Japanese POW camp--even though the guy knew better. Pass the kleenex, please.

[The Ingenue]

The Very Thought of You surprised me. I didn't read Moira's introduction beforehand and thought the movie would be a comedy (the trailer must've given me that expectation), but I found the drama very pleasing. It seems there was an unusual number of closeups. I take it that's sometimes a sign of poor moviemaking (?), but these were put to a better use than just making the players look pretty. They drew me into the emotions of the scenes, and made the movie feel very personal.

What surprised me most was Beulah Bondi's portrayal of Eleanor Parker's acrimonious mother. My, what an actress!

A new favorite showed up in a more amicable role, quite a ways into the picture: William Prince. Like Warner Anderson and John Mills, Prince has a quiet command that makes me just stop and gaze. When these actors enter a scene, I know they're going to do something special, and I've never been disappointed.

[moira finnie]

I was interested in the number of close-ups too, Carrie, especially in the beach scene. At first I thought that it might have been because the director or cinematographer (aesthetically and sometimes actually) fell in love with the contours of Eleanor Parker's beautiful face, but then I realized we had several unusual lingering close-ups of Dennis Morgan too. What was interesting was that most of the close-ups were of Dennis in profile, gazing at Eleanor.

It may be a sign of "poor filmmaking" since many directors like to save the emphasis of a story for selected moments of the movie, and since this was only Delmer Daves' second directorial effort, he may have been somewhat inexperienced in making these choices. Still, in the quieter scenes of the movie, as when Morgan & Parker are left alone in the motel, or are preparing for Morgan to leave after their first night together in the hotel after marrying, their expressions said much more than the words of the script could ever have evoked.

Beulah Bondi did a great job as a controlling woman who took all her grievances out on her family. Ms. Bondi had to play so many sweet Moms, I think she probably enjoyed getting her teeth into this part, as I suspect she did in Track of the Cat (1954).

It was definitely an uneven movie, but pretty interesting, don't you think?