The Very Thought of You ** (1944, Dennis Morgan, Eleanor Parker, Dane Clark, Faye Emerson, Beulah Bondi, Henry Travers) – Classic Movie Review 9,734

Director Delmer Daves’s tepid but kindly 1944 wartime romantic drama film The Very Thought of You stars Dennis Morgan as a US Army sergeant, Sgt David ‘Dave’ Stewart in World War Two.

Dave and his Army sergeant buddy ‘Fixit’ Gilman (Dane Clark) meet parachute factory workers Janet Wheeler (Eleanor Parker) and Cora ‘Cuddles’ Colton (Faye Emerson) during their three-day pass in Pasadena. Dave gets married to Janet, goes back to war and then has predictable problems when he gets back back home.

There is a sweet romantic mood, but The Very Thought of You is a rather bland and unmemorable movie, thanks to Alvah Bessie and Delmer Daves’s weak, predictable script (based on a story by Lionel Wiggam), which is packed with clichés, dull lead performances in stereotype roles, and flaccid handling by an off-form Daves.

The film’s well meaning spirit and the character acting by a bunch of experts (especially Beulah Bondi and Henry Travers) are both assets.

Also in the cast are Dane Clark, Faye Emerson, Beulah Bondi, Henry Travers, William Prince, Andrea King, John Alvin, Georgia Lee Settle, Richard Erdman, Francis Pierlot, Marianne O’Brien, Fred Chapman, Eddie Motter, Justus Motter, Royne O’Neil, Harold Shields, Paul Spinner, Richard Bartell, John Burton, Eddie Kane, Angela Greene, Bob Gary, Sam McDaniel, Jack Mower, Henry Sharp, Philip Van Zandt, John Whitney, Georgie Nokes and Myron Tobias.

The song ‘The Very Thought of You’, written with music and lyrics by Ray Noble, is played during the opening credits and a vocal rendition is played on the car radio. The pop standard was first recorded by Ray Noble and His Orchestra, with Al Bowlly on vocals, for HMV in England in April 1934. When it was released in the US by Victor, it reached number 1 for five weeks on the pop charts. Billie Holiday’s 1938 version is a great jazz standard.

With both of their husbands at the war, Eleanor Parker invited Andrea King to stay with her during filming as her house was only a five-minute drive away from Warner Bros.

 © Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9,734

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com