The Very Thought of You (1944) User Reviews

an ideal, stirring romance

[casinoversusjapan · 8/10 · 15 May 2003]

One might think this movie is doomed to obscurity due to its overall lack of stylistic individuality. It's trite story-line is an easy target, too. However, for some reason, this motion picture totally won me over. This can be attributed to what i feel are the films three striking qualities: fluid character chemistry, naive but beautiful innocence, and a gentle, almost ideal humanistic touch.

There is nothing wrong with relating to some of the predictable ideals this movie outlines. I found myself getting lost in the era- the music, history, and politics of the mid 40's were all way before my time. Perhaps this is what drew me in... The romance between David and Janet is very sweet. As a result, the integrity of these main characters is very enchanting. What might seem on the surface as a predictable B-movie is actually a gentle and reassuring stroke of simplicity... a calm breath of fresh (and inspiring) air amidst today's loud and obnoxious box office hum drum.

A Little Fragmented But Very Poignant

[Handlinghandel · 8/10 · 22 July 2005]

In some ways, this is a series of vignettes cobbled together. The main story involves Eleanor Parker and Dennis Morgan. She had been a soda jerk when he was a chemistry student in the nearby college. Now they are reunited by chance while he is on leave from the service.

Her father is Henry Travers, very touching as a man viewed by many, himself most of all, as a failure. There is an implication that he's had emotional problems, as well. His wife, Parker's mother, is the absolutely always excellent Beulah Bondi. She looks tired, drawn, and grim when Parker first brings Morgan to the family Thanksgiving dinner but loosens up a bit once they've made her a grandmother.

Then there is comic relief Dane Clark, Morgan's military buddy. Dane Clark's is not a name that springs readily to mind when one thinks comedy but he is good. Faye Emerson is excellent as the girl he falls for while he and Morgan are on leave.

Then there is the always fascinating Andrea King, one of Parker's sisters. She has become jaded while her husband is off at sea. She has become a loose woman. When he reappears, as handsome William Prince, they somewhat improbably reconcile.

The movie is the slightly cheery side of a film noir. It has all the elements of noir. The difference is that it has a happy ending. Under the happiness, though, is terrible sadness -- both at home and fighting for our country overseas.

Moving romance with solid performances... the good old kind!

[pgilvoz · 8/10 · 23 June 2006]

I happened to see it today on TCM and am glad I did (I actually remembered I had already seen it). Eleanor Parker is lovely and nuanced in this one, and as the previous comments say, her chemistry with Dennis Morgan was terrific. Morgan was a much better actor than many of his roles. Dane Clark and Faye Emerson were also better-than-average performers who always made a mark in their films. The dysfunctional family situation is surprisingly straightforward for its time. And the philandering sister is handled with finesse by Andrea King, another reliable supporting star at Warners throughout the 40s and 50s.... All in all, a good time at the movies... and it still holds up after 62 years.

Romance, the way it should be ...

[jth90c · 15 May 2003]

This movie, made during the war, shows the other side of the coin from soldiers shooting things up and being heros. Our heros are passing through Pasadena heading from one theater to another.

I was hooked from the opening of this movie, and almost missed an appointment to see the ending. The plot is predictable, but that's the whole point. Our boys were still fighting the war when this film was made, and it had a message for both the soldiers, and the women they left behind. The dysfunctional family is well portrayed, and the actors are all belivable. Small slices of small town life are peppered into the action, and the theme is that love prevails.

I was surprised that the younger sister Ellie never went on to any other acting, she was funny, smart, and cute as a button.

Make sure you bring a hankie, and watch it with someone you love. You'll thank me later.

The Boy From Cal-Tech, The Girl From Pasadena

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 27 September 2010]

The Very Thought Of You concerns a wartime romance between Dennis Morgan and Eleanor Parker, the people I describe in my review title. Though the film is dated by its time, it's still a pleasant romantic film about life and love in World War II America on the home front.

Dennis and his buddies have been spending a cold, but relatively safe war so far in the Aleutians where the Japanese began an offensive, but are now stranded there. Someone in Washington decided to send his platoon to an area of actual fighting. Where does Dennis go, but to Pasadena as opposed to home. Pasadena is where the California Institute of Technology is and where Dennis attended school and he apparently identifies more with that town than where he is from.

Dane Clark accompanies Morgan and soon the two are involved with a pair of hometown girls, Eleanor Parker and Faye Emerson. Parker who comes from a large family has divided opinion about her wartime fling, opposition especially coming from Beulah Bondi. In fact what with wartime housing and travel restrictions it seems that the fates themselves are working against the romance.

There's a nice subplot going involving an older sister of Parker's, Andrea King and her marriage to sailor William Prince. King's been doing a little stepping out and isn't sure she didn't marry in haste as so many in wartime do.

Though The Very Thought Of You is dated as mores have certainly changed and arguably not for the better, the film is a nice voyage to a more innocent and hopeful time.

One for the nostalgia buffs!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 14 November 2013]

Here's the kind of movie that Hollywood motion picture studios don't make any more. It's a little domestic drama such as you might see on TV, but this one is played with restraint and sincerity. On the other hand, of course, for all the "restraint" and "sincerity", it doesn't ring true. "Well," you'll exclaim, "it isn't supposed to ring true! It's supposed to present an ideal of domesticity that will make people buy something." Thus the photography is too glossy, the principal players too charming. And yet for all its phoniness, the movie does muster some appeal thanks mostly to Eleanor Parker. Mr. Morgan unfortunately doesn't sing, so that knocks him out, while Dane Clark and Faye Emerson are obviously hemmed in by the stereotyped characters they're forced to play. Direction and other credits are both unobtrusively smooth and relentlessly unexciting. Perhaps the main appeal of this movie lies in its nostalgic thrust of the middle-class values that were all the rage in 1944-45!

Can take its place with the great screen romances

[reelguy2 · 10/10 · 7 June 2002]

This WW2 romance can take its place alongside Now Voyager and An Affair to Remember as one of the most romantic films ever made. It's easy to see why Dennis Morgan became one of the busiest (and highest paid) actors under contract to Warner Bros. in the 40s; he's an ideal leading man here, projecting masculine strength together with the soft-spokeness so essential to romances of this type. His scenes with lovely Eleanor Parker are a working definition of chemistry on the screen. Dane Clark registers delightfully as Morgan's hyperactive sidekick. And what a score by Franz Waxman - there's one short cue for the scene atop Mount Wilson that's an absolute masterpiece.

Offsetting the tender romance of the story is the edgy handling of the scenes with Parker's fairly dysfunctional family, which includes her bickering parents, philandering married sister, and developmentally-challenged brother.

This is a film deserving of a greater reputation -- and thanks to recent showings on TCM, that may already be happening.

What a surprise - a great movie

[trpdean · 9/10 · 14 May 2008]

I had very low expectations when I saw this yesterday. "Nothing else on" television was the excuse I made myself for watching it. I had no particular interest in the leads (though Eleanor Parker was good as the baroness in Sound of Music, I didn't really know her otherwise) and Morgan had generally left me flat (though I did like him in Christmas in Connecticut).

And then I saw this quite realistic dialog about picking up two girls on a bus - and following them - and their reactions! And then a very strange bickering family - unlike any I expected to see in a World War II film - where families are almost always peaches and cream.

And I thought, "well, this movie is different!"

It got better and better and better - primarily because you really are brought to believe that despite despite overwhelming odds, these two - Parker and Morgan - really do fall in love.

They're very modest, they've such limited hopes, and those hopes are so fragile - that you root for these two very gentle modest people so intently - as almost everyone they know - as well as all the worldwide events, conspire against them.

It's a very simple movie plot that is told with such verve, such overwhelming conviction by the participants fully invested in the wonder of the tale, that you are simply swept away. With low expectations, I just love it - and looked to buy it when I next came to the computer.

There are few movies that seem to bring people from another decade right into your home - real people with besetting problems and far from ideal surroundings - and whom you want to succeed so very badly.

Thanks to all who participated in this movie! You won no awards but you certainly won my heart!

Touching and Life Affirming

[mls4182 · 10/10 · 7 March 2021]

What a beautiful film. The writing is perfect. The top not cast is perfect. This film is so positive and warming without being saccharine. The actresses are particularly wonderful, charming and beautiful.

This may have intended to be a war propaganda film but it doesn't feel like one. I can't believe this beautiful picture isn't better known. If you haven't already fallen on love with Eleanor Parker, you will after seeing this film.

Happy 2021 and beyond.

the very thought of you

[mossgrymk · 5/10 · 23 March 2021]

Unless you're nostalgic for 1940s Pasadena there is no reason to see this bland, brave homefront crap, especially now that our last morally justified war is 75 years in the rearview mirror.

Dear John, from the Home Front

[Flicker-15 · 30 April 1999]

This is an impressive drama about the other side of the familiar "Dear John" plot in World War II movies -- that is, what the women back home went through in fear, loneliness, and temptation while their boyfriends and husbands were far away, perhaps never to return. If you think of 40's movies as prudish, you'll be surprised by lines like, "I can't remember anymore the way it felt when we made love."

Sidebar: A supporting actress, the later-famous Faye Emerson, had just married FDR's son Elliott when this film was released. Also, if you live in L.A., you'll enjoy scenes on the Cal Tech campus and on Mt. Wilson.

Romance will captivate you!

[steveareno · 10/10 · 11 January 2001]

This film is one of the best I've ever seen. It is truly forgotten and should get more recognition. Dennis Morgan and Eleanor Parker are one of the best on-screen couples. Their chemistry is intense and it's a shame they didn't make any more movies together. Georgia Lee Settle is perfect as Eleanor's younger sister, Ellie. She did not become a star which is highly disappointing. A very funny actress and she should have got more roles. If you are craving an excellent film with Dennis Morgan and romance, this hits the spot! He has never been better!

A delightful romance filled with nostalgia and a surprise happy ending.

[friscodick · 8/10 · 27 June 2006]

I was born in 1936 and must have seen this movie as a kid because during my entire lifetime as soon as I heard the song "The Very Thought of You" the image of Eleanor Parker comes to mind. This movie, probably more than any other from that era, takes me back to the "home front" mentality during the war. It tells a story so common during wartime of two people in love and the tension and worry so typical when the man went off to war, perhaps never to come back. It told of love making without the embarrassing display of sex that permeates so many of today's movies. Yes, it was naive, and it would probably bore today's generation because there are no car chase scenes, no violence and no vulgar language. But most of all it gives one a good feeling about being an American. Eleanor Parker and Dennis Morgan are ideally suited. A couple of things strain credibility; i.e.,living in a large two story house on a clerk's income, getting a telegram from the War Department that names both Dennis Morgan and Dane Clark of being wounded as if they were joined at the hip, but aside from that it is mainly honest in its portrayal of wartime life on the home front. I know, I had three older brothers that went off to war. Richard Lane

Truly Delightful !!

[ginnyc1327 · 9/10 · 9 October 2005]

This movie is delightful and uplifting, what a great WWII story. It was refreshing to watch compared to most of what is offered to us today. Dennis Morgan is one of my favorite actors and his voice was fabulous, even though he did not sing in this one. Although, I wondered if it was him singing the title song playing on the car radio in a scene with him and Eleanor Parker. Eleanor Parker was terrific as usual, her character's family was definitely dysfunctional, which certainly made the story more interesting. I always enjoy Eleanor Parker movies. Dane Clark was a delight in this one, he was always able to play very different roles and characters. The morals depicted in the story are ones that we find little of in today's movies. The really wonderful thing about this one, for me, is the happy ending. There was no violence, offensive language, or objectionable sexual content. I was sorry to see it end, because it made me want to see more. I would love to see this come out on video or DVD.

The Very "Wonderful" Thought of You ***1/2

[edwagreen · 9/10 · 16 May 2008]

Dennis Morgan and Eleanor Parker star in this wonderful World War 11 film how a weekend meeting between a soldier and a girl lead to marriage and brief happiness. The best part is that there is a wonderful ending.

Morgan comes home to Parker's family-a bickering one. Andrea King plays Parker's sister, who tired of waiting for her husband to come home, has been playing the field. She too realizes that she is wrong when her husband comes home unscathed from the war.

Morgan and Parker have a perfect screen chemistry. The picture would be considered corny by today's standards. We need more films of this quality. These war pictures searched for true meaning in the lives of people at home during the war at a time their men and women were serving. This is certainly a wonderful prelude to 1946's "The Best Years of Our Lives."

A reflection of the times and people during WWII

[denscul · 8/10 · 25 June 2006]

This film captures something missing in today's "love stories". There are no sex scenes, but Dennis Morgan and Elenore Parker portray two real people in love. Morgan is a Sergeant recently relieved from duty in Alaska. For those youngsters unread in history, the Japanese also attacked Alaska during the early part of WWII. The US sent thousands of troops to guard Alaska, then a territory of the US. For those who served in that remote area, it was the kind of military duty hardly anyone writes about or makes movies. It was thankless, boring and contact with the opposite sex was usually non-existent. Not even local females were available for distraction because many of the military posts existed where not even the locals lived. The movie begins in 1944, by then, the Japanese were retreating and the threat to Alaska no longer existed. The men were being sent home for some rest and recreation before being sent into combat, primarily in the Pacific.

The character played by Morgan had been a student at Cal Tech, and he has an opportunity to visit the school before being sent back into a new assignment. Morgan and his buddy, played by Dane Clark are naturally interested in meeting some girls before returning to the all male environment. The story line has them meeting two girls on a bus, and Elenore Parker plays a defense working girl who knew Morgan when he was a student. The need for the movies of this era to avoid the stigma of a "nice girl" being picked up is avoided by creating the story line that Parker knew Morgan when he was a student. She had worked in the cafeteria, and recalled that he was a hard working and concientious student. In fact, both Morgan and Parker's characters come across as someone you would want your daughter or son to meet. Not quite the way it is today. Parker invites Morgan home to her parent's wedding anniversary. The movie indulges in a bit of WWII propaganda making Parker's sister who is married to a sailor the villain. She is dating other men. This was a problem on the minds of the thousands of separated young marrieds, for both those at home and abroad. The movie also makes the draft age male civilian brother in-law out to be a less than likable person. Yes, this movie was made in Hollywood. What a difference 50 years makes.

Although Parker and Morgan get married in a blink of an eye, there is nothing sleazy about their actions. They even have a cute baby to show for their love. My what a difference baby boomers have have made to Hollywood.

The greatest generation

[byron938 · 10/10 · 23 June 2006]

The greatest generation. This movie shows the struggle during WWII. The struggle for love and togetherness. Times were great, people were sincere and generous. Families stuck together during the threat of adversity. Eleanor Parker and Dennis Morgan are great examples of love and devotion. The excitement of meeting and enjoying our freedom in a time of war. Seeing children play our families enjoying a Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner. Our troops had to fight for our freedom and way of life. This B movie shows woman working in factories. In all this movie will give future generations how we struggled to enjoy the normal life of love and family. And how our veterans secured our freedom and our way of life today.

I loved it

[dangermouse_31619 · 10/10 · 14 March 2002]

When I first saw the movie I fell in love with it and the leading actor. I found it to be one of the most romantic movies I had seen in a long time and I have not seen anything made today that has changed my opinion. The acting in the film was excellent. Dane Clark is very understated and very believable. I would recomend this movie to anyone or any age.

Excellent look at conflicting home front views during WW II

[SimonJack · 8/10 · 5 November 2019]

Warner Brothers assembled a fine cast for this World War II homefront melodrama. Holywood and British Cinema made a number of films about the homefront during World War II. Mostly, those showed the home work force, families and businesses doing their part for the war effort. Many dealt with sweethearts, husbands, sons and daughters gone for the war.

"The Very Thought of You" is in a very small sub-genre of war and drama films. It looks at the emotional side of the dread by some for the war's toll. That sometimes translated to dislike or even disdain for servicemen. Beulah Bondi's Mrs. Harriet Wheeler plays such a role here. She doesn't want daughter Janet to take up with Dennis Morgan's Sgt. David Stewart. Her reasoning is because there's no future in it, where he will just go back to the war and be killed or maimed for life.

Her daughter, and Janet's sister, Molly (played very well by Andrea King), is already married to a sailor. Molly has developed a similar bleak outlook and assumed that her sailor, Fred (William Prince) probably won't come home. She had quit writing him two years ago, and now goes out on dates. A brother, Cal (John Alvin) was rated 4-F and couldn't go into the service. But, his melancholy and bitterness about GIs and his sister, Molly, further hardens the family.

This family is close to drowning in its own pathos, and the film could become a depressing washout but for the several upbeat characters who counter the hopeless lot. Henry Travers as Pop Wheeler stands up to his wife, and sister, Ellie (Georgia Lee Settle), is full of excitement for Janet when she invites Sgt. Stewart to dinner. Janet herself, and Sgt. Stewart, his friend, Sgt. "Fixit" Gilman, and Janet's friend Cora Colton (Faye Emerson) are realistic but hopeful and upbeat.

The film came out in October 1944 when the war was far from over. Combat soldiers didn't get leaves to go home during the war, but David and Fixit were demolition experts assigned to a special unit. They had been on the front lines, but now had a leave before being assigned elsewhere. Janet and Cora worked at a parachute packing plant in or near Pasadena, CA. One wonders if that plant was actually there during that time. If so, they likely were packing the chutes that were used to drop equipment, material, food and medical supplies in battle torn areas across the South Pacific.

While the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment on Feb. 16, 1945, jumped onto Corregidor to take it from the Japanese, most of the airborne combat operations and jumps were in the European and African theaters. This is a fine movie about life among the people working and worrying on the homefront. And, about those hoping and praying. And, it's a good love story as well.

Here are some favorite lines from the film.

Sgt. Fixit Gilman, "How come they made you a demolition expert?" Sgt. David Stewart, "You can build 'em, you can knock 'em down."

Sgt. David Stewart, to Janet, "It takes more gizzard to be a soldier's wife than it does to fight. You've got to be braver than I'll ever be."

Sgt. David Stewart, "Goodbye, sweetheart. All my love, all my life."

We need more movies of this superior calibre for our country to re-establish its moral code.

[minitobe1 · 10/10 · 15 May 2003]

I enjoyed this very romantic story once again. It is of particular note that one did not have to see any explicit sexual behavior to appreciate the love and confidence these two couples had for each other. Please Hollywood, try to garner some real wisdom and make movies of this calibre again.

Thanks, Tony

True love story will never be outdated

[springhua2 · 8/10 · 22 May 2008]

Very good classic love story, even for today! I just watched it last week and did not see the movie name, but I finally find it from this web today.

There are still same excited real love stories today, but they will probably not happen with our ever great soldiers now.

The scenes of this movie were not so complex, but totally real, and I am truly touched by the true love between Eleanor and Dennis.

And also touching are the deep comradeship between Den and his buddy(Sorry, I forgot his name).

By the way, I wonder if people still can drive to the top of Mt. Wilson today.

A film from 1944 that hits home today.

[mycatznk9 · 10/10 · 28 July 2013]

WOW, what a great film! Another stellar performance by Eleanor Parker and Dennis Morgan; supported by Faye Emerson, Dane Clark, Beulah Bondi, Henry Travers and Andrea King. I am surprised that it is not as well known today since its quality rates right up there with "Best Years of Our Lives". This war-time drama is focused on the home front and the challenges faced by a soldier on leave (Morgan) who meets and falls in love with a hometown girl (Parker). They characterize themselves as reasonable people and feel that nothing can happen between them until after the war. What follows is a touching love story with challenges, hurdles and happiness. I can't help but think that there are many folks going through the same feelings and challenges today with our soldier heroes.

Revealing Time Capsule

[dougdoepke · 13 April 2014]

A few years ago, this would have been considered a woman's movie, dealing as it does with romantic relationships and family. Now it's basically a time capsule, showing a revealing, if idealized, portrait of the home front during WWII. The stars are certainly attractive and winning. Morgan and Parker manage an exceptional on-screen chemistry that converts what might otherwise be treacle into rather poignant drama. It's not surprising that Parker went on to a number of Oscar nominations.

Produced during the war (1944), the movie shows how traditional rituals of courtship, marriage, and fidelity have been undercut by wartime priorities. Morgan and Parker are attracted to each other. But after a brief courtship, they must decide whether to marry since he's being sent off to the war front. For example, she must consider what if he's killed. Then she would be a war widow with maybe a child and no prospects for future marriage. And what of him. Is he asking too much of her. Those letters from home may be a lifeline, but what if he gets a Dear John instead. After all, Janet's (Parker) sister Molly (King) is running around on her army husband. These are the kind of uncertainties the couple must face because of the war's disruption of normal civilian life, while the screenplay does a good job of raising them.

I can't help noticing that Jerry Wald acted as the producer for Warner Bros., which means the studio considered this a prestige production. Despite the many location shots, it's not a budget-heavy film. Still, there is considerable care with detail. Note that the lengthy beach scene is staged at the beach with no budget-cutting process shots, which cheaper productions undoubtedly would have used. Then too, the many supporting roles are almost uniformly well-cast, right down to lively little Ellie (Settle).

My only real reservation is with Molly's sudden turn-around, a gesture, I suppose, to sunny commercialism. Then too, note the background picture of wartime Japanese Prime Minister Tojo, plus liberal use of negative term 'Jap'. Both would quickly disappear after the war. Nonetheless, the movie remains an entertaining look at how personal relationships were having to adjust to wartime priorities. And is, therefore, worth a look.

An excellent WWII film....among the best.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 14 September 2021]

In many ways, "The Very Thought of You" reminds me of the wonderful MGM film "The Clock". Both are about whirlwind WWII romances between soldiers and ladies, though "The Clock" seems more like a romance and this Warner Brothers film is more like a propaganda film with romantic elements. Now when I say 'propaganda', it's NOT pejorative...propaganda can be positive and beneficial, as this was in helping folks at home understand and appreciate the war effort.

The film is about a guy who is on leave from the army, Sergeant Dave Stewart. While on this leave, he meets and falls in love with Janet (Eleanor Parker) and they soon marry. Much of the film shows her family and the way (somewhat unrealistically) each acts towards the war. Some are very patriotic, some a bit selfish and some total jerk-faces.

While the film is not as realistic or sweet as "The Clock", it is effective. You might need some kleenex to be handy as you watch and it's well made in every way. Yes, I'll admit the patriotic elements are a bit obvious....but it was intended as a film to drum up support for the war, so what else would you expect??

By the way, though an excellent film, I had to laugh at the scene where the woman had JUST given birth and looked like a cover model...yeah, right!!!