The White Cliffs of Dover

The White Cliffs of Dover is a 1944 American war drama film based on the verse novel The White Cliffs by Alice Duer Miller. It was made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Clarence Brown, and produced by Clarence Brown and Sidney Franklin. The screenplay was by Claudine West, and George Froeschel, with the credit for additional poetry by Robert Nathan. Nathan stated in an interview that he wrote the screenplay as his first work as a contracted writer for MGM but the studio credited Claudine West who died in 1943 as a tribute to her. Plot At the height of World War II, American-born Susan, Lady Ashwood, (Irene Dunne) is a nurse in a British hospital, awaiting the arrival of 300 wounded men. Via flashback, she thinks back to how she came to Britain many years before. In 1914, Susan and her father, small-town Rhode Island newspaper publisher Hiram P. Dunn (Frank Morgan), come 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), 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.