This Above All (1942)

Very best movie i ever watch

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I had never heard of this film, despite very much liking Tyrone Power and sometimes liking Joan Fontaine. But it's a gem...mostly! Tyrone Power...well, I may be a man, but what a hunk! And, more importantly, what an actor, and he's as good here as ever as a former soldier troubled as WWII gets more and more difficult. Joan Fontaine here has lost her sometimes-haughtiness, and is so good as the upper class young lady who joins the WAF and falls in love (with Power).Thomas Mitchell, usually a favorite character actor of mine, seemed slightly out of place here as an older soldier. Nigel Bruce has a very nice role here as an innkeeper; if you don't know he's in the film, you almost might not recognize him. Gladys Cooper, a wonderful character actress is here; sometimes she was wonderfully sweet, and sometimes quite the opposite; this is quite the opposite, and she doesn't get much screen time. One of the better small roles is Alexander Knox as a minister who knows the horror of war.The story is a good one -- a deserter (although we don't know that until later in the film) is struggling because of his reasons for not going back to the front...not cowardice, but animosity toward who the war will really benefit (the upper class of British society). He falls in love with an upper class British girl who has joined the WAF. They have some wonderful times together, but then he becomes hunted. Where will he go? What will he ultimately do? And then he is severely injured when saving a family during an air raid, and Fontaine's father -- a surgeon -- saves his life...and Fontaine and Power are married in the hospital.I wasn't particularly enamored with the ending, which seemed to come very suddenly, but overall this was a very well-done film. Some say it's 20th Century Fox's answer to MGM's "Mrs. Miniver" (also 1942). The latter is a fine film starring one of my favorite actresses, but I think I prefer "This Above All". Highly recommended, though because of the ending it will not end up on my DVD shelf.

Tyrone Power and Joan Fontaine star in this movie about war, patriotism, and being true to one's beliefs. Joan's a upper-crust member of society who volunteered for the WAAFs. Tyrone, an enlisted man, meets Joan, for a blind date, kind of. But he appears to have a secret or something in his past that bothers him and it begins to bother Joan.What begins as a low-key drama becomes a suspense espionage film as he is running from the law. My thoughts are not all together as I write this, and I feel it deserves a better written review than I am doing. It becomes a very personal, spiritual film as he wrestles with his conscience and the morality of war. I recommend this for anyone who wants an intelligent and deeply felt movie not just about war, but about real people thrown into these situations, who only want to do the right thing but feel they are losing a part of themselves by what they think is compromising their beliefs.Now one of my favorite movies of the stars, "This Above All" is out on a Tyrone Power DVD collection, but should be shown by TCM, so that more people will be more familiar with this unknown gem.

I used to climb out of bed(midnight)and watch old movies on KTLA(Movies Til'Dawn)when I was very young.I had a number of siblings so I rarely got to pick our viewings.This was how I got around that.This picture is a very moving story of a disillusioned Canadian soldier(Tyrone Power)who has gone AWOL.He doesn't understand what WWII is about and doesn't want to fight.He meets a pretty young girl(Joan Fontaine)and she"sorts him out"!I believe he is injured by shrapnel in a German air-raid,and her father(Henry Stephenson/a surgeon)saves his life so he can go back and fight.It's a "tear-jerker"but very well done(so as to avoid it's becoming tediously so).I met Joan Fontaine on a ship(1994)and she couldn't believe that a person my age(44)would have seen this film(let alone remember it so well).I was absolutely delighted to have got to meet and spend some time with her.I had met her sister in the 1980's and helped her escape the paparazzi at The Beverly Hilton Hotel and I put her in a cab back to The Beverly Hills Hotel.Memorable Moments!!!

This film stars Joan Fontaine and Tyrone Power as a couple who meet and fall in love during the darkest days of WWII--even though Fontaine actually knows very little about Power and his checkered past.From the onset, I was a bit surprised by the decision to cast Tyrone Power. Sure, he was a big, handsome star with 20th Century-Fox, but he was playing a Brit--even though he had no trace of a British accent. Now had they said he was a Canadian, it might have been much more believable. As for Ms. Fontaine, I am often critical of her performances (since I think she got the Oscar for a lackluster performance), but here she is exceptional and very effective.The other major problem I have with the film is the whole notion of the romance. First, Fontaine is a true patriot--a member of the nobility that could have sat on her butt through the war but volunteered for the military. Yet, she manages to fall in love with a man who, as far as she knows, hasn't volunteered or served. And, when it turns out he's a deserter, she STILL agrees to marry him!!! Now, you do discover that he's really not such a coward and he does manage to redeem himself, but still you wonder how Fontaine could come to love this man based on who he was at that time.It's a shame really because apart from these problems, it's a very lovely film--with exceptional direction, music, acting and a wonderful evocative mood. In fact, as a positive propaganda piece, it's exceptional and was very timely in 1942--though just a tad preachy. Overall, it's still a good film and worth your time--just don't try to get too hung up on the plot holes or it will ruin your viewing.PS--In the film, Fontaine says "I am not a blue stocking". I looked up this term and it's an outdated slur that refers to a educated rich woman who was a member of a particular British literary society. The members were known for being total "fuddy-duddies".