D-Day the Sixth of June (1956)

So much average

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

I had never seen this before today.The title is misleading as there is only a very small part actually about D-Day itself near the end.Two men, played by Robert Taylor and Richard Todd, are in love with the same woman played by Dana Wynter. They also happen to end up fighting alongside one another on a Normandy beach on D-Day.A lot of the film centres on the relationship between Wynter and Taylor. Todd, who was already in love with Wynter, is meant to be fighting overseas for a lot of the time and doesn't feature that much. He discovers the affair towards the end and ends up being Taylor's commanding officer on D-Day. He takes the affair very well and doesn't even get angry with Taylor about it.I found it very talky and there is only really any action in the last 15 minutes or so.The stars put in good performances but it shouldn't have been called D-Day the Sixth of June simply because it features only briefly.Overall this is a bit of a disappointing love story rather than an action packed account of the magnificent events of D-Day.

Growing up in the 50's and 60's we saw plenty of movies about WW2. They fell roughly into two groups. There were the British war films, which usually dealt with true stories such as "Reach for the Sky", "The Dam Busters" and "The Cockleshell Heroes". The others were the big Hollywood productions based on novels, which often had as much romance as military action: "Battle Cry", "The Young Lions" and "In Love and War". "D-Day the Sixth of June" was one of those.Set in WW2, Robert Taylor revisits Waterloo Bridge territory as Captain Brad Parker, a married American officer who falls for a British woman, Valerie Russell (Dana Wynter), whose British boyfriend Colonel John Wynter (Richard Todd) is off fighting in the Commandos. Inevitably, the two men come together on a special mission - a prelude to the D-Day landings.Most of the film is played out against the backdrop of wartime Britain and that Britain is mostly on the backlot of Twentieth Century Fox. The film looks rather artificial. However it was made 10-years after the war by many people who had served, and reveals attitudes that must have been current at the time. The way the Americans and British thought about each other comes through in conversation and it isn't always flattering. The self-interest of some senior officers, represented by Edmund O'Brien as Parker's commanding officer, is disturbing. The way Parker forgets that he has a wife waiting for him at home and moves in on Colonel Wynter's girlfriend brings to mind the old WW2 adage about the Americans being 'overpaid, oversexed and over here'. However the ending shows the allies coming together when it counted with mutual respect all round.Although I wasn't overly keen on romantic films as a child in the 50's, I liked the stars. Other than Robert Taylor (a bit old for the part) and Richard Todd (the epitome of the British war hero), the one that really caught my attention was Dana Wynter. She was just so distractingly beautiful. I remember her in other movies around the time: "Something of Value", "In Love and War" and "Sink the Bismarck". She was a bit posh, but maybe that added to the attraction. She passed away a few years ago like nearly all the stars I admired back in the day.There have been plenty of better films since "D-Day the Sixth of June", but it's a movie of its time with some interesting performances and a surprise ending.

This movie is on my list of ones not to bother with. Among my many peeves are movies that are mislabeled, that use an enticing title-"Battle of the Bulge" is another-and then portray little if any of the events the title implies. "Lafayette Escadrille" is another. Saw this one 40 years ago on the tube, as a 14 year old I was annoyed at the lack of action and real history. One incident stands out in my memory. At the end when the landings finally occur and newsreel footage is spliced in, the soundtracks plays the songs of the various armed forces, the Marine Corps hymn is played, my mother (born in 1913) said to me (the precocious history buff) "They didn't have Marines at D-Day, did they?" The answer of course is no, the ETO was a strict Army-Navy operation. I would call this a "bait and switch" movie, you are lured in by an enticing title, the actual movie is a scam.

Richard Todd is one of the best actors ever. He makes you feel like you are right there with him, living the part. People just don`t seem to know that he was actually there fighting on the real D-Day! You have always been my hero Mr. Todd and you always will be. You know how special you are to me. Thank you! myrna