D-Day the Sixth of June

A film which springs immediately to mind after watching D-Day the Sixth of June is Abbott and Costello go to Mars. In that cerebral little opus A&C never actually get to Mars - they go to Venus instead, and even then it is only after some considerable preliminaries. Unlike that picture, D-Day the Sixth of June does actually get to the events referred to, but it is only as an aside for ten minutes or so at the end; like Abbott and Costello go to Mars, the title is a complete misrepresentation.

For most of its running time this film is actually a boring and clichéd melodrama in which Robert Taylor, Richard Todd and Dana Wynter play three two-dimensional characters involved in a love triangle against a backdrop of wartime England (Hollywood's conception of wartime England, anyway). The three roles may just as well have been played by cardboard cut-outs, but for what it's worth Richard Todd probably comes off best, being the only one of the major cast members who even hints at creating a real-life character. Robert Taylor is at his most wooden, and also possibly a little too old for his role. His love scenes with Dana Wynter generate less passion than an undertaker's convention. But then again, Dana Wynter always did seem to me to be a particularly passionless actress.

It can only be regretted that the film's makers did not spend more time on the subsidiary characters, who seem to me to be far more interesting. Brigadier Russell is well played by John Williams, and his resentment of the American interlopers is a theme which could have been developed far more fully. Likewise the flaky nature of Edmond O'Briens Colonel Timmer is never really explored or explained in any sense at all.

All in all, I enjoyed Abbott and Costello Go to Mars a lot more.

This is one of those movies where history (IWW II) seems to get in the way of romance (Taylor and Wynter). He's a married American officer stationed in England, falling in love with a beautiful young Red Cross worker (Wynter), while she's already in love with a gung ho British officer (Todd). Wow! All that with bombs falling, guns firing and secret missions. Taylor and Wynter pull it off nicely, but the movie as a whole will leave you a little disappointed. Mind you, it is a good way to kill a couple of hours.

Despite the imposing title D-Day the Sixth of June which might lead one to believe it is an account of the Normandy invasion. It is in fact and old fashioned war romance. For Robert Taylor this was a throwback picture, back to the kind of romantic stuff he did in his early days of being MGM's number one pin-up boy.

Dana Wynter has Richard Todd as her steady beau who's gone to war just as America's gotten into it via Pearl Harbor. Todd goes missing in action and Wynter in her best British stiff upper lip style goes to help in the war effort herself as the Nazis loom perilously close to the island kingdom.

Robert Taylor gets to be one of the first American officers assigned over in Europe and Wynter and he meet via an altercation her father, John Williams, has with some bumptious GIs. Wynter diplomatically smooths things out and she and Taylor develop a relationship. It can't really go anywhere because Taylor's married. But they're both in need of each other at the moment.

Curiously enough this does parallel the situation of the Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower who carried on an affair with his British driver Kay Summersby. Ike of course was married and Kay was a war widow.

Todd does make it back and that does complicate matters. All this in the shadow of the impending cross-channel invasion.

Richard Todd had a promising career during the 1950s. He became well known to American audiences via his appearance in some Disney films and other American productions. Strangely enough it seemed to halt in the following decade and the international stardom that beckoned never came to fruition. He was a fine player capable of a wide variety of roles, even being a villain in a Hitchcock film. But I personally like him best as a hero.

And a genuine hero he was. He was actually at D-Day as a British Commando and won a whole slew of medals. Bob Taylor also was in the Armed Forces in World War II, he did three years in Uncle Sam's Navy in the Pacific.

Dana Wynter I've always thought of as a British version of Ava Gardner. And she had the talent to match. She also should have had a bigger career. I would say her beauty is regal and lo and behold she actually made that statement true when she portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in a film about Charles and Diana.

For war picture fans there's still enough action to satisfy. The only other role of real significance was Edmond O'Brien as Taylor's boss at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. Another reviewer said his role was not developed well. I wish it had been myself. But it probably would have taken away from the romance.

The main issue i have with this film is that 98% of the film has nothing to do with D-DAY , it's about two officers on a boat talking about their romance with a woman. If the film had suggested that this would be the story that would have made it much better like if the title had been say "Two soldiers and a lady" that would have been good but calling it D-day the sixth of June is just totally wrong. It's like calling Manhunter the life of Hannibal Lector (for those of you who didn't get that joke Hannibal only shows up for about five minutes in Manhunter). Aside from the title being wrong the story is really uninteresting mainly because you want the film to show you you the bits with D-day in them because that's what the film has promised in the title but it never bloody shows them. If you want a really boring melodrama about love then yeah it's for you but other wise don't watch it and ignore the title completely.

This WWII tear-jerker romance centered around the Normandy invasion in 1944 is one of my all time favorites of this genre. Most notably, the pairing of Robert Taylor and Dana Wynter seemed perfect casting. They are very natural together, real old pros. They exemplified the difficult relationships couples shared in wartime, grabbing a piece of life in the few moments available between battles.