My Own True Love
Cast & Crew
Compton Bennett
Phyllis Calvert
Melvyn Douglas
Wanda Hendrix
Philip Friend
Binnie Barnes
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In London on VE Day, 7 May 1945, Clive Heath, a wartime documentary filmmaker, meets ex-prisoner of war Joan Clews at the women's army barracks where his daughter Sheila is stationed. Sheila arranges a date between Joan, who is separated from her husband, and the widowed Clive but his car breaks down while they are out. Near the mechanics' garage, a drunken soldier mistakes Joan for his sweetheart, and she kisses him in memory of his lost girl friend. Joan then goes home with Clive and they fall in love. Later, he tells her about his missing son Michael, a pilot whose airplane was shot down over Burma three years earlier. Clive assumes Michael is dead, but then receives word that he has just been discovered in a Burma jail. Clive finds his son transformed--a cripple without a leg, and greatly changed in spirit--but Joan assures him that former prisoners of war need time to adjust to civilian life. Following a beach holiday, Clive and Joan announce their engagement to his children, and she moves into his house to await the settlement of her divorce. Although Michael is unable to communicate his traumatic experiences to his father, he is quite comfortable sharing his feelings with the understanding Joan. One night, she introduces Reney and Geraldine, two of her fellow prisoners, to Michael, and for the first time, his loneliness begins to wane. He later confesses, however, that it was Joan, not her friends, who brought him back to life, and that he is in love with her. When she offers to leave the house, he begs her to stay. One rainy afternoon, they meet by chance at a concert and after arriving home together, Michael tells Joan that he was married in Malaya, but his wife Ala and child were killed by Japanese soldiers who came in search of him. In sympathy, Joan kisses Michael and is caught by Clive, who accuses them of betraying him. Joan breaks the engagement and moves in with Geraldine. Through Archie, a soldier who was in Malaya with Michael, Joan learns that Michael blames himself for the death of his wife and child. Clive, meanwhile, arranges a job for himself overseas with Iverson, a filmmaker he and Joan met on holiday. Joan confronts Michael at home, warning him about how selfish love can be, but he pulls out a gun just as Clive arrives and announces his departure for South Africa. Shaken by Clive's appearance, Michael drops the gun and promises his father he will make something of himself. Joan then kisses Michael for Ala.
Director
Compton Bennett
Cast
Phyllis Calvert
Melvyn Douglas
Wanda Hendrix
Philip Friend
Binnie Barnes
Alan Napier
Arthur Shields
Phyllis Morris
Richard Webb
Crew
Guy Bennett
Henry Bumstead
Sam Comer
John Cope
Ed Crowder
Robert Emmett Dolan
Ross Dowd
Hans Dreier
Farciot Edouart
Edith Head
Gordon Jennings
Arthur Kober
Charles B. Lang Jr.
Val Lewton
Harry Lindgren
Ronnie Lubin
Nellie Manley
Curtis Mick
Josef Mischel
Oscar Randolph
G. E. Richardson
Leroy Stone
Theodore Strauss
Wally Westmore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
A pre-production news item in Par News credits Lenore Coffee as co-adaptor with Arthur Kober. Coffee is not credited on the screen, in reviews or in Screen Achievements Bulletin, however, and the extent of her contribution to the story has not been determined. The film marked the American motion picture debut of British director Compton Bennett. My Own True Love also marked producer Val Lewton's first film for Paramount. Lewton, a former novelist and screenwriter, had previously worked as a producer at RKO.
