richard-1787 This is certainly not a great movie, but it is well made, thanks to Anatole Litvak's first-class direction. Some of the early scenes, where the characters are in shadow, are particularly interesting.As for the story, it is somewhat difficult to swallow. Tyrone Power/Briggs has gone AWOL, not able to return to the fighting. He doesn't give a particularly good explanation of why. He is not a coward, however, as we see most notably near the end when he risks his own life and a chance to see the woman he loves to help another man's wife and baby escape a burning building. (No, it's not subtle.) But the part of the movie that I found hard to swallow was the scene between Power and Joan Fontaine in the hotel room, where, out of the blue, she delivers a lecture on why radicals like Power/Briggs should forget about their concerns with the Englisn class structure and its iniquities for the duration of the war. For a character who had rejected those very iniquities near the opening of the film, her speech comes out of nowhere.The ending is schmaltzy, but there was a war to be won, and that excuses a lot of clichéd cinema.Tyrone Power has never done much for me. Joan Fontaine gives a fine performance, as do the many great character actors with whom she plays. Worth one watching, but not more than that.

bkoganbing Although the English born, Laurence Olivier, Richard Greene, or Robert Donat would have done the part of Clive Briggs great justice, there was nothing wrong with the performance Tyrone Power gave in This Above All. Power does not even attempt an English accent, yet his performance is every bit as good as Robert Taylor's in Waterloo Bridge. Eric Knight's novel was a big seller and the film is a serious examination as to why this is the people's war. In a curious way Power's views which do undergo a radical transformation are a mirror image of what Marlon Brando said in The Young Lions about class distinctions.And in the same year of This Above All, Teresa Wright in Mrs. Miniver upheld the tradition of the upper classes. One of my favorite scenes from that film is Wright telling Richard Ney about the things she's involved in to make her corner of the world better. Joan Fontaine feels the same way, before she meets the cynical Power she tells her family that she feels she has to get in and do her bit. She joins the Women's Auxiliary Army Force as an enlistee, not even an officer. She feels as did Wright that class also carries responsibility.Power and Fontaine are a perfectly matched pair, she just coming off her Oscar and him at the height of his box office draw. Hollywood's English colony fills out the rest of the cast with the exception of Thomas Mitchell who is inevitably Irish.This Above All won an Oscar for Best Art Direction and it was nominated in several other categories. The film holds up remarkably well because it is both patriotic, but a very atypical and cynical film for its time, not your normal flag-waver.

valjeang11 I enjoyed the old-fashioned values. There were a few moments where 'the director's agenda was showing" and it became very preachy. but overall, it was an interesting old film. Joan Fontaine looked radiant - Tyrone's handsome dark looks transported us back to a time long ago and far away.

jenny-103 Tyrone Power once again proves what a brilliant actor he was in this film! Joan Fontaine is also wonderful as an upper-class English woman who joins the WAFs during WWII and meets and falls in love with a charming, but troubled, stranger (Power) with a mysterious past. This movie is not only well acted and touching, but also provides an interesting historical window into WWII England. A definite must see for Tyrone Power fans and anyone interested in WWII. Unfortunately, this movie is not available on video. However, for anyone who wishes to see it, I managed to catch it on the Fox Movie Channel, where it is sometimes shown.