The Very Thought of You (1944)

Directed by Delmer Daves. Starring Eleanor Parker, Dennis Morgan, Dane Clark, Faye Emerson, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi, Andrea King, Georgia Lee Settle, John Alvin, William Prince.

Two Army boys spend their Thanksgiving weekend pass in California where they meet a couple of young ladies working at a parachute factory, one of whom (Parker) knows one of the guys (Morgan) from her school days. I could tell you they fall in love, but you already know that, just like you know where everything else is going, from a pregnancy scare to a sister stepping out on her sailor husband, because the Hays Code is very narrow in what it would allow. Trite morality in an uplifting fantasy, reasonably played, and Dane Clark’s comic relief, “Fixit”, isn’t too annoying of a cut-up, either. It’s comfort food, like the full spread on the Thanksgiving table, if you’re down for pat and passable romantic dramas. No connection to the same-named 1990s rom-com with Joseph Fiennes and Monica Potter.

62/100