Well Meet Again Children of Wwii Imdb Documentary
Nice film
Vera Lynn was a wonderful singer with a beautiful voice, with some great songs under her belt, her most famous being "We'll Meet Again". Named after that song, 'We'll Meet Again' is her film debut in her first of her five films.
While not a great film, it is worth seeing for fans of Lynn. 'We'll Meet Again' is not the most visually or technically accomplished film, and the story structurally and sometimes momentum wise isn't the best, occasionally a little heavy-handed.
It is however well worth watching for Lynn, essentially playing herself but doing so with enormous charm. She is well supported by irreverent turns from Frederick Leister and Betty Jardine and a moving one from Brefni O'Rorke.
The music is lovely and makes great use of Lynn's wonderful voice. The script is fun, sweet and charming and some of the pacing is sprightly enough, the film assuredly directed.
Overall, a nice film. 8/10 Bethany Cox
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Rather entertaining for what it is
Warning: Spoilers
This was a film I had been wanting to see for ages, being a big fan of Dame Vera Lynn and it being one of three films she made. It was named after her most famous song, "We'll Meet Again", and filmed during the war in 1942 when the Forces Sweetheart was at the height of her popularity. I finally managed to see a copy on video loaned to me by a friend. A shame it isn't available on DVD, as it's a fascinating period piece.
Naturally, it isn't the best or most groundbreaking movie in the world. But it does entertain you for the 86 minutes it's on. That's what I like in my movies: short and sweet! The plot is a simple tale of success in World War II-struck London for a young female dancer named Peggy Brown, who very surprisingly finds she has a lovely voice. She's meant to be reluctant to air it, but without any prompting, near the beginning of the film she decides to entertain a packed theatre during an air raid. And what a wonderful performance it is. It's great to see Vera singing one of her early classics, "Be Like The Kettle And Sing".
From here, we soon find Peggy has a male friend who composes classical music, and in something of a cliché he turns his nose up at "that popular music rubbish". However in the space of a few minutes Peggy manages to persuade him it's not so bad after all, and he miraculously finds he is capable of composing popular music too! He writes a song which turns out to be quite good - but again his female companion is reluctant to be a singing star. Naturally she ends up singing on the record and quite by mistake it gets played by the BBC. Everyone loves her voice and soon she finds she is fronting a weekly radio series (art mirroring life, as we all know Vera did a radio series entitled 'Sincerely Yours' during the war years).
In the middle of this there is a plot involving one of Peggy's old friends from school, a Scottish soldier who happens to be marrying one of her newer friends. A young boy Peggy knows (possibly her brother, though it is never made clear whether she is related to the people who live in her home!) is depressed at home so she takes him to this female friend of her's who lives in the country, he decides he likes it and stays there. Peggy manages to get the formerly engaged couple back together after they have apparently split up. The female friend has his baby while he is serving, but shortly after sending good wishes to the couple on the air, she hears he has been killed in action. Now this isn't a serious film in any way, so of course it turns out he's just been injured.
And we presume they all live happily ever after, as the ending is pleasing (more of Vera singing) but doesn't tie up either of these main plots.
Overall, I enjoyed this film. Regardless of it's artistic merits, it has a lot of use as a piece of history, as it captures very well the appeal of Dame Vera Lynn during World War II. Archive footage of her singing during the war is seldom seen, so in this film it is a joy to behold.
There is some nice light comedy with the BBC boss's secretary, Miss Bohne, well played by Betty Jardine, who sadly died a few years after this film was made. The acting is competent from all involved. Hard to judge Vera's performance as she was simply playing herself! Anyway, the film naturally ends with Vera singing We'll Meet Again. You get what you pay for.!
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Forces' Sweetheart
Vera Lynn's film debut is the only one of her three wartime starring vehicles in which she actually sings her most famous song - and only briefly at the very end. Barely recognisable as the handsome woman she later became, Dame Vera is here harshly made up and dressed, ungainly in front of the camera and plainly no actress. (Compare her here with her guest appearance twenty years later as herself - which can be viewed on YouTube - looking ravishing in colour and in fine voice singing 'Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye' in the 1962 Danish wartime comedy-drama 'Venus fra Vestø'.)
The film is in places strangely disjointed. One character is barely introduced before being abruptly killed off offscreen in an air raid; and in a superbly photographed sequence worthy of Dreyer the uncredited child actor who is presumably her son is comforted by Vera before being packed off to the countryside. In an attempt to create some sort of narrative Vera is introduced as a dancer (although perhaps wisely we're not shown her dancing) and her initial disinclination to switch professions and become a singer is rather laboured for the next few reels while throwing in the usual clichés about her persuading a songwriting friend to "come out of the clouds", stop writing music for "stuffy old critics" and get With It until Vera then has to abruptly fill in for a workmate who fails to show up at Broadcasting House when the result is due to be recorded.
Quicker than you can say 'Forces' Sweetheart' she now has her own radio show and is rubbing shoulders with the likes of Alvar Lidell; but in acknowledgement of her then rather homely appearance we next get the other old cliché about her nursing an unrequited passion for rugged Scots Guardsman Donald Gray (who was given leave from the army to make this film, lost his left arm in France in 1944 and consequently became famous on TV as the one-armed detective Mark Saber during the late fifties).
In the mind's eye, George Formby's credit as Associate Producer conjures up an entirely different film in its own right, probably with Formby in the process wrecking studio chief Peter Gawthorne's office...!
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We'll Meet Again
You always knew there was going to be a war on when there were confirmed sightings of Vera Lynn gargling her throat.
That joke still works because Dame Vera was still alive and going strong at the age of 103 in April 2020.
When there is a worldwide pandemic going on, get into the blitz spirit with We'll Meet Again. I am sure even during World War 2, some spiv was buying up all the toilet rolls hoping to sell it on for 10 times the price.
Lynn plays Peggy, a dancer with a good singing voice but she is reluctant to sing in public. With the help of a composer friend, Peggy ends up singing on a demo when the singer fails to show up.
Peggy quickly becomes a star when the record is a hit on the radio.
The film has Vera's signature song at the end. It is a simple story, quickly made as a moral booster for the troops.
It is not a great film, the antics with the BBC secretary and her boss is tiresome.
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A quaint and (perhaps) charming snapshot
Warning: Spoilers
Although I'm an avid 'old movie' aficionado, this film is... not the best.
Starting with the bad points..
The movie seems quite forced in many ways, not least due to the very poor quality acting. Of course, we mustn't forget that Vera Lynn was in no way an actress but, it seems, neither was anyone else in the movie. The phoney Scottish accents too were pretty ludicrous... and obvious.
The good points...
Although, overall, the film did come across as rather stilted and contrived, it did serve as an excellent, quaint and (almost) charming snapshot of wartime Britain focusing for the majority part on the everyday civilian.
Being from Edinburgh, it was very interesting, at one point, to see a little of the city as was in 1943.
Despite the movie's title, the running theme for the movie seemed to be the song "After The Rain"... so perhaps *this* should've been the title as "We'll Meet Again" was not featured until close to the end... and even barely at that.
The film was made obviously as a vehicle for the young, up-and-coming Vera Lynn.. and it worked well with this, and her wonderful voice, in mind.
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035538/reviews
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