The Very Thought of You 1944

     Army Sgt. David Stewart and Sgt. 'Fixit' Gilman have a three-day pass in Pasadena, California.  They have been out of the country for a year and a half.  The time setting is during WWII and they will be shipped out again soon after their pass expires.  David meets Janet Wheeler and they remember seeing each other at the soda shop where Janet worked.  She remembers his order but now she works in a parachute factory.  Janet’s friend Cora meets David’s friend Fixit and the two couples spend the three days together in Pasadena.  Cora also works in the parachute factory with Janet.

     Janet has been living with her parents, her brother and her two sisters.  Janet invites David to her home for a Thanksgiving dinner since he has no relatives in Pasadena.  The family treats David horribly and Janet is very angry.  Everyone except her youngest sister disapproves of Janet seeing David.  Her sister Molly is married to Fred, a sailor in the US Navy and she is very bitter about it.  She hasn’t seen or heard from Fred in two years.  Molly advises Janet to break off her new relationship right away or she will regret it later like Molly does now.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

99 min, Romance directed by Delmer Daves with Dennis Morgan Eleanor Parker, Dane Clark, Faye Emerson, Beulah Bondi, Henry Travers, William Prince, Andrea King, John Alvin, Marianne O’Brien, Georgia Lee Settle, Richard Erdman, Francis Pierlot.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 100% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Leonard Maltin 2.5* out of 4* user rating 4.11* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Burbank, Mount Wilson, Pasadena and Los Angeles, California.  Ida Lupino was set to play Janet but she was replaced due to illness.  David and Fixit wear the shoulder patch of the US Army’s 7^th Infantry Division.  They saw action on the Aleutian Island of Attu.  There was also fighting on Kiska Island in Alaska before moving to Hawaii for rest and refit.  They returned to the Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, the Philippines and Okinawa.  Originally in the film, Janet is notified about David being injured by reading a casualty list in the newspaper.  The War Department objected to this scene and all prints were recalled to reflect that she was sent a telegram.  There is a song with the same title recorded in 1934 by Ray Noble and His Orchestra with Al Bowlly on vocals.  There is another movie with the same title from 1999.