Copyright 1956 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 29 May 1956. U.S. release: June 1956. U.K. release: 15 October 1956. Australian release: 6 September 1956. Sydney opening at the Regent. 9,560 feet. 106 minutes. SYNOPSIS: American army captain falls in love with an English girl who is engaged to his commanding officer. NOTES: Fox's 55th CinemaScope release did rather well at all ticket windows, despite extremely negative reviews. COMMENT: I'm tempted to say that this is one of the few war films that's suitable for children, mainly because it's so boring. "D-Day the Sixth of June" should have been an epic, but it emerges not just as a damp squib but as a bore. Yes, this "great love story of the great war" is a plain bore. For a while there, the director and the screenwriters do battle to see who can come across as the dullest. On his record, Koster would not seem to offer much opposition, but it says much for the lack of quality and incredible dullness of the writing, that Messrs Moffat and Brown win handsomely. The Dana Wynter/Richard Todd/Robert Taylor triangle must be one of the least interesting, most predictable and grandly tedious romances in film history. Miss Wynter's frosty personality just can't help being bland. But Robert Taylor's lethargic performance is unexpected and thus doubly disappointing. By way of contrast, Richard Todd and in particular Edmond O'Brien really throw themselves into their roles. Unfortunately they have little to work on or with, but they certainly make the most of the sparse material they're handed. John Williams manages to make some impression, despite being miscast, but the rest of the support players are little help. Photographer Lee Garmes tries hard to give the picture's lighting a bit of style, but is ultimately defeated by very moderate production values, especially the use of lots of stock footage which is supremely obvious in CinemaScope blow-ups.

Growing up in the 50's and 60's we saw plenty of movies about WW2. They fell roughly into two groups. There were the British war films, which usually dealt with true stories such as "Reach for the Sky", "The Dam Busters" and "The Cockleshell Heroes". The others were the big Hollywood productions based on novels, which often had as much romance as military action: "Battle Cry", "The Young Lions" and "In Love and War". "D-Day the Sixth of June" was one of those.Set in WW2, Robert Taylor revisits Waterloo Bridge territory as Captain Brad Parker, a married American officer who falls for a British woman, Valerie Russell (Dana Wynter), whose British boyfriend Colonel John Wynter (Richard Todd) is off fighting in the Commandos. Inevitably, the two men come together on a special mission - a prelude to the D-Day landings.Most of the film is played out against the backdrop of wartime Britain and that Britain is mostly on the backlot of Twentieth Century Fox. The film looks rather artificial. However it was made 10-years after the war by many people who had served, and reveals attitudes that must have been current at the time. The way the Americans and British thought about each other comes through in conversation and it isn't always flattering. The self-interest of some senior officers, represented by Edmund O'Brien as Parker's commanding officer, is disturbing. The way Parker forgets that he has a wife waiting for him at home and moves in on Colonel Wynter's girlfriend brings to mind the old WW2 adage about the Americans being 'overpaid, oversexed and over here'. However the ending shows the allies coming together when it counted with mutual respect all round.Although I wasn't overly keen on romantic films as a child in the 50's, I liked the stars. Other than Robert Taylor (a bit old for the part) and Richard Todd (the epitome of the British war hero), the one that really caught my attention was Dana Wynter. She was just so distractingly beautiful. I remember her in other movies around the time: "Something of Value", "In Love and War" and "Sink the Bismarck". She was a bit posh, but maybe that added to the attraction. She passed away a few years ago like nearly all the stars I admired back in the day.There have been plenty of better films since "D-Day the Sixth of June", but it's a movie of its time with some interesting performances and a surprise ending.

Although the title promises epic large-scale combat heroism, the Twentieth Century Fox release "D-Day: The Sixth of June," with Robert Taylor, Richard Todd, and Edmond O'Brien, delivers more soap opera bubbles than battlefield bravado. This traditional World War II battlefront melodrama accords its superior officers with respect and honor. Indeed, "D-Day" focuses primarily on officers above the rank of lieutenant; no enlisted men appear in prominent roles. Cigar-chomping sergeants do not flesh out of the cast. Unfortunately, "Harvey" director Henry Koster and scenarists Ivan Moffett of "Bhowani Junction" and Harry Brown of "Eight Iron Men" have tampered so much with the formula that this war picture ranks poorly in comparison to the star-studded 1963 Twentieth Century Fox release "The Longest Day" with John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and Henry Fonda. The locales are suitably convincing and the narrative shows the tension that occurred as a result of Americans intruding on Englishmen. The differences that the English and the Americans experience when they rub each other raw amounts to a minor theme that peters out quickly."D-Day: The Sixth of June" suffers from a multitude of flaws. First, our rugged heroes do not embark on top-secret mission until the last twenty minutes of the action. True, the film opens with a briefing and the troops piling aboard the transports, but the action shifts from the now back to the past. Koster and company devote the bulk of the action to the flashbacks about two romances between Taylor and Todd with Dana Wynter. Lieutenant Colonel John Wynter served under British Brigadier General Russell (John Williams of "Dial M for Murder") who received a wound at Dunkirk that put him out of action. Second, unaccountably Wynter decides to cheat on her valiant boyfriend, British Lieutenant Colonel John Wynter (Richard Todd of "The Longest Day") with U.S. Army Captain Brad Parker (Robert Taylor of "Saddle the Wind") who has arrived in England to serve as a staff officer for Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Timmer (Edmond O'Brien of "White Heat"). When General Russell attacks a U.S. Army Air Force sergeant, Parker and a colleague have to investigate and try to smooth the general's ruffled feathers. During their meeting with the general, Parker meets Red Cross volunteer Valerie Russell (Dana Wynter of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers") and they strike up a relationship. Parker cheats with Russell on his wife back home in the states. Third, the filmmakers relegate Edmond O'Brien to the thankless role of an ambitious Army officer who cracks up under pressure before the big mission. He has a nasty habit of sharing classified military information with civilians. Overall, this character attracts no sympathy and is on hand as a narrative tool to bring Lieutenant Colonel Wynter back into the action.Fourth, the actual mission does not last long, no more than a quarter of an hour. The heroes land at Normandy, encounter enough opposition for both heroes to wind up wounded, and then silence a huge artillery piece gun emplacement.

The guidelines to writing this review include a warning about including spoilers that give away the main plot elements that you are interested in seeing this movie. To be fair to you, and with all due respect to IMDb, this ENTIRE movie comes previously "spoilered" by its producers as totally and utterly misrepresenting what the movie is all about in the first place. "D-Day?" If D-Day really lasted 10 minutes, maybe. I can imagine the whole male audience in 1956 trying to get up to leave this turkey at the theater but being compelled to stay by their girlfriends/wives for the rest of this hugely boring story. If you are actually looking for a worth-your-time D-Day movie, see "Saving Private Ryan" or, "The Longest Day," otherwise, you will, in the highest probability, be kicking yourself for sitting through this movie. If you happen to be looking for a sappy, 3rd rate 50's romantic movie about a philandering desk-jockey, pencil-pusher WW II soldier and his brit army girlfriend, this is your movie...and may God help you flip channels away from it.