It appeared that there was never-ending dialogue between the two major characters in the film- Joan Fontaine and Tyrone Power.Fontaine comes from an aristocratic family; although, her father, Philip Merivale is not at all a snob. Gladys Cooper is at it again; younger than she looked in her great performance that year in "Now, Voyager, but as snobbish as the come. She believes in equality providing that it doesn't affect her. Had her part been more developed, she would have really been something, but she appears in two scenes, and one is just a walk-by.Ditto for Sara Allgood. A year after her brilliant performance in "How Green Was My Valley," she is reduced here to a one- scene stand as a waitress. Yes, a waitress!Fontaine defies her family and joins the WACS only to find romance with Power. About an hour into the film, we learn that he is a deserter. He goes through the fact that despite Dunkirk, are we in England fighting this war to maintain the upper classes. He is searching for something, perhaps the same thing that he longed for 4 years later in "The Razor's Edge."Alexander Knox, so brilliant in 1944's "Wilson," plays a parson that Power encounters while on the lam. It is spiritual guidance along with the prodding of the Fontaine character that seems to set Power straight, only for him to be hurt aiding others in an air-raid bombing of London.

I had never heard of this film, despite very much liking Tyrone Power and sometimes liking Joan Fontaine. But it's a gem...mostly! Tyrone Power...well, I may be a man, but what a hunk! And, more importantly, what an actor, and he's as good here as ever as a former soldier troubled as WWII gets more and more difficult. Joan Fontaine here has lost her sometimes-haughtiness, and is so good as the upper class young lady who joins the WAF and falls in love (with Power).Thomas Mitchell, usually a favorite character actor of mine, seemed slightly out of place here as an older soldier. Nigel Bruce has a very nice role here as an innkeeper; if you don't know he's in the film, you almost might not recognize him. Gladys Cooper, a wonderful character actress is here; sometimes she was wonderfully sweet, and sometimes quite the opposite; this is quite the opposite, and she doesn't get much screen time. One of the better small roles is Alexander Knox as a minister who knows the horror of war.The story is a good one -- a deserter (although we don't know that until later in the film) is struggling because of his reasons for not going back to the front...not cowardice, but animosity toward who the war will really benefit (the upper class of British society). He falls in love with an upper class British girl who has joined the WAF. They have some wonderful times together, but then he becomes hunted. Where will he go? What will he ultimately do? And then he is severely injured when saving a family during an air raid, and Fontaine's father -- a surgeon -- saves his life...and Fontaine and Power are married in the hospital.I wasn't particularly enamored with the ending, which seemed to come very suddenly, but overall this was a very well-done film. Some say it's 20th Century Fox's answer to MGM's "Mrs. Miniver" (also 1942). The latter is a fine film starring one of my favorite actresses, but I think I prefer "This Above All". Highly recommended, though because of the ending it will not end up on my DVD shelf.

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.

Wow..it's a quite old movie but it's very beautiful^^ I love its romantic story and the cast was pretty good. The film is based on a superb book: Eric Knight-This Above All. It's a greatly composed philosophic-romantic story.I think if you liked the movie, you should read this book! It's one of my favorite books,I simply love it^^ You will be much poorer in feelings, if you don't read this book... And thank you for the quotes...I think the book contains some more.. and more memorable^^ By the way,does anyone know where I could find it in English? I've been searching for it on the internet, but i've found it nowhere...:(