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Hold Back the Dawn Movie Review

Hold Back the Dawn is a 1941 romantic drama film directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland. It’s a solid, charming romance.

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“All those years with all the others,

I’ve shut my eyes and thought of you“

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In order to get a green card, Georges’s former girlfriend, Anita, asks him to marry an American and later divorce her. But their plan fails as he marries Emmy and falls in love with her. This movie has a premise that was typical for screwball comedies of the time, but it’s not a comedy. It’s a straightforward romantic drama, and it mostly worked in charming the audience as the central relationship is so well realized and the actors are both wonderful.

Although the story is predictable, it was still interesting seeing a film in the forties about immigration and about a Romanian immigrant no less. Charles Boyer playing a Romanian when he was clearly French was silly, but the best that they could do in this period as he had an accent that was distinctly not American.

He was typecast, but obviously that was the right choice as he always excelled at playing the charming European lovers with his suave charisma and soothing voice. Olivia de Havilland is also reliably terrific and this pairing was quite intriguing. It was also lovely seeing Paulette Goddard. Her role was smaller, but she was quite memorable regardless.

Hold Back the Dawn is at its best when focusing on the central romance as the other characters felt underrealized. The movie was actually nominated for six Academy Awards, which was simply too much, but at least the technical nods were deserved as it looks and sounds competent.

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The cinematography and the overall aesthetic to the movie is one that is quite polished and even exotic. The score is terrific and the acting is great. The direction from Mitchell Leisen wasn’t all that good nor was the pacing great, but the movie still managed to hold my interest, especially because the emotional engagement was surprisingly solid and some moments were genuinely sweet and moving. But it needed more truly amazing, cinematic moments to make it extra special.

Hold Back the Dawn needed better direction, pacing and script as the storyline is predictable. Still, Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland both excelled in the main roles and that central relationship was very well developed and quite charming. The entire movie is sweet and polished while also being quite romantic, but it is never exceptional at anything that it did.

My Rating – 3.5