High Barbaree (1947)

In WWII, a Navy pilot (Van Johnson) flying an amphibious airplane is shot down by the Japanese over the Pacific. Only one other crew member (Cameron Mitchell) survives. As they await rescue, the pilot recalls growing up with the love of his life, his childhood sweetheart (June Allyson). Based on the novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall (MUTINY AND THE BOUNTY), the wartime romance spends way too much time on flashbacks of the adolescent Johnson and Allyson characters (played by Claude Jarman Jr. of THE YEARLING and Joan Wells). Allyson and Johnson go together like bread and butter but their child counterparts are just plain annoying. The film differs from the novel in that it has a happy ending (in the book, both lead characters die) though apparently the darker ending was filmed but later re-shot to send movie patrons out happily. As 1940s wartime movie romances go, this goes down nicely even if the sentiment is laid on pretty thick. Herbert Stothart's beautiful underscore makes you think you're watching something special. Still, if Allyson and Johnson aren't your cuppa tea, you might do well to skip it. Directed by Jack Conway (LIBELED LADY). With Thomas Mitchell, Marilyn Maxwell, Henry Hull and Geraldine Wall.