This Above All

England in 1940. Prudence Cathaway, a doctor’s daughter, appals her snobbish parents by joining the women’s air force branch. There she meets and falls in love with Clive Briggs, a silent man angry at the upper classes. She later learns that Clive walked away from his unit after Dunkirk; he does not believe in fighting to preserve his country’s class system, and that is where the film sets its real argument. Anatole Litvak directed, from Eric Knight’s wartime novel. Tyrone Power and Joan Fontaine lead, with Thomas Mitchell, Nigel Bruce and Gladys Cooper alongside. It won the Oscar for best art direction at the 1943 ceremony and was nominated for cinematography, editing and sound.