Perfect Strangers (1945 film)

Perfect Strangers , (US title: Vacation from Marriage), is a 1945 British drama film made by London Films. It stars Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr as a married couple whose relationship is shaken by their service in the Second World War. The supporting cast includes Glynis Johns, Ann Todd, Roland Culver, and Roger Moore in his uncredited debut. It was produced and directed by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Clemence Dane and Anthony Pelissier based on a story by Clemence Dane. Dane won the Academy Award for Best Story. The music score was by Clifton Parker and the cinematography by Georges Périnal.

Plot

Robert and Catherine Wilson (Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr) are a timid married couple in 1940 London. He is a bookkeeper, she a bored housewife. However, their tedium-filled lives are drastically changed by the war. He enlists in the Royal Navy, while she (against his wishes) joins the Wrens. During the three years the couple are apart, they are transformed, each becoming much more self-confident.

Cathy's assertive new friend, Dizzy Clayton (Glynis Johns), helps her break out of her shell. She begins going out with Dizzy's cousin, naval architect Richard (Roland Culver), who falls in love with her. However, she remains faithful (if unenthusiastically) to her husband.

Meanwhile, Robert toughens up on sea duty. His hands are badly burned when his ship is sunk, but he stoically rows in the lifeboat for five days without complaint. He recuperates in a hospital, tended by Elena (Ann Todd), a beautiful nurse. The last night of his stay, he asks her out to dinner. He is attracted to her, but she informs him that she lost her beloved husband only six months earlier, kisses him, and leaves. Afterwards, Robert and Cathy receive ten day leaves, but each dreads being reunited with the dowdy spouse each remembers and being forced back into the dreary life they shared.

Cathy cannot bring herself to return to her flat, where Robert is waiting. Instead, she phones Robert to meet her on more neutral ground. She tells him she will not be returning to him. He is relieved and readily agrees to a divorce, to her surprise. They then go to the neighbourhood pub, where each discovers the wholesale changes in the other. They find that they are "perfect strangers". Nonetheless, they are attracted to each other. However, when Robert's friend Scotty lets slip Robert's unflattering description of the old Cathy to the new, it hardens her heart. Later that night though, the couple reconsider and reconcile.

Cast

• Robert Donat as Robert Wilson
• Deborah Kerr as Catherine Wilson
• Glynis Johns as Dizzy Clayton
• Ann Todd as Elena
• Roland Culver as Richard

References

Notes

Bibliography

• The Great British Films, pp 82–84, Jerry Vermilye, 1978, Citadel Press, ISBN 080650661X

External links

• Perfect Strangers at the Internet Movie Database
• Perfect Strangers at the TCM Movie Database
• Perfect Strangers at Allmovie