The Americanization of Emily

The Americanization of Emily. 1964 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: James Garner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas, James Coburn, Keenan Wynn
Director: Arthur Hiller
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or as part of the Controversal Classics box set.

Lieutenant Commander Charlie Madison (Garner) is the personal assistant to Admiral William Jessup (Douglas), keeping his superior and other high ranking officers well supplied with luxury items and amiable English women. Jessup is under intense pressure since his wife died, and his belief that the Navy will be overshadowed in the coming D-Day invasion of France by the Army and its Air Corps; overshadowed to the point that it would be "scrapped". In his state, Jessup comes up with an idea: that the first dead American on Omaha Beach must be a sailor, and a film must be made to document it. The sailor would then be placed in a "Tomb of the Unknown Sailor".

Charlie is also sweet on war widow Emily Barham (Andrews), who has lost her husband, brother and father in the war. She doesn't want to lose another loved one, and she finds the self-confessed "coward" Charlie irresistable.

Charlie can't get out of the invasion, and he finds himself on the front line along with his friend, Lieutenent Commander Paul "Bus" Cummings (Coburn) and a film crew. Trying to retreat, Charlie finds himself chased forwarded by a disgusted Bus who is brandishing a pistol. Believed killed, the image of Charlie running up the beach during the conflict is plastered all over the media, turning him into a hero back home. However, Charlie did survive, and was only wounded by Bus and his pistol.

Jessup, having recovered from his breakdown, regrets his part in Charlie's apparent demise, but he's ready to use it in support of the Navy in Washington. Emily is devastated, and Bus is proud to have created a hero. While in an evacuation hospital in England, a furious Charlie threatens to tell the press what really happened, but Emily talks him into staying true to his coward's beliefs.

Good movie, I thought. Recommended.