tomsview Growing up in the 50's and 60's we saw plenty of movies about WW2. They fell roughly into two groups. There were the British war films, which usually dealt with true stories such as "Reach for the Sky", "The Dam Busters" and "The Cockleshell Heroes". The others were the big Hollywood productions based on novels, which often had as much romance as military action: "Battle Cry", "The Young Lions" and "In Love and War". "D-Day the Sixth of June" was one of those.Set in WW2, Robert Taylor revisits Waterloo Bridge territory as Captain Brad Parker, a married American officer who falls for a British woman, Valerie Russell (Dana Wynter), whose British boyfriend Colonel John Wynter (Richard Todd) is off fighting in the Commandos. Inevitably, the two men come together on a special mission - a prelude to the D-Day landings.Most of the film is played out against the backdrop of wartime Britain and that Britain is mostly on the backlot of Twentieth Century Fox. The film looks rather artificial. However it was made 10-years after the war by many people who had served, and reveals attitudes that must have been current at the time. The way the Americans and British thought about each other comes through in conversation and it isn't always flattering. The self-interest of some senior officers, represented by Edmund O'Brien as Parker's commanding officer, is disturbing. The way Parker forgets that he has a wife waiting for him at home and moves in on Colonel Wynter's girlfriend brings to mind the old WW2 adage about the Americans being 'overpaid, oversexed and over here'. However the ending shows the allies coming together when it counted with mutual respect all round.Although I wasn't overly keen on romantic films as a child in the 50's, I liked the stars. Other than Robert Taylor (a bit old for the part) and Richard Todd (the epitome of the British war hero), the one that really caught my attention was Dana Wynter. She was just so distractingly beautiful. I remember her in other movies around the time: "Something of Value", "In Love and War" and "Sink the Bismarck". She was a bit posh, but maybe that added to the attraction. She passed away a few years ago like nearly all the stars I admired back in the day.There have been plenty of better films since "D-Day the Sixth of June", but it's a movie of its time with some interesting performances and a surprise ending.

rudge49 This movie is on my list of ones not to bother with. Among my many peeves are movies that are mislabeled, that use an enticing title-"Battle of the Bulge" is another-and then portray little if any of the events the title implies. "Lafayette Escadrille" is another. Saw this one 40 years ago on the tube, as a 14 year old I was annoyed at the lack of action and real history. One incident stands out in my memory. At the end when the landings finally occur and newsreel footage is spliced in, the soundtracks plays the songs of the various armed forces, the Marine Corps hymn is played, my mother (born in 1913) said to me (the precocious history buff) "They didn't have Marines at D-Day, did they?" The answer of course is no, the ETO was a strict Army-Navy operation. I would call this a "bait and switch" movie, you are lured in by an enticing title, the actual movie is a scam.

joliettim The guidelines to writing this review include a warning about including spoilers that give away the main plot elements that you are interested in seeing this movie. To be fair to you, and with all due respect to IMDb, this ENTIRE movie comes previously "spoilered" by its producers as totally and utterly misrepresenting what the movie is all about in the first place. "D-Day?" If D-Day really lasted 10 minutes, maybe. I can imagine the whole male audience in 1956 trying to get up to leave this turkey at the theater but being compelled to stay by their girlfriends/wives for the rest of this hugely boring story. If you are actually looking for a worth-your-time D-Day movie, see "Saving Private Ryan" or, "The Longest Day," otherwise, you will, in the highest probability, be kicking yourself for sitting through this movie. If you happen to be looking for a sappy, 3rd rate 50's romantic movie about a philandering desk-jockey, pencil-pusher WW II soldier and his brit army girlfriend, this is your movie...and may God help you flip channels away from it.

ubercommando ...and that's just Robert Taylor. There is a style of acting that was in vogue in the 1950's called "dead from the neck down" and that describes Taylor to a T. The film is excruciatingly plodding, and the plot is quite morally vacant. Taylor and Wynter are both cheating on their partners and it's hard to see what they see in each other: He indulges in so much Brit-bashing and bitches about the US allies throughout the movie you would think he wouldn't want to become contaminated by them, and once Richard Todd, Wynter's former love, appears on the scene, the little Englishman just acts Taylor off the screen...even when we, finally, get to the war action, it's Todd who is all testosterone and wins the battle. I actually found the film somewhat offensive and almost a complete waste of time.