''Sunday Dinner for a Soldier'' is a 1944 American

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

romance

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by

Lloyd Bacon Lloyd Francis Bacon (December 4, 1889 – November 15, 1955) was an American screen, stage, and vaudeville actor and film director. As a director, he made films in numerous genres, including westerns, musicals, comedies, gangster films, and c ...

and starring

Anne Baxter Anne Baxter (May 7, 1923 – December 12, 1985) was an American actress, star of Hollywood films, Broadway theatre, Broadway productions, and television series. She won an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, Golden Globe, and t ...

and John Hodiak. It is based on a novelette by Martha Cheavens.

Plot

A poor family in Florida saves all the money they can in order to plan a Sunday dinner for a soldier at a local Army airbase. They don't realize that their request to invite the soldier never got mailed. On the day of the scheduled dinner, another soldier is brought to their home and love soon blossoms between him (Hodiak) and Tessa (Baxter), the young woman who runs the home.

Cast

as Tessa * John Hodiak as Eric Moore * Charles Winninger as Grandfather *

Anne Revere Anne Revere (June 25, 1903 – December 18, 1990) was an American actress and a liberal member of the board of the Screen Actors' Guild. She was best known for her work on Broadway and her portrayals of mothers in a series of critically accla ...

as Agatha *

Chill Wills Theodore Childress "Chill" Wills (July 18, 1902 – December 15, 1978) was an American actor and a singer in the Avalon Boys quartet. Early life Wills was born in Seagoville, Texas, on July 18, 1902. Career Wills was a performer from early c ...

as Mr. York * Robert Bailey as Kenneth Normand *

Bobby Driscoll Robert Cletus Driscoll (March 3, 1937 – March 30, 1968) was an American actor who performed on film and television from 1943 to 1960. He starred in some of the The Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios' best-known live-action pict ...

as Jeep *

Jane Darwell Jane Darwell (born Patti Woodard; October 15, 1879 – August 13, 1967) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. With appearances in more than 100 major movies spanning half a century, Darwell is perhaps best remembered for her p ...

as Mrs. Dobson

Radio adaptation

On February 19, 1945, Baxter, Hodiak, and Winninger appeared in a radio adaptation of the film on ''

Lux Radio Theatre ''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a old-time radio, classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the Blue Network, NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of A ...

''.

References

*"The Screen; Crisis and Romance", ''The New York Times'' (January 25, 1945)

External links

*
Turner Classic Movies listing
1944 films 1940s war drama films 20th Century Fox films American war drama films American black-and-white films Films scored by Alfred Newman Films based on short fiction Films directed by Lloyd Bacon Films set in Florida Films set on the United States home front during World War II World War II films made in wartime Films with screenplays by Wanda Tuchock 1944 drama films 1940s English-language films English-language war drama films {{war-drama-film-stub