The Americanization of Emily

Independent Films, Film Profiles

The Americanization of Emily is a 1964 American comedy-drama war film directed by Arthur Hiller and written by Paddy Chayefsky, loosely adapted from the novel of the same name by William Bradford Huie. Set in London in 1944 during World War II, in the weeks leading up to D-Day, the black-and-white film stars James Garner, Julie Andrews and Melvyn Douglas and features James Coburn, Joyce Grenfell and Keenan Wynn. Both Garner and Andrews[2] consider it their favorite of the films they appeared in.Lieutenant Commander "Charlie" Madison (James Garner) is a "dog-robber", the personable but conniving personal assistant to American Admiral William Jessup (Melvyn Douglas). His job is to keep his boss and other high ranking officers well supplied with luxuries and amiable English women. Under stress since the death of his wife, Jessup cracks up from the strain of coming up with a plan to prevent the Navy from being overshadowed in the D-Day invasion by the Army and its Air Corps, which could perhaps lead to the unification of the services and the "scrapping" of the Navy. In his unbalanced state, Jessup comes up with a grand idea: "the first dead man on Omaha Beach must be a sailor," and a film must be made to document that fact. The dead sailor would then be buried in a "Tomb of the Unknown Sailor."Meanwhile, Charlie has fallen in love with a driver from the motor pool, war widow Emily Barham (Julie Andrews), who has lost her husband, brother and father in the war, and, no longer being able to bear the thought of losing another loved one, finds the self-admitted coward Charlie irresistible.Despite his best efforts to get out of it, Charlie and his unexpectedly gung-ho friend, Lieutenant Commander "Bus" Cummings (James Coburn) find themselves and a film crew with the combat engineers hitting the beach in the first wave. When he tries to retreat back to safety, Charlie is chased forward by a disgusted Bus brandishing a pistol. Charlie is killed by a German shell, making him the first American killed on Omaha Beach, all while being filmed by a cameraman. The photograph of Charlie rushing up the beach amid exploding artillery shells is then plastered across hundreds of newspapers and Life magazine, and the coward has been turned into a hero.Jessup, who has recovered from his crack-up after a stay in the hospital, sincerely regrets his part in Charlie's demise, but is ready to use it in support of the Navy before a Senate committee in Washington. Emily is devastated, but pulls herself together, while Bus is happy and proud to have created a hero. Then, there is unexpected news: Charlie isn't dead, he's in an evacuation hospital in England, having been returned from France. Ironically, the only wound he received was from Bus's pistol. Charlie is so furious that he threatens to tell the reporters the unvarnished truth of what happened on the beach, but Emily convinces him to instead stay true to his coward's beliefs.