Yanks **** (1979, Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane) – Classic Movie Review 8648

Director John Schlesinger’s 1979 wartime romantic drama Yanks is strongly cast, well acted, attractively written by Colin Welland (story and screenplay) and Walter Bernstein (screenplay), and handsomely produced by Joseph Janni and Lester Persky.

Schlesinger’s romantic tribute to the American troops who poured into Britain in 1942 and the British women they loved and left is set in a sleepy Yorkshire small town where local lives are thrown into turmoil.

Supplies officer John (William Devane) has a discreet affair with lady-of-the-manor Helen (Vanessa Redgrave), while Sgt Matt Dyson (Richard Gere) wants to marry grocer’s girl Jean Moreton (Lisa Eichhorn).

Although a shade long at 140 minutes and a little bit too cosy, especially given the dark era it is set in, the film is nonetheless warm, welcome and appealing.

Also in the cast are Rachel Roberts, Chick Vennera, Wendy Morgan, Joan Hickson, John Ratzenberger, Antony Sher, Annie Ross, Tony Melody, Martin Smith, Philip Wileman, Derek Thompson, Simon Harrison, June Ellis, Jeremy Newson, Arlen Dean Snyder and David Baxt.

It runs 140 minutes, but with 165 minutes in the director’s cut.

It was not a hit with the Yanks surprisingly. On a $6,000,000 budget, it took only $3,931,010 in the US.

Jeff Bridges declined Gere’s role.

It is the first film as a writer by actor Welland, partly based on his childhood experiences. Welland followed Yanks with the box office hit Chariots of Fire (1981), for which he won the Best Screenplay Oscar. Colin Welland (Colin Williams) died on 2 November 2015, aged 81, after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8648

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