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Hanover Street – The Ford Fiesta
Paul and Adam take a deep dive into Hanover Street, one of the many war movies Harrison Ford was involved in after Star Wars. Is this the type of film that solidifies Ford’s status as a major movie star? …not really! The pre-Empire/post-Star Wars era is fascinating, as is this look at this little-seen 1979 Peter Hyams ROMANCE (capital letters intended). And, as ever, Harrison Ford news and This Date in Ford History.
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Just finished listening to this.
Cannot fault a single observation, but I will suggest this, if you think of “HANOVER STREET” as a US romantic fantasy about WW2 England then it works better. Much better. Will say that there is an actual Hanover Street in central London which is just off of Regent’s street near Oxford Circus, but definitely no underground station
You mentioned that neither of you could remember how and when Halloran learned that Margaret was married. It was actually at the end of Hanover Street being bombed (even as a Brit, I’d love to know how that happened in 1942 without air raid sirens, but hey …) when Halloran is telling Margaret he’ll be there the next week and she’s saying “It’s too late”. As she leaves Halloran pulls off her glove to reveal The Wedding Ring.
I agree with your comments regarding Barry’s score, and the film is over-spotted with the main theme melody. However, Varese Sarabande released the score in 2009 and overall it’s actually much better than I ever thought it was. There are some very good cues.
I can assure you that UK critics were equally vicious in their reviews for “HANOVER STREET” in the day and it only played in many UK cinemas for a week before disappearing.
You both spoke a bit about the change in war films at this time, and you’re right, this and “FORCE 10” seemed to be a last gasp for WW2 for a couple of decades, but here in the UK there was also this change of angle looking at the “over sexed, over paid and over here” attitude towards the US military stationed here. In 1979, and I can’t remember if it was released prior or post “HANOVER STREET”, “YANKS” was released with Richard Gere and directed by John Schlesenger. As I’m sure you both know, “YANKS” dealt a similar romantic subject but very much without airplanes and heroic derring-do, and was met with much better critical and box-office success.
In the early 80’s, I managed to talk my way into a fortnight’s work experience in the main office at Elstree, and on my last day there, I did let slip that I was a Ford fan and people were very complimentary to him as a person, and one of the things that I was told was that a lot of “HANOVER STREET” ‘s budget was wasted on the planes.
The main thing about “HANOVER STREET” is besides all the skin showing (and thank you for mentioning that this is something that Ford has seemingly shied away from during his career. The most graphic he has ever shot is “PRESUMED INNOCENT” with Greta Scacchi), and how gaunt he was (I don’t think he has EVER been so thin on film again), but you both have to agree that that he looked bloody good in that uniform! That is one of the plus factors of the film.
I’ve enjoyed the podcast so far. As a Ford fan from “STAR WARS” forward, one of the issues I have with much younger fans is that they don’t really understand that his career wasn’t really going anywhere in this period between the release of “SW” and “ESB” even though he was constantly working between the 2 and he has never made so many films within such a space of time again; so it has been incredibly refreshing to hear you both acknowledging that.