"Arise, My Love" is billed as a comedy-romance and drama. But, this film is as much a war story for its time and setting. A blossoming love is the core of the film, around which a myriad of small adventures and escapades coalesce. Indeed, the setting of early wartime Europe provides the basis for the love story. The humor is peppered throughout the film, mostly with its main characters. And like other films of this period – from the early months before to the start of WW II, this movie gives a look at the news media of the day and the American news sources in Europe. Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland are excellent in their roles of Augusta Nash and Tom Martin. "Gusto" Nash gives another side plot view of a woman striving for a professional career above all else. Walter Abel is excellent as the Associated News Agency European chief, Phillips, and adds to much of the humor. Colbert and Milland work well, and have a good chemistry that makes their roles believable as they segue from the humorous to the serious and a deep love. The rest of the supporting cast are fine, but beyond Phillips, few other roles have much substance. This is a film that is heavily weighted with the two leads and leading supporting role of Abel's. The production values and direction are very good in handling a fairly complex script with so many deviations and diversions. The script is mostly very good, but toward the end it skips over a chapter in which Tom is injured while flying against the Germans in Norway. The film has a lot of action, and touches on several historical events, albeit with the fictional characters involved. Nash rescues Martin from a Spanish firing squad in a clever plot. The two commandeer a plane on the ground and flee pursuing fighter planes. Later, they are among the survivors of the British passenger ship, Athenia. A German submarine torpedoed the ship off the Coast of Ireland on Sept. 2, 1939. It was the first hostile action on the seas by Germany, even before the official start of WW II. The scenes filmed of the rescued lifeboats are quite dramatic on the Irish coastline. Tom and Gusto were on the ship after the U.S. government urged Americans to return home following Germany's conquest of France. Deeply in love, the couple plan to marry and contribute to the war effort back home. Instead of flying fighter planes and reporting the war headlines, they will take safer jobs where they can be together in Cleveland. Onboard the Athenia, they toasted farewell to their former selves – fighter pilot Tom Martin, and big name reporter Gusto Nash, and tossed the champagne glasses overboard. Now, on the beach after their rescue, as they decide to stay, Gusto says, "God knew better. He threw us right back at them."This movie premiered on Oct 17, 1940, in America – more than a year before the U.S. would enter World War II. It covers just a short period from after the Spanish Civil War (April 1939) through the fall of France in May of 1940. It's one of the few American films made well before the U.S. entered WW II, and it doesn't hold back on the criticism of Nazi Germany, expressed mostly by Milland's character, Tom Martin. With it's bouncing around from one place and event to another, "Arise, My Love" may lose some viewers. Those who know a little history of the time will find the details more interesting. But, history knowledge or not, most viewers should enjoy this film. It has adventure, humor, romance, and the early stages of war. The title for the film comes from the Bible. Tom tells Gusto that he says this short prayer whenever he takes a plane up. It comes from Song of Solomon, Verse 2:13b: "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."

I loved this film from beginning to end. It made me laugh and it made me cry, and it left me with the feeling that I had watched one of the best screen romances ever. The script was so wonderfully written, the dialogues really sparkled like diamonds and ... Ray Milland was handsomer here than in any other film I have seen him!! He treated Clodette Colbere with a mixture of humor ,tenderness and respect, that was very endearing and touching. At moments, he seemed like an insecure little boy, and I am sure that he was never like that with any other of his co-stars. Needless to say, I loved this aspect of his very much!!! Something else that I found interesting is that the film was made almost simultaneously with the historical events it describes. This adds to its authenticity and gives us a sense of watching history in the making. The mixing of comedy and drama does not annoy me. It is more than realistic and in fact welcome, here. We deal with two very smart and out of the ordinary people, living very unusual lives, taking active parts in what goes on around them, so it is to be expected that they will have an acute sense of humor as well as forceful feelings about the war and about each other. In our lives there is place for both comedy and drama, why it should not be so for a movie, who depicts life? Just to add that the DVD now available, (spanish edition but with English audio)has very good quality of sound and picture, and does justice to this uniquely beautiful film.

Mitchell Leisen was one of the few directors who could introduce tragedy into comedy and vice versa .The first part is absolutely dazzling.Incredible though it may seem ,it's full of unexpected twists,of fine lines ("it's my first execution" says the Padre /It's mine too" says the prisoner).The chemistry between Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland is perfect and their husband-and-wife act compares favorably with that of the actress as a "baroness ,her husband and her children" in "midnight" .The movie loses steam in its second part but it does show Mitchell's fondness for France .Unlike too many American movies,there are plenty of French words and the French speak French between them.I particularly like this sentence "Three sisters used to live in this country :Liberté ,Egalité Et Fraternité " as the German army is marching past the streets of Paris.This francophilia is also present in Leisen's "hold back the dawn" or "Frenchman's creek" .The last third may be considered a propaganda one ,but many other directors (Hitchcock,Lang,Hathaway,Borzage etc) had theirs too,and Leisen's is certainly smarter than most of the others.Solomon's prayer (which provides the title) is to be taken literally.Augusta is a go-getter ,she plays the heroine just for the sake of fame .After the beautiful scene in the forest ,where the animals run for their lives ,she does arise .The scene in the Compiègne Car is as incredible as Marlene Dietrich as a gypsy entering an inn full of Nazis in "golden earrings" .But the Spanish extravagant tale had warned us:this is not to be taken seriously ,but in a way,it is.

Definitely in my all time top 10. The Milland/Colbert pairing is fantastic, there is wonderful chemistry between the two stars but it is Colbert who as the independent career woman Augusta Nash launched me on my love of 1930's/1940's films and I would recommend this as a fabulous example of what films of that era have to offer a modern audience. The opening sequences set the adventurous and romantic tone of the movie. The scenes in Maxim's and the in the horse drawn carriage on Monmartre are wonderfully romantic as Tom (Milland) plots to overcome Augusta's business only attitude. A fabulous film which gets home the patriotic message needed as WWII commenced without ever overwhelming the wonderful adventurous story.