After the manic pace of the Edward Small comedies, Dwan shifted into a more lyrical, reflective, even somewhat fantastic mode for the work he did at Republic Pictures from 1946 to 1953. Rendezvous with Annie was the first of Dwan’s films under his Republic contract, and the first of four films he made with the husband and wife screenwriting team of Richard Sale (who would later become a director) and Mary Loos (the niece of Dwan’s collaborator from the Fairbanks days, Anita Loos). Set in the immediate aftermath of the war, the film relates in flashback the story of an Air Force office clerk (Eddie Albert) based in London, who goes AWOL when he impulsively hitches a ride back to the States with a pair of pilot buddies (Phillip Reed and James Millican) in order to spend a night with his young bride (Faye Marlowe). When he officially returns home after his discharge, he finds that he’s the father of a little baby – and because no one in his home town knew of his secret return, the subject of much local gossip. Here, Dwan transforms the theme of doubtful or challenged parentage that runs through so much of his work not as melodrama (Wicked, One Mile from Heaven) but as a kind of romantic affirmation, with a touch of Christian mysticism about it that might have been borrowed from Frank Borzage (also at Republic that year, to make I’ve Always Loved You). The agents of Albert’s salvation are a pair of unlikely figures – a glamorous nightclub singer (the underappreciated Gail Patrick, again) and a distinguished British gentleman Albert knows only as “the old duffer” (C. Aubrey Smith) – who descend from their exalted positions to intervene in Albert’s life.

Dave Kehr