Editing Anna Neagle (section)

=== Return to the UK ===

Returning to the UK, Neagle and Wilcox commenced with ''[[They Flew Alone]]'' (1942; shot after but released before ''Forever and a Day''). Neagle this time played [[aviator]] [[Amy Johnson]], who had recently died in a flying accident. [[Robert Newton]] co-starred as Johnson's husband, [[Jim Mollison]]. The film intercut the action with newsreel footage.<ref name="bfireleases" />

Neagle and Wilcox married in August 1943 at London's [[Caxton Hall]].<ref name="westminster.gov.uk">City of Westminster green plaques {{cite web|url=http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/leisureandculture/greenplaques/ |title=Westminster City Council – Green Plaques Scheme |access-date=2011-07-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716210428/http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/leisureandculture/greenplaques/ |archive-date=16 July 2012 }}</ref>

They continued with ''[[Yellow Canary (film)|Yellow Canary]]'' (1943), co-starring [[Richard Greene]] and [[Margaret Rutherford]]. In this spy story, Neagle plays a German-sympathiser (or at least that is what she seems to be at first), who is forced to go to Canada for her own safety. In reality, of course, she is working as an [[spy|undercover agent]] out to expose a plot to blow up [[Halifax Regional Municipality|Halifax Harbour]] in [[Nova Scotia]]. ''Yellow Canary'' received positive comments for its atmospheric recreation of wartime conditions.<ref name="britishpictures" />

In 1945, Neagle appeared on stage in ''Emma'', a dramatisation of [[Jane Austen]]'s [[Emma (novel)|novel]]. That same year, she was seen in the film ''[[I Live in Grosvenor Square]]'', co-starring [[Rex Harrison]]. She wanted Harrison for the lead in her next film, ''[[Piccadilly Incident]]'' (1946). However, he (as well as [[John Mills]]) proved to be unavailable at the time, so Wilcox cast [[Michael Wilding]] in the lead. Thus was born what film critic [[Godfrey Winn]] called "the greatest team in British films".<ref name="bfireleases" /> The story – of a wife, presumed dead, returning to her (remarried) husband – bears a resemblance to the [[Irene Dunne]]–[[Cary Grant]] comedy ''[[My Favorite Wife]]''. ''Piccadilly Incident'' was chosen as ''[[Picturegoer]]'s'' Best Film of 1947. Despite the fact that Neagle was some eight years older than Wilding, they proved to be an extremely bankable romantic pairing at the British box office. By now in her mid-40s, Neagle continued to have success in youthful and romantic lead roles.

Neagle and Wilding were reunited in ''[[The Courtneys of Curzon Street]]'' (1947), a period drama that became the year's top box-office attraction. The film featured Wilding as an upper-class dandy and Neagle as the maid he marries, only to have the two of them driven apart by [[Victorian morality|Victorian]] society.<ref name="britishpictures" />

The third pairing of Neagle and Wilding in the "London Films", as the series of films came to be called, was in ''[[Spring in Park Lane]]'' (1948). A comedy, this depicted the romance between a millionaire's niece and a footman (actually a nobleman who has seen better days). The script was written by [[Nicholas Phipps]], who also played Wilding's brother. Although not a musical, it contains a dream sequence featuring the song "The Moment I Saw You". ''Spring in Park Lane'' was the 1949 ''Picturegoer'' winner for Best Film, Actor, and Actress.<ref name="bfireleases" /> Neagle and Wilding were together for a fourth time in the Technicolor romance ''[[Maytime in Mayfair]]'' (1949). The plot is reminiscent of ''[[Roberta (musical)|Roberta]]'', as it had Wilding inheriting a dress shop owned by Neagle.<ref name="britishpictures" />

By now, Neagle was at her peak as Britain's top box-office actress, and she made what reputedly became her own favourite film, ''[[Odette (1950 film)|Odette]]'' (1950), co-starring [[Trevor Howard]], [[Peter Ustinov]], and [[Marius Goring]]. As [[Odette Sansom]], she was the [[UK|Anglo]]-French [[resistance fighter]] who was pushed to the edge of betrayal by the Nazis.<ref name="bfireleases" /> In 1950, Neagle and Wilcox moved to the top-floor flat in Aldford House overlooking [[Park Lane]], which was their home until 1964.<ref name="westminster.gov.uk"/> She played [[Florence Nightingale]] in ''[[The Lady with a Lamp]]'' (1951), based on the 1929 play by [[Reginald Berkeley]].

Returning to the stage in 1953, she scored a success with ''[[The Glorious Days]]'', which had a run of 476 performances. Neagle and Wilcox brought the play to the screen under the title ''[[Lilacs in the Spring]]'' (1954), co-starring [[Errol Flynn]]. In the film, she plays an actress knocked out by a bomb, who dreams she is Queen Victoria and Nell Gwyn, as well as her own mother. As she begins dreaming, the film switches from black-and-white to colour. In Britain, where Neagle had top billing, the film was reasonably successful. In the United States, however, where Flynn had top billing, the title was changed to ''Let's Make Up'', and it flopped, with limited bookings.<ref name="bfireleases" /><ref>Thomas, Tony, [[Rudy Behlmer]], and Clifford McCarthy. ''The Films of Errol Flynn.'' Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel, 1969. p. 201.</ref>