1946: The Best Years of Our Lives

Three veterans return home after World War II.

Release Date: Nov. 21, 1946. Running Time: 172 minutes. Screenplay: Robert E. Sherwood. Based on the novella, Glory for Me by: MacKinley Kantor. Producer: Samuel Goldwyn. Director: William Wyler.


THE PLOT:

Three World War II veterans return to their home town of Boone City, only to find difficulty adjusting to civilian life. Each man served in a different branch: Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) in the Air Corps, Al Stephenson (Fredric March) as an infantry sergeant, and Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) in the Navy. Each also comes from a very different background, with Al a successful banker, Homer a kid from a middle-class family, and Fred previously a poor drug store worker.

Before he shipped out, Fred married nightclub dancer Marie (Virginia Mayo) after a whirlwind romance. Now that he's home, and with no better job prospects than drug store "soda jerk," he finds that fun-loving young Marie has little patience for his poverty. Meanwhile, Al returns to a loving wife (Myrna Loy), but he barely recognizes his now-grown children and finds his job as a loan officer far from agreeable. Finally, Homer, who lost both his hands, finds himself too aware of the stares he receives, while also worrying that his fiancée, Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell), may be staying with him out of pity instead of love.

The three find some solace in each other's company, hanging out the bar run by Homer's uncle (Hoagy Carmichael)... until Fred finds himself falling for Al's adult daughter, Peggy (Teresa Wright). The young woman feels guilty about her feelings for a married man, and she calls Marie to arrange a night out with both of them in hopes that getting to know her will put a stop to her crush. It has the opposite effect: After she witnesses how much the two dislike each other, she returns to her parents resolved that she is "going to break up that marriage!"

Al tries to slip back into his life with wife Milly (Myrna Loy).

CHARACTERS:

Milly: Milly (Myrna Loy) mostly tries to defuse tension with warm humor. Still, we see her concern for Al's excessive drinking. Before leaving to a bank function, Al fortifies himself a little too much, until Milly repeatedly takes the glass out of his hand - initially with a teasing attitude, but gradually with more insistence. At the dinner, Al is asked to make a speech... one he drinks his way through, while Milly tallies the number of drinks he has by marking the linen with her fork. By the fifth drink, she's all but stabbing the line into the sheet.

Al: When he returns to his upscale apartment, he hesitates for several seconds before going into the building. He seems almost in a daze as he is reunited with/meets his teen son and adult daughter, and he barely pauses in his rush to get out of the apartment and out to a bar. Al finds his work as a loan officer difficult; when a veteran applies for a loan without collateral, he can't bring himself to refuse, even though it draws the ire of his employer (Ray Collins). He complains to his wife that his real problem is that he's "too sane for (his) own good."

Fred: Outwardly, he's the most composed of the three veterans. Beneath the surface, he's a mess, trying to use an outgoing attitude to cover some pretty serious PTSD. When he finally falls asleep on his first night back, he suffers a nightmare, reliving the death of his best friend. Later, as he walks through an airplane graveyard, he can't help but hop into a bomber scheduled for demolition... where he immediately begins reliving his past again. Even his shallow young wife is observant enough to ask if something is wrong with his mind, a question he responds to by ignoring it.

Peggy: Much like her Oscar-winning performance in Mrs. Miniver, Teresa Wright radiates warmth and good humor. She and Myrna Loy are not 100% convincing as mother and daughter; with only a 13-year age difference between them, they look more like sisters. Still, they play well together, such as the moment early in the film when they drive the passed-out Al and Fred back to their apartment, giggling to each other about what a lovely couple the two soused soldiers make.

Marie: Fred's self-absorbed wife. Their marriage was a whirlwind affair, driven more by Fred's desperation to connect than anything. Now that he's survived the war, he quickly learns that they not only don't he and Marie love each other - They don't even like each other! While Marie is not a sympathetic character, it should be observed that this situation is as unfair to her as it is to him. Fred insists on her quitting her nightclub job, despite the only job he's able to secure being a low-paying one that hardly replaces her previous income. She values money and fun a little too much... but his response is to be almost constantly surly. These are two people who never should have been together, and never would have been together (at least, not for long) had it not been for a too-hurried wartime marriage.

Homer: Real-life World War II veteran Harold Russell, who lost both his hands to a training accident, portrays Homer. He has hooks where his hands used to be, and he's able to use them with great dexterity. He happily demonstrates this to both Fred and Al. Once he's home, however, he becomes clumsy under the weight of his family's stares, and his cheerfulness - already somewhat forced - fades into sullen withdrawal. In a particularly strong scene late in the film, he removes his hooks for bed while narrating to his fiancée exactly how helpless he is at this moment:

"My hands are down there... I can't put them on again without calling to

somebody for help. I can't smoke a cigarette or read a book. If that door should

blow shut, I can't open it and get out of this room. I'm as dependent as a

baby that doesn't know how to get anything except to cry for it."

Homer reveals the extent of his injuries to
his fiancée, Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell).

THOUGHTS:

William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives was the first major Hollywood movie to seriously deal with the stresses and struggles experienced by soldiers returning home after the war. Its three returning veterans are well-drawn characters in themselves, but they are also designed to represent others: each from a different socioeconomic status, each having served in a different branch, and each dealing with a different kind of trauma.

To the film's credit, it provides few easy answers to the men's issues. At the end of the film, Al is still drinking. Fred has managed to find work - but his new job is only a moderate step up from "soda jerk," and he admits that his financial situation is likely to remain difficult for a while. Even Homer, who receives the closest thing to a happy ending, is likely to continue feeling the stares of those he meets, something that he might adjust to but will never be comfortable with.

The first part of the film is splendid, as we meet the three characters and then follow them back home to their new/old lives. This introductory section flows very naturally. We open with Fred trying to get a flight back home. A businessman pushes right past him, and the friendly airport employee has to turn away from this new arrival to direct Fred to a military hangar.

It's there, while waiting for his flight, that Fred meets Homer. They chat while Homer's hooks are introduced.  Neither man comments on them, but we see Fred's stare as Homer uses the hooks to sign his name.  When the two go to their plane, they meet Al, completing the trio.  The three bond during the flight, interacting easily with each other, which strikes a contrast against their later, more strained interactions with others. As they drive through the town, Homer points out his uncle's bar - firmly establishing the place where they will later reunite. Finally, each of them reaches his destination, each hesitating to different degrees before going to a place that no longer really feels like home.

Each veteran struggles with psychological issues. Unsurprisingly, each man's issues boil over at inconvenient moments: Fred punching out a customer who denigrates the soldiers as "suckers," Al getting drunk at a business event when he needs to make a speech, and Homer erupting in rage when he sees local children staring at him through a window. Somewhat refreshingly, these issues don't lead to any kind of "support group" PSA: They try to deal with their problems by themselves, as quietly as they can manage, though even at the end it's clear that they are far from entirely all right.

Fred (Dana Andrews) relives his past amidst a
graveyard of airplanes, all scheduled to be junked.

Director William Wyler was particularly skilled at getting the best from actors, a strength that is very much in evidence here. It's no trick to get terrific performances from Myrna Loy, Fredric March, or Teresa Wright. However, this film showcases by far the best performance I've seen from Dana Andrews, and Wyler coaxes some fine work from Harold Russell, who was not even a professional actor! Wyler also balances the ensemble effectively. Each character gets a moment to hold the spotlight, and no one gets lost in the shuffle even when pushed to the background.

All of that said, the second half just isn't as good as the first half. The Fred/Peggy romance takes centerstage for much of the latter part of the movie, at which point things start to feel a bit sudsy. This isn't to say the film particularly stumbles - it remains engaging throughout - but the focus shifts, and not for the better, while one major strand basically resolves itself (likely to avoid a Hays Office showdown).

Thankfully, the focus is regained with the final Act.  Fred leaves town to try to find a decent job only to wander into an airplane graveyard - row upon row of aircraft, created for the war, and now scheduled to be junked because they are no longer useful - much the way Fred, a decorated captain in the army, finds that his skillset is no longer useful in peacetime.  Meanwhile, Homer gets his outstanding speech about his own helplessness once his hooks are removed. Even the "happy ending" injects a note of tension, with moments involving Al's drinking and a sense of lingering tension between Al and Fred preventing the movie from too easy or saccharine even as it closes out.


OVERALL:

The Best Years of Our Lives was a highly personal project for director William Wyler, who had worked on war documentaries during the conflict and had become highly involved with veterans and their issues. Wyler's best traits as a director are on full display, from his skill with actors to his ability to juggle large casts, and the movie's portrayal of veterans' issues remains very relevant.

It's not a perfect movie, losing a bit of focus in the middle and occasionally dipping into soap opera. It is, however, a very good film - and, thanks to a fine cast and a generous supply of humor, it is also a surprisingly entertaining one.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Best Motion Picture - 1945: The Lost Weekend
Best Motion Picture - 1947: Gentleman's Agreement

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1936: The Great Ziegfeld.

A massive set piece from The Ziegfeld Follies.

Release Date: March 22, 1936. Running Time: 176 minutes. Screenplay: William Anthony McGuire. Producer: Hunt Stromberg. Director: Robert Z. Leonard.


THE PLOT:

Florence "Flo" Ziegfeld (William Powell) has always dreamed of show business, but has struggled with money: Namely, whenever he has it, he can't help but spend it. After finding some success promoting strongman Eugen Sandow (Nat Pendleton), he sees his chance. He uses the money he's made to travel to Europe, where he secures a contract with Polish-born singer Anna Held (Luise Rainer), whom he later marries.

Not content to simply promote his wife's show, he goes on to create the Ziegfeld Follies, elaborate revues featuring hundreds of gorgeous dancers. But Ziegfeld's own nature interferes with his success. His love of extravagance leads him to spend money as quickly as he makes it, and his love of beauty manifests in infidelity, threatening to leave him right back where he started: with nothing.

Ziegfeld woos singer Anna Held (Luise Rainer)
- personally as well as professionally.

CHARACTERS:

Florenz Ziegfeld: William Powell had an outstanding year in 1936. He was nominated for an Oscar for My Man Godfrey, but he as easily could have been nominated (or indeed, won) for this movie. With a lesser performance, Ziegfeld could easily have come across as a shallow and profligate cad. Powell's charismatic performance keeps him likable even when his behavior is at its worst, and his lively patter and expressions help carry the overlong movie through some very slow stretches.

Billie Burke: Powell is reteamed with his Thin Man co-star, Myrna Loy, as Ziegfeld's last wife. Loy's part is much smaller here, with her first appearance coming after the two hour mark, but she and Powell retain their screen chemistry. The two of them just fit, as naturally as Tracy and Hepburn or Bogart and Bacall, and it's easy to see why they shared the screen more than a dozen times. Loy's Burke provides a supportive counter to Powell's Ziegfeld. While he jumps from one extravagance to the next, she quietly saves and invests - which ends up rescuing him when he suffers a few misfires.

Anna Held: Luise Rainer won the Academy Award for Best Actress as Ziegfeld's first wife. I strongly disagree with that award. Anna is clearly not a lead character; I doubt her screen time exceeds thirty minutes, nor is she a particularly dominant presence. Given that this was the year that introduced the Supporting Actor/Actress awards, that would surely have been a more appropriate slot for her. Beyond that... Rainer is probably the weakest of the film's major performers, overemoting to a degree that becomes exhausting to watch. She would win a second Oscar the following year, for The Good Earth, and that far more restrained performance remains excellent; this one, however, does not.

Jack Billings: Frank Morgan is Ziegfeld's professional rival. The film opens with Billings' show, Little Egypt, easily outperforming Ziegfeld's strongman show at the 1893 World Fair. Ziegfeld is able to steal Billings' girl at the fair... and then later his butler... and eventually, Billings' star act. He even steals the man's pretty receptionist for the Follies, leaving Billings to switch to dowdy secretaries from that point on. For all of that, he is clearly fond of Ziegfeld even when working against him. When Ziegfeld needs money for the Follies, Billings first enjoys a laugh at his old rival's financial straits, but then immediately wires him the money. The interactions between these two characters are the most consistently enjoyable parts of the movie, and writer William Anthony McGuire wisely makes their odd friendship the centerpiece of the film's last major dramatic scene.

The production number are extremely
well-staged, but there are too many of them.

A PICTURE TOO BIG FOR ITS OWN GOOD:

The Great Ziegfeld was rapturously received in 1936, audiences and critics alike responding to the mammoth production. In a flourish worthy of the real Ziegfeld, the movie was sold for its scale.  Advertisements trumpeted the 3 hour running time, at that time the longest talking film ever released.  Contemporary trailers even advertised that tickets would be at a premium because of its length - creating the impression of a not-to-be-missed spectacle.

The recreations of moments from Ziegfeld's shows are often dazzling. A production number set to Irving Berlin's A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody is incredible, with a veritable army of dancers performing on a spinning staircase leading up to the extravagantly-coiffed star. As the camera pulls back, we see that the stairs and dancers all form the image of a giant cake, with a curtain-formed topper descending as the image snaps into focus. I can't recall ever having seen anything like it in a live-action movie.

But there's simply too much. That set piece is easily the highlight of the movie's recreated performances... but it's followed quickly by several other numbers, often with only one or two scenes of character or dialogue separating them. The middle hour often feels more like a Ziegfeld Follies sampler than a proper movie, and the drama begins to stall under the weight of the Broadway set pieces.

The dramatic scenes also feel like a backward step after the previous two Best Picture winners. It Happened One Night and Mutiny on the Bounty kept their stories moving, cutting into scenes with action already underway and cutting out at dramatic high points. The Great Ziegfeld feels less of a piece with them than with Grand Hotel or Cavalcade, with scenes playing out from character entrances through to character exits. The results feel stagey and even stilted. Some tighter editing would have done wonders for the pacing.

Ziegfeld woos actress Billie Burke (Myrna
Loy), who will become his final wife.

A LACK OF INSIGHT:

Overlength is this movie's biggest sin. However, it also fails to give us any real insight into Ziegfeld's career. The first hour teases that it might show how Ziegfeld became a success. We see him become inspired to sell strongman Sandow as a sex object to women after a woman becomes entranced with his ability to flex his muscles in time to music. Later, he muses to a young girl: "I'm going to take all the beautiful girls like you, and I'm going top ut them together and make pictures with them." - basically, the idea that would become the Follies.

But... that's the last we see of anything hinting at a creative process. He talks about wanting to do a show, and then we cut to performances of the show. He hears four men in a barber shop grousing about his lackluster recent offering, and angrily declares that he will create four simultaneous Broadway hits; then, after a talk with his wife, we cut to those four shows debuting. There is never a sense of where he gets ideas, or how he develops them. Ziegfeld's creativity was at least as major part of him as his womanizing, but we get no sense of it in this film, and I can't help but see that as a major failing.


OVERALL:

Time has taken its toll on The Great Ziegfeld's reputation, and it's now generally regarded as one of the weakest Best Picture winners. I wouldn't go that far. It's clearly better-crafted than The Broadway Melody, more engaging than Cavalcade, and more complete and better-acted than Cimarron.

Still, the script is disappointingly content to wade in very shallow waters; and while many of the set pieces are splendid, there are simply too many of them. The result is a movie that never finds much focus or momentum, and that is paralyzed by sheer overlength.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

Outstanding Production - 1935: Mutiny on the Bounty
Outstanding Production - 1937: The Life of Emile Zola

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