Prestige pic of '46

Rating: 6/10 (5 May 2017)

I watched "The Best Years of Our Lives" for the very first time this morning prepared to loathe every minute of its almost three hour running time. Why ? I have an aversion to "prestige films". Movies that are made it seems just to win Oscars ("Gandhi", "Titanic"). I know that my prejudice is unreasonable and I risk missing some very good movies because of it but what can I do-I like quirky flicks, also ran's and B-movies the hell with the Miss America's I want the bearded lady in the side show. I was a bit disappointed I kinda liked this movie. I liked Myrna Loy and Dana Andrews, both great screen actors. I love Teresa Wright-she can do no wrong in my book. Fredric March was the weakest of the leads despite winning the Oscar for best actor (too much fat on this ham) but Virginia Mayo's performance holds up (and talk about va-voom! What a knock out. I wish they had gone with an actor for the role of the disabled vet. Harold Russell was admirable to tackle the part but his inexperience as a performer was off putting (think Sofia Coppola in "The Godfather 3"). Thank god we have William Wyler helming the picture-he is a great director and keeps this cumbersome vehicle humming along. Best scene: March's homecoming when Loy realizes it is her husband who has rang the doorbell. Almost wordlessly executed it is an exquisite piece of filmmaking. Too bad there are not enough of them to make this a great movie-only a pretty good one