Flawed but powerful

Rating: Null/10 (15 March 2017)

This is a gripping story about three men returning from WWII. They meet up as they are desperately trying to get a lift home from the air force. "Do you have an order?" asks the desk clerk of air man Fred (Burt Lancaster), expecting a chit. He quietly points at the medals on his chest. He quickly joins up with two others going to Boone, a little town in the midwest: army sergeant Al (Fredric March), and disabled navy man Homer, who gets by with hooks for hands (veteran Harold Russell).
They sit in the nose of the plane looking at the landscape - they're flying low. Homer is thrilled by his first plane ride. He's just worried about how his girl will react. The others assure him he'll be fine. Back on the ground, they get a taxi and drop Homer off - he's nervous, but the others order him to get going. Al is dropped off at a fancy apartment block and is reunited with his son, daughter Peggy and too-understanding wife Milly (Myrna Loy). Fred, the officer, goes to his parents' house - a shack near a railroad, and sets out to look for his wife.
They all reunite in the evening at Butch's bar (Hoagy Carmichael), drink too much and get a bit riotous (I fast-forwarded, I don't like drunk scenes). The trio have trouble settling in: Fred's wife turns out to have a taste for the good life he can't afford, he gets his old job back but loses it, he falls in love with Al's daughter Peggy...
Homer just wants people to treat him as an ordinary person, and won't set a wedding date. He is a naturally happy soul, and if he loses his temper he quickly apologises, but he is suffering.
Al goes back to work at the bank but his status is precarious - his jovial employer drops heavy warnings about lending to ex-servicemen without collateral. But of course it all ends happily. Al gives the bank board a drink-fuelled boot up the rear about lending to the right people (couldn't watch this bit either).
Best bits: Fred trying to fit in back at the drug store. He's fine at serving chocolate sundaes, especially to his old mate Homer. But then Homer gets a lecture from some busybody who thinks you guys were on the wrong side in the war, and Fred decks him.
Homer's scenes at home with his dad (who is a lovely man) and Wilma.
Fred's scenes with his wife, excellently played by Virginia Mayo.
Frederic March is good, but he's the Big Star, and the camera lingers on him too long. As I said, I didn't like his drunk scenes. Milly does her best, but she should send him to AA. Their scenes, and their heartfelt talks with their daughter Peggy, take too long.
I once knew someone who stole his dialogue from this film...