Scripted, but effective

Rating: 10/10 (30 August 2011)

As long as there are wars, there will be soldiers coming home from them after long absences. And there will be movies like this one that detail what some of those soldier experience. This movie is one of the first, and one of the best, to tackle this sensitive subject. The movie concentrates on three soldiers coming home to a smallish Midwestern city from WWII and it walks a fine line between being too stark (blind and paralyzed) and being overly sunny (parades and public honors). Care is also taken to represent the three main branches of the military: Al is an infantry Sargent, Homer is a Navy seaman, and Fred is an Army Air Corps Captain (the Air Force was not made an official branch of the U.S. Military until 1947). These three had disparate backgrounds before the war: Al was a banker with a wife and two kids; Fred was a soda jerk, recently married; Homer was a middle class guy living with his parents, having a girlfriend next door. The initial scenes are some of the most moving where we see the excitement the guys have in flying over the city in coming back, only to be followed by witnessing the anxiety over what they will find on the home front.
After the initial setup the story follows the three soldiers through their initial reentry into a culture they hardly recognize until they are on a path to integration. It's not a one-way street--families and friends also have their share of anxieties and readjustments. Perhaps Homer has the toughest row to hoe, since he lost both hands during the war. You are forced to see the obstacles Homer faces, both physical and emotional. Homer's situation was brought home to me when he took his prosthetic arms off and laid them to the side and commented that if the door to his bedroom closed, he would be as helpless as a baby when it came to getting out. Homer's situation is presented in detail and with much feeling and it makes you think about the daily ordeals any handicapped person faces.
I found the acting uniformly good, even non-actor Harold Russell as Homer. I particularly liked Myrna Loy as Al's wife Milly. The banter between Milly and Al sometimes offered a bit of comic relief--Loy's personality that made her so successful in the Thin Man movies breaks through on occasion. The scene that had Fred pretending to sell Al's daughter perfume was funny and charming. But, befitting the subject matter, there is not a whole lot of humor to be had here.
The black and white photography is notable. There are some interesting scenes using mirrors. As with many movies from the 40s and 50s the musical score gets a little out of control at times leaving little doubt as to what emotions you should be having.
Of interest is the fact that the movie is a bit of a time capsule. I got a feel for the time period in terms of the dress, the cars, the night life, and so forth. The sex appeal of the women in this film withstands the test of time--indeed, maybe less explicit dress is more enticing. The brief footage in the nightclubs of Gene Krupa in one scene and Tennessee Ernie Ford in another was fun to see. And the scene with Hoagy Carmichael playing the piano while counseling Homer to calm down was a pure delight. I wish there had been more of Carmichael. The scene toward the end showing the graveyard for airplanes was sobering and could be seen as a metaphor for what was happening to the three soldiers--what was recently a vital resource was being processed for salvage.
This movie might be a little too polished, but I admire it for its courage in taking on a serious topic so soon after the war, and doing so with honesty and style. The themes touched on are no less relevant now than they were then.