I'll Be Seeing You

Plot synopsis:
Social outcasts Mary Marshall (Ginger Rogers) and Sgt. Zachary Morgan (Joseph Cotten) meet while seated across from each other on a train bound for Pinehill. Zach, a victim of shell shock and, therefore, a prisoner of his own mind, has just been granted a ten-day leave from a military hospital to try to readjust to daily life. Mary, convicted for Involuntary Manslaughter, has just been given a special eight-day furlough from prison to spend the Christmas holiday with her aunt and uncle in Pinehill. Each harbors his own secret. Mary lies to Zach that she is a traveling saleslady on her way to spend the holidays with her family, while Zach tells Mary that he is going to visit his sister in Pinehill. After the train pulls into the station, the two exchange names. Mary then goes to the Marshall home, where she is reunited with her Uncle Henry (Tom Tully), Aunt Sarah (Spring Byington) and cousin Barbara (Shirley Temple).
Zach, meanwhile, checks into the YMCA. Unsure of herself after a three-year confinement in prison, Mary laments the loss of her youthful dreams of having a husband and family. Soon after, Zach phones, and Mary invites him to dinner. After the meal, Zach tells Mary that he has no sister but stopped in Pinehill to be near her. He and Mary then attend a war movie, but Zach falls mute when Mary questions him about his own experiences in the war. While stopping at a café afterward, Zach panics when the soda jerk, Swanson (Chill Wills), who is afflicted with a facial tic, recounts being shell-shocked during World War I. Apprehensive that his affliction will also result in disfigurement, Zach flees the café and is unable to share his fears with Mary.
Upon returning home, Mary, who is sharing Barbara's room, finds that Barbara has labeled her possessions. Realizing that Barbara distrusts her, Mary relates the circumstances that sent her to prison. After the death of her parents, Mary had gone to work as a secretary. One night, her wealthy boss invited her to dinner at his apartment and Mary naively accepted, believing that he was inviting her to a party. Shocked to discover that she was the only guest, Mary was then accosted by her drunken boss. While struggling to avoid his advances, Mary pushed him away, sending him to his death through an open window. Mary was then convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison. At the end of Mary's story, Barbara, who is touched by her cousin's misfortune, begs her forgiveness.
The next day, Zach invites Mary to the lake and there explains his behavior of the previous night. After voicing his fears of becoming like Swanson, Zach asks Mary to help him believe in himself as she believes in herself. Over Christmas dinner at the Marshall house, Zach rhapsodizes about feeling at home with the family. Aware that her stay with the family is temporary, Mary becomes despondent and asks Aunt Sarah if she should tell Zach the truth. Sarah counsels her to remain silent. When Zach invites the Marshall family to the New Year's Eve party at the YMCA, Sarah buys Mary a new dress for the occasion. At the party, a U.S. Senator solicits Zach's opinion as a soldier on political issues, and Zach outspokenly replies that each soldier is an individual and, as such, holds different opinions. While walking home with Mary after the dance, Zach is attacked by a dog and fends off the animal until its owner arrives to restrain it. As Mary bids Zach goodnight, she comments that he has regained his confidence and is now recovered. Knowing that they are both scheduled to leave the next day, Zach tries to discuss their future together; but Mary feigns sleepiness and asks to delay the discussion. Entering the house in tears, Mary confides her love for Zach to Sarah.
Meanwhile, after jubilantly returning to his hotel room, Zach suffers a relapse but is restored by recalling the sound of Mary's voice. The next day, Zach comes to the Marshall house to say goodbye. While alone with Zach, Barbara, not knowing that Zach is unaware of her cousin's conviction, mentions some of the details of Mary's prison sentence. Mary senses that something is wrong when Zach suddenly becomes distant and silently boards the train. Upon returning home, Mary discovers that Barbara has divulged her secret and collapses, weeping. But that night, as Mary approaches the gates of the state prison, Zach steps from the shadows to embrace her and declare his love.

Tags: melodrama, flashback

Review:
This movie made me a fan of Ginger Rogers and Joseph Cotten even more.
It's a small and quiet film, but it's a great one at that.I'm used to seeing Ginger Rogers either dancing around with Fred Astaire or playing a chorus girl in a show that is struggling, but this movie has shown me how much talent she really had.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film, of course, I dearly love both of the main actors and am also fairly fond of Shirley Temple ( it's a change to see her as an adolescent instead of as a small kid ).
Ginger Rogers doesn't sing or dance here but she puts in an excellent dramatic performance as a woman on furlough for the holidays from prison.
Selznick is reported to have not liked this script and tried changes that Dieterle basically ignored but Selnick did call in director George Cukor to re shoot a scene critical to the plot that involved Shirley Temple.
Shirley Temple in her transition from child star into adult roles delivers a fine performance from the supporting cast which also includes Chill Wills and a young John Derek.
Here, Rogers does it, trying to hide her past while Cotten almost does the same, but comes clean early on.Other than that, it's a throwback-to-the-more-wholesome-past film that, while it might be a bit slow in parts, features interesting lead characters by famous actors of their day: Joseph Cotten, Ginger Rogers and Shirley Temple.
Good World War II romantic drama with excellent performances by Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotton and 16-year old Shirley Temple."I'll Be Seeing You" looks at the effects of a kind of `battle fatigue' known then as "old sergeant's syndrome".
Although I enjoyed the talents of Ginger Rogers more in her infamous teamings with Fred Astaire, and her comic abilities in the Katharine Hepburn movie "Stage Door", she cannot at least be given some credit for her fine dramatic acting as well, of which pleasantly surprised me.
Her portrayal a woman convicted for manslaughter, is inspirational, as her character helps a suffering soldier find solace, while attempting to hide the secret she dreads will threaten his full recovery.With Joseph Cotten and Shirley Temple in the supporting cast, the movie is nonetheless up to mainstream Hollywood standards.
I did find that the movie was a little light on the drama in some parts, in comparison to later Hollywood films like Audrey Hepburn's "The Nun's Story", but the romance story was lovely.Definitely a must for Ginger Rogers fans, and fans of a good old fashioned Hollywood flick in the best style that they just don't make anymore.
A bit offbeat is this story of a girl on prison furlough (Ginger Rogers) who meets a shell-shocked soldier (Joseph Cotten), each keeping their past secret.
Interesting tidbits: Ginger Rogers was not the first choice for the leading role--it was originally offered to Joan Fontaine who disliked the script and was having contract troubles with Selznick and turned it down.
I'll Be Seeing You captures the loneliness of two people who - besides their own serious problems - just don't fit into the bustling wartime image we often see of America in film during that time.The opening scene is in a busy train station.
He (Joseph Cotten as Zachary Morgan) is uncomfortable because he wants to buy reading material and all that is available is full of news about the war and images that you can tell make him squeamish.Zach is suffering from what would be called PTSD today due to battle fatigue, and he's ashamed of that fact, afraid of winding up like the shell-shocked WWI soldier he knew as a boy.Mary is a convict out on Christmas furlough, although what she is serving time for will probably be a shock to modern sensibilities - I know it was for me.
Mary chooses to keep the truth from Zach, partly because she loves him and doesn't want to lose him, but mainly because her company is making him well - he says her self-confidence is giving him confidence - and she doesn't want to set back his recovery.Mary is staying with her aunt, uncle, and cousin during the holidays, and this warm family setting has both of them healing just a bit.
Shirley Temple plays the cousin that is too young to know why Mary is in prison or wear lipstick according to her parents, but is apparently old enough to go out unchaperoned with a Lieutenant on leave who is probably five years older than she!
I'm rather surprised it hasn't become more of a Christmas standard, because even though in many ways it is a unique snapshot in time, the story of two lonely people finding each other in a world that would probably judge them severely if they were open about their problems is universal..
There's no way that two protagonists in Nazi Germany or Bushido Japan would be in a film like this, one of them being a shell shock surviving soldier the other one being a woman convicted of a homicide and on a furlough from prison.
So instead he decides to spend time with the family of a girl he met on the train.That girl is Ginger Rogers who was convicted of a homicide, but a flashback sequence where she explains what happened to her cousin Shirley Temple shows Ginger might not be the hardened criminal one might imagine.
Still for good behavior she gets to spend the Christmas/New Year's holidays with aunt Spring Byington and uncle Tom Tully her closest relatives.
So these flawed and wounded souls meet and fall in love and the story runs pretty much along the lines that most wartime romances do, especially in World War II years.
Besides those already mentioned, take note of Chill Wills as the owner of a diner who was in the first World War and talks about his battle with shell shock which unnerves Cotten as he hasn't told Rogers yet.
I'll Be Seeing You is a fine example of the wartime romance World War II movie..
The other users have described the plot so no further comment is necessary therefore I will restrict myself to the acting and character portrayals.This film was produced in the same year that "Since You Went Away" was released by Selznick and contains two actors in that film, Shirley Temple and Joseph Cotton.It certainly did not have the same budget or production values as the aforesaid film, so I could only award it 6/10 as it is a rather straightforward "romcom".Todays liberal 2009 UK/(US?) courts would probably have given Ginger Rogers' character Mary an absolute discharge where she had no previous convictions and where the prosecution and defence teams agree that no useful purpose would be served to society giving the accused defendant a custodial sentence.However in 1944 the justice system was more severe and literal.To show Ginger Rogers could do straight dramatic roles look no further than "Kitty Foyle" (1940) for which she won her best actress "Oscar".Ginger was 33 when she acted this role so was a little mature but William Dieterle gave her soft focus lens close-ups and a youthful dress to take a few years off her age.This was the first time I had seen this film which is surprising as I thought I knew most popular 1940s films, it certainly has not been seen on UK TV network stations to my knowledge.After having seen Hitchcock's acclaimed "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943),I was preparing myself for Joseph Cotton to perform another "Uncle Charlie" role especially as he appeared to have suffered psychiatric medical problems.However this suspicion was allayed early on and "Zach" became more normal as the film progressed.One thing puzzled me.
How did Zach know which prison to wait for Mary and when she would be returning there especially as she and her relatives had not given him its address.The ending was rather sappy but presumably done to cheer up war time audiences.Also I do wish directors would insist on actors carrying a full suitcase as an empty one is obvious when someone attempts to pick it up, i.e. Mary's initial arrival at her Aunt & Uncle's house.This fault in leaving home scenes still persists in todays soaps/films, despite cinema verite..
Shirley Temple is mainly decorative, exhibiting some of the characteristics of a teen at that time, but finally spilling the beans to Cotton that Ginger is a jailbird out on furlough.....
On a train filled with holiday travelers, beautiful Ginger Rogers (as Mary Marshall) reads "Chic" magazine as soldiers fill the empty seats beside her.
Both Rogers and Cotten are covering secrets with lies...Cotton checks into the local Y.M.C.A. while Rogers rooms with typical seventeen-year old Shirley Temple (as Barbara)...It's repeatedly reported Ms. Temple had trouble with a pivotal scene near the end, when she tells Rogers a revelation was blurted out accidentally; credit director George Cukor for stepping in to re-shoot, and Temple for making it more believable.
Writer/adapter Marion Parsonnet and co-star Cotten were never favorites with "Oscar" or other award-giving organizations, or they might have been nominated for "Screenplay" and "Best Actor" awards; both jump the gun with an uncommon look at war wounds, before the contemporary war (WW II) was over.******** I'll Be Seeing You (12/44) William Dieterle ~ Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple, Spring Byington.
It was also well directed by Mr. Dieterle and acted by Ginger Rogers, with out tap shoes, Joseph Cotton and a teen aged Shirley Temple.
Mary Marshall (Ginger Rogers) was jailed for manslaughter and has been given leave to spend time with her aunt and uncle over Christmas.She meets on the train Zachary Morgan (Joseph Cotten) who is having treatment in a military hospital for shell shock.
Mary Marshall (Ginger Rogers) is let out of prison for a few days to stay with her aunt's family.
On the train, she meets soldier Zach (Joseph Cotton) who is having a few days holiday before he returns to a psychiatric hospital.
There are good scenes between Rogers and Cotton as we believe the love that they feel for one another.
Ginger Rogers looks a little mature to be a single gal still holding onto her virtue; here, as a convicted felon out on a furlough for the Christmas holiday, the actress is supposed to be wistful and vulnerable, but she appears seasoned.
As Rogers' cousin, Shirley Temple is almost as miscast as Ginger; groomed and trained to always give her all, Temple's impersonation of a 'typical' American teenager is a little bit frightening (casual, flip talk doesn't come easily to Shirley, she's too eager to punch her scenes across).
I like the way Cotten (Sergeant Zach) and Rogers (Mary) meet up.
This very adult, mature and touching film deals with a soldier suffering from PTSD and a woman on furlough from prison for the holiday season.
Beautiful story about a female convict (Ginger Rogers) and a shell-shocked solider (Joseph Cotton) who meet on a train and, over the course of the next few days, fall in love.
The seasonal backdrop usually means TCM shows it near Christmas so please check it out if you enjoy old movies and love stories..
Great performances by GINGER ROGERS and Joseph COTTEN make this otherwise slight film worth watching.
The film had a great premise but after a point you realize that the makers were only interested in making a feel good movie with a few dark elements.
GINGER ROGERS was a little too beautiful and well dressed to pass off as a woman out on parole.The film does have a christmasy feel to it despite some gripping scenes (like that very violent fight with the dog).
Pleasing Wartime melodrama with troubled soldier Joseph Cotten trying to recover while keeping company with sympathetic Ginger Rogers.
David Selznick produces an unusual picture starring Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotten and a teenage Shirley Temple.
He also gives Ginger Roger's character Mary a good description of what it feels like in a big battle - the only thing you experience is what's right in front of you, not how they show it in the movies with panoramic knowledge.One thing that is missing from the movie is any idea of what prison is like for Mary.
For that reason, I do watch this film every holiday season, because it captures the old fashioned family and Christmas mood so well.
Joseph Cotten plays a shell-shocked soldier, his doctors have furloughed him for the Christmas holidays, and he encounters Ginger Rogers, on a train going to visit her relatives for the holidays, but she has a dark secret, she to is on a furlough from prison.
Ginger Rogers acting is very pleasing, for you can really feel how hard it is for her to keep the secret hidden from Cotten, making her character's quandary all the more believable.
Since I really liked Joseph Cotten (a highly underrated actor, if you ask me), I thought I'd give it a try--and I am glad I did, as it's a dandy old film--full of sentiment and romance.The film begins with Cotten meeting Ginger Rogers on a train.
This could almost have formed a segment of Since You Went Away which Joseph Cotton and Shirley Temple made that same year.
This time around the roles are reversed and it is Ginger Rogers who is serving a prison sentence for manslaughter and has been released in order to spend Christmas with an aunt and Joseph Cotton who is not terminally ill but suffering with serious combat fatigue.
She is Ginger Rogers, in prison for manslaughter (on a charge that obviously should have been dismissed) and he is Joseph Cotten, suffering from severe shell-shock.
They are star-crossed lovers fated to be parted, but with hope still lingering in their hearts, they will end up together.Spring Byington and Tom Tryon are Rogers' gracious aunt and uncle, bringing temporary joy into their lives as the holidays come and go, from a very Merry Christmas to a romantic New Year's Eve. Each of them face psychological trauma (she is even afraid to step one inch beyond the state line which they arrive at while walking along the river bank) as their love grows, but they are soothed by the beautiful title song, one of the most fabulous war themes ever written, and still popular today.
While the lover's farewell scene isn't as famous as the Jennifer Jones/Robert Walker farewell in "Since You Went Away" (ironically produced by the same man as this film, David Selznick), it gives way to the feeling that in spite of its horrors, World War II was the most romantic war in history..
This film shows that on the home front, World War 2 was a tough time.
Despite being shell shocked and despite being a jailbird, Cotton and Rogers manage to fall in love during the hectic holidays.
Of course Cotton is unaware of Rogers' manslaughtering ways, and when he finds out about her past will he still love her?
I was glad, however, that it ended happily with Cotton going back to the mental institution and Rogers back to jail.Another poster said Ginger does not dance in this film, but she does.
She doesn't dance like Ginger Rogers in the scene.
It's also no wonder that such a drama would be set during the Christmas season.Cotton and Rogers both severely (and brilliantly) underplay their roles, always a good idea when playing a potentially sentimentalized subject, and they make the film a beautifully understated love story disguised by their respective traumas.
Walking away with Ginger, Cotton finally opens up in answer to her question as to whether the movie was what the war was really like.
Obviously relieved, he takes her to a diner for a cup of coffee, but the waiter (Chill Wills), a victim of shell shock from the First World War, reminds him of himself and Cotton walks away upset, delivering Rogers to her uncle's house and then abruptly leaving her.
Joseph Cotton was at the peak of his career and Ginger Rogers at the tail end of the peak of her film career, and they are both perfect in their lead roles.
Spring Byington and Tom Tully provide terrific support, and though I find Shirley Temple's performance to be more irritating than anything else, it may be more the fault of the character than the actress.
Ginger Rogers (her career on fire at this time) is serving time for an accidental murder (manslaughter as a struggle caused the victim to go out a 14-story window!) and given a furlough (leave for an 8-day vacation with her relatives (Spring Byington, Tom Tully, and Shirley Temple)) for the holidays.
Both Rogers and Cotten deliver very subdued performances, and I think the film is all the better for it.
In the vein of 40s melodramas, you could do a lot worse than this.While Cotten is quietly dealing with demons that torment him--but doing so by not embellishing his emotional troubles as if boxing them away to deal with on his own--Rogers endures the knowledge that she is on a short trip, her sentence not yet over, and the holidays provides just a momentary release.The film is, by and large, a romance.
Ginger Rogers gives a restrained performance as a quiet victimized young lady who is sent to prison after accidentally pushing her drunken boss out the window.While on furlough, she meets Joseph Cotten, who is battle scarred.
The two strike up a memorable friendship, and Rogers tries to keep it from him where she is going back to.Tom Tully and Spring Byington are just wonderful as the aunt and uncle she goes to during her leave.
Shirley Temple is their teenager daughter, outspoken, but kind in this 1944 film.Of course, the picture proves that you can't hide things; they have a way of coming out.
and kind of empty," shell-shocked WWII fighter "Zachary Morgan" tells secret jailbird-on-furlough "Mary Marshall" when she asks if War is like the panoramic newsreels ubiquitous in the early 1940s, when I'LL BE SEEING YOU is set.