This old-fashioned movie is really quite modern.
Likely it was cutting-edge when released after WWII, with its focus on veterans' problems readjusting to civilian life. Where these days, PTSD's a word everybody knows.
What's old school here is the homespun American value system. We're plunked back to a time when families actually had white picket fences, sat down for Sunday supper, and hoofed it up down at the dance hall.
Here we meet middle-aged couple Milly and Al Stephenson (Fredric March and Myrna Loy). He's returned from the battlefield with a bent for drinking too much, and Milly seems too genteel to point it out. Her angelic profile is leavened a bit when she gives daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright) some straight talk about how there had definitely been times they doubted their marriage would survive.
Then there's Homer (Harold Russell), who's gotten back from sea with prosthetic hooks in place of hands. He's so afraid of being rebuffed by his girlfriend, Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell) . that he tries rejecting her first. I liked the way that Wilma stuck around, refusing to take the snubs at face value.
Best of all, we have Fred (played by a drop-dead-gorgeous Dana Andrews), whose marriage to sexy, vapid Marie (Virginia Mayo) is flaming out. Fred's contributions as a bombardier have done nothing to equip him for a job on Main Street, and he gets some guff from dummies who sell him short.
Fred's immediately drawn to clever, wholesome Peggy, and I was a little surprised he took her dad Al's inappropriate slap-down. C'mon, man, tell the old guy to fix his own problems!
Such quibbles fall aside in the romantic final frame. Now that's something that'll never go stale!
Likely it was cutting-edge when released after WWII, with its focus on veterans' problems readjusting to civilian life. Where these days, PTSD's a word everybody knows.
What's old school here is the homespun American value system. We're plunked back to a time when families actually had white picket fences, sat down for Sunday supper, and hoofed it up down at the dance hall.
Here we meet middle-aged couple Milly and Al Stephenson (Fredric March and Myrna Loy). He's returned from the battlefield with a bent for drinking too much, and Milly seems too genteel to point it out. Her angelic profile is leavened a bit when she gives daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright) some straight talk about how there had definitely been times they doubted their marriage would survive.
Then there's Homer (Harold Russell), who's gotten back from sea with prosthetic hooks in place of hands. He's so afraid of being rebuffed by his girlfriend, Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell) . that he tries rejecting her first. I liked the way that Wilma stuck around, refusing to take the snubs at face value.
Best of all, we have Fred (played by a drop-dead-gorgeous Dana Andrews), whose marriage to sexy, vapid Marie (Virginia Mayo) is flaming out. Fred's contributions as a bombardier have done nothing to equip him for a job on Main Street, and he gets some guff from dummies who sell him short.
Fred's immediately drawn to clever, wholesome Peggy, and I was a little surprised he took her dad Al's inappropriate slap-down. C'mon, man, tell the old guy to fix his own problems!
Such quibbles fall aside in the romantic final frame. Now that's something that'll never go stale!