Beautifully made on location by Fred Zinnemann, this film joins "The Best Years of Our Lives" and "Until the End of Time" in dealing with the return of veterans from WW2. However it's very different.
At the beginning we see John Ericson's character run from an interview at a veteran's employment office. A narrator tells us, "His name is Phillip Cass; his occupation is running away".
And so he does.
Told in flashback, we follow Philip in the U. S. army in Italy. Philip is apprehensive, however when he's billeted with an Italian family, he falls in love with the beautiful daughter, Teresa, played by Pier Angeli.
Philip cracks up on a night patrol; a severe battle-fatigue case. He's the sort of soldier George S. Patton would have slapped if he had visited the hospital Philip was in. Fortunately the war ends, but Philip must confront the dissatisfaction with his life back in the congested family apartment in New York, now with wife Teresa in tow.
His mother treats him like the boy he was before the war, but their relationship has changed. Philip blames Dad, the "jellyfish", for his own weakness, and when Teresa comes to stay, he's unable to cope with his mother's attempt to shut her out.
Zinnemann tackled big themes as he had with "The Men", another film about war's aftermath. There are scenes of the industrial scale task of fitting veterans back into society, and a brilliant recreation of veterans greeting their overseas brides as they arrive by ship.
The point is made that they were changed men and often had trouble relating to those back home.
However Philip is hard to pity, he's moody and self-fixated with little real empathy even for Teresa. He's a forerunner of the troubled young men who emerged in movies in the 50s, Brando, Dean etc. Philip's mild-mannered father is basically a decent man, and his mother's treatment of Teresa isn't because she's a foreigner, but because she's a rival for Philip's affection. When Philip lets Teresa leave, carrying her suitcases out into the night alone, you want to give him a slap yourself.
There is reconciliation, but its harrowing watching Philip failing everyone including himself for most of the movie.
In a documentary where Zinnemann discussed his films, "Teresa" oddly wasn't mentioned. However Zinnemann said he believed, "A man's character is his destiny". He could have been talking about Philip in this film.
At the beginning we see John Ericson's character run from an interview at a veteran's employment office. A narrator tells us, "His name is Phillip Cass; his occupation is running away".
And so he does.
Told in flashback, we follow Philip in the U. S. army in Italy. Philip is apprehensive, however when he's billeted with an Italian family, he falls in love with the beautiful daughter, Teresa, played by Pier Angeli.
Philip cracks up on a night patrol; a severe battle-fatigue case. He's the sort of soldier George S. Patton would have slapped if he had visited the hospital Philip was in. Fortunately the war ends, but Philip must confront the dissatisfaction with his life back in the congested family apartment in New York, now with wife Teresa in tow.
His mother treats him like the boy he was before the war, but their relationship has changed. Philip blames Dad, the "jellyfish", for his own weakness, and when Teresa comes to stay, he's unable to cope with his mother's attempt to shut her out.
Zinnemann tackled big themes as he had with "The Men", another film about war's aftermath. There are scenes of the industrial scale task of fitting veterans back into society, and a brilliant recreation of veterans greeting their overseas brides as they arrive by ship.
The point is made that they were changed men and often had trouble relating to those back home.
However Philip is hard to pity, he's moody and self-fixated with little real empathy even for Teresa. He's a forerunner of the troubled young men who emerged in movies in the 50s, Brando, Dean etc. Philip's mild-mannered father is basically a decent man, and his mother's treatment of Teresa isn't because she's a foreigner, but because she's a rival for Philip's affection. When Philip lets Teresa leave, carrying her suitcases out into the night alone, you want to give him a slap yourself.
There is reconciliation, but its harrowing watching Philip failing everyone including himself for most of the movie.
In a documentary where Zinnemann discussed his films, "Teresa" oddly wasn't mentioned. However Zinnemann said he believed, "A man's character is his destiny". He could have been talking about Philip in this film.