Girl Week 2017: Since You Went Away, a guest post by Joel

We've made it all the way to Day 5 of Girl Week 2017, and once again, Joel gets to steer the ship.

Directed by John Cromwell.

1944. Not Rated, 177 minutes.

Cast:

Claudette Colbert

Jennifer Jones

Joseph Cotten

Shirley Temple

Monty Woolley

Lionel Barrymore

Robert Walker

Hattie McDaniel

Agnes Moorehead

 As the war raged in Europe Hollywood power producer David O. Selznick decided to undertake a project that he hoped would serve as an enduring tribute to the women waiting and worrying for their men and working to do their bit for the fight for freedom. Almost perfectly cast (more on that later) he gave it his best shot.

Anne Hilton (Claudette Colbert) an upper middle class housewife whose architect husband Tim has just departed to fight in WWII is faced for the first time in her life with managing alone while raising her two teenage daughters Jane (Jennifer Jones) and Brig-short for Bridget (a 16 year old Shirley Temple) amid the upheavals and shortages the conflict has wrought.

Having to economize without the security of her husband’s regular paycheck Anne must let their maid Fidelia (Hattie McDaniel) go-finding another spot for her-and takes in a boarder, the finicky retired Col. Smollett (Monty Woolley). While occasionally being mocked by presumed friend Emily Hawkins (Agnes Moorehead) who thinks nothing of hoarding and other unpatriotic activities they adjust to their new reality of food rationing, victory gardens and lack of luxuries.

One day word arrives that if they hurry to Tim’s training center (many states away) they will be able to see him briefly before he ships out. During their abortive train journey they come face to face with some of the upheaval the war has caused, displaced immigrants, soldiers returning without limbs, people with missing family members and most telling stops for munitions and troop trains.

On their return they meet the Colonel’s estranged grandson Bill Smollett (Robert Walker) who has enlisted as well and come to make an attempt at reconciliation before leaving for an uncertain future. He falls for Jane and vice versa leading to a memorable departure scene. Now with Anne & Tim’s closest friend Lt. Commander Tony Willett (Joseph Cotton) also leaving for the front the women face many crises alone growing stronger along the way while doing their bit for the boys over there!

Beautifully orchestrated by Max Steiner (who won an Oscar for his work) and full of memorable set pieces all of this is realized by a terrific group of performers who manage to create identifiable people despite the script’s occasional heavy doses of schmaltz. The one exception, though she’s not fatal to the picture, is Selznick’s discovery and obsession Jennifer Jones. Desperately in love and determined to prove her the greatest most versatile of all performers he was blind to the fact that she wasn’t much of an actress-arch, mechanical and stiff. In the beginning of the film she affects a high pitched breathy delivery and a golly gosh unctuousness to try and mask the fact that she’s too old for the part which quickly becomes wearing. She improves somewhat as the character matures but I spent her time on screen thinking how much better the film would have been with a truly gifted actress like Teresa Wright in her place.

There is also a disturbing undercurrent to her scenes with Robert Walker. They had at this point been married several years and had two children but Jones’s affair with Selznick had wrecked their marriage and they were in the process of separating. Walker, still in love with Jones and bereft at the end of their marriage, hadn’t wanted to do the film but was forced to via his contract and the pressures of the conflict lead the highly strung man into a downward spiral leading to alcohol, drug and psychological problems and his early death at 32 a few years later after an adverse reaction to a doctor’s injection shortly after he completed his finest performance in Strangers on a Train. Jones did not attend his funeral nor allow their sons too either.

All that aside, and since he was loathe to do things on a small scale, Selznick saw this as a modern day equivalent to his mega success “Gone with the Wind” with a cast to match, and he wasn’t shy about drawing comparisons since the tagline of this was “The four most important words since Gone With the Wind-- SINCE YOU WENT AWAY!” He didn’t quite meet that lofty goal but he did turn out a compelling, impressive and entertaining film.

Yesterday's Girl Week posts:

Sonia reviewed Wadjda

Ariel shared her Top 20-ish movies of all-time

Click here for more movies from the 1940s

2017 Blind Spot Series: Rope

The 100 Project: Top 10 Movies of the 1940s

31 Days of Horror: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

The Second Annual SEX! (now that I have your attention) Blogathon: Double Indemnity

The Ape Man

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre