Review: The Best Years of Our Lives

Three WWII soldiers return to civilian life and face various problems in re-integrating into their home situations. Fredric March plays an Army Sergeant of fairly decent wealth who seems hesitant to re-join his loving wife (Myrna Loy) and his two kids, including daughter Teresa Wright. Back in his old job at the bank he finds himself being forced to deny loans to his fellow ex-servicemen, feeling guilt that he’s in a better financial situation than they are. Harold Russell plays a sailor and double amputee who has to deal with a loving but now overly sensitive and smothering family, including young wife Cathy O’Donnell. Dana Andrews rounds out the trio as a flyboy who got married just days before shipping out and comes home to find that the wife he hardly knows (Virginia Mayo) is a bit of a floozy with not much interest in him. Hoagy Carmichael plays Russell’s piano-playing buddy, and Roman Bohnen plays Andrews’ stoic father.

 

Directed by William Wyler (“The Little Foxes”, “Mrs. Miniver”, “The Big Country”), this epic-length 1946 drama is one of the best films ever made about returning soldiers. Scripted by an Oscar-winning Robert E. Sherwood (“Rebecca”), this Best Picture Oscar winner is quite amazing for its time and fairly grounded too. The unease and reluctance to make that first step back into society followed by subsequent struggles to re-integrate is really well-conveyed. The performances are pretty top-notch, too. Dana Andrews could be a touch wooden sometimes, but here in a plum role he doesn’t remotely disappoint. He gives a likeable and effective performance as a guy who finds that the young wife he barely even knew before shipping out is extremely flighty and frankly superficial. He’s having troubles with leaving the war behind and finding a respectable job, and this chick’s only concerned with how he looks in his uniform while she lets other men slobber all over her. Said wife is played by Virginia Mayo in a frankly extraordinary performance of superficiality and self-absorption. Look out for an affecting, brief turn by Roman Bohnen as Andrews’ stoic, but clearly very proud father. He doesn’t look it, but Bohnen was actually only 6 years older than his on-screen son and sadly died at only 47. How sad.

 

Fredric March is also rock-solid as the most affluent of the main characters, a 40ish middle-class family man who spends the opening scenes of the film trying his best to avoid having to go home to his loving and supportive family. You’d think he’d have the easiest adjustment: Good home, good job, loving family, the most mature etc. However, it’s that relative comfort which turns out to be the problem for March: He starts to feel guilty, especially when he goes back to work at the bank and his fellow veterans are coming in asking for loans etc, and the higher-ups in the company don’t have a terrible lot of empathy. In fact, they kinda use March’s position as an ex-servicemen to deal with his comrades, so that they themselves don’t have to do their own damn dirty work. Meanwhile, the adjustment at home isn’t entirely seamless either, his children are now several years older than when he left them and are starting to come into their own as independent-thinking human beings. He’s also drinking a bit too much. Special mention must go to Myrna Loy and especially Teresa Wright as March’s wife and daughter. Loy is excellent, a stable and loving presence. Wright is one of my all-time favourite actresses, and this role was a part of what was a frankly quite extraordinary start to her career, which sadly started to peter out after the 1950s in terms of getting good roles. After that it was mostly theatre and TV work, though she turned up as Miss Birdie in the excellent 1997 legal thriller “The Rainmaker”. This was her 6^th film role and in that time she had won one Oscar (for Supporting Actress in “Mrs. Miniver”) and had two other nominations for “The Little Foxes” and “The Pride of the Yankees” whilst also appearing in this Oscar-winning film, as well as essentially the lead role in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1943 classic “Shadow of a Doubt”. I personally think she deserved an Oscar nomination for both “Shadow” and this film. As March’s sweet but stubborn daughter she’s absolutely lovely as always particularly when she and Dana Andrews’ character form a bond. Was there ever a lovelier presence on screen than hers? Here she also backs it up with a quiet strength and defiance, and the actress says a lot with her eyes and face. I’ve always felt she had a knack for playing characters who have a slight naivete about them whilst somehow still seeming very intelligent and more mature than her years. It’s the darndest thing, but it’s the impression I often get of her.

 

For the third returning soldier, Wyler went with a rather unconventional choice: Real-life double amputee Harold Russell, a non-actor at the time and WWII veteran who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar but was also awarded his own special Oscar for “bringing hope and courage to fellow veterans”. What Russell lacks in thespian polish he makes up for in pretty much playing a version of himself. He’s better than you might expect and extremely likeable, and the scene where he shows the lovely Cathy O’Donnell his pre-bed routine is genuinely touching. I would’ve liked to have had more scenes between Russell and O’Donnell, but the film is nearly 3 hours as is.

 

The other thing to note about the film is the subtle and effective use of ‘Deep Focus’ B&W photography by Gregg Toland (“Citizen Kane”). It’s not used very often here, but when it is, it’s done masterfully. Look at the scene where March watches Hoagy Carmichael and Russell play piano while Andrews is in the background to the left making a phone call. Toland somehow has you noticing everything in the frame all at once but particularly Andrews in the distant left-hand corner. All of it is in focus. Otherwise known as deep depth of field, I think that’s just called cinema magic. There’s another great use of it at the end too with Andrews and Teresa Wright being the real focus of a scene supposedly involving two other characters. It’s really clever filmmaking having the audience notice something in particular without having anything else out of focus.

 

In addition to being a severely underrated and now seldom talked about film, this post-WWII drama is frankly a damn-near masterpiece. Great performances, terrific script, wonderful cinematography. Must-see.

 

Rating: A