The Best Years of Our Lives (also known as Glory for Me and Home Again) is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Wyler and starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and Harold Russell. The film is about three United States servicemen re-adjusting to societal changes and civilian life after coming home from World War II. The three men come from different services with different ranks that do not correspond with their civilian social class backgrounds. It is one of the earliest films to address issues encountered by returning veterans in the post World War II era.
In addition, Russell was also awarded an honorary Academy Award, the only time in history that two such awards were given for a single performance.
It was the highest-grossing film in both the United States and United Kingdom since the release of Gone with the Wind, and is the sixth most-attended film of all time in the United Kingdom, with over 20 million tickets sold.[5]
In 1989, The Best Years of Our Lives was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[6][7]
Fred Derry was a drug store soda jerk who lived with his parents on the wrong side of the tracks. Before shipping out, Fred married a gold-digger named Marie after a whirlwind romance. Marie has since been working in a nightclub to fill her time (and her nightlife) in spite of Fred's generous combat pay as an Air Force officer.
Al Stephenson was an executive at a bank and lived in a luxury apartment with his wife, Millie, and their teenage children, Peggy and Rob.
Homer Parrish was a star high school athlete living with his middle-class parents and younger sister. Homer had also been dating his next-door neighbor Wilma, whom he intended to marry upon his return from the war.
Each man faces challenges integrating back into civilian life. Homer lost both hands in the war and though he has become functional in the use of his mechanical hooks, he cannot believe that Wilma will still want to marry him. Al, tired and jaded from the war, returns to the bank and is given a promotion, but wrestles with alcohol. Though highly decorated, Fred suffers from PTSDflashbacks by night.
Fred arrives home and cannot locate his party girl wife, who does not expect him. The Stephensons and their daughter Peggy invite Fred along with them for the evening, bar hopping in celebration of Al's return. An inebriated Fred keeps asking Peggy who she is, and she keeps reminding him that she is "Al's daughter."
Although proficient in managing the challenges of his disability, Homer is frustrated by his loss of independence and adjusting to his relationship with Wilma. Concerned that Wilma does not fully understand the difficulties of being married to him with his disabilities, Homer demonstrates to her how she will need to assist him at bedtime when he removes his harness with his prosthetic hands, leaving him helpless. Wilma believes she can commit herself to him for life.
Al continues to struggle with re-entry into normal life. Widely respected by the bank's senior management for his past business acumen, Al is criticized after approving an unsecured loan to a farmer and fellow veteran who wants it to buy forty acres, but has no collateral for the purchase. With inhibitions lowered by excessive drinking, Al gives a speech at a banquet that satirizes requiring a veteran to provide collateral before risking his life to take a hill in battle.
Unable to find a better job than soda jerk, Fred returns to the same drug store. Fred and Peggy develop an attraction for each other, which puts the married Fred at odds with Al. When Homer visits Fred at the drug store, another customer criticizes US involvement in the war, telling Homer his injuries were unnecessary. Homer responds angrily, and Fred intervenes on his behalf, punching the customer and consequently being fired. Meanwhile, Marie, frustrated with his lack of financial success and missing her past nightlife, decides to get a divorce. Bitter, and seeing no future in Boone City, particularly with Al telling Fred to stay away from Peggy, Fred decides to catch the next plane out. While waiting at the airport, Fred walks into an aircraft boneyard, climbing into a decommissioned B-17 bomber. Sitting in the bombardier's seat, Fred has another flashback. He is roused out of his stressful memories by a work crew foreman, who reveals that the planes are being demolished for use in the growing prefab housing industry. Fred asks if they need any help in the budding business and is hired.
Al, Millie, and Peggy attend Homer and Wilma's wedding, where Fred is best man. Now divorced, Fred reunites with Peggy after the ceremony. Fred expresses his love but says things may be financially difficult if she stays with him. Peggy's smile expresses her joy.
Casting brought together established stars as well as character actors and relative unknowns. The jazz drummer Gene Krupa was seen in archival footage, while Tennessee Ernie Ford, later a television star, appeared as an uncredited "hillbilly singer" (in the first of his only three film appearances).[Note 1]Blake Edwards, later a film producer and director, appeared fleetingly as an uncredited "Corporal". Wyler's daughters, Catherine and Judy, were cast as uncredited customers seen in the drug store where Fred Derry works. Sean Penn's father, Leo, played the uncredited part of the soldier working as the scheduling clerk in the Air Transport Command Office at the beginning of the film.
Teresa Wright was only thirteen years younger than her on-screen mother, played by Myrna Loy. Michael Hall (1926–2020), at the time of his death the last surviving credited cast member, with his role as Fredric March's on-screen son, is absent after the first third of the film. The reason was that Hall's contract with Goldwyn ended during filming, but the producer was reluctant to pay extra money to rehire him.[8]
Production
Samuel Goldwyn was inspired to produce a film about veterans after reading an August 7, 1944, article in Time about the difficulties experienced by men returning to civilian life. Goldwyn hired former war correspondentMacKinlay Kantor to write a screenplay. His work was first published as a novella, Glory for Me, which Kantor wrote in blank verse.[9][10][11][12]Robert E. Sherwood then adapted the novella as a screenplay.[12]
Director Wyler had flown combat missions over Europe in filming Memphis Belle (1944), and worked hard to get accurate depictions of the combat veterans he had encountered. Wyler changed the original casting, which had featured a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and sought out Harold Russell, a non-actor, to take on the exacting role of Homer Parrish.[13]
For The Best Years of Our Lives, he asked the principal actors to purchase their own clothes, in order to connect with daily life and produce an authentic feeling. Other Wyler touches included constructing life-size sets, which went against the standard larger sets that were more suited to camera positions. The impact for the audience was immediate, as each scene played out in a realistic, natural way.[13]
In The Best Years of Our LivescinematographerGregg Toland used deep focus photography, in which objects both close to and distant from the camera are in sharp focus.[14] For the passage of Fred Derry's reliving a combat mission while sitting in the remains of a former bomber, Wyler used "zoom" effects to simulate Derry's subjective state.[15]
The fictional Boone City was patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio.[11] The "Jackson High" football stadium seen early in aerial footage of the bomber flying over the Boone City is Corcoran Stadium located at Xavier University in Cincinnati. A few seconds later Walnut Hills High School with its dome and football field can be seen along with the downtown Cincinnati skyline (Carew Tower and Fourth and Vine Tower) in the background.[16]
After the war, the combat aircraft featured in the film were being destroyed and disassembled for reuse as scrap material. The scene of Derry's walking among aircraft ruins was filmed at the Ontario Army Air Field in Ontario, California. The former training facility had been converted into a scrap yard, housing nearly 2,000 former combat aircraft in various states of disassembly and reclamation.[13]
Reception
Critical response
Upon its release, The Best Years of Our Lives received extremely positive reviews from critics. Shortly after its premiere at the Astor Theater, New York, Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, hailed the film as a masterpiece. He wrote,
It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be wholly and enthusiastically endorsed not only as superlative entertainment, but as food for quiet and humanizing thought... In working out their solutions, Mr. Sherwood and Mr. Wyler have achieved some of the most beautiful and inspiring demonstrations of human fortitude that we have had in films." He also said the ensemble casting gave the "'best' performance in this best film this year from Hollywood".[17]
Director Wyler and cinematographer Toland used deep focus to keep Fred visible in the phone booth in the far background of the frame.
French film critic André Bazin used examples of Toland's and Wyler's deep-focus visual style to illuminate his theory of realism in film—going into detail about the scene in which Fred uses the phone booth in the far background while Homer and Butch play piano in the foreground. Bazin explains how deep focus functions in this scene:
The action in the foreground is secondary, although interesting and peculiar enough to require our keen attention since it occupies a privileged place and surface on the screen. Paradoxically, the true action, the one that constitutes at this precise moment a turning point in the story, develops almost clandestinely in a tiny rectangle at the back of the room—in the left corner of the screen.... Thus the viewer is induced actively to participate in the drama planned by the director.[18]
Professor and author Gabriel Miller discusses briefly the use of deep-focus in both the bar scene and the wedding scene at the end of the picture in an article written for the National Film Preservation Board.[19]
Several decades later, film critic David Thomson offered tempered praise: "I would concede that Best Years is decent and humane... acutely observed, despite being so meticulous a package. It would have taken uncommon genius and daring at that time to sneak a view of an untidy or unresolved America past Goldwyn or the public."[20]
The Best Years of Our Lives has a 97% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 8.9/10, based on 97 reviews. The critical consensus states: "An engrossing look at the triumphs and travails of war veterans, The Best Years of Our Lives is concerned specifically with the aftermath of World War II, but its messages speak to the overall American experience."[21] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 93 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[22]
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert put the film on his "Great Movies" list in 2007, calling it "... modern, lean, and honest".[23]
Popular response
The Best Years of Our Lives was a massive commercial success, not only becoming the highest-grossing film of 1946 but the entire 1940s decade.
It opened to the public at the Astor Theatre in New York City on November 22, 1947, and grossed $52,236 in its first week. Its length restricted the film to six shows a day, cutting down on total ticket sales, and initially suffered by having a top midweek ticket price of $2.40, reducing gross revenue. It opened at the Woods Theatre in Chicago on December 18 before a roadshow theatrical release in Boston and Los Angeles, starting on the evening of Christmas Day.[24] After 12 weeks at the Astor, the film had grossed $584,000 and at that point had grossed $1.37 million from 6 theatres in five cities from 45 play weeks.[25]
The picture earned an estimated $10 million in theatrical rentals at the U.S. and Canadian box office during its initial theatrical run,[26] ultimately benefiting from much larger admission prices (reflecting its exceptional length) than the majority of films released that year, which accounted for almost 70% of its earnings.[27] When box office figures are adjusted for inflation, it remains one of the top 100 grossing films in U.S. history.
However, because of the distribution arrangement RKO had with Goldwyn, RKO recorded a loss of $660,000 on the film.[29]
Awards and honors
In spite of his role, Harold Russell was not a professional actor. As the Academy Board of Governors considered him a long shot to win Best Supporting Actor Oscar he had been nominated for, they gave him an Academy Honorary Award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance". When Russell in fact won as supporting actor there was an enthusiastic response. He is the only actor to have received two Academy Awards for the same performance. In 1992, Russell sold his Best Supporting Actor statuette at auction for $60,500 ($131,400 today), to pay his wife's medical bills.[30]
William Wyler was a German-born American film director and producer. Known for his work in numerous genres over five decades, he received numerous awards and accolades, including three Academy Awards. He holds the record of twelve nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director. For his oeuvre of work, Wyler was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award.
Carver Dana Andrews was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts into the 1980s. He is best known for his portrayal of obsessed police detective Mark McPherson in the noir Laura (1944) and his critically acclaimed performance as World War II veteran Fred Derry in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
The year 1946 in film involved some significant events, including the release of the decade's highest-grossing film, The Best Years of Our Lives, which won seven Academy Awards.
Muriel Teresa Wright was an American actress. She won the 1942 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Carol Beldon in Mrs. Miniver. She was nominated for the same award in 1941 for her debut work in The Little Foxes. Also in 1942, she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Pride of the Yankees, opposite Gary Cooper. She is also known for her performances in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and in William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
André Bazin was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist. He started to write about film in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 1951, with Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.
Thousands of full-length films were produced during the decade of the 1940s. The actor Humphrey Bogart made his most renowned films in this decade. Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and Orson Welles's Citizen Kane were released. Citizen Kane made use of matte paintings, miniatures and optical printing techniques. The film noir genre was at its height. Alfred Hitchcock made his American debut with the film Rebecca, and made many classics throughout the 1940s. The most successful film of the decade was Samuel Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives; the film was directed by William Wyler, and starred Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, and Harold Russell. The film won nine Academy Awards.
Samuel Goldwyn, also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer and pioneer in the American film industry, who produced Hollywood's first major motion picture. He was best known for being the founding contributor and executive of several motion picture studios in Hollywood. He was awarded the 1973 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (1947) and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1958).
Walter Andrew Brennan was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940), making him one of only 6 actors to win three Academy Awards, and the only male or female actor to win three awards in the supporting actor category. Brennan was also nominated for his performance in Sergeant York (1941). Other noteworthy performances were in To Have and Have Not (1944), My Darling Clementine (1946), Red River (1948) and Rio Bravo (1959). On television, he starred in the sitcom The Real McCoys (1957-1963).
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas is a 2000 American romantic comedy film directed by Brian Levant, written by Jim Cash, Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan, and Jack Epps, Jr., and is the prequel to Levant's The Flintstones (1994), based on the 1960–1966 animated television series of the same name. The film was developed and produced without the involvement of Steven Spielberg, the executive producer of Levant's The Flintstones (1994). It is set before the events of both the series and the first film, showing how Fred and Barney meet Wilma and Betty. The title is a play on the Elvis Presley song, Viva Las Vegas, also used as the title of an MGM musical film.
Harold John Avery Russell was an American World War II veteran. After losing his hands during his military service, Russell was cast in the epic drama film The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was the first non-professional actor to win an Academy Award for acting and the first Oscar recipient to sell his award.
Virginia Mayo was an American actress and dancer. She was in a series of popular comedy films with Danny Kaye and was Warner Bros.' biggest box-office draw in the late 1940s. She also co-starred in the 1946 Oscar-winning movie The Best Years of Our Lives.
Come and Get It is a 1936 American lumberjack drama film directed by Howard Hawks and William Wyler. The screenplay by Jane Murfin and Jules Furthman is based on the 1935 novel of the same title by Edna Ferber.
These Three is a 1936 American drama film directed by William Wyler and starring Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea, and Bonita Granville. The screenplay by Lillian Hellman is based on her 1934 play The Children's Hour.
Cathy O'Donnell was an American actress who appeared in The Best Years of Our Lives,Ben-Hur, and films noir such as Detective Story and They Live by Night.
Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American romantic period drama film directed by William Wyler, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier and David Niven, and based on the 1847 novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only 16 of the novel's 34 chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The novel was adapted for the screen by Charles MacArthur, Ben Hecht and John Huston (uncredited). The supporting cast features Flora Robson and Geraldine Fitzgerald.
Mrs. Miniver is a 1942 American romantic war drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Inspired by the 1940 novel Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther, it shows how the life of an unassuming British housewife in rural England is affected by World War II. Produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, its supporting cast includes Teresa Wright, May Whitty, Reginald Owen, Henry Travers, Richard Ney and Henry Wilcoxon.
The 19th Academy Awards were held on March 13, 1947, honoring the films of 1946. The top awards portion of the ceremony was hosted by Jack Benny.
The 12th New York Film Critics Circle Awards, announced on 9 January 1947, honored the best filmmaking of 1946.
Daniel Mandell was an American film editor with more than 70 film credits. His first editing credit was for The Turmoil in 1924. From Dodsworth (1936) to Porgy and Bess (1959), Mandell worked for Samuel Goldwyn Productions. He had notable collaborations with directors William Wyler (1933–1946) and Billy Wilder (1957–1966). Mandell's last credit was for The Fortune Cookie in 1966.
Diary of a Sergeant is a 1945 American short film produced by the United States Army Pictorial Service. It stars Harold Russell, who lost his hands in a military training accident in 1944. The film tells the story of his medical rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C..
References
Notes
↑ At the time the film was shot, Ford was unknown as a singer. He worked in San Bernardino as a radio announcer-disc jockey.
↑ Kantor, MacKinlay (1945). Glory for Me. Coward-McCann. OCLC773996.
↑ Easton, Carol (2014). "The Best Years". The Search for Sam Goldwyn. Carl Rollyson (contributor). Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN978-1-62674-132-4. Andrews looked at the onionskin pages and asked, 'Mac, why did you write this in blank verse?' 'Dana', said Kantor with a wry smile, 'I can't afford to write in blank verse, because nobody buys anything written in blank verse. But when Sam asked me to write this story, he didn't tell me not to write it in blank verse!'
↑ Thomson, 2002, p. 949. 4th Edition; the first edition was published in 1975. See Thomson, David (1975). A Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema. London: Secker & Warburg. OCLC1959828.
Hardwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies", in The Making of the Great Aviation Films. General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
Kinn, Gail and Jim Piazza. The Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2008. ISBN978-1-57912-772-5.
Orriss, Bruce. When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II. Hawthorn, California: Aero Associates Inc., 1984. ISBN0-9613088-0-X; OCLC11709474.
Thomson, David. Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick. London: Abacus, 1993. ISBN978-0-2339-8791-0.
Thomson, David. "Wyler, William". The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. 4th Edition. London: Little, Brown, 2002. ISBN0-316-85905-2.
Tibbetts, John C., and James M. Welsh, eds. The Encyclopedia of Novels Into Film (2nd ed. 2005) pp.152–153.
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