The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942)

Director:

Harold S. Bucquet

Writer:

George Oppenheimer (original screen play)

Stars:

Edward Arnold, Fay Bainter, Richard Ney

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Edward Arnold	...	Elliott Fulton
Fay Bainter	...	Stella Hadley
Richard Ney	...	Theodore Hadley
Jean Rogers	...	Patricia Hadley
Sara Allgood	...	Mrs. Michael Fitzpatrick
Spring Byington	...	Cecilia Talbot
Van Johnson	...	Michael Fitzpatrick
Isobel Elsom	...	Mrs. Laura Winters
Frances Rafferty	...	Sally
Dorothy Morris	...	Millie
Halliwell Hobbes	...	Bennett
Connie Gilchrist	...	Cook
Stephen McNally	...	Peters (as Horace McNally)
Miles Mander	...	Dr. Leonard V. Meecham
Rags Ragland	...	Louie (as 'Rags' Ragland)

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

homefront | home front | world war two

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 September 1943 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Aço da Mesma Têmpera

Filming Locations:

Cal-Aero Air School, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Loew's

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on December 7, 1942 with Fay Bainter, Edward Arnold, Jean Rogers and Van Johnson reprising their film roles.

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Goofs

When Mrs. Hadley, Mr. Fulton and Mrs. Fitzgerald leave at the end, they walk out of the house (closing the door behind them) twice.

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Connections

Featured in Personalities (1942)

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Soundtracks

"Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64"
(1888) (uncredited)
Written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Played during the opening credits
Hummed a bit by Spring Byington
Second movement played extensively on the radio

User Reviews

WW II, an inconvenience to say the least

As Fay Bainter in the title role in The War Against Mrs. Hadley celebrates her birthday with family and close friend Edward Arnold, the war raging in Europe and Asia seems all too far away. Arnold in fact works for the War Department and is involved in those negotiations with those Japanese emissaries. But Bainter's birthday is December 7 and when her favorite symphony is interrupted on the radio with news of Pearl Harbor, this Republican dowager's world is rudely rearranged.

This film is a snapshot in time of the home front in Washington, DC during the early years of World War II. Bainter is quite specifically identified as a Republican whose husband had opposed many of the New Deal policies and she reflects his views. In fact she refuses to read the newspaper that her husband had sold to Isobel Elsom who changed the editorial policy to pro-Roosevelt. And the many activities of the home front during the war years like blackouts are just something to put up with.

Both her children Jean Rogers and Richard Ney are rebelling under her genteel but iron thumb. Rogers works in the USO and falls for working class soldier Van Johnson and Ney first balks, but then wants to go to war and do his bit. Ney works for Arnold in the War Department and Arnold letting him go causes a breach between him and Bainter.

In real life Fay Bainter was married to a military man and her attitudes were the opposite of Mrs. Hadley. In fact she and her husband are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. She gives a dignified and restrained performance as a woman who has reality crash in on her.

Arnold's character is interesting and quite within the times. FDR in 1940 after the fall of France appointed establishment Republicans Henry L. Stimson and Frank Knox as Secretaries of War and the Navy respectively. Arnold is clearly a Stimson man brought in like his boss as part of a united war effort. Something the 43rd president did not seek after 9/11. How different our history in the past eleven years might have been if he had. But FDR was the best example of how to make a war coalition.

I must also single out Spring Byington playing one of her patented airhead roles as Bainter's friend. Reality falls in on her as well, but it was a struggle.

The War Against Mrs. Hadley is a curious and dated epic. Even with an attack right here on mainland USA you couldn't make this kind of film today. Too many things working against it.