The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Three WWII veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.

Director:

William Wyler

Writers:

Robert E. Sherwood (screen play), MacKinlay Kantor (from a novel by)

Stars:

Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews

Won 7 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Myrna Loy	...	Milly Stephenson
Fredric March	...	Al Stephenson (as Frederic March)
Dana Andrews	...	Fred Derry
Teresa Wright	...	Peggy Stephenson
Virginia Mayo	...	Marie Derry
Cathy O'Donnell	...	Wilma Cameron
Hoagy Carmichael	...	Butch Engle
Harold Russell	...	Homer Parrish
Gladys George	...	Hortense Derry
Roman Bohnen	...	Pat Derry
Ray Collins	...	Mr. Milton
Minna Gombell	...	Mrs. Parrish
Walter Baldwin	...	Mr. Parrish
Steve Cochran	...	Cliff
Dorothy Adams	...	Mrs. Cameron

Storyline

The story concentrates on the social re-adjustment of three World War II servicemen, each from a different station of society. Al Stephenson returns to an influential banking position, but finds it hard to reconcile his loyalties to ex-servicemen with new commercial realities. Fred Derry is an ordinary working man who finds it difficult to hold down a job or pick up the threads of his marriage. Having had both hands burnt off during the war, Homer Parrish is unsure that his fiancée's feelings are still those of love and not those of pity. Each of the veterans faces a crisis upon his arrival, and each crisis is a microcosm of the experiences of many American warriors who found an alien world awaiting them when they came marching home.

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Plot Keywords:

veteran | banker | marriage | love | pity | 

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Taglines:

Samuel Goldwyn's greatest production

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 October 1947 (France)

Also Known As:

Glory for Me

Filming Locations:

Walnut Hills High School - 3250 Victory Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,100,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$23,650,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

172 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director William Wyler was furious when he learned that Samuel Goldwyn had sent Harold Russell for acting lessons; he preferred Russell's untrained, natural acting.

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Goofs

When Homer and Wilma are in the woodshed and the children are looking through the window, Homer gets angry and breaks part of the window. In the next shot, the window appears to be intact.

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Quotes

Wilma Cameron: Tell me the truth, Homer. Do you want me to forget about you?
Homer Parrish: I want you to be free, Wilma, to live your own life. I don't want you tied down forever just because you've got a kind heart.
Wilma Cameron: Oh, Homer! Why can't you ever understand the way things really are, the way I really feel? I keep trying to tell you.
Homer Parrish: But, but you don't know, Wilma. You don't know what it'd be like to have to live with me. To have to face this
[his hooks]
Homer Parrish: every day, every night.
Wilma Cameron: But I can only find out by trying. And if it ...

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Crazy Credits

"and introducing Cathy O'Donnell"

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Connections

Referenced in Day for Night: An Appreciation (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Among My Souvenirs"
(1927) (uncredited)
Music by Edgar Leslie
Lyrics by Lawrence Wright
Played on piano by Hoagy Carmichael and danced by Fredric March & Myrna Loy

User Reviews

Forgotten now that it was mildly controversial in its day

My parents were of that generation, and the movie was cathartic for returning veterans and their families and friends; it's small wonder that it eclipsed <i>It's A Wonderful Life</i>, which arguably is a better picture. But at the time, the movie had some shocking elements to it. In fact, my mother (roughly the character Peggy's age then) saw it against her parents' wishes.

Back in 1946, it was a jaw-dropper to have a character in a movie utter the word "divorce" or to aver an intent to break up a marriage -- such ideas just weren't voiced in films then. To modern audiences, they come across as melodramatic, but I'm told they elcited genuine gasps from audiences then.

Even more astonishing was William Wyler's decision to cast real-life amputee Harold Russell in the key role of a returning Navy veteran. Until <i>The Battle of Britain</i>, in which an actual, disfigured RAF veteran made a cameo appearance, directors didn't make those sorts of courageous gestures. The intimate yet innocent scene in which Homer Parrish (Russell) demonstrates his helplessness to his fiancé Wilma Cameron (Cathy O'Donnell) is beautiful, heartbreaking and uplifting; later, during the wedding scene, Russell stumbled over a line in saying the vows, and Wyler left the humanizing mistake in, God bless him for it.