Leonard Maltin calls it a 'soaper', for Pauline Kael it's an 'illegitimacy tearjerker' while Le guide des films dismisses it with these words: 'frightful wartime melodrama as only the Americans can make'. The disdain in the last comment is only too evident. I call it a very well crafted study of what a woman may go through as she has to deal with small-town morality/hypocrisy around having a child out of wedlock. Olivia de Havilland does a great job bringing Jody to life, and well deserved the award, beating out Rosalind Russell and Jennifer Jones that year.
My hat's off to the technicians who had to make her younger than she was for the 1918 scenes, and then considerably older for WWII scenes. That's some artistry in itself. Thanks to Criterion Channel for reviving these Mitchell Leisen classics.
My hat's off to the technicians who had to make her younger than she was for the 1918 scenes, and then considerably older for WWII scenes. That's some artistry in itself. Thanks to Criterion Channel for reviving these Mitchell Leisen classics.