That's Why I Left You (1943) User Reviews

Not as impactful and you might have hoped.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 7 November 2018]

John Nesbitt narrated quite a few shorts back in the 1940s...all with a strong nostalgic bent. While he had a pleasant voice, often I disliked the films because they never allowed the actors in it to actually talk on screen...and having Nesbitt describing everything really reduces the film's impact...making it seem disconnected and dull.

In "That's Why I Left You", a husband dumps his wife and leaves a note explaining why. In it, it recounts their happier days. Ultimately, however, he was a selfish jerk and left because of his sense of wonderlust. What a jerk...or so it seems

So, you have a relatively uninvolving story and dull narration. Nothing special here.

The Reasons

[boblipton · 6/10 · 26 September 2023]

James Warren leaves the wife and kids. He also leaves a letter explaining why.

It's an odd episode of THE PASSING PARADE, John Nesbitt's long-running series of shorts for MGM. It paralleled a similar feature he did on the radio, same name. But the question of why a man would leave home and hearth because of a long-held wanderlust during the Second World War, when he might likely as not shortly get a letter from the government, beginning "Greetings!" haunts me. Was Nesbitt hinting that a draftee might get shipped to some South Seas port where he might live a care-free existence among half-naked Polynesian women?

Pale echo of "Moon and Sixpence."

[WesternOne1 · 2/10 · 2 November 2018]

CONTAINS SPOILERS. This would seem to be a quick way to put lots of stock footage together to make a one-reeler. The story is that of a housewife who, alone and busy in her crummy little apartment, finds a letter from her husband explaining his reasons for abondoning her and their (unseen) children, that is, to satiate his wanderlust for far off, south sea islands. As in most of the MGM studio shorts, most of it has Nesbitt's florid voice-over the footage, which, outside of the apartment scenes, is all recycled, and never shows the actors in the story. In 1943, the thought of a man walking out on his family was highly offensive, and so the payoff is that he didn't really do any such a thing, he was playing a pointless joke on Mrs., and was out in the hall all the while. She says she never believed it for the time (all of the minute) it took to read the letter. She comments how those exotic places were full of "Japs and Nazis and snakes" now anyway. I questioned that as the story unreeled, I can only assume most every one in the wartime audience would have also, and anticipated a letdown at the end.

Different Sort of Passing Parade

[Michael_Elliott · 12 December 2009]

That's Why I Left You (1943)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Even before the credits role, John Nesbitt lets us know that this here isn't your typical Passing Parade entry because this one here is a lot more personal. Even though I didn't really buy into what the film was offering I must admit that I admire its twists and turns and for it at least trying something different and original. We learn that a husband leaves his wife and then sends her a letter explaining why he has ran off. That's pretty much all you need to know as the story takes a few twists that I won't ruin here. I'm not sure how big these twists actually are but I found them to be quite nice and they actually manages to make the film worth viewing even though I didn't get the full impact that I'm sure the writers were going for. I really enjoyed how the letter was used to talk about the couples history together and I thought everything really tied together nicely at the end. Nesbitt offers his usual nice narration and director Cahn handles all the material well.