Friday, March 3 | 4 Films
During World War II, civilians at home did their part in the war effort to help loved ones fighting in the war. In the United States, everyone was under a rationing program to help with food shortages. Mom saved cooking fats that could be used in the production of explosives. Neighborhood kids collected scrap metal, aluminum cans and rubber to be recycled and used for armaments. Sister got a war job, learning skills like welding to produce ships or airplanes.
And Hollywood made films. As part of the war effort to boost morale back home, films showed heroism on the battlefield, largely starring actors who couldn’t serve in the military, like Errol Flynn or Van Johnson. Other films promoted the Army Nurse Corps in films like So Proudly We Hail! (1943). These films showed families back home what their loved ones might be doing overseas; hopefully instilling pride and boosting morale to war weary nations.
Other films gave a pat on the back to civilians in the United States and England, showing their sacrifices on the homefront. Several of these were recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their importance in the war effort.
On the homefront
Before the United States entered World War II, plans were already in production for a film that applauded the strength of England, Mrs. Miniver (1942), which was based on a best-selling novel by Jan Struther.
Producer Sidney Franklin said he thought someone needed to make a film that was a tribute to England fighting for its life. “Suddenly, I realized I should be that someone,” Franklin is quoted in Greer Garson’s biography.
Directed by William Wyler, the film follows Kay and Clem Miniver, played by Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, and their children. The film begins on the eve of England declaring war on Germany, and how the life of an average, middle class family changed. The family’s oldest son joins the RAF, Clem volunteers in the Dunkirk evacuation and Kay is threatened by a wounded German soldier found near her home. Community members are killed in air raids and the Minivers experience personal loss.
“We flowed under the Wyler touch … Willie got us to believe in the family and then deliver our characters so much,” said Walter Pidgeon in a 1972 interview.
The Office of War Information (OWI) in Washington, D.C. was in contact with MGM studio executives, wanting to ensure that the film wasn’t just a family melodrama. The OWI wanted the film to support Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease Act, which supplied Britain and other nations with food, oil and materials for war, according to Teresa Wright’s biographer.
Initially, since the U.S. wasn’t at war yet, MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer wanted the German soldier character to be written sympathetically, so foreign audiences wouldn’t be offended, according to Wyler’s biographer. In the original script, Kay Miniver dresses his wounds, serves him tea and is reminded of her own son. “He’s not going to be a friendly little pilot but one of Goering’s monsters,” Wyler said in argument to Mayer. Mayer relented. When Pearl Harbor occurred during production, other scenes were added, such as the Dunkirk evacuation.
“Mrs. Miniver became a very popular and necessary kind of thing,” Wright is quoted in her biography. “It brought the war into our homes and made us aware of what the British were going through. We all felt and sought to convey the profound determination that dramatized those days. It was a picture produced in the shadow of headlines, and those of us who appeared in it never forgot it.”
The film ends with a sermon — partially written by Wyler — that was so powerful that President Roosevelt wanted it printed on pamphlets.
The film also quickly achieved another goal: influencing American public opinion to support Great Britain. When it was released, Lord Halifax, British Ambassador to the U.S., said the film could not fail to move whoever saw it. Prime Minister Winston Churchill told President Roosevelt that the film was worth an entire regiment.
“It was a study of an ordinary British family, upper middle class family, and how ordinary, decent people behave under extraordinary circumstances and stress,” Garson said in a 1989 interview. “The stress of a total blitz.”
The Academy saw the importance in the film too, nominating it for 12 awards. The film won six of those awards including: Best Picture, Greer Garson for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Teresa Wright for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and William Wyler for Best Director. Other awards included George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis for Best Writing, Screenplay and Joseph Ruttenberg for Best Cinematography. Wyler wasn’t present at the ceremony, because he was serving in World War II, and his wife accepted the award on his behalf.
Initially, Garson was reluctant to make the film, because of the age of the Mrs. Miniver’s character and Wyler’s reputation as a perfectionist. Bette Davis told Garson, “You will give your greatest performance of your career under Wyler,” according to Garson’s biographer. The Academy agreed with Davis’s prediction.
“It was an evening of mixed emotions for all of us who worked on Mrs. Miniver,” Wright is quoted by her biographer. “Willie Wyler, in service overseas, could not be with us to share the thrill that the picture received six awards. It was also an unbelievably exciting night for me.”
The film was only Teresa Wright’s second film and the last time she was nominated for an Academy Award.
When it was released, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther said it was the finest film made to date about the war.
“For this is not a war film about soldiers in uniform,” Crowther wrote. “There are no bloody land battles in it; no armies clash by night, except for the unseen armadas which drone in the moonlit sky. This is a film about the people in a small, unpretentious English town on whom the war creeps up slowly, disturbing their tranquil ways of life.”
Another film championing England was released two years later: The White Cliffs of Dover (1944). Based on Alice Duer Miller’s 70-page long form poem, the film follows Susan, played by Irene Dunne, an American who travels to England on the eve of World War I. Just there for a visit, Susan falls in love with John (Alan Marshal) and ends up making England her home. She experiences loss during World War I but stays in England, raising her son (played by Roddy McDowall and Peter Lawford). With World War II on the horizon, Susan realizes that her son will have to follow in his father’s footsteps.
When the long-form poem was published in 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed that the book played a role in encouraging the United States’ entry into World War II. Dunne’s character speaks portions of the poem during the film in transitional scenes.
The Office of War Information kept a close watch on the film. While it didn’t include battle scenes, the film did show class division in England. Some scenes that concerned them included Susan’s eagerness to go to a ball, which may imply she’s a snob, or the tenant farmers appearing submissive to the upper class, according to director Clarence Brown’s biographer.
The film hit close to home for some of its cast. Two of the film’s actors, Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor, left England because of the war. Peter Lawford and his family were in the United States when war broke out and never returned home, according to Lawford’s biographer.
While the film was inspired by Mrs. Miniver, it unfortunately did not have the same impact, which disappointed co-producer Sidney Franklin. “Everything was lavish, too lavish, if you ask me. But it was so well received in both nations as a morale booster for our side,” Dunne said in a 1974 interview. The film is beautifully shot by cinematographer George J. Folsey, who was nominated for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White.
The film’s message is summed up in one of Dunne’s lines: “God will never forgive us if we break faith with our dead again.”
Coming home
Towards the end of the war, Hollywood gave an alternative view of the homefront. Films began focusing on those returning from war and getting acclimated to civilian life again. Films like Pride of the Marines (1945) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) were a message to servicemen returning home, as well as their families.
Pride of the Marines is a biographical film on Marine Al Schmid, based on his war experiences as detailed by Roger Butterfield in the biography, “Al Schmid, Marine.”
John Garfield plays Schmid, an easy-going guy from Philadelphia who is in love with his girl Ruth, played by Eleanor Parker. When he hears about the Pearl Harbor attacks over the radio, he asks where Pearl Harbor is. But when war is eminent, Schmid enlists in the Marines and is sent to Guadalcanal, the first American offensive against the Japanese.
At one point in Guadalcanal, Schmid was in a foxhole with two other Marines, Lee Diamond played by Dane Clark and Johnny Rivers played by Anthony Caruso. The three face an attack from the Japanese. When Rivers is killed and Diamond injured, Schmid continues shooting at enemy forces. A grenade is then thrown near his face, blinding him. Schmid is sent home to a military hospital where he recuperates with Diamond, and it becomes clear that he won’t regain his sight. Schmid becomes bitter and he doesn’t want to be a burden to his loved ones and those around him, causing him to break it off with Ruth and reconsider returning home to live with his friends.
To prepare for the role, Garfield lived with Al Schmid for several weeks in Philadelphia. Not only was he able to study Schmid and his mannerisms but the two formed a friendship, according to Garfield’s biographer. Schmid worked as advisor on the film and several scenes were filmed on location in his hometown of West Philadelphia.
The film held its world premiere on Aug. 8, 1945, in Philadelphia, calling it Al Schmid Day. It was attended by 1,500 Guadalcanal veterans. Albert Maltz was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay for Schmid’s story.
While Garfield didn’t receive an Oscar nod for the film, he still considered it his best role. In the Jan. 12, 1946, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, Garfield wrote:
“After I got to know Al well, I felt it was not only an honor to impersonate him on screen but was also an opportunity to be of some help to the veterans like him and to their families and their sweethearts. For problems Al faced in real life, as well as in the movie, are the problems that thousands of men face today when they come back to civilian life.”
Another post-war film also looked at the problems servicemen faced as they reintegrated into civilian life was The Best Years of Our Lives director William Wyler returned home from World War II, he felt uncertain about his career.
“No one could go through that experience and come out the same. You couldn’t live among war-torn civilians, among airmen flying missions and ground crews waiting for their return without learning about people and how they function as individuals,” said Wyler after returning from World War II.
Wyler turned down a biopic on Dwight D. Eisenhower and The Bishop’s Wife (1947) as his next project. The story he felt drawn to was one producer Samuel Goldwyn previously shelved called “Glory for Me” by MacKinlay Kantor, according to Wyler’s biographer. Kantor’s story was commissioned when Goldywn’s wife read the Time article “The Way Home” about Marines having difficulty readjusting to life after war. Kantor had flown missions as a war correspondent, and for the story, toured hospitals interviewing men who returned from war. Kantor’s story was submitted to Goldwyn as blank verse.
While Goldwyn and screenwriter Robert E. Sherwood were uncertain about continuing with the story, Wyler fought to move forward with the project. There were difficulties with the script and casting each veteran.
When Wyler saw the documentary short, “Diary of a Sergeant,” he knew he wanted to cast Harold Russell for the role of Homer, who was the film’s subject. The documentary details Russell losing his hands during maneuvers in North Carolina and how he adapted, according to Wyler’s biography. Wyler contacted Russell for an interview about the role, and at first, Russell thought it was a joke.
“He said, ‘We’re not looking for a professional actor. We’re looking for a soldier who lost both hands and came back from the war. We want someone who’s playing his own life,’” Russell said in a 1989 interview. Wyler felt that with other actors, audiences could just say “It’s just a movie.” But with Russell playing Homer, “no such assurance was possible.”
Wyler also didn’t want Russell to have acting lessons. “Goldwyn sent me to acting school to learn under the tutelage of a professional actor,” Russell said. “But Wyler found out about it a day later and told me, ‘Stay away from those people! All I want you to do is play yourself. You feel it as you see it.’”
Russell’s performance was recognized with two Academy Awards: One for Best Supporting Actor and a second Honorary Award for “bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in The Best Years of Our Lives.” In 1992, unfortunately, Russell sold his Academy Award to pay for his wife’s medical expenses.
“Before World War II, I think it was always the case where handicapped people were put out of sight in institutions and care homes and kept away from the mainstream life,” Russell said. “I think putting me in the movie started it (having handicapped people in films) and they’ve been doing it a little more every year ever sense.”
While featuring some of Hollywood’s top stars, glamour was not the goal of The Best Years of Our Lives. Wyler also had an understanding with cinematographer Gregg Toland that “we would avoid glamour close-ups and soft diffused backgrounds.” To create post-war realism, Myrna Loy’s costumes weren’t created by a Hollywood designer but purchased in a department store off the rack to look like an appropriate post-war wardrobe of a banker’s wife, according to Loy’s biographer. Wyler also included some autobiographical elements into the film, basing Al and Millie’s reunion on his own reunion with his wife.
“The movie captured the truth of what many people experienced,” Teresa Wright said.
The film garnered several other Academy Awards, such as Best Picture, Wyler for Best Director, Best Actor for Fredric March, Best Screenplay for Robert E. Sherwood, Best Editing for Daniel Mandell and Best Score for Hugo Friedhofer.
“Mr. Sherwood and Mr. Wyler have achieved some of the most beautiful and inspiring demonstrations of human fortitude that we have had in films,” wrote Bosley Crowther in this New York Times review. “It is wholly impossible — and unnecessary — to single out any one of the performers for special mention … For everyone gives a ‘best’ performance in this best film this year from Hollywood.”
