Even though only Teresa appears in the title, this postwar drama is really about two young people finding their own strength. When shy GI Phillip (John Ericson) encounters equally timid Teresa (Pier Angeli) while on manuevers in Italy, the two misfits fall for each other. But love can't conquer all when Phillip returns home to New York unemployed, unready for civilian life and dominated by his needy mother (Patricia Collinge). Will he rise to the occasion for the sake of his new war bride? Director Fred Zimmeman toured authentically war-torn locations in Italy, not only scouting locations for this "American neorealist" drama, but also searching for the young Italian who could embody both fragility and tenacity. Seventeen-year-old Sicilian actress Anna Maria Pierangeli, who had made Tomorrow Is Too Late the previous year (starring against Italian Neorealist actor/director Vittorio De Sica), was the perfect choice. The role brought her to the attention of Hollywood, but she objected to the masculinity of her Americanized stage name for the rest of her short life. Also with famed Army cartoonist Bill Mauldin in a bit part.

By Violet LeVoit