In 1943 Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn had a hit with The More the Merrier, a comedy about the housing shortage in war-time Washington D.C. Columbia Studios was anxious to capitalize on that success by reuniting the stars for another picture quickly. As John Oller wrote in his biography of Jean Arthur, Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew , "Unfortunately the film that [Arthur] and the studio finally agreed upon The Impatient Years (1944), could not make up its mind whether it was comedy or drama. Filmed in mid-1944 as one of the war's first 'coming home' pictures, it told of a young solider who returns to a bride he had known only four days before leaving for duty."

Things got off to a bad start when Joel McCrea dropped out of the project before the camera began turning on March 14, 1944, "and was replaced by a nondescript young actor named Lee Bowman who, at twenty-nine, was fourteen years Arthur's junior. With McCrea's departure, Arthur had thought she would skip this film as well, but she changed her mind on the basis of Bowman's screen test. She made a serous misjudgment, for Bowman proved to be completely wooden, and totally inadequate as a substitute for McCrea. Arthur did her best with her role as the not-entirely-sympathetic young mother (Photoplay [Magazine] called her "still the best farceur in the business"), but the entire production suffered from a lack of chemistry between Arthur and her leading man."

When The Impatient Years was premiered in San Francisco on September 7, 1944 (the film had been partially shot on location in Sonoma, in the heart of Northern California's Wine Country), it was not entirely well-received. Bosley Crowther in his New York Times review nailed the problem succinctly, "There is no doubt that many a soldier, returning home to greet his long-unseen war bride, is likely to find a renewal of sweet romance a somewhat awkward affair. And likewise reunion with their husbands may hold considerable problems for the bride. But it is hard to believe that the embarrassment of either party would provoke such reticence as that exhibited by Lee Bowman and Jean Arthur...Of course, there remains the possibility that Virginia Van Upp, who wrote the script, knew that a natural demonstration of welcome would leave her without a yarn. And she obviously chose for her pattern the old one of the "kiss-less bride". That is the story-line followed in this case with little disguise and the usual accumulation of comic and risqué incident. The humor is drawn in most abundance from the plainly confusing fact that a husband and wife are pretending behavior characteristic of folks unwed...But the solemn pretension of this picture to being a lesson for war husbands and brides is plainly presumptuous and preposterous. Its only warning is that they should kiss the moment they meet."

For Jean Arthur the film's success (or lack of) could hardly have mattered. The Impatient Years was the last film she was obligated to make under her contract with Columbia Studios, which she hated, and its legendary boss, Harry Cohn, who she despised. Legend has it that on the last day of shooting, Arthur ran through the lot shouting, "I'm free! I'm free!". Whether or not the story is apocryphal, the fact remains that after The Impatient Years she did not renew her contract with Columbia or any other studio. As Oller wrote, "She quietly let it be known that she was retiring from filmmaking for the foreseeable future, manifesting her intentions by requesting that her entry be left out of the new edition of the Hollywood Player's Directory, an annual listing of active motion picture stars. Jean Arthur's impatient years were over, from now on she would lead a completely independent life, conforming to no one's demands but her own."

Producer: Irving Cummings, Virginia Van Upp
Director: Irving Cummings
Screenplay: Virginia Van Upp
Cinematography: Joseph Walker
Art Direction: Lionel Banks, Cary Odell
Music: Marlin Skiles
Film Editing: Al Clark
Cast: Jean Arthur (Janice Anderson), Lee Bowman (Andy Anderson), Charles Coburn (William Smith), Edgar Buchanan (Judge), Charley Grapewin (Bellboy), Harry Davenport (Minister), Jane Darwell (Minister's wife).
BW-91m.

by Lorraine LoBianco

SOURCES:
Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew by John Oller
The Internet Movie Database
www.afi.com
www.newyorktimes.com