The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Three servicemen return to America from WWII and try to resume their lives. The movie aims to focus on each of their stories equally.

Frederic March is the family man (married to Myrna Loy) and Dana Andrews is a tough pilot. Especially memorable is the performance of Harold Russell as the returning sailor who lost his hands in the war.

Russell, who in fact was a double amputee, was awarded an honorary Academy Award for "bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans." He's really good, I would never have known he was not a professional actor.

Hugo Friedhofer's score for this picture is memorable and features specific themes associated with various characters and situations (also known as a leitmotif).

It is remembered as a film event that spoke to a generation; it was one of the Top 5 grossing films of that year.

I like Frederic March in the movie, but I always feel that James Stewart should have won the Oscar for Best Actor for It's a Wonderful Life that year.

Dana Andrews is in the film just as much as March is, and he's good as well. One scene I will always remember is when Andrews comes face to face with a conscientious objector at a coffee shop and almost fights with him.

With Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell, and Hoagy Carmichael. I first watched this movie in 1994.




Read Dawn's review here Virtual Virago's review here Sittin On A Backyard Fence

Dead End (1937)

Great cast and performances. Based on the play by Lillian Hellman, who also wrote the screenplay. Takes place in a slum neighborhood in New York. First, we're introduced to a gang of hoodlums. This group of actors appeared again in some other pictures, so they were dubbed, "The Dead End Kids". Silvia Sidney plays the sister of one of them; she's struggling to keep food on the table for herself and the kid. Her political activism and her brother's delinquency causes her endless stress. She vents to her friend Joel McCrea, a former gang member who is now a struggling architect, looking for work and waiting for his big break. In comes Humphrey Bogart, also a former "Dead End" kid, now wanted by the law. His character - Baby Face Martin - has plastic surgery and becomes unrecognizable. He hangs around the neighborhood and tries to reconcile with his mother (played by Marjorie Main) - who wants nothing to do with him - and his ex-girlfriend played by Claire Trevor, now a sick and broke prostitute. Ms. Trevor's one 5-minute scene with Bogart was so powerful and memorable with audiences that she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Feeling completely depressed and rejected, Bogart attempts to kidnap of the neighborhood rich kids for ransom, but is shot down at the end, which provides' the film moral lesson, which McCrea explains to one of the kids - stay off the streets. The Dead End Kids steal this movie with every scene they are in. Silvia Sidney is very powerful and moving as well, and also deserving of a nomination. Bogart is perfect as the gangster. Silvia Sidney gets top billing, though. Bogart had not yet made his mark. Produced by Samuel Goldwyn and directed by William Wyler. Ward Bond plays one of the cops.

Read More about the Dead End Kids from the blog FilmFiles.

Dawn has written a great review of this movie on her blog.