At one stage this was the second most popular film of all time but who remembers it now? In 1946 it was just what the public wanted to see – a serious drama that deal with major issues faced by returned service men… but in a touching, reassuring manner. Sergeant Al comes home to a loving wife and kids, and gets promoted… but still finds himself out of sorts. Thankfully said loving wife and kids help pull him through. Fred comes home to find his hot slut of a wife still a hot slut and with little job prospects. Homer can’t deal with the fact of his hands even though his fiancée is okay about it.
The anti-anti-red propaganda (Fred socks an anti-semite who believes we were coerced into the war by jews, England and commies) probably wouldn’t have been able to be made a few years later. Even on the page some scenes really fly: Fred and Peggy’s romance (one of Hollywood’s most sympathetic depictions of adultery), Fred’s wife dumping him (she’s not a caricature – her arguments are perfectly reasonable i.e. she doesn’t want to be poor and dull), Fred in the airplane graveyard trying to get a job (this is a wonderful scene), Homer confronting Wilma with the difficulties of his injury. It didn’t need to go on for so long but this is still pretty good.
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