It was the type of film I used to see with my mother when she met me after school with a packed tea during those far off days of the war; the type of film I would look out for many years later on afternoon TV to share with her once more during the closing days of her life in a nearby nursing home. I have never lost my affection for those American 'weepies' of the '40's even though I now have to admit that many like John Cromwell's "Since You Went Away" fall some way short of the greatest by William Wyler and John Ford. There are even examples by lesser directors such as Anatole Litvak's "All This and Heaven Too" and Henry King's "Song of Bernadette" that are head and shoulders above it in overall quality. Nevertheless, as I waded through almost three hours of treacle the other evening I felt that "Since You Went Away" was an experience worth resurrecting if only for three factors, as a historical document, one sequence of tremendous emotional power and a reminder of the glorious black and white photography of some of those Hollywood masters, in this case Stanley Cortez ("The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Night of the Hunter"). Made at the height of the second world war the film was intended as a tribute to those wives, youngsters and others left behind on the home front. It generated enormous empathy from housewives everywhere with its central character played by Claudette Colbert, the embodiment of the 'stiff upper lip'. In probably her best role she keeps the whole film together in spite of its indulgent over length and often discursive irrelevant frills such as the martinet lodger's eating habits and his relations with the family dog. Often it needs the mention of 'Corregidor' or 'Salerno' to get back on course. I don't suppose I would be taking the trouble to pen this review were it not for a wonderful thing that happens well into the film, the meeting and steadily growing relationship between daughter Jane (Jennifer Jones) and the lodger's grandson (Robert Walker). In countless war films particularly those of this period there were attempts so encapsulate the intense preciousness of a couple's short time together before being torn apart by enforced separation. Of course it's that old love-youth-death cocktail yet again but I cannot remember it being more movingly done than here. Marvellous use of the pathetic fallacy of being caught in a thunderstorm in a country landscape followed by possibly the greatest cinematic train departure ever. Worth seeing if for nothing else.
Review of Since You Went Away
