Watch Since You Went Away For Free

Sadly Over-hyped

hyped garbage

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Copyright 14 September 1944 by Vanguard Films. A Selznick International Picture-Vanguard Films Production. New York release at the Capitol: 20 July 1944. U.S. release (through United Artists): 20 July 1944. U.K. release: 16 April 1945. Sydney release at the Regent: 6 July 1945. Australian release: 12 July 1945. 15,325 feet. 20 reels. 170 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Advertising executive goes off to war, leaving his wife and two teenage daughters to cope on the home front.NOTES: Film was begun by photographer George Barnes who was replaced by Stanley Cortez who was himself replaced by Lee Garmes. Andre De Toth directed several sequences (not that it matters)COMMENT: If ever a film was deliberately designed to defeat the auteur/director-is-supreme theorists, such a film would seem to be Since You Went Away. Three guiding hands are very much in evidence on the picture. None of them belong to director John Cromwell.Hand number one of course is producer David O. Selznick. His first film since Rebecca, produced on a scale to bear comparison with Gone With The Wind. Script by Selznick - and a very soapy, women's picture script it is too, though it has a degree of astringency, almost cynicism, which was probably completely absent from the original Ladies Home Journal story by Margaret Buell Wilder. The plot is so familiar as to be trite, but Selznick not only keeps it moving and dresses it up with a lot of production values (headed by an enormous cast), but he has rounded the characters sufficiently so that even a dull actor like Joseph Gotten can appear almost pliable and interesting. Miss Colbert naturally has a typically weepie role, while Miss Jones grimaces and hogs the camera (in some unflattering close-ups by Lee Garmes) and Mr Walker puts on his nice and shy but oh-so-amiable act. Woolley has a small but typical role which he manages with his usual bite, despite the thinness of his material. Shirley Temple has little to do but stooge for the other members of the cast. Hattie McDaniel over-acts, Agnes Moorehead is a caricature and Albert Basserman is allowed to make a thespic milestone out of his one, unimportant scene. Lionel Barrymore is properly restrained though his role is little more than a walk-on. Nazimova delivers the inscription on the Statue of Liberty (The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus) with taste and skill. The rest of the cast is a movie buffs delight, though Ruth Roman is difficult to spot in her brief walk-on at the railroad station (she has her back to the camera, though turns her head in profile to deliver her line) and Rhonda Fleming is but briefly glimpsed at the dance.The film has two distinct visual styles. Since You Went Away was shot in chronological order, so it is easy to spot where the break occurs. The first 30% of the film is photographed in a forced (and therefore grainy) deep dimensional style. Cortez was forced into this maneuver by the fact that the house set was constructed with no wild walls. Though built in the studio, it was constructed as solidly as a real house. When Garmes took over in the bowling alley sequence (Cortez was called up), he adopted an altogether different style, deciding not to try to light the scenes fully and evenly as had Cortez, but to use natural, low-key effects. He also uses close-ups much more than Cortez. He makes the film much more attractive to look at. Aside from the visual appeal of the more dramatic lighting, he uses the camera more fluidly and fluently.These are the three guiding hands on the film: Selznick who wrote it and supervised every aspect of its production. Cortez and Garmes who gave it two distinct visual styles. All Cromwell seems to have directed is the acting. Despite its great length and its dated, novelettish subject matter, Since You Went Away is more entertaining than a 1987 audience might expect - even without its superlative production values and lustrous Max Steiner score.OTHER VIEWS: Ridiculous as it may seem to-day, this film was actually intended and ballyhooed by Selznick as a contemporary rival to Gone With The Wind - which it most assuredly is not - not in any department - not in script - cast - direction - or production values. True, Selznick more than doubled his money - the film's domestic rentals of nearly $5 million contrast felicitously with its negative cost of $2 million. And it says much for the power of the Selznick name that Since You Went Away was actually nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture (lost to Going My Way); Best Actress - Claudette Colbert (lost to Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight); Best Supporting Actor - Money Woolley (lost to Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way); Best Supporting Actress - Jennifer Jones, would you believe? (lost to Ethel Barrymore in None But the Lonely Heart); Best Photography - another incredible nomination as there is absolutely no dramatic or atmospheric rhyme or reason for the sudden switch from high to low-key lighting a third of the way through (lost to Laura); Best Sets - these too are piddling compared to Gone With The Wind (lost to Gaslight); Best Film Editing - very competent but in no way remarkable as the shots were obviously dictated by the director and cameraman (lost to Wilson); Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (won!). At least the Academy rank-and-file members had more sense than the governors. Since You Went Away is basically a woman's picture, but even the most indulgent and time-heavy ladies must have found 170 minutes far too elaborate a treatment for such thin material. It far out-stays its welcome, despite the best measures of some of the players and photographer Lee Garmes. - J.H.R. writing as George Addison.

THIS IS ANOTHER example of one of those pictures that stands by itself; that is, seemingly without any other quite like it. It is the beneficiary of having the best of everything there is in film-land. MGM endowed it with the finest of cast members (being a veritable All-Star ensemble crew), the multi-faceted story, multiple film units and the greatest of the most convincing sets. The filming included both in studio and a great variety of locations.WHEN IT CAME out, SINCE YOU WENT AWAY was playing to and intended for a war weary America; which was then in its third year of active participation in hostilities in Europe, North Africa,Asia, the Pacific and the Atlantic. In short, War was everywhere; being truly a World War.MAKING USE OF several loosely interconnected stories, the message is clearly one of both reluctant thanks, congratulations and a bid of encouragement in continuing in the same mode; until the War could be prosecuted to a successful conclusion. Without it being mentioned, all knew of the seriousness of the World situation at that time and there needn't have been any reminders saying so.ALTHOUGH ALL OF Hollywood had done its part in mobilizing whatever movie offerings they had, be they cartoons, short subjects, Westerns, the "B's", Serials or Features; this film has proved itself to be at the very zenith of the wartime fair. As a portrayal of American life back home during the years of strife, it has no peers.IT MAKES A GREAT companion piece to THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES; which provides the same sort of fine storytelling; but, in this case, its an homage to the early Post-War period and the problems of the returning Veteans.

THREE hours long, it's crammed with 1940s stars in main or cameo roles: Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Shirley Temple, Joseph Cotten, Monty Wooley, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Walker, Hattie McDaniels, Agnes Moorehead, Keenan Wynn, etc. Set in the middle of WW-II, a caring husband leaves his wife (Colbert) and daughters (Jones, Temple) to enlist and serve in the Army. The plot deals with his family's coping with his absence, being patriotic & supportive of the war effort, hoping to help him & all others return home safely.This was produced in the middle of WW-II (but, of course, they'd have no idea at that time it was then the halfway point): when food & gas rationing was the norm, tin cans*, kitchen grease*, and scrap metal* were being harvested from all civilians to help the war effort, and women were suddenly, increasingly, being recruited and trained to work in "defense plants:" shipyards, aircraft building, machine tool making, or truck driving, etc., and all kinds of jobs formerly served only by men.It's mainly, patently, a work of wartime patriotic propaganda, exhorting viewers to keep the faith with American ideals, enlisting God, to stay faithful to the brave men defending our country, and "keep the home fires burning" so that all will treasure a return to the land, family, and values they love. It's idealistic--displaying a family with "all the right" motives and responses. It seems designed to provide patterns for ideal behaviors by civilians while also assuring those in the military that their family members, absent from them, were behaving conscientiously at home.This film is definitely a period piece, depicting fairly accurately the idealized family values & roles (including race relations), etc, of THAT era. And, despite the severe limitations of the screenplay & plot, IMO these actors do a great job: Colbert provides the solid foundation on which all is built; Jennifer Jones (then 24) is a convincing teenager (17-->20) whose first love is KIA (Killed in Action); Shirley Temple (then 15-16) is a maturing mid-teen. Hattie McDaniels, Hollywood's first notable black actress, plays a stereotyped loyal family maid who always mangles the English language in "Amos & Andy" fashion.Ratings: for its worth as an interesting narrative, possibly 5 or 6 of 10. BUT, for its worth as a record of our "ideal" template of American family's values and functioning DURING THAT WARTIME ERA, I'll give it a 9 of 10. Averaging these two --> 7 of 10.(My companion couldn't stand the over-the-top feel of the patriotic propaganda and "patness" of the story line; she walked out at the 150 minute mark. Many will feel the same way; I did, too, but wanted to see if the ending I forecast would be fulfilled. It was. Not hard to do: it was produced to make both civilians & military peeps feel comforted & supported.)[* For those unfamiliar with the extensive WW-II civilian recycling, see http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/page/page/1652512.htm or google "WW-II civilian kitchen grease, cans, paper" for many other descriptions.](And FWIW, I'm a veteran of WW-II & the Korean War.)

What's different about this war-era film is that it's not about military battles, but rather about the emotional battles faced by those left at home during the war. And it does a particularly fine job in portraying the long wait to see the end of the war and see if loved ones were coming home. I can't really think of another film that accomplishes this, and subtlety demonstrates the little things that Americans endured throughout the war. It's a long film, but then again, it was a long war.I should mention one thing that I found annoying -- the lovely score by Max Steiner -- which won him an Academy Award. A wonderful score...but too loud and overpowering, nearly drowning out some of the dialog. I was reminded of an Oscar broadcast years ago when Dean Martin and Raquel Welch were presenters for the best score award (pun obviously intended). Welch said that it had been noted that the best score enhances the film while not being noticed. To which Dean replied, "To which the late Max Steiner said, 'Then what the hell good is it.'" That may have been an accurate story based on this film.David O. Selznick created a wonderful film here, based on a true story. The performances were superb, with the possible exception of Shirley Temple as the younger daughter. Claudette Colbert is simply superb, and of course, that's not unusual. Jennifer Jones -- not usually a favorite of mine -- was wonderful as the older daughter. Monty Woolley doesn't play a buffoon in this film, but instead turns in a sensitive performance as an uncle of a man who is about to go off to war. Joseph Cotten is believable as a family friend who is a bit of a Navy playboy. And the wonderful Hattie McDaniel has, perhaps, her best role since GWTW. Agnew Moorehead played a real b---- in this film...not an appealing role at all.This is a memorable film not to be missed.