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Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Great Film overall

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Ginger Rogers looks a little mature to be a single gal still holding onto her virtue; here, as a convicted felon out on a furlough for the Christmas holiday, the actress is supposed to be wistful and vulnerable, but she appears seasoned. Framed in flashback (which certainly doesn't help matters), Rogers is revealed to have killed her boss by accident--a wolf on the make, he was standing too close to an open window--but her story apparently didn't wash in court as she was packed off to the pokey. As a sergeant also on leave, Joseph Cotten has his own problems (deep-seated, it appears), but there's nothing much else to this plot beyond the obvious: when will he find out she's a jailbird? As Rogers' cousin, Shirley Temple is almost as miscast as Ginger; groomed and trained to always give her all, Temple's impersonation of a 'typical' American teenager is a little bit frightening (casual, flip talk doesn't come easily to Shirley, she's too eager to punch her scenes across). An old-fashioned weepie in the worst sense, the movie is cobwebby with clichés and contrivances that should have smart viewers saying "I'll be seeing you" long before the end credits. ** from ****

" . . . and kind of empty," shell-shocked WWII fighter "Zachary Morgan" tells secret jailbird-on-furlough "Mary Marshall" when she asks if War is like the panoramic newsreels ubiquitous in the early 1940s, when I'LL BE SEEING YOU is set. Zach has been bayoneted by a Japanese opponent, and Mary has pushed a drunken, would-be rapist out the cad's own 14th Floor window. Zach is depressed because he cannot easily hit a nearby lamp post with a rock like he used to, and Mary is anxious since she must go back to prison for another three years. Fortunately, Zach's hospital for "neuropsychiatric" sergeants and Mary's women's correctional facility are adjacent to each other. I'LL BE SEEING YOU was another effort by America's War Department (which had the final say on ALL WWII films) to condition the country to the realities of conflict. On the one had, War had left the U.S. with just a handful of male draft board rejects stateside, with tendencies to misbehave amid the sea of womenfolk left behind by all the able-bodied guys abroad, leading to many situations involving flying leaps of one sort or another. On the other hand, lots of G.I.s were bayoneted or worse. I'LL BE SEEING YOU instructs civilians on the Homefront to SECURELY chain up their dogs when the "walking wounded" are on the prowl, and to consider readopting the one-time Western practice of "branding" threats to social order, such as female killers on furlough or parole. With so many ELIGIBLE women around (like Mary's little cousin, Barbara, shown here as somewhat of a nymphomaniac), it was crucial NOT to let the thinned-out stock of American manhood sow ground better left barren.

David Selznick produces an unusual picture starring Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotten and a teenage Shirley Temple. This one is about the casualties of war on the home front. It is all very subtle and understated, and it could have seemed much more contrived in lesser hands.What's key here, for 1944, is that the filmmakers are not afraid to present a dark subject about a soldier experiencing traumatic stress disorder. This fact is even more significant considering the story has been produced during the war, with patriotism at its most fervent. There are some beautiful holiday scenes in this movie and the two lead characters are given a truly romantic storyline. Ultimately, it is an uplifting picture. I recommend seeing it.

If there is ever a domestic drama of what we were fighting for this war for, this movie is the prototype for that kind of film. Two strangers, both in their own prisons, one physically and the other metaphorically, meet on a train, spend the Christmas holidays together, fall in love and must part. She is Ginger Rogers, in prison for manslaughter (on a charge that obviously should have been dismissed) and he is Joseph Cotten, suffering from severe shell-shock. They are star-crossed lovers fated to be parted, but with hope still lingering in their hearts, they will end up together.Spring Byington and Tom Tryon are Rogers' gracious aunt and uncle, bringing temporary joy into their lives as the holidays come and go, from a very Merry Christmas to a romantic New Year's Eve. Each of them face psychological trauma (she is even afraid to step one inch beyond the state line which they arrive at while walking along the river bank) as their love grows, but they are soothed by the beautiful title song, one of the most fabulous war themes ever written, and still popular today. (A memorable "Designing Women" episode wisely utilized it as one of Jean Smart's character's fantasies).Cotten's shell-shock is dealt with in the most subtle of ways, his manner changing when a group of boys run around the streets shooting toy guns, and an overly chatty soda jerk (Chill Wills) going on about his own war experiences. A frighting encounter with a vicious dog and some politicians who question Cotten about his political believes also subtly express the horrors that Cotten is feeling inside.The only fly in the ointment is Shirley Temple, a precocious teenage girl who fulfills that well-known saying about good intentions. Her character wouldn't be so annoying if this wasn't an exact replica of practically every role she'd play during the 1940's, particularly in the same year's "Since You Went Away". Fortunately, the romance between Rogers and Cotten is so moving that it overshadows this minor mishap. While the lover's farewell scene isn't as famous as the Jennifer Jones/Robert Walker farewell in "Since You Went Away" (ironically produced by the same man as this film, David Selznick), it gives way to the feeling that in spite of its horrors, World War II was the most romantic war in history.