The Best Years Of Our Lives 1946

The Film:

Before watching I basically only knew this film as the one that stopped It's A Wonderful Life from winning. (Although whether or not George Bailey and co ever stood a chance against the other three nominees is debatable - it only became a classic through TV syndication much later).

I knew the basic plot - servicemen return from the war and face heartwarming struggles in small town America. I also knew that one of them had hooks instead of hands, was played by a real serviceman with a real disability and that this was also a heartwarming struggle in itself. And I knew that it was filmed immediately after the end of the war.

Forgive me for being cynical (for the third time in as many films) but the whole thing sounded as though it was going to be patriotic slush. And I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy sitting through nearly three hours of it.

Again (for the second year running this time) I hadn't really clocked on to who the Director was. William Wyler saw Mrs Miniver and co into the war in expert fashion - could he manage to see the residents of Boone City out at the other end in similarly impressive style?

The Ceremony:

Jack Benny presented again this year - at the Shrine Auditorium on March 13th 1947.

I can't find a great deal of information about the ceremony this time - although I imagine it was similarly glitzy to the previous year.

The nominations were streamlined this year, with no category having more than five nominations. This practice continued for several decades.




Other Notable Winners That Night:

Fab photo - one Oscar for each prosthetic!

Best Years of Our Lives took seven competitive awards and two special awards. So not many others got a look in that night! Frederic March got Best Actor (very well deserved - I'll even give it to him over Jimmy Stewart!) and non-actor veteran Harold Russell remains the only person to ever get two Oscars for the same role. He won an honorary award for "bringing hope and courage to fellow veterans" and then, to everyone's surprise, also picked up Best Supporting Actor.

The Actress awards went elsewhere - to Olivia de Havilland (still with us aged 101 at time of writing!) and Anne Baxter (who we'll be hearing "all about" in a few years time....)

Tom and Jerry won again, with a cartoon that is often voted as one of the greatest ever made. I have very strong memories of this one from my childhood and it was lovely watching it again when I found it on Youtube:

Best Song:

I love this one - On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe from The Harvey Girls. The film is in glorious Technicolor and the whole number is about nine fabulous minutes, but the only clip I can bring you is three minutes in black and white.....which is better than nothing.

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

George Bailey - I'll love this film til the day I die!

One of my favourite films of all time was among the nominations this year. So, naturally, my vote would have to go to It's A Wonderful Life. It's certainly the one that has stood the test of time - and is possibly the most-watched today of all the nominees from the 1940s (even more than Casablanca!)

The other three nominees are less classic - Henry V (which will get recognition of sorts two years later), The Yearling (more post-war sentiment) and The Razor's Edge (one I've not seen, but it sounds interesting - though possibly as dark and brooding as last year's winner so not a contender).

Not on the list, but still worth a mention is another personal favourite, Brief Encounter. It had three nominations (including Director and Actress) but not one for Best Picture. Which is a shame.

It's A Wonderful Life could have probably given some of the earlier winners of the 40s a run for their money, but something more specifically post-war and hard-hitting was always going to win out. And I can't begrudge Best Years Of Our Lives for that!


Our Verdict:

One of each - both in terms of the force they were in and
the economic circumstance they come back to.

The opening scenes show our three lead characters (soldier, sailor and airman) heading back together to their hometown, huddled together in a fighter plane. They share a smoke and a few stories and we find out what happened to Homer's hands. Then they are driven through their town being dropped off in turn with their families, pointing out the places they remember from before the war. It's all very mid-west mid-century America and verging a little on schmaltz and a little on gung-ho patriotism. My thoughts twenty minutes in are mainly despair that we've still got another two and a half hours of this to go through.

However, pretty much literally at that point, things start to change. From the moment they are reunited with their families I was sucked into all three intertwining stories.

No hands - no CGI

Homer is from a nice suburban family and engaged to the girl (literally) next door. His struggle is to deal with his doubts and insecurities brought on by his disability - particularly about whether his fiancee is staying with him out of love or pity. Russell deserved both his Oscars for the matter-of-fact way in which he deals with the practicalities, coupled with the portrayal of his psychological pain. He must have helped a great many real life families that were in this situation to open up and deal with what they were going through. A really impressive depiction of disability in such an early film.

The Stephensons - not unlike the Minivers. 

Al is a bank manager and is clearly very well off, as you can see from his apartment. He has a wife (played brilliantly by Myrna Loy) and two teenaged children (one of whom is Teresa Wright - being given a happier ending than she was in Mrs Miniver). They are a happy family and everything is set up for Al to slot right back into civilian life- but he struggles to readjust and go back to what now seems a far less honourable role in life. He takes to giving out loans to ex-servicemen against bank policy - and he also takes to the bottle.

Probably the saddest and most dramatic story is that of airman Fred (surprisingly the only one of the three roles not to be Oscar nominated). He has clearly loved his time in the war and has been honoured several times for his efforts as a master bomber. But it turns out that he is from a much poorer family than the others and has no qualifications and (because bombers aren't needed any more) no skills or experience. He also has a young wife who he hardly knows and who appears to have married the uniform not the man. And he's suffering from what we would now call PTSD.

Reunion at Uncle Butch's

These well rounded and well played characters and their families make for a story that is brilliantly scripted, expertly paced, hard hitting, heart warming - and also, at times, very humorous. There are a few risky (for the Hays era) twists to the story and it manages to tie itself up into the happy ending that both the era and the subject matter required without ever becoming too sentimental. I thought Frederic March was particularly brilliant - but they were all good. And I was wrong. This is a brilliant film! It has really stood the test of time and still has some relevant things to say - but above all, I really enjoyed it. So much so that it may be only my own personal sentiment and nostalgia that is stopping me from completely conceding that Boone City deserved its Oscar over Bedford Falls.