To Each His Own

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Kay W @RT64008465 01/26/2022 This is a great movie. See more Nadya R @RT11917319 10/07/2021 Touching, beautiful movie, superlative cast, still relevant today. See more Steve S @RT32687682 09/23/2021 Olivia de Havilland won her first Best Actress Academy Award for this 1946 tearjerker. She plays a woman who is looking back on her life. She had fallen in love with a soldier and become pregnant. He never returns. It is an era when a single woman who is about to have a baby is a scandal. She allows the baby to be adopted by friends. Years later she learns that her grown son is comin to London. Now she wants to reveal the truth. The film is overly sentimental, but does a good job showing a much different social world. de Havilland is wonderful as always, and deserved to at least be nominated for the film. Worth a watch. See more 08/09/2020 Great story. Olivia the Great. Love this movie. See more steve d @RT35616104 07/22/2020 It has all been done before but rarely this well. See more 07/10/2019 This is one of those films that could have only found success in the mid to late 1940s because it is far too melodramatic for modern tastes but if you enjoy films from this era then this is a certifiable classic. The greatest attraction of this film is the wonderful Olivia de Havilland who gives one of her most acclaimed performances and earned her first of two well deserved Academy Awards for her richly textured role as Jody Norris. The film also boasts impressive performances from Mary Anderson and Victoria Horne in supporting roles and it's screenplay is beautifully crafted. I know it will not appeal to all, if you have a cynical bone in your body you might turn your nose up at it, however it pulls of it's highly dramatic plot beats with grace and elegance and anything that features de Havilland is worth a look in my view. Small town girl Jody Norris, Olivia de Havilland, does not love the besotted Alex Piersen, Phillip Terry, who promptly marries the jealous Corinne, Mary Anderson, after her rejection. She finds love in the arms of US Army pilot Bart Cosgrove, John Lund, but he leaves and dies after they have a one night stand which causes her to be pregnant. She goes to the city in order to have her child and asks a helpful nurse to drop the baby outside of another person's house so that people will not suspect that the child belongs to her but she believes she will still be able to adopt the child. Unfortunately the pregnant Corinne loses her child the night that the baby is dropped off and Jody's baby is handed to her. Jody is separated from her child for years as a result but serves as a nurse for her baby whom she dubs "Grigsy." She is later able to become a successful businesswoman in the city but her yearning to be with her son continues. It is de Havilland who makes the film work as her expressive face, full with flashing, accusatory eyes and lips set in hard line, convinces us of her character's journey from innocent, hopeful young woman to tortured but successful businesswoman. The final scenes of the film work because she has displayed such restraint, for the 1940s, throughout most of the film, as her emotional breakdown seems like that of a woman who has carried a heavy burden for many years instead of a sudden emotional outburst. We feel her yearning as she excitedly prepares to see her son again even as he is unaware of her being his mother and we are completely crushed when we witness her hopes being dashed. I think she gives one of the greatest performances I have ever seen and only her performance in Gone With the Wind (1939) tops her work here. Beyond de Havilland the story of the film is really very interesting as I found that I could not tell what would happen next. Much like Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947) you have to accept how ridiculous the story is and just go with it but if you are willing to suspend your disbelief it is remarkably easy to get swept up in the emotions of the characters. I was practically quivering with excitement as Jody and Corinne sparred over ownership of Grigsy and Alex's love for Jody. These scenes work so well because the film manages to wring so much drama out of situations that could play as simply being dull and depressing. We eagerly await the showdowns between various characters even as we can see these difficult situations from each character's perspectives relatively sympathetically. I admired how well the screenplay managed to piece together these big scenes and the emotional catharsis provided at the end was well earned given all of the set up we received. In my mind this film was deserving of more praise than it received as only de Havilland received the awards she deserved. A nomination for Anderson in the Best Supporting Actress category should have been in order and I think that the film is better than both Henry V (1946) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) both of which were nominated for Best Picture with the latter winning. See more Read all reviews

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