Rating:  -
I saw this movie on TV in London. The first scene had Olivia DeHavilland on a rooftop doing bomb watch in London during the blitz. Since the Iraq war had just begun days before, I realized I was in London during a time of war, too.
I was just like Olivia! So I stayed glued to the TV, even though it began at 2 a.m.
The story unfolds into a complex tale of self-sacrifice and a woman's love for her son--even if it must mean her son never knows she is, in fact, his mother.
I uncovered an old review of this film afterward; it wasn't ever a huge theatrical success mostly, it was believed, because the title of the movie just bored people to tears.
But it's truly a great movie. Olivia DeHavilland was superb, and the film was fascinating from beginning to end.
We require this on DVD.
Rating: -
This film makes me cry like a baby every time I see it! Watch and see how a mess of missed opportunities and crossed signals results in a beautiful, triumphant reunion of mother and son. de Havilland is terrific, as always. She deserved that Oscar. A great addition to any "Girls Night In" movie fest! Just make sure you have plenty of tissues handy!
Rating: -
I love classic movies and this one is no exception. Wonderful story. I give this one a million stars.
Rating:  -
One of the best performances by Olivia de Havilland, along with her roles in Gone with the Wind, the Snake Pit, My Cousin Rachel, and the Heiress. She was also wonderful playing opposite Errol Flynn, especially in her role as Maid Marion in the Adventures of Robin Hood.
This film is an excellent one about mother love. For most of her life, Josephine, nicknamed Jody wants to be reunited with her son who she gave up, in a cruel twist of fate. She falls in love in one day with a World War I pilot played by John Lund and spends the night with him, resulting in a pregnancy. The writers are careful to make sure the audience does not think it only a one night stand, especially on the part of the pilot. The love letter that Jody reads confirms that he is also in love with her and is anxious to be reunited with her after his tour of duty.
He is killed and Jody resolves to keep the baby. But a twist of fate prevents this and Jody is separated from the baby (Gregory) for many years. She does spend some time with the baby, until jealousy of Corinne over Jody and her husband prevents her from seeing the baby. The movie goes through various plot twists until the tearjerker ending, when Jody and her now adult son are reunited (the son is also played by Lund).
The acting of the supporting cast is uniformly good. I would have wished for a more subtle Corinne: Mary Anderson gave a somewhat over the top performance playing this unsympathetic character--in two scenes she shrieks "never, never, never." She has been better in other movies. Ronald Culver is great as Lord Desham and I found myself hoping that Jody and Desham would get married after the reunion between Jody and her son. I kept thinking if only she had met Desham before she met that pilot.
One quibble: Olivia de Havilland's makeup as the older Jody. The younger Jody was quite attractive and the older Jody was supposedly only in her forties. She was made up to look in her late fifties. If this movie were remade, Jody would look more youthful in her "middle age."
This is a wonderful film, especially for fans of Olivia de Havilland.
Rating:  -
I watched this the other night and did not shed one tear or need any tissues. This movie was so silly and unrealistic, at times I was about laughing, and half way through, I was ready for it to be over. I like Olivia de Havilland in other things...she was superb in Gone With the Wind and The Heiress. In this, I felt she was just very strange and not very good. The whole story was too unrealistic. Her father's reaction to her pregnancy was not at all believable. The guy she fell in love with had about as much charm and charisma as a mannequin. He was doofy and what Olivia's character saw in him, I will never know.
I think this had possibilities to be a better story. If it was written by someone with more skill, who could be a little more subtle in some areas, and if the actors were chosen better, I may have liked it. The woman who ended up with her baby as her son, well, she was just a bad actress. So was her husband. The scene on the stairway, where it all comes out that he still loves Jodie after all these years, well, it is all so stilted and put on. The scenes later where she finally meets her son as a grown man, well, how unrealistic, and how handy that he just happens to see the scrapbook, and later put it all together, and realize she is really his mother with so much nonchalance, well it was just corny.
I love classic film, and after watching this, I was reminded again that there is good classic film and there is bad classic film. This is one of the "bad" classic films that I will not waste my time watching again. I was so glad when the whole silly story was finally over!
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