Homecoming ** (1948, Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Anne Baxter, John Hodiak, Ray Collins, Gladys Cooper, Cameron Mitchell) – Classic Movie Review 6,701

The watchable 1948 wartime romantic film Homecoming finds ideally paired MGM superstars Clark Gable and Lana Turner in unusual roles for them in their third movie together.

Director Mervyn LeRoy’s trite 1948 wartime romance film Homecoming is a below-par pairing of Clark Gable and Lana Turner in their third movie together, following Honky Tonk (1941) and Somewhere I’ll Find You (1942), with Gable in his third MGM film after his return from war service.

Gable plays self-centred married Manhattan doctor Dr ‘Lee’ Johnson who has a fling with his helper nurse ‘Snapshot’ McCall (Turner) in the US Army medical corps in the war zone during World War Two. Anne Baxter plays Gable’s wife Penny, who suffers nobly on the American home front.

Homecoming is a watchable romantic diversion, mainly courtesy of the charismatic, ideally paired stars Gable and Turner and the stalwart turns of the classy character players. The star duo are unusually but successfully cast, with Gable poignant and Turner warm. But, thanks to Paul Osborn and Jan Lustig’s shockingly sudsy, hollow, pulpy screenplay from a 1944 story by Sidney Kingsley called The Homecoming of Ulysses, which is full of phoney moments and fake sentiment, this is a considerable disappointment for a big Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer romantic drama of the era.

Even if the critics slammed it, the public adored it, though it does not wear well. It was one of MGM’s biggest hits of the year, costing $2,654,000 and earning $5,594,000 at the box office, making a profit of $1,047,000.

Anne Baxter stars with her husband John Hodiak, who plays the man who offers her character Penny a shoulder to cry on.

The character actor Roger Moore (1900–1999) plays one of the doctors, under his contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His real name was Joseph I Young and he was the older brother of actor Robert Young. He had 236 credits in a career from 1924 to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953.

Also in the cast are John Hodiak, Ray Collins, Gladys Cooper, Cameron Mitchell, Art Baker, Lurene Tuttle, Jessie [Jessica] Grayson, J Louis Johnson, Eloise Hart, Jeff Corey, Thomas E Breen, Wheaton Chambers, Phil Dunham, Frank Mayo, William Forrest, Dorothy Christie, James Bush, Joseph Crehan, Anne Nagel, Arthur Space and Wally Cassell.

Homecoming is directed by Mervyn LeRoy, runs 113 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Paul Osborn and Jan Lustig, based on the story The Homecoming of Ulysses by Sidney Kingsley, is shot in black and white by Harold Rosson, is produced by Sidney Franklin, is scored by Bronislau Kaper and Charles Previn, and is designed by Cedric Gibbons and Randall Duell.

Gable and Turner followed it with Betrayed (1954), the last of their four MGM films together, and Gable’s last performance at MGM.

The cast are Clark Gable as Col. Ulysses Delby “Lee” Johnson, Lana Turner as Lt. Jane “Snapshot” McCall, Anne Baxter as Penny Johnson, John Hodiak as Dr. Robert Sunday, Ray Collins as Lt. Col. Avery Silver, Gladys Cooper as Mrs. Kirby, Cameron Mitchell as Sgt. Monkevickz, Marshall Thompson as Sgt. McKeen, Lurene Tuttle as Miss Stoker, Art Baker, Jessie [Jessica] Grayson, J Louis Johnson, Eloise Hart, Jeff Corey, Thomas E Breen, Wheaton Chambers, Phil Dunham, Frank Mayo, William Forrest, Dorothy Christie, James Bush, Joseph Crehan, Anne Nagel, Arthur Space and Wally Cassell.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6,701

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