Till the End of Time **** (1946, Dorothy McGuire, Guy Madison, Bill Williams, Robert Mitchum, William Gargan, Tom Tully, Jean Porter) – Classic Movie Review 6560

Director Edward Dmytryk’s realistic, well-made, strongly cast 1946 film drama of post-war readjustment has a theme and plotlines very similar to those in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). That much praised film has tended to over-shadow this one, but it has strong merits of its own.

Guy Madison, Bill Williams and Robert Mitchum play US marines Cliff, Perry and William, who return from the Second World War and find it difficult to cope with civilian life in their small American town. Cliff is at a loss, but Perry has lost the use of his legs and William has bad debts.

There is a good part too for Dorothy McGuire as Pat Ruscomb, an emotionally ravaged war pilot’s widow who gets involved with Cliff. It is also a memorable occasion for Jean Porter, offering her perhaps her finest screen role as Helen Ingersoll and the chance to meet future husband, director Dmytryk. They married in 1948.

Time has altered the perspective but it has not eroded the power of this intense, intelligently scripted (by Allen Rivkin) and thought-provoking entertainment based on Niven Busch’s novel They Dream of Home.

Also in the cast are William Gargan, Tom Tully, Johnny Sands, Loren Tindall, Ruth Nelson, Harry Von Zell, Selena Royle, Richard Benedict, Dickie Tyler, Stan Johnson, Billy Newell, Lee Slater and Robert Lowell.

Perry Como sings the title song from Chopin’s ‘Polonaise in A Flat Major’, which was a big hit.

It is shot in black and white by Harry J Wild, produced by Dore Schary, scored by Leigh Harline and Constantin Bakaleinikoff, and designed by Albert S D’Agostino and Darrel Silvers.

Jean Porter died on 13 January 2018.

RIP Jean Porter, who died on 13 January 2018, aged 95.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6560

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