In Our Time *** (1944, Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, Nancy Coleman, Nazimova, Mary Boland) – Classic Movie Review 11,958

‘Their Love was all these things – It Was Daring! It Was Defiant! It Was Irrepressible! It Was Rapturous!’

Director Vincent Sherman’s 1944 Warner Bros black and white film In Our Time is a conscientious but slightly disappointing World War Two romantic melodrama with Ida Lupino as Jennifer Whittredge, a young English woman who travels to Poland with her employer Mrs Bromley (Mary Boland) to buy antiques for their London business in early 1939.

Jennifer meets Polish noble Count Stefan Orwid (Paul Henreid) and they fall in love and then marry against the objections of his family. They modernise the debt-ridden family estate with tractors, increase production and want the estate peasants to share in the harvest against the objections of patriarch Count Pawel Orwid (Victor Francen). Then Germany starts the war and Jennifer helps her new husband against the Germans.

In Our Time is a thoughtful and good-hearted but uncomfortable mix of romance, tribute to Polish courage in resistance to the Germans, timely attack on fascism, and toast to modernism and the power of the people. Uncomfortable it may be, but there is plenty of interest and intelligence, its spirit of optimism is valuable, Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid are good value, as always, while Nazimova scores as Henreid’s mother, Zofia Orwid.

The score by Franz Waxman and cinematography by Carl Guthrie also add some considerable distinction.

Nancy Coleman, Mary Boland, Victor Francen, Michael Chekhov, Ivan Triesault, and Frank Reicher are also in the cast.

In Our Time is directed by Vincent Sherman, runs 110 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Ellis St Joseph and Howard Koch, is shot in black and white by Carl Guthrie, is produced by Jerry Wald, and is scored by Franz Waxman.

In Our Time is a tribute to the resistance of the Polish people in World War Two but it landed writer Howard Koch in trouble with the House Un-American Activities Committee and he made its blacklist.

At the end, Warner Bros’ WB logo appears and W and B are separated to form the words ‘BUY War Bonds’.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,958

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