Since You Went Away
by David O. Selznick, Edward F. Cline, John Cromwell, Tay Garnett
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Monty Woolley, Shirley TempleDirector: David O. Selznick, Edward F. Cline, John Cromwell, Tay Garnett
Brand: Sony
Cinematographer: George Barnes
Producer: David O. Selznick
Writer: David O. Selznick
Writer: Margaret Buell Wilder
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 172 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-19
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Since You Went Away
Movie Review: The Glamor and the Heartbreak
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this film at the Castro Theater here in San Francisco during a two week Selznick Festival during which Ronald Haver spoke before every film.
Haver said that Selznick had to pay Colbert triple her usual salary because it was the first time she'd be playing the mother part, and she argued that after you play a mother once, Hollywood will never again cast you in the femme fatale part. She was right! Her career never again reached the heights it had once hit regularly.
No matter, she gave a great performance and showed what an ordinary American woman can do in time of war. The ironic thing is that Colbert was French herself, which makes her conversation with Alla Nazimova towards the end of the movie even more bizarre (the one about "You are America to me, Mrs. Hilton.")
The movie itself is super-long and sometimes contrived but for the most part it is one of the greatest spectacles of US cinema. Just the lighting in the big canteen dance is enough to make your eyes bug out of your head. The hundreds of extras doing the jitterbug--and then hearing the sound of the planes propelling the boys away to an uncertain destination. And of course the sequence where Jane and Bill have to part and she goes running after his train, crying and trying not to hit any pillars, is a famous tearjerker. And how sexy is the day when Jane and Bill go out to the country and get caught in the rain and the barn and the straw--it's better than THE OUTLAW!
Because the movie employed so many gay stars (not Jennifer Jones or Shirley Temple) it has a strange kind of artificial glamor to it that gives you pause, as do so many of the films of John Cromwell. Agnes Moorehead is completely free of vanity in this movie, she says and does things that any other actress would have balked at. Haver said that people threw things at her on the street after this film came out, she gave such an unsparing portrait of a selfish hoarder and sex maniac.
Guy Madison looks fantastic and he's really a golden boy in this movie, making Robert Walker look absolutely po-faced in comparison. Seems like I saw Rhonda Fleming, too, at the dance sequence--could she really be in this film? I don't know if she was contracted to Selznick or not.
Did you know that, in typical DOS fashion, producer Selznick pressured each one of his leads to sign some version of this statement (and used them in publicity)-- "'Since You Went Away' is the finest picture in which I've ever appeared'"? Jennifer Jones, Shirley Temple, Monty Woolley, Joseph Cotten, Robert Walker and Claudette Colbert all complied, reluctantly or not.
Summary of Since You Went Away
Nominated* for nine Academy AwardsÂ(r), this heart-warming, soul-stirring (Variety) portrait of life on the homefront during World War II is a magnificent picture rich in humor and poignant with heartbreak (The Hollywood Reporter). Claudette Colbert heads an all-star cast,including Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten and Shirley Temple, in this beautifully produced picture that gets into your heart (Los Angeles Examiner). With her husband Tim off at war, Anne Hilton (Colbert) struggles to be a pillar of strength for her daughters Jane (Jones) and Bridget (Temple). During America's darkest hours, she bravely steers her girls through heartbreak and hardships as she eagerly awaits news from overseas and wonders if life will ever be the same. *1944: Best Picture, Actress (Colbert), Supporting Actor (Monty Woolley), Supporting Actress (Jones), Cinematography (B&W), Art Direction (B&W), Editing, Music Score (won), Special EffectsSimilar DVD Movies
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