Since You Went Away

Since You Went Away
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Cromwell
Screenplay by	David O. Selznick
Based on	Since You Went Away: Letters to a Soldier from His Wife 1943 novel by Margaret Buell Wilder
Produced by	David O. Selznick
Starring	Claudette Colbert Jennifer Jones Joseph Cotten Shirley Temple
Cinematography	Stanley Cortez Lee Garmes
Edited by	John D. Faure Arthur Fellows Wayland M. Hendry
Music by	Max Steiner
Production companies	Selznick International Pictures Vanguard Films
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	July 20, 1944 (1944-07-20) (USA)
Running time	172 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3,257,000
Box office	$7 million +

Since You Went Away is a 1944 American drama film directed by John Cromwell for Selznick International Pictures and distributed by United Artists. It is an epic about the American home front during World War II that was adapted and produced by David O. Selznick from the 1943 novel Since You Went Away: Letters to a Soldier from His Wife by Margaret Buell Wilder. The music score was by Max Steiner, and the cinematography by Stanley Cortez, Lee Garmes, George Barnes (uncredited), and Robert Bruce (uncredited).

The film is set in a mid-sized American town, where people with loved ones in the Armed Forces try to cope with their changed circumstances and make their own contributions to the war effort. The town is near a military base, and some of the characters are troops serving Stateside.

Though famously sentimental in places, Since You Went Away is somber at times about the effects of war on ordinary people. Some characters on the homefront are dealing with grief, loneliness, or fear for the future. Wounded and disabled troops are shown in the hospital scenes.

Plot summary

In January 1943, Anne Hilton is an upper-middle-class housewife living in a Midwestern town near a military base with her two teenage daughters, Jane and Bridget "Brig". Anne's beloved husband Tim Hilton has volunteered for U.S. Army service in World War II. Anne has just returned from seeing her husband off to Camp Claiborne, and she and her daughters must adjust to Tim's absence and make other sacrifices for the war effort, including food rationing; planting a victory garden; giving up the services of their loyal maid Fidelia who nevertheless offers to continue working part-time for the Hiltons while foregoing wages; and taking in a boarder, the curmudgeonly retired Colonel Smollett. When the Hiltons travel by train in a failed attempt to see Tim one last time before he ships out, they encounter or travel with many other people whose lives have been affected by the war, and they end up not getting to see Tim because their train is delayed to allow a defense supply train to go through first. In contrast, the Hiltons' socialite neighbor Emily Hawkins complains about the inconveniences caused by the war and engages in unsupportive behaviors such as hoarding food and criticizing the Hiltons' efforts.

The Colonel has a strained relationship with his young grandson, Bill Smollett, because Bill failed out of West Point and is now serving in the U.S. Army as a mere corporal rather than an officer. An old friend of Anne and Tim's, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Tony Willett, also visits the Hiltons while awaiting his orders. Bill quickly falls for Jane, who has a crush on Tony, who in turn has long been attracted to Anne. However, after Tony leaves, Bill and Jane's relationship slowly develops and they fall in love. They become engaged, but Bill convinces Jane to wait until after the war to get married. Bill finally is sent overseas and Jane tearfully runs after his departing train to tell him goodbye. The Colonel, who under his gruff exterior really does care about his grandson, conveys his good wishes to Bill via Anne, but arrives too late to say goodbye in person.

Jane is determined to do more for the war effort and begins volunteering as a nurse's aide at the nearby military hospital, where returning veterans with physical and mental injuries are sent to recover. The family learns via telegram that Tim Hilton is missing in action in the Southwest Pacific. Shortly after Bill's departure, the Hiltons receive word that he was killed in action at Salerno. The Hiltons and the Colonel grieve together for Bill. Jane and Anne finally tell off Emily Hawkins after Emily suggests that it is unseemly for Jane to volunteer at the hospital, and Anne decides she herself must do more to help and trains as a welder for defense work at the shipyard.

Tony returns on leave and talks to Anne about his feelings for her, but she believes that he only keeps her as a romantic ideal because she is married to his friend Tim and therefore unattainable. Anne and Tony decide to leave things as they are and remain friends. On Christmas Eve, Fidelia places gifts under the tree that Tim had given her months earlier to leave for his family, and Anne is moved to tears. Anne then gets a cablegram by telephone informing her that Tim is safe and is coming home, and she and her daughters joyfully embrace.

Cast

• Claudette Colbert as Mrs. Anne Hilton
• Jennifer Jones as Jane Deborah Hilton
• Joseph Cotten as Lieutenant Commander Tony Willett
• Shirley Temple as Bridget 'Brig' Hilton
• Monty Woolley as Colonel William G. Smollett
• Lionel Barrymore as Clergyman
• Robert Walker as Corporal William G. 'Bill' Smollett II
• Hattie McDaniel as Fidelia
• Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Emily Hawkins
• Alla Nazimova as Zofia Koslowska (as Nazimova)
• Albert Bassermann as Dr. Sigmund Gottlieb Golden
• Gordon Oliver as Marine Officer seeking room
• Keenan Wynn as Lieutenant Solomon
• Guy Madison as Sailor Harold E. Smith
• Craig Stevens as Danny Williams
• Lloyd Corrigan as Mr. Mahoney, the Grocer
• Jackie Moran as Johnny Mahoney
• Dorothy Dandridge as Black Officer's Wife in railway station (uncredited)
• John Derek as minor role (uncredited)
• Jane Devlin as Gladys Brown (uncredited)
• Warren Hymer as Convalescing Soldier asking for Tutti Frutti ice-cream
• Rhonda Fleming as Girl at dance (uncredited)
• Andrew V. McLaglen as Former plowboy (uncredited)
• Terry Moore as Refugee Child on train (uncredited)
• Ruth Roman as Envious Girl in train station (uncredited)
• Butterfly McQueen as WAC sergeant (uncredited)

Reception

According to Bosley Crowther, Since You Went Away, Selznick's first screen production in four years, features a script with an "excess of exhausting emotional detail"; Crowther was impressed with the performances, but had issues with the film as a whole:

As the mother and center of the family, Claudette Colbert gives an excellent show of gallantly self-contained emotion, and Jennifer Jones is surpassingly sweet as a well-bred American daughter in the first bloom of womanhood and love. Robert Walker is uncommonly appealing as the young soldier whom she tragically adores, and Shirley Temple, now grown to "teen-age freshness", is pert as the young sister. Monty Woolley makes a full-blown character of the man who comes to lodge; Joseph Cotten is droll as the Navy playboy, and Hattie McDaniel does an Andy-act quite well... No doubt, this would have been a sharper picture if Mr. Selznick had played it in much less time, and it would have been considerably more significant had he kept it somewhat closer to average means. Two hours and fifty-one minutes is a lot of time to harp upon one well-known theme -lonesomeness and anxiety. And that is all this picture really does.

The movie was popular and earned $4,950,000 in North American rentals during its theatrical release, and over $7 million in rentals overall.

Behind the scenes

The farewell scene between Jones and Walker at the railway station was parodied in the 1980 film Airplane! Jones and Walker played young sweethearts in Since You Went Away, but in real life, they were married at the time and going through a bitter break-up due to Jones' ongoing affair with producer Selznick. They divorced not long after the film was completed, and Jones later married Selznick after this affair ended his marriage to Irene Mayer Selznick.

Accolades

Award	Category	Nominee	Result
Academy Awards	Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture	Max Steiner	Won
	Best Picture		Nominated
	Best Actress in a Leading Role	Claudette Colbert	Nominated
	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Monty Woolley	Nominated
	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Jennifer Jones	Nominated
	Best Cinematography, Black-and-White	Stanley Cortez, Lee Garmes	Nominated
	Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White	Mark-Lee Kirk, Victor A. Gangelin	Nominated
	Best Film Editing	Hal C. Kern, James E. Newcom	Nominated
	Best Effects, Special Effects	Jack Cosgrove, Arthur Johns	Nominated

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2006: AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – Nominated

Home media

Since You Went Away was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on October 19, 2004 in a Region 1 fullscreened DVD. It was later released on Blu-ray by Kino Classics on November 21, 2017.

External links

• Since You Went Away at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Since You Went Away at the TCM Movie Database
• Since You Went Away at IMDb
• Since You Went Away at AllMovie
• Since You Went Away at Rotten Tomatoes