The Best Years of Our Lives

In 1945, three veterans from different parts of the military (USAAF bombardier captain Fred Derry, U.S. Navy petty officer Homer Parrish, and U.S. Army sergeant Al Stephenson) meet on a return flight from service at the end of World War II. They travel together and arrive in their midwestern hometown of Boone City.

Before the war, Fred had a menial job at a drug store as their soda jerk and lived with his parents in the poorer part of town. Before becoming an officer in the Army Air Corps, he married his girlfriend Marie after a brief engagement and shipped out shortly thereafter.

Al worked as a high level officer at the local bank and lived in an upscale apartment with his wife Millie and their two children, Peggy and Rob.

Homer was a high school student living with his middle-class parents and younger sister. A star athlete at school, Homer also had been dating his next-door neighbor, Wilma, and they commit to marrying upon his return.

Each man faces challenges integrating back into civilian life. Having lost both hands, Homer is the man most obviously damaged by the war, but each man suffers from mental injuries, Homer included. Homer has become quite functional in the use of his mechanical hooks, but he cannot bring himself to believe that Wilma will still want to marry him. Al, tired and jaded from the war, is asked to return to the bank and gets a large promotion which he feels obligated to take. The highly decorated and accomplished Fred suffers from PTSD flashbacks by night, and despite his Captain’s rank in the military, cannot find a civilian job because of his lack of experience at anything other than dropping bombs and is forced to return to the drug store to work behind the counter. The one bright spot for Fred is Al's daughter Peggy, whom he met when they first returned to town after a long night drinking binge. Peggy feels sympathy for Fred and gives him her room as he passes out that night.

Fred and Peggy are attracted to each other, and when she stops by his work to check on him he asks her to meet him for lunch. Afterwards, he walks her to her car, and though he knows it is wrong, kisses her. Fred's relationship with Peggy puts him at odds with Al, who, despite his affection for Fred, does not want his daughter to be involved with a married man. Peggy on the other hand, after meeting Marie by arranging a double date, is determined to "break the marriage apart" thinking that Fred deserves better than the craven Marie.

Homer continues to avoid his fiancé, Wilma, and much to the family's anguish doesn't seem to want to continue the relationship. Each night Homer's father helps him remove the prosthetic arms and places him in bed. Homer appears lost and despite being as independent as he can, he still requires others to help him with day-to-day activities. Wilma confronts Homer who explodes in a rage and breaks a window when he cannot manage to open the door, scaring his younger sister and her friends.

Al continues to struggle with re-entry into normal life. Widely respected by the bank's senior management for his past business acumen, Al finds himself aligning himself with veterans looking for loans - sometimes with little or no collateral which becomes an issue for the bank. His behavior is made worse by his excessive drinking and he continues to seek solace away from his family obligations with the other veterans.

All three characters' individual stories come to a head. One night, when Homer visits the drugstore for an ice cream sundae, another customer strikes up a conversation with him. The topic turns sour when the customer alludes to the latest news that the country is now at odds with the Soviet Union and Chinese governments, saying, "You lost your arms fighting the wrong enemy." Homer becomes angry; Fred comes to his aid and punches the disrespectful patron in the face. After being fired, Fred advises Homer to confess his true feelings to Wilma.

Al, under the influence of drinking, begins to go off the rails at a company dinner and barely finishes his speech without embarrassment as Millie comes to the rescue.

Wilma catches Homer before his bedtime routine. Homer is determined to avoid the topic of their relationship, but Wilma announces that her parents want to send her to live with relatives with the primary purpose of leaving town and moving on from Homer. Homer initially agrees with the decision, but as Wilma presses him for his true feelings he agrees to show her his disabilities and what the future would entail. At a tender moment, Wilma buttons his shirt and kisses him goodnight, leaving a teary-eyed Homer in bed.

Meanwhile, Fred's wife, Marie, frustrated with his lack of financial success and missing her past nightlife, tells Fred she is getting a divorce. Heartbroken and seeing no future in Boone City, Fred decides to pack up and catch the next plane out. After he bids farewell to his father and step-mother, his father reads a letter of commendation from General Doolittle describing Fred's heroics. While waiting at the airport Fred walks into an aircraft boneyard, where he climbs into one of the decommissioned B-17 bombers. Sitting in the bombardier's seat, his mind returns to the war, and another bombing run over Germany. He is roused out of his stressful memories by a work crew foreman, who informs him that the planes are being demolished for use in the growing pre-fab housing industry. Fred asks him if they need any help in the budding business, and is hired.

The finale shows everyone at Homer and Wilma's home wedding. Fred and Peggy have a polite reunion but as the vows are spoken between the newlyweds, they cannot help but look at each other. Peggy begins to weep and after the ceremony, Fred walks to her and they embrace while no one is looking. He expresses his love with the caveat that things may be a little rough financially but he is committed to the new job. Peggy is completely enthralled and smiles.

Casting brought together established stars as well as character actors and relative unknowns. The jazz drummer Gene Krupa was seen in archival footage, while Tennessee Ernie Ford, later a television star, appeared as an uncredited "hillbilly singer" (in the first of his only three film appearances).[Note 1] Blake Edwards, later a film producer and director, appeared fleetingly as an uncredited "Corporal". Wyler's daughters, Catherine and Judy, were cast as uncredited customers seen in the drug store where Fred Derry works. Sean Penn's father, Leo, played the uncredited part of the soldier working as the scheduling clerk in the Air Transport Command Office at the beginning of the film.

Teresa Wright was only thirteen years younger than her on-screen mother, played by Myrna Loy. Michael Hall (1926-2020), at the time of his death the last surviving credited cast member, with his role as Fredric March's on-screen son, is absent after the first one-third of the film. The reason was that Hall's contract with Goldwyn ended during filming, but the producer was reluctant to pay extra money to rehire him.[8]

Samuel Goldwyn was inspired to produce a film about veterans after reading an August 7, 1944, article in Time about the difficulties experienced by men returning to civilian life. Goldwyn hired former war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor to write a screenplay. His work was first published as a novella, Glory for Me, which Kantor wrote in blank verse.[9][10][11][12] Robert E. Sherwood then adapted the novella as a screenplay.[12]

Director Wyler had flown combat missions over Europe in filming Memphis Belle (1944), and worked hard to get accurate depictions of the combat veterans he had encountered. Wyler changed the original casting, which had featured a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and sought out Harold Russell, a non-actor, to take on the exacting role of Homer Parrish.[13]

For The Best Years of Our Lives, he asked the principal actors to purchase their own clothes, in order to connect with daily life and produce an authentic feeling. Other Wyler touches included constructing life-size sets, which went against the standard larger sets that were more suited to camera positions. The impact for the audience was immediate, as each scene played out in a realistic, natural way.[13]

Recounting the interrelated story of three veterans right after the end of World War II, The Best Years of Our Lives began filming just over seven months after the war's end, starting on April 15, 1946 at a variety of locations, including the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California, Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, and the Samuel Goldwyn/Warner Hollywood Studios.[13]

In The Best Years of Our Lives cinematographer Gregg Toland used deep focus photography, in which objects both close to and distant from the camera are in sharp focus.[14] For the passage of Fred Derry's reliving a combat mission while sitting in the remains of a former bomber, Wyler used "zoom" effects to simulate Derry's subjective state.[15]

The fictional Boone City was patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio.[11] The "Jackson High" football stadium seen early in aerial footage of the bomber flying over the Boone City, is Corcoran Stadium located at Xavier University in Cincinnati. A few seconds later Walnut Hills High School with its dome and football field can be seen along with the downtown Cincinnati skyline (Carew Tower and Fourth and Vine Tower) in the background.[16]

After the war, the combat aircraft featured in the film were being destroyed and disassembled for reuse as scrap material. The scene of Derry's walking among aircraft ruins was filmed at the Ontario Army Air Field in Ontario, California. The former training facility had been converted into a scrap yard, housing nearly 2,000 former combat aircraft in various states of disassembly and reclamation.[13]

In 1947 and 1949, there were four separate half-hour adaptations from Hedda Hopper's This Is Hollywood, Screen Guild Theater (two) and Screen Directors Playhouse. In all four cases, various actors reprised their film roles.[27][28]

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• The Best Years of Our Lives at IMDb
• The Best Years of Our Lives at AllMovie
• The Best Years of Our Lives at Filmsite.org
• The Best Years of Our Lives at Reel Classics
• The Best Years of Our Lives at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Best Years of Our Lives at National Film Registry
• The Best Years of Our Lives at the TCM Movie Database
• The Best Years of Our Lives at American Music Preservation
• The Best Years of Our Lives at the American Film Institute Catalog

Streaming audio

• The Best Years of Our Lives on Screen Guild Theater: November 24, 1947
• The Best Years of Our Lives on Screen Directors Playhouse: April 17, 1949