From This Day Forward

Try as she might, Joan Fontaine just cannot make a silk purse from the sow's ear on show here from John Berry. She portrays "Susan", a young assistant in a bookshop who has married "Bill" (Mark Stevens). Flashback fills in the gaps as this young couple meet and fall in love before WWII intervenes and when he returns, the pair must adjust to post war life. The film effectively illustrates the difficulties faced by returning soldiers, and of their spouses and families, as they all try to adapt to their new circumstances. For "Bill", that involves dealing with the ennui (I suppose it might be considered a form of PTSD nowadays) that proves particularly hard to accommodate. The challenges also entail getting a new job and finding the money to keep his family going. For "Susan" - well, the challenges for her are somewhat different but what is enlivening about the whole thing is the pair's enduring affection for each other. They struggle, with each other and their tough, unforgiving, environment and that struggle turns both of them into something that would be, frankly, rather difficult to love. A solid template for a story, but sadly for me there was way too much dialogue. It's an adaptation of Thomas Bell's book, but it is quite possible that this feature has more words! Fontaine glows, but underperforms as an actress - she lacks character in this portrayal and at times the whole thing just comes across as a bit to earnest. The production is proficient, and the score complimentary as their relationship ebb and flows. It's an interesting observation of how life might have been, but I'd rather have done more watching and less listening.

All Brides are Beautiful. From This Day Forward is directed by John Berry and adapted to screenplay by Garson Kanin and Hugo Butler from the novel All Brides are Beautiful written by Thomas Bell. It stars Joan Fontaine, Mark Stevens, Rosemary DeCamp, Harry Morgan, Wally Brown, Arline Judge and Renny McEvoy. Music is by Leigh Harline and cinematography by George Barnes. Rom-Dram that finds Stevens and Fontaine as a young couple struggling with the perils and optimism of post-war life. Story unfolds in flashback as Stevens reminisces about how he met Fontaine and their subsequent courtship that was fraught with uncertainty about what the future had in store. The Depression bites hard and Stevens finds himself a kept man as Fontaine’s wages has to cover for the both of them. It’s a pretty simple fable, but one of romantic hope in times of hardship, Stevens and Fontaine are good together, if a little miscast considering the themes at work in the screenplay. Popular with audiences back in 1946, its escapism factor would have been a huge pull, it is however now something of an antiquated sitting, a laborious picture that sort of just exists as a time-capsule piece. Approach with caution. 5/10