HOMECOMING

US, 1948, 113 minutes, Black and white.
Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Anne Baxter, John Hodiak, Ray Collins, Gladys Cooper, Cameron Mitchell, Marshall Thompson.
Directed by Mervyn Le Roy.

Homecoming is one of the several films about the veterans of World War Two coming back, trying to settle in, the effect on them as well as on families and friends and opportunities for a new life after the war. Perhaps the best known of these films was the Oscar-winning film of 1946, The Best Years of Our Lives.

This is a very glossy MGM film with Clark Gable and Lana Turner (who had appeared in Honky Tonk and Somewhere I’ll Find You in the early 40s; they were to appear in Betrayed in 1954). The film has a strong supporting cast and is photographed in strong black and white, with a score by Bronislau Kaper.

There are some war sequences, with the setting in Italy. However, the film is very much one of interiors, hospitals and homes in the United States, hospital situations in war. However, at the end, there are more war sequences as Clark Gable and Lana Turner go to Bastogne and are involved in the Battle of the Bulge.

The film offers a very fine performance by Clark Gable, older and more mature, presenting a self-absorbed and opinionated doctor, very much caught up in the American dream of success and wealth, married comfortably to Anne Baxter. He resists the overtures of a long-time friend and fellow doctor, John Hodiak, for contributing to the elimination of malaria in a part of a town. This comes back to him after his war experience, shooting off his mouth on the boat, being attacked by Lana Turner, working with her, finding a selflessness in war as well as being challenged continually by her. The film also shows the experience of falling in love in a war situation, the effect on people, as well as the spouse at home.

The film is well written, has a lot of thoughtful dialogue – and still challenges many of the American ideas of our time.

1. The 1948 setting, the war experience, telling war stories, adjustment to post-war life, for those who served, for those who welcomed the military back?

2. The stars, their films together, working well? MGM gloss? Black and white photography, the musical score?

3. The introduction to the journalist, his eye for stories, his discussions with Lee, his not getting a story? Lee then remembering?

4. The challenge to consider someone who had influenced and changed a person’s life? At the end – and his feeling the need to tell Penny the story?

5. Lee as a character, his background, his self-absorption, success, skill in surgery, hospital work? Social life, golf, dancing? Living in his own world – the American dream world? Comfortable? His relationship with Penny? Her listening in to the phone calls in his office, the gifts? Their being together – and the flashback to his mistake at the opera? Their life, Penny and her fears during the war?

6. Bob, past friendship, his cause, malaria, asking Lee for help, Lee avoiding him, Penny avoiding him? His explanations? Giving the documents, Lee ignoring them, delay? Forgetting? Monk and his initial interchange with Lee, Lee fixing his leg so that he could go to war? Encountering him as injured, the explanation of the malaria, his death and the impact on Lee?

7. On the boat, talking with Colonel Silver? Snapshot and her interventions, Lee and his being put out, the challenge, her directness? Working with her? The continued straight talk? His admiring her skill? The issue of not granting compassionate leave and her challenging him? The hard work, sixteen-hour shifts at a time? Under German attack? Moving, going to Italy, the experience of raids? The continued hospital work? With Silver?

8. Lee, his experience, talking with Snapshot, her story, her husband and causes, his going to China, his death, her son? Her commitment to work?

9. The formalities between them, the arguments, the apologies, the cup of coffee, the growing bonds, the humorous episode with the baths? Falling in love? Her calling him Useless? His real name Ulysses?

10. His continually writing to Penny, Penny discussing things with her mother, feelings of jealousy, her fears? Going for advice to Bob, talking things over? Lee and his asking her to see Monk’s father? Her visit?

11. Monk, his character, ill, the malaria? Snapshot and her outburst? Not realising how it touched Lee’s conscience?

12. The attack, Silver’s death? Silver and his character, warning Snapshot about her relationship?

13. Snapshot, her leaving, the farewell, the declaration of love?

14. Lee on leave in Paris, meeting Snapshot, the discussions? The decision to go to Bastogne, the danger?

15. Lee, his return, Penny tense, the servants at the wharf, going home, visiting Snapshot’s son? The awkwardness, talk and silence, Lee’s reticence? Going to visit Bob, their discussions, admitting the truth? The malaria issue? Penny’s mother and her acerbic responses? Penny and her frankness, the talk, the explanation of Snapshot’s death, the flashback to her injuries, the death scene and Lee’s visit? The effect on both of them?

16. The final symbolic image of the two candles lit on the table?