Olivia de Havilland's first Oscar was well deserved... After winning a long court battle with Warner Bros. that kept her off the screen for three years, OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND became a free-lancer and got her big chance when Paramount offered her TO EACH HIS OWN. Everyone shines in this movie, from the leads (OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND and JOHN LUND) to the smallest bit players. The script had been turned down by Ingrid Bergman and Ginger Rogers.
De Havilland was perfect as Jody Norris, realistically portraying a young girl of seventeen and then various stages of maturity, ending as a brusque, middle-aged business woman in war-torn London of 1944. Her range as an actress is fully demonstrated and she does a remarkable job of playing the heroine at three levels of development over the years.
John Lund is excellent too in a dual role (her lover and later her grown son), Bill Goodwin as a good-hearted pal, Philip Terry as another suitor who still loves her after marrying her friend (Mary Anderson). Anderson never had a better role than she does as the jealous, neurotic wife unwilling to let Jody have her own child back.
An intelligent, well-crafted script, detailed period direction by Mitch Leisen, fine background score by Victor Young and memorable moments from every player in the large cast. This is one Madame X kind of story that still holds up today. Probably the best soap-opera of the '40s, played to the hilt by a wonderful cast.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention Roland Culver as Lord Desham. Brilliant performance. And on top of all the drama, there's a lot of humor and touches of real Americana, especially in the early scenes depicting Jody's small-town life.
Summing up: If you like Olivia de Havilland, don't miss this one. One of her most detailed Oscar-winning performances that shows her range. Three years later she won another Academy Award for THE HEIRESS.
Hanky, anyone? This film makes me cry like a baby every time I see it! Watch and see how a mess of missed opportunities and crossed signals results in a beautiful, triumphant reunion of mother and son. de Havilland is terrific, as always. She deserved that Oscar. A great addition to any "Girls Night In" movie fest! Just make sure you have plenty of tissues handy!
Olivia is great I love classic movies and this one is no exception. Wonderful story. I give this one a million stars.
Oscar winning performance by Olivia de Havilland One of the best performances by Olivia de Havilland, along with her roles in Gone with the Wind, the Snake Pit, My Cousin Rachel, and the Heiress. She was also wonderful playing opposite Errol Flynn, especially in her role as Maid Marion in the Adventures of Robin Hood.
This film is an excellent one about mother love. For most of her life, Josephine, nicknamed Jody wants to be reunited with her son who she gave up, in a cruel twist of fate. She falls in love in one day with a World War I pilot played by John Lund and spends the night with him, resulting in a pregnancy. The writers are careful to make sure the audience does not think it only a one night stand, especially on the part of the pilot. The love letter that Jody reads confirms that he is also in love with her and is anxious to be reunited with her after his tour of duty.
He is killed and Jody resolves to keep the baby. But a twist of fate prevents this and Jody is separated from the baby (Gregory) for many years. She does spend some time with the baby, until jealousy of Corinne over Jody and her husband prevents her from seeing the baby. The movie goes through various plot twists until the tearjerker ending, when Jody and her now adult son are reunited (the son is also played by Lund).
The acting of the supporting cast is uniformly good. I would have wished for a more subtle Corinne: Mary Anderson gave a somewhat over the top performance playing this unsympathetic character--in two scenes she shrieks "never, never, never." She has been better in other movies. Ronald Culver is great as Lord Desham and I found myself hoping that Jody and Desham would get married after the reunion between Jody and her son. I kept thinking if only she had met Desham before she met that pilot.
One quibble: Olivia de Havilland's makeup as the older Jody. The younger Jody was quite attractive and the older Jody was supposedly only in her forties. She was made up to look in her late fifties. If this movie were remade, Jody would look more youthful in her "middle age."
This is a wonderful film, especially for fans of Olivia de Havilland.
Sorry folks, I found this film to be really corny! I watched this the other night and did not shed one tear or need any tissues. This movie was so silly and unrealistic, at times I was about laughing, and half way through, I was ready for it to be over. I like Olivia de Havilland in other things...she was superb in Gone With the Wind and The Heiress. In this, I felt she was just very strange and not very good. The whole story was too unrealistic. Her father's reaction to her pregnancy was not at all believable. The guy she fell in love with had about as much charm and charisma as a mannequin. He was doofy and what Olivia's character saw in him, I will never know.
I think this had possibilities to be a better story. If it was written by someone with more skill, who could be a little more subtle in some areas, and if the actors were chosen better, I may have liked it. The woman who ended up with her baby as her son, well, she was just a bad actress. So was her husband. The scene on the stairway, where it all comes out that he still loves Jodie after all these years, well, it is all so stilted and put on. The scenes later where she finally meets her son as a grown man, well, how unrealistic, and how handy that he just happens to see the scrapbook, and later put it all together, and realize she is really his mother with so much nonchalance, well it was just corny.
I love classic film, and after watching this, I was reminded again that there is good classic film and there is bad classic film. This is one of the "bad" classic films that I will not waste my time watching again. I was so glad when the whole silly story was finally over!
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