SINCE YOU WENT AWAY: Blu-ray (Selznick International 1944) Kino Lorber

Director John Cromwell’s Since You Went Away (1944) is one of those seminal wartime weepies that has somehow managed to fall out of the public spotlight. For far too long now, this underrated epic of home front struggle and strife during those terrible years of war has been allowed to molder with the past. In its day, Since You Went Away was one of producer, David O. Selznick’s rare monuments that seemed to rise above the artistic pall created by his perennially revived Gone With The Wind (1939). Throughout the 1930’s, Selznick’s reputation as a fastidious indie-producer/task master had earned him enviable kudos from audiences and critics alike. The forties, alas, were an entirely different matter; buffeted on all fronts by a steady decline in profitability, private matters threatening to unsettle his home life, and, finally by a queer artistic desperation to recreate rather than rekindle the magic of GWTW, and prove to his harshest critics ‘Wind’ had been hardly a fluke, Selznick took Margaret Buell Wilder’s simple wartime melodrama and, miraculously, did for it what GWTW had done for the Old South. Every post ‘Wind’ production in the Selznick stable possesses was to bear and weather this stigma – some better than others – and endure Selznick’s gallant desire to make it the valiant successor to that epoch-changing/all-time profitable masterpiece. The problem here was not every movie made by Selznick International in the post-Wind epoch deserved such consideration. Mercifully, Since You Went Away does. Selznick had been moved by MGM's Mrs. Miniver (1942), hoping to find another war story, this one as unique to the American experience as Miniver was at extolling the richness of Britain’s stoic optimism in the face of tragedy.

Like all Selznick’s obsessions the quest for artistic perfection herein was not easily waged. 270 synopses graced Selznick's desk - all of them rejected for one reason or another. Then came 'Since You Went Away - Letters to a Solider from His Wife' - a serialized memoir written by Margaret Buell Wilder for The Ladies Home Journal. These fragmented stories eventually became a best-selling novel. Selznick immediately gravitated to Wilder's warmth and insight, pronouncing the book a modern day 'Little Women' and purchased the rights for $30,000. Running just under three-hours – and with enough tear-jerking moments to stock three films – Selznick’s cry-fest extraordinaire would follow Wilder's structure faithfully. Selznick meant Since You Went Away as his sincere tribute to all American families left behind to do their hand-wringing in private while their sons and husbands went off to fight in WWII. Touching on virtually all aspects of an America in crisis and transition, the screenplay eventually crafted by Selznick undoubtedly proved a showcase for his latest discovery - Jennifer Jones with whom Selznick had already begun his rather torrid extramarital affair even though Jones too already married to co-star, Robert Walker.

In retrospect, the implosion of Jones’ marriage to Walker and Selznick’s own to MGM’s L.B. Mayer’s daughter, Irene (once considered by Selznick as ‘the smartest woman I’ve ever known’) in hindsight, was the beginning of a lot of ends. Since You Went Away is truly Selznick’s last hurrah as an indie-producer. Despite his enterprising ability to put together and market ‘package deals’ to other studios, farming out his ideas and stars under contract to him, to appear in profitable movies made at other studios, Since You Went Away is likely Selznick’s last home-grown production to have near-universal mass appeal at the box office. It is also the movie for which Selznick seemingly set aside his own passion for hand-crafting a career for Jennifer Jones. Although Jones appears to excellent effect, she is only one part of this ensemble, front-lined by Claudette Colbert and Joseph Cotten, with a teenage Shirley Temple, caustic Agnes Moorhead, and irascible Monty Woolley thrown in for good measure. Robert Walker’s performance here, as the incredibly awkward ‘love interest’ for Jones’ impressionable teenager, destined to be matured in her love and loss, just seems very cruel on Selznick’s part. Indeed, the couple had already separated by the time they were engaged to play burgeoning newlyweds in this picture. Walker would achieve immortality as the deranged killer in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951). However, lest we forget that in his youth, Robert Walker was oft cast as the curly-haired sensitive romantic. Perhaps, already well aware Selznick had sidled up to his estranged wife, and with the prospect of divorce looming large on the horizon, Walker valiantly persevered to make something of the character of Cpl. Bill Smollett; something of a disappointment to his Uncle William (Woolley) for whom he has been named, until the war makes both a hero and a premature corpse of him – the dead, always more honored (and, by extension, more honorable) than the living.

One of the most poignant scenes in Since You Went Away is a vignette occurring late in the picture as Anne Hilton (Colbert) encounters a new immigrant, Zofia Koslowska (Nazimova) working in the same aircraft carrier plant. Careworn and emotionally depleted, Anne is given a wake-up call attesting to the purpose and point of America’s involvement in the European conflict. It is impossible not to feel the heart swell with pride as Nazimova, this grandly flamboyant Russian-Jew (who found ever-lasting fame as a highly respected acting coach) renders reflections on what it means to become a citizen, her head cast high, a patriotic wistfulness steadily advancing on her recitation for the adopted nation once thought of as a greatest bastion for freedom – now at war. Selznick’s eloquent dialogue, cribbing partly from the inscription on The Statue of Liberty, is as inspirational a declaration to American idealism as The Star-Spangled Banner or gazing upon the hand-written Constitution of the founding fathers. The magnitude of Selznick’s vast belief, not only in American might, but also its justification to take up the cause, unfurls with all the emotional subtlety of ‘bombs bursting in air’, and yet, perfectly tapped into Roosevelt’s staunch refusal to surrender even an inch of ground to the goose-stepping enemy abroad. Nazimova’s persuasive soliloquy is truly at the heart of Since You Went Away, Selznick’s ‘let not your heart be troubled’ Valentine to fighting men and women abroad and their pensive, wartime-rationing brethren and kin left to await the news, either of victory or their loved one’s fateful demise.  

Selznick entrusted the picture’s direction to Elwood Dager ‘John’ Cromwell, a veteran of few distinguished credits, including Selznick’s magnificent production of Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda (1936), perhaps because, as a director, Cromwell seems to have had zero ego and a very malleable ‘visual style’ Selznick could easily bend to his will. Cromwell’s efforts are far from pedestrian. And yet, he lacks any ‘personal imprint’ as a director that might have truly distinguished him as an auteur. If Since You Went Away has a ‘style’, then it purely derives from the combined efforts of its cinematographers, with Selznick pulling the strings as its supreme puppet-master. The effect, as with GWTW, is uncannily David O. Selznick at his most demanding, clairvoyant and artistically sound. Such continuity during the studio system era was well known and greatly prized. As example, an MGM picture is easily identifiable from one made, say, at Universal or Paramount. And yet, what is all the more impressive here is Selznick’s influence. He moved about from studio to studio before going into business for himself but was able to stamp his movies with his personal tastes applied, regardless of the backlot where his productions were shooting; along the way, refining it down to a finite and highly distinguishable set of criteria.     

As in the novel, the film's central protagonist is Mrs. Anne Hilton (Claudette Colbert), the dutiful wife and mother of two angelic daughters, Jane Deborah (Jennifer Jones) and Bridget (Shirley Temple – all grown up and not nearly as effective as during her childhood tenure at Fox). The narrative begins in the tearful aftermath of Anne having driven her husband, Tim (whom we never meet in the flesh) to the train station. Jane and Brig' comfort their mother as does Soda – the family’s amiable bulldog. Very quickly, Anne realizes she will not be able to sustain the household on her husband's meager military salary. To alleviate their financial woes, Anne finds a new employer for their ever-loyal maid, Fidelia (Hattie McDaniel). She also takes up work inside a factory and rents one of the bedrooms to a curmudgeonly retired Colonel, William G. Smollett (Monty Woolley) whose stalwart ways generate plenty of friction within the domiciliary. In her downtime, Anne is courted by Lieutenant Tony Willet (Joseph Cotten). A very close friend of Tim's, Tony has always carried a torch for Anne – albeit, at a very respectful distance. Even so, Anne considers their friendship strictly platonic. But Jane has a terrible school girl crush on her 'Uncle' Tony, tempered after she contracts the mumps. Meanwhile, Anne's fair-weather friend, Mrs. Emily Hawkins (Agnes Moorehead) worms her way into Anne’s good graces while casually spying and gossiping about her and Tony, whom she wrongfully suspects of having an affair.

The first hour of Since You Went Away establishes, then charts the Hilton family's day-to-day activities. To contemporary audiences, all this setup may play a bit thin. But then there is the eye, so decorously abused by Selznick’s zeal for lavish sets and staging we can easily forgive his occasional wallowing in sluggish melodrama. Architect William Pereira and Production Designer Ray Klune get high marks for their evocative, full-size sets depicting the Hilton home and their small-town surroundings. The picture creates two distinct and co-existing worlds; the clinical chrome and industrial grade wartime munitions factories and airfield bases, and, its antithesis, the white-picket fenced middle-class utopia (where life struggles, yet truly thrives): all of it with a genuine affinity for idyllic Americana - a la Hollywood style. As for the Hiltons; they take their lumps with honor and sacrifice, befitting the true calling of the American spirit. At a serviceman's dance, Anne learns the son of one of her neighbors has been killed in a plane crash while practicing aerial maneuvers; Selznick's foreshadowing of a more sinister darkness soon to follow. Jane is introduced to the Colonel's grandson, Corporal William Smollett II (Robert Walker); a naive and awkward youth who is unremarkable and a constant source of disappointment to the Colonel, despite his enlistment in the army. 

Jane finds William Jr.'s gallantry rewarding, though she has grown up considerably since; setting aside her boy-crazy fancies after becoming a nurse for the Red Cross. Romance blossoms between Will Jr. and Jane. They are eventually married. Meanwhile, Anne receives a telegram from the State Department informing her Tim is missing in action. At this juncture in the story, Selznick wisely inserts an Intermission, presumably to re-evaluate the trajectory of the narrative and regroup for its second half. Darkness settles on the Hilton household as Jane learns her husband has been killed in action. The Colonel is cut to the quick; he and Jane brought closer into focus and together in their grief as she diligently reinvests in her work with the Red Cross. It is during these scenes that Jennifer Jones distinguishes herself as a very fine actress; exhibiting a sobering maturity well beyond her years.  Arguably, it is for these moments she is best remembered. Alas, behind the scenes, Selznick’s championing of Jones had quietly cooled. Indeed, she was not at all pleased with the trajectory of her career. Feeling as though she had taken a quantum step back from her breakout and Oscar-winning performance in The Song of Bernadette (1943), Jones was an emotional wreck throughout most of the shoot. Frequently, director Cromwell found he had to tenderly guide the actress from her depression to get a performance. Production was further delayed when a virulent bout of the flu flattened Jones, Colbert, Temple and McDaniel.

Interestingly, it was during this hiatus that Selznick thought to pen Zofia’s inspired declaration, coaxing retired silent legend, Alla Nazimova to partake of the cameo. From this moment forward, Since You Went Away evolves into an ever-more subtly nuanced flag-waver. Anne finally realizes what a destructive influence Emily is and discards their 'friendship' for good. She refocuses her energies on her own family, particularly in easing Jane from her silently endured and overwhelming sadness.  As Christmas approaches it doesn’t seem there is much to celebrate or to be very grateful. Dutifully, the family gathers to mark the occasion, a modest house party attended by Tony, Fidelia and the Colonel. Hearts are very heavy indeed. But then Anne receives her second telegram from the State Dept.; this one with far more hopeful news from abroad.  Tim has been found, wounded but safe, and will be returning home very shortly. Anne’s ecstatic cries stir Jane and Brig from their slumber; the trio concluding in a tearful embrace as the camera pans up from the second-story bedroom window on a snowy night beyond and Selznick’s epitaph appears, "Be of Good Courage and He Shall Strengthen Your Heart. All Ye that Hope in the Lord."

Since You Went Away was an enormously popular movie with audiences in 1944. Viewed today, it has lost none of its ability to stir and warm the heart. Despite changing times and tastes, Selznick’s investment in the ‘universal truths’ of life retains much of their homespun luster and timely appeal – histrionics and melodrama ostensibly overridden by superb performances. When all else fails, it is the sheer professionalism from our stars that render Selznick's usual flair for flowery dialogue more naturalistic than it actually is. Claudette Colbert in particular is a major asset here, as is Joseph Cotten. Acting as a surrogate for Anne’s man far, far away, Cotten’s Tony Willet evolves from boyishly charming to an anchoring masculine influence. It’s rather easy to see why Jane’s initial school girl infatuations are on Tony’s side, and even more understandable why they should depart her after the bloom of naivete has worn thin, then completely off by Will’s loss.

Pictorially, Since You Went Away is one of the most beautiful movies ever photographed in B&W; Selznick’s small entourage of cinematographers pulling out all the stops. The last bit of kudos belongs to Max Steiner whose brilliant score evokes the poignant counterbalances of the story. Steiner was to win the Oscar for Since You Went Away; a luxury denied him on Gone With The Wind. Since You Went Away was a resounding smash, grossing over $4,918,412. Apart from a few questionable moments, it deftly succeeds in bringing promise, hope and a sense of perspective to the oft’ glossed over ‘why we fight’ war motif. Despite its popularity with audiences, critical reception was initially harsh, some deeming Selznick’s approach too 'glossy' for its very frank subject matter. Nevertheless, Since You Went Away was nominated for a truck-load of Oscars. Regrettably, the tide had already begun to turn against Selznick. Since You Went Away took only one statuette. Although Selznick could not have known it at the time, the klieg lights had already begun to dim on his autonomy in Hollywood.

Kino Lorber bows its Blu-ray incarnation of this very classy wartime weepie. It’s a considerable upgrade from the MGM DVD that now appears tired, soft, occasionally blurry and suffering from weaker than anticipated contrast levels. The Blu-ray improves upon virtually all of these shortcomings, revealing an impressive amount of fine detail and really showing off the combined efforts of Stanley Cortez, Lee Garmes, George Barnes, and, Robert Bruce’s lush camerawork. This is the 3-hour road show edition, complete with overture, entr’acte and exit music and it looks great. The source is fairly clean and contrast is solid. The B&W image exhibits impressive tonality. There are one or two instances where it appears softly focused or unintentionally grainier. But these are minor quibbles. Everything here is solid and ‘mostly’ razor-sharp without appearing to have suffered any untoward digital tinkering. Overall, I was very pleased with the way this looked. The Blu-ray’s audio is 2.0 DTS mono. I recall Chase Audio doing a re-channeled stereo for the earlier DVD release. This has not been included on this disc. Just as well. For purists, this refreshed mono sounds wonderful. Extras are the real disappointment here. None! For a movie as important I might have at least hoped for an audio commentary. Alas, no. Bottom line: Since You Went Away deserves more than honorable mention. Among Selznick’s achievements, and indeed, Hollywood’s golden age of timelessly appealing classics, it’s a must see/must own experience. The Blu-ray is not perfect, but it has been very competently rendered. For all of these reasons, this disc comes very highly recommended. For the more sentimental among you…bring Kleenex.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

3.5

EXTRAS

0