Before standardizing the topography of noir with Murder My Sweet, Edward Dmytryk made the nervy little "coming home from the war" film TIL THE END OF TIME. A lower budgeted cousin to William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives, Dmytryk's film walks and whispers where Wyler's marches and sings. I love Lives same as anyone else, but if you can find your way around the deceptively soapy title, Til The End of Time is rich in pleasure. Not the least of those pleasures is a charismatic young man in only his second film, Guy Madison, and his chemistry with his older love interest, Dorothy McGuire. 
Based on the novel by Niven Bush (The Furies), Til The End of Time follows three vets home to their same small town where they meet up, dance, talk, have flashbacks, fall in love, etc., but don't think Sinatra-style Michener stuff, think Emeric and Pressburger style whisper stuff, even with Robert Mitchum, all funny and tragic and larger than life as a soldier dealing with a plate in his head, but the film's best moments are the quiet ones - Guy Madison's parents, failing to see he's no longer confined by their old world mores and wondering when he's going to stop sleeping in his old bed and get a job and/or obey his old curfew; and Dorothy McGuire, remarkably sexual and free (perhaps since she's a war widow, the censors gave her some breathing room). One of my favorite scenes is a small one: McGuire and Madison comforting a shaky stranger at the bar, in low whispers, like a symphony of supportiveness. 
And I say this as a the sort of straight man who generally regards "hunks" with disdain, Guy Madison is GORGEOUS! Good lord... he earns straight guy respect by being nice and sweet while reliable, cool, level-headed and not a self-absorbed preening prick (which the WB mistakes for "sincerity") - but when he lies out in the backyard sun with his shirt off? Notions like gay and straight evaporate as dew on the flowers in mom's garden. And even though like many hunks he can't act, he's got enough natural charm it never seems to bother him. And it's very cool to prefer the older, sexually experienced widow in favor of strapping gal next door Jean Porter (who would later marry Dmytryk). How modern of him! In sum, whatever your religious affiliation, don't miss the misleadingly named TIL THE END OF TIME when it airs on TCM tomorrow at 11:15 AM EST (Weds, Oct. 29)
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Til The End of Time (1946)
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3 comments:
Comparisons with Best Years are inevitable, but though Wyler's film is superior, "Till the End of Time" does a couple of things better: showing how Madison's parents actually recoil from him when discussing his war experiences (this after the touching scene where Mom comes in to watch him sleeping, and can't look at him hard enough), whereas in Best Years the parents are more awkward and shy, but never repulsed.
The other thing is that the McGuire character is troubled, sad, sexual, and frank about all three. She has all the empathy of the Best Years women, but none of the chipperness. McGuire, though usually given roles that are less rough, does well here. By employing that gentle honesty that was her trademark, we see a down and out lady that is not the usual brassy stereotype. It's a mature and honest character.
One more good thing that it has over Best Years: the beach scene.
The film falls flat in places, including the ending, but I agree that it's a very good film in many respects, and tackles some ares missed by Best Years. I can't help but wish some aspects (and come characters) of the two films could have been combined.
Thanks for your comments, Jacqueline. Is that what I remember, the beach scene, where Guy's shirt is off and there's all this adult sexuality hanging in the air? I haven't seen the film since 1999, and I'm saving my second viewing of it for a Halloween double bill with... wait for it... DEATHDREAM, the grisly monkeys paw-esque saga of a Vietnam vet who returns home to his loving family and old girlfriend... even after he died in the war! Talk about an American before and after!
I've not seen "Deathdream". That's an unusual double feature. Enjoy.
Yes, beach scene with no shirt, bathingsuits, rolling around on beach blanket, portable phonograph. Nothing drips sexuality like a portable phonograph.
Another thing I like about "Till the End of Time" is the way the returning vets, in various ways, feel sorry for themsevles. In Best Years, the vets remain heroic about concealing self pity. (Guy Madison, who has no war injuries like his buddies, complains about having three years of his life taken from him.) It's admirable, but not always very realistic. "Till the End of Time" seems more human and earthy in that respect. Both films should probably be seen together.
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