During World War Two: Aftermath

As we talked about last month, Americans knew they had a big job ahead, even after the war ended. It wasn’t just a matter of bringing our servicemembers home, but of rebuilding both their lives and helping to rebuild a world that had been devastated by the war.

Instead of war bonds, Americans were now asked to buy Victory Bonds, and Edward Arnold was one of those who helped promote that effort:

One of the biggest changes to America was a new openness to other cultures and countries. It had always been there to a degree, but America’s natural isolation was often a barrier. Now that Americans had been overseas and worked alongside people from other cultures within those cultures, the barrier was gone.

On a personal note, my mom remembers what it was like when the soldiers came home. She turned four years old in 1945 and saw new foods such as wine and mayonnaise suddenly becoming popular. She also remembers Grandma buying Oleo during the war, mostly because she liked breaking the little packet of yellow food coloring and working it into the margarine.

Unfortunately, the American public was too quick to forget the war. Between 1946 and 1949, there were less than forty movies made per year that directly dealt with the war, and drumming up support for Victory Loans was tough going.

The changes made in Hollywood during the war continued after victory was declared, and many of those who went off to fight came back. Some, like James Stewart, became free agents, their contracts having run out. Others came back to renewed or greater stardom than before, like Audie Murphy.

Still others like Clark Gable, came back to find out that they couldn’t pick up where they left off. One of the first movies Gable made after returning to Hollywood was Adventure, which famously featured the tagline, “Gable’s back and Garson’s got him!” The trailer is replete with shots of an aged Garson and Gable trying to look starry-eyed and fresh-faced but unfortunately the movie failed to generate the same level of excitement that it would have before or during the war.

No matter what their experiences were upon returning to Hollywood, these stars were older, had beheld sights they would never have anticipated, and nothing would ever be the same again.

Those outside of the film industry were no different. There was very much a disconnect between what Americans saw in the movies and newsreels and what the servicepeople actually experienced. This was explored in 1945’s I’ll Be Seeing You, especially in the scene when Mary and Zach go to see a fictional movie called Make Way For Glory. The war wasn’t as big and wide and glorious as that fake movie implied, but small and isolated and confusing.

Most of all, everyone wanted things to be normal. The servicemen wanted jobs, many wanted to be married or go back to regular family life, and everyone wanted a peacetime existence. The story was obviously different for everyone; someone who worked a desk job may have had an easier time than someone who was constantly on the front lines. There was help through the G.I. Bill, of course, and the Veterans Association, but nothing was cut and dry.

This obviously held true for the rest of the world as well. In Britain and Europe, for instance, rebuilding everything from food production to bombed-out homes and buildings was a mammoth task.

In Britain and the Commonwealth, thousands of children who were evacuated during the Blitz had to be sent home, and thousands of veterans were coming home with physical or emotional wounds.

Normal life was particularly strange for those who had been prisoners of war or in concentration camps. RAF navigator Geoffrey Hawther, who spent nine months in a German POW camp, said this of coming home:

“If you can imagine having been restricted to a compound surrounded by barbed wire for some months and then suddenly you arrived home and now you can open any door and go through it without having somebody with a rifle say you can’t. I remember the first morning I got back. I opened the front door and I went to the garden gate but nothing would have made me go through it and I walked back in.”

Hollywood had its own thoughts on peacetime, and the majority of movies that dealt with servicemembers coming home seem to follow certain patterns. On one hand families are happy to see each other, but on the other they don’t know how to talk to each other, and they sure don’t want to hear about the experiences of the returning servicemen. They might lead off happy and teary-eyed, but then they start arguing because expectations have changed. Their loved ones aren’t who they were when they left; the men aren’t kids anymore and they feel like strangers in their own hometowns. It’s hard for them to relate to each other, much as the older adults might reminisce about their own mustering out during “the last war.”

Here are some of the movies that explored, at least on some level, the world’s new normal:

Vacation From Marriage (1945)

One of the social pitfalls of the war, or any war, for that matter, is the potential to come out a very different person, even when it comes to family or a spouse. Brits Robert and Catherine Wilson return home after three years apart only to find out how bored they are with each other and how mundane their lives were before going into the service. Also known as Perfect Strangers, this quiet movie stars Deborah Kerr and Robert Donat with support from Peter Lawford and a young Glynis Johns.

Pride of the Marines (1945)

Based on the real-life experiences of Marine Al Schmidt, Pride of the Marines takes a hard look at the insecurities the men in service were experiencing and how apprehensive many were at returning to civilian life. They were afraid their jobs would be gone. They were afraid that the acceptance and purpose they found within the forces would disappear once they got home. They were afraid that history would repeat what happened after the First World War. Not so fast, says Red Cross worker Rosemary DeCamp. Read my review here.

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

William Wyler’s excellent film follows three returning servicemen from three very different walks of life as they re-establish themselves in their fictional Corn Belt town of Boone City, and makes no bones about civilian life being no walk in the park. One man hits the bottle a little too hard. One watches his marriage disintegrate. The last comes to terms with his disability and how others see him. One of the interesting things about this film is that it features real-life amputee Harold Russell, who would win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Homer Parrish.

Nobody Lives Forever (1946)

Naturally, not everyone who came back from overseas was a stand-up individual, and Nick is a conman who tries to bilk a rich widow for all she’s worth. He doesn’t count on falling in love or getting wise to himself. It doesn’t help that his old girlfriend who stole his money and his apartment while he was away shows up at the resort he’s staying at. Read my review here.

Love Laughs At Andy Hardy (1946)

Andy goes home to Carvel with certain expectations: He wants to go back to college and get married to Kay Wilson. He’s OK for the former, but Kay ends up marrying her guardian, leaving Andy to figure out what to do next. A date with Coffey Smith, the tallest girl in the freshman class, helps, as does a rhumba session with singer Isobel Gonzales. This was the last Andy Hardy film made until the final movie in the series, Andy Hardy Comes Home in 1958.

Till the End of Time (1947)

A gritty and honest portrayal of post-war life, Till the End of Time doesn’t get nearly enough attention. Marine Cliff Harper returns home to find civilian life less than idyllic. He starts dating a woman and finds she’s been sleeping around after her husband was killed. Cliff’s friends are having to adjust to living with the wounds that they carry. Cliff and his parents have trouble reconnecting. Cliff has trouble finding and keeping a job. The movie might seem like a downer but ends up being pretty satisfying.

It Happened In Brooklyn (1947)

Singer Danny returns from overseas feeling hopeful about the future but also apprehensive because he feels as if his hometown of Brooklyn and the music world have moved on without him. Like many returning servicemen, he needs a major confidence boost, which his friends and Nick, the janitor at his old high school, are happy to give him. This movie is a lot of fun and features the robust ballad, “Time After Time.”

Living In A Big Way (1947)

One major thing for returning servicemen was supporting each other while establishing their families and homes, because of course their shared experiences gave them a commonality, and in Living In A Big Way a group of veterans, their families, along with war widows and their families, pool their resources to fix up a mansion in New York. This hugely underrated movie features some stellar dance numbers and acrobatic routines by Gene Kelly, himself a returning serviceman.

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American servicemen might have been on their way to establishing their peacetime existences, but the war wasn’t truly over. Recovery was a long business, and there were stories to tell, but we’ll get into that on another day.

Another post is coming up on Sunday. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…

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Vacation From Marriage (DVD), Pride of the Marines (DVD), The Best Years of Our Lives (DVD and Blu-ray), Nobody Lives Forever (DVD), Till the End of Time (DVD), It Happened In Brooklyn (DVD), and Living In A Big Way (DVD) are available to own from Amazon.

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