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By
NICK ZEGARAC
"Since You Went Away" is
David O. Selznick feeble attempt to turn a simple
wartime melodrama in a contemporary "Gone With The
Wind."
Running just under three hours -- and with enough
tear-jerking moments to stock up three films --
this cry-fest extraordinaire was meant to be a
sincere tribute to all the families that stayed
behind while their men went off to fight in World
War II.
Claudette Colbert stars as Mrs. Anne Hilton, the
dutiful wife and mother of two angelic daughters,
Deborah (surprise, surprise -- Jennifer Jones) and
Briget (Shirley Temple, all grown-up and not
nearly as effective as during her childhood tenure
at Fox). Selznick's screenplay concocts Anne as
the veritable too-good-to-be-true model of courage
and strength on the home front. However, after the
first hour or so, charting the family's day-to-day
life and struggles get to wear a bit thin on the
mind and heart. In retrospect the doomed romance
between Deborah and departing serviceman William
Smollett (Robert Walker) seems foreshadowing to
the end of Walker and Jones marriage in real life.
And Guy Madison -- a Selznick "discovery" whom the
producer hoped would pay off in the same way as
his earlier finds, failed to catch on, though in
this film he is particularly used to good effect
as the all-American fighting boy in blue.
Despite its shortcomings, "Since You Went Away"
was a resounding box office success when it was
released and was nominated for a truckload of
Oscars. But the tide of favorable preference in
Academy voters had begun to turn against Selznick
film's by this time. "Since You Went Away" took
only one statuette home for its moody and
evocative black-and-white cinematography.
MGM's DVD is rather impressive. The B&W picture
exhibits a very nicely balanced grayscale with
smooth, solid blacks and very clean whites.
Age-related artifacts are present throughout but
do not distract. Some minor edge enhancement crops
up but pixelization is kept to a minimum. Overall
the picture will surely not disappoint. The audio
is mono but more than adequate for a film of this
vintage. There are no extras. |
