Joan Fontaine was hardly the right choice to play a Bronx housewife and yet, opposite newcomer Mark Stevens, she gives a sensitive, believable performance as a young woman coping with poverty, marriage and the adjustments that have to be made when hubby returns from the war. Small in scale when compared to films like 'The Best Years of Our Lives' which dealt with these kind of problems on a broader canvas. And yet, the realistic sets and the sincerity of the leading players does a lot to make this modest film both watchable and absorbing.
Rosemary DeCamp, Harry Morgan and Bobby Driscoll are fine in the chief supporting roles. The soap opera effects that might have ruined this sort of story are missing--instead it settles for an honest treatment of post-war problems faced by many young couples in the '40s.
Mark Stevens would later play Olivia de Havilland's husband in 'The Snake Pit' with even more success. (Joan Fontaine's sister, in case any of you don't know it!!)
Rosemary DeCamp, Harry Morgan and Bobby Driscoll are fine in the chief supporting roles. The soap opera effects that might have ruined this sort of story are missing--instead it settles for an honest treatment of post-war problems faced by many young couples in the '40s.
Mark Stevens would later play Olivia de Havilland's husband in 'The Snake Pit' with even more success. (Joan Fontaine's sister, in case any of you don't know it!!)