View source for Since You Went Away

{{short description|1944 film by John Cromwell}}
{{other uses|Since You Went Away (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Since You Went Away
| image          = Since You Went Away.jpg
| alt            = 
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[John Cromwell (director)|John Cromwell]]
| writer         = 
| screenplay     = [[David O. Selznick]]
| story          = 
| based_on       = {{based on|''Since You Went Away: Letters to a Soldier from His Wife''|Margaret Buell Wilder}}
| producer       = [[David O. Selznick]]
| starring       = [[Claudette Colbert]]<br />[[Jennifer Jones]]<br />[[Joseph Cotten]]<br />[[Shirley Temple]]<br />[[Monty Woolley]]<br />[[Lionel Barrymore]]<br />[[Robert Walker (actor, born 1918)|Robert Walker]]
| narrator       = 
| cinematography = [[Stanley Cortez]]<br />[[Lee Garmes]]
| editing        = [[Hal C. Kern]]<br>(supervising film editor)<br>[[James E. Newcom]]<br>(associate film editor)<br>John D. Faure<br />Arthur Fellows<br />Wayland M. Hendry<ref name="tcm">{{cite web|title=Since You Went Away: Full Credits |publisher=Turner Classic Movies |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/90225/since-you-went-away#credits |access-date=May 17, 2014}}</ref><br>(uncredited)
| music          = [[Max Steiner]]
| studio         = [[Selznick International Pictures]]<br />[[Vanguard Films]]
| distributor    = [[United Artists]]
| released       = {{Film date|1944|07|20|USA}}
| runtime        = 177 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $3,257,000<ref name="david">Thomson, David (1993). ''Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick''. Abacus, p. 418.</ref>
| gross          = $7 million+<ref name="david"/>
}}

'''''Since You Went Away''''' is a 1944 American [[Epic film|epic]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]] directed by [[John Cromwell (director)|John Cromwell]] for [[Selznick International Pictures]] and distributed by [[United Artists]]. It is an epic about the [[United States home front during World War II|US home front during World War II]] that was adapted and produced by [[David O. Selznick]] from the 1943 novel ''Since You Went Away: Letters to a Soldier from His Wife'' by Margaret Buell Wilder.<ref>{{OCLC|1397161}}</ref> The music score was by [[Max Steiner]], and the cinematography by [[Stanley Cortez]], [[Lee Garmes]], [[George Barnes (cinematographer)|George Barnes]] (uncredited), and Robert Bruce (uncredited).

The film is set in a mid-sized American town, where people with loved ones in the armed forces try to cope with their changed circumstances and make their own contributions to the war effort. The town is near a military base, and some of the characters are troops serving Stateside.

Though sentimental in places, ''Since You Went Away'' is somber at times about the effects of war on ordinary people. Some characters on the home front are dealing with grief, loneliness, or fear for the future. Wounded and disabled troops are shown in the hospital scenes.

==Plot==
"This is a story of the Unconquerable Fortress: the American Home...1943" In January 1943, Anne Hilton is an upper-middle-class housewife living in a [[Midwestern United States|Midwestern]] town near a military base with her two teenage daughters, Jane and Bridget ("Brig"). Anne's beloved husband Tim Hilton has volunteered for U.S. Army service in [[World War II]]. Anne has just returned from seeing her husband off to [[Camp Claiborne]], and she and her daughters must adjust to Tim's absence and make other sacrifices for the war effort, including food rationing; planting a [[victory garden]]; giving up the services of their loyal maid Fidelia who nevertheless offers to continue working part-time for the Hiltons while foregoing wages; and taking in a boarder, the curmudgeonly retired Colonel William Smollett. When the Hiltons travel by train in a failed attempt to see Tim one last time before he ships out, they encounter or travel with many other people whose lives have been affected by the war, and they end up not getting to see Tim because their train is delayed to allow a defense supply train to go through first. In contrast, the Hiltons' socialite neighbor Emily Hawkins complains about the inconveniences caused by the war and engages in unsupportive behaviors such as hoarding food and criticizing the Hiltons' efforts.

The Colonel has a strained relationship with his young grandson, Bill Smollett, because Bill "was kicked out" of [[United States Military Academy|West Point]] and is now serving in the U.S. Army as a mere [[corporal#United States|corporal]] rather than an officer. An old friend of Anne and Tim's, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Tony Willett, also visits the Hiltons while awaiting his orders. Bill quickly falls for Jane, who has a crush on Tony, who in turn has long been attracted to Anne. However, after Tony leaves, Bill and Jane's relationship slowly develops and they fall in love. They become engaged, but Bill convinces Jane to wait until after the war to get married. Bill finally is sent overseas and Jane tearfully runs after his departing train to tell him goodbye. The Colonel, who under his gruff exterior really does care about his grandson, conveys his good wishes to Bill via Anne, but arrives too late to say goodbye in person.

Jane is determined to do more for the war effort and begins volunteering as a nurses' aide at the nearby military hospital, where returning veterans with physical and mental injuries are sent to recover. The family learns via telegram that Tim Hilton is missing in action in the Southwest Pacific. Shortly after Bill's departure, the Hiltons receive word that he was killed in action at [[Salerno landings|Salerno]]. The Hiltons and the Colonel grieve together for Bill. Jane and Anne finally tell off Emily after she suggests that it is unseemly for Jane to volunteer at the hospital, and Anne decides she herself must do more to help and trains as a [[welder]] for defense work at the shipyard.

Tony returns on leave and talks to Anne about his feelings for her, but she believes that he only keeps her as a romantic ideal because she is married to his friend Tim and therefore unattainable. Anne and Tony decide to leave things as they are and remain friends. On Christmas Eve, Fidelia places gifts under the tree that Tim had given her months earlier to leave for his family, and Anne is moved to tears. Anne then gets a cablegram by telephone informing her that Tim is safe and is coming home, and she and her daughters joyfully embrace. "Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord."

==Cast==

[[File:Joseph Cotten & Claudette Colbert Since You Went Away.jpg|thumb|Joseph Cotten and Claudette Colbert in ''Since You Went Away'']]

[[Jennifer Jones]] and [[Robert Walker (actor, born 1918)|Robert Walker]] played young sweethearts in the film, but in real life they were married at the time and going through a break-up. They divorced not long after the film was completed (Jones married Selznick after his marriage to [[Irene Mayer Selznick]] ended).
{{Div col}}
* [[Claudette Colbert]] as Mrs. Anne Hilton 
* [[Jennifer Jones]] as Jane Deborah Hilton 
* [[Joseph Cotten]] as [[Lieutenant Commander]] Tony Willett 
* [[Shirley Temple]] as Bridget 'Brig' Hilton 
* [[Monty Woolley]] as [[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]] William G. Smollett 
* [[Lionel Barrymore]] as Clergyman 
* [[Robert Walker (actor, born 1918)|Robert Walker]] as [[Corporal#United States|Corporal]] William G. 'Bill' Smollett II 
* [[Hattie McDaniel]] as Fidelia 
* [[Agnes Moorehead]] as Mrs. Emily Hawkins 
* [[Nazimova]] as Zofia Koslowska
* [[Albert Basserman]] as Dr. Sigmund Gottlieb Golden 
* [[Gordon Oliver]] as [[United States Marine Corps|Marine]] Officer seeking room 
* [[Keenan Wynn]] as [[Lieutenant (navy)|Lieutenant]] Solomon 
* [[Guy Madison]] as Sailor Harold E. Smith 
* [[Craig Stevens (actor)|Craig Stevens]] as Danny Williams
* [[Lloyd Corrigan]] as Mr. Mahoney, the Grocer
* [[Jackie Moran]] as Johnny Mahoney
:'''Uncredited'''
* [[Wallis Clark]] as Man at Cocktail Lounge
* [[George Chandler]] as Taxi Driver
* [[Dorothy Dandridge]] as Black Officer's Wife in railway station
* [[Warren Hymer]] as Convalescing Soldier asking for Tutti Frutti ice-cream
* [[Rhonda Fleming]] as Susie Fleming, girl at dance
* [[Byron Foulger]] as High School Principal
* [[Andrew V. McLaglen]] as Former plowboy
* [[Edwin Maxwell (actor)|Edwin Maxwell]] as Businessman in Cocktail Lounge
* [[Terry Moore (actress)|Terry Moore]] as Refugee Child on train
* [[Adeline De Walt Reynolds]] as a Grandmother on train
* [[Ruth Roman]] as Envious Girl in Train Station
* [[Marilyn Hare]] as Merchant Marine's Wife
* [[Janelle Johnson]] minor role
* [[Butterfly McQueen]] as WAC Sergeant (deleted scene)
* [[Neil Hamilton (actor)|Neil Hamilton]] as Tim Hilton (husband) (family photos and deleted scene)
{{Div col end}}

==Reception==
According to ''[[The New York Times]]'' critic [[Bosley Crowther]], ''Since You Went Away'' features a script with an "excess of exhausting emotional detail"; Crowther was impressed with the performances, but had issues with the film as a whole:<ref>[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940CE7D8143EE03BBC4951DFB166838F659EDE ''Since You Went Away'', a Film of Wartime Domestic Life, With Claudette Colbert and Others, Opens at the Capitol], a July 21, 1944, review from ''The New York Times''</ref>

<blockquote>As the mother and center of the family, [[Claudette Colbert]] gives an excellent show of gallantly self-contained emotion, and [[Jennifer Jones]] is surpassingly sweet as a well-bred American daughter in the first bloom of womanhood and love. [[Robert Walker (actor, born 1918)|Robert Walker]] is uncommonly appealing as the young soldier whom she tragically adores, and [[Shirley Temple]], now grown to "teen-age freshness", is pert as the young sister. [[Monty Woolley]] makes a full-blown character of the man who comes to lodge; [[Joseph Cotten]] is droll as the Navy playboy, and [[Hattie McDaniel]] does an Andy-act quite well... No doubt, this would have been a sharper picture if Mr. [[David O. Selznick|Selznick]] had played it in much less time, and it would have been considerably more significant had he kept it somewhat closer to average means. Two hours and fifty-one minutes is a lot of time to harp upon one well-known theme -lonesomeness and anxiety. And that is all this picture really does.</blockquote>

Literary critic [[Manny Farber]], writing in [[The New Republic]] registers this appraisal:

{{blockquote  | ''Since You Went Away'' holds religiously to a philosophy consisting in the ideas that only happy, virtuous or funny things happen in the American home, that only the pretty and the brave live there, that any complications should be more than balanced by happy rewards…As a whole, the picture is doughy and inconsequential as the bread you get in the grocery store…For its length, this is as ineffectual a movie as I ever saw.”<ref>Farber, 2009 p. 176-177: Composite quote, ellipsis inserted for brevity, meaning unchanged.”</ref>}}

In ''[[The Nation]]'' in 1944, critic [[James Agee]] wrote, "It is clear that Mr. Selznick thinks of it as ''the'' American home and that the Hiltons, who live in it, are supposed to be ''the'' American family. What he has managed{{nbsp}}... is an immense improvement on a ''[[Ladies' Home Journal]]'' story so sticky I couldn't get through it, which has, as he finishes it, something of the charm of an updated and cellophaned ''[[Little Women]]''. ''Since You Went Away'' is not a good film, by any standards I care for, and I would not dare to recommend it to anyone who cares exclusively for good films. But{{nbsp}}... I always enjoy and am interested in Mr. Selznick's particular blend of serious talent with smart, safe showmanship{{nbsp}}... this lively but aesthetically self-defeating, peculiar yet imitable style{{nbsp}}... "<ref>Agee, James - ''Agee on Film Vol.1'' © 1958 by The James Agee Trust</ref>

The movie was successful and earned $4,950,000 in North American rentals during its theatrical release, and over $7 million in rentals overall.<ref name="david"/><ref>"All-Time Top Grossers", ''Variety'', 8 January 1964 p 69</ref>

==Accolades==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!style="width:250px;"|Award
!style="width:250px;"|Category
!style="width:250px;"|Nominee
!style="width:50px;"|Result
|-
|rowspan="9"|[[17th Academy Awards|Academy Awards]]<ref name="Oscars1945">{{cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1945 |title=The 17th Academy Awards (1945) Nominees and Winners |access-date=2013-06-23 |work=oscars.org}}</ref><ref name="NY Times">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1944/07/21/archives/since-you-went-away-a-film-of-wartime-domestic-life-with-claudette.html |title=NY Times: Since You Went Away |access-date=2020-12-30| work=The New York Times|date=21 July 1944 |last1=Crowther |first1=Bosley }}</ref>
|[[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]]
|
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]]
|[[Claudette Colbert]]
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor]]
|[[Monty Woolley]] 
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress|Best Supporting Actress]]
|[[Jennifer Jones]]
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Academy Award for Best Production Design|Best Production Design]]
|Mark-Lee Kirk, Victor A. Gangelin
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Academy Award for Best Cinematography|Best Cinematography]]
|[[Stanley Cortez]], [[Lee Garmes]]
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]]
|Hal C. Kern, James E. Newcom 
|{{nom}}
|-
|
[[Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score]]
|[[Max Steiner]]
|{{won}}
|-
|[[Academy Award for Best Visual Effects|Best Visual Effects]]
|Jack Cosgrove, Arthur Johns 
|{{nom}}
|}

==Home media==
''Since You Went Away'' was released to DVD by [[MGM Home Entertainment|MGM Home Video]] on October 19, 2004, in a Region 1 fullscreened DVD. It was later released on Blu-ray by [[Kino Lorber|Kino Classics]] on November 21, 2017.

==In popular culture==
The farewell scene between Jane Hilton (Jones) and Bill Smollett (Walker) at the railway station was parodied in the film ''[[Airplane!]]'' (1980).

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Sources ==
*[[Manny Farber|Farber, Manny]]. 2009. ''Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber''. Edited by [[Robert Polito]]. [[Library of America]]. {{ISBN |  978-1-59853-050-6}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0037280}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|since_you_went_away}}
* {{TCMDb title|90225}}
* {{AFI film|24166}}

{{John Cromwell}}
{{David O. Selznick}}

[[Category:1944 films]]
[[Category:American drama films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Max Steiner]]
[[Category:American epic films]]
[[Category:Films based on American novels]]
[[Category:Films based on military novels]]
[[Category:Films directed by John Cromwell]]
[[Category:Films produced by David O. Selznick]]
[[Category:Films set on the United States home front during World War II]]
[[Category:Films shot at Culver Studios]]
[[Category:Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award]]
[[Category:Selznick International Pictures films]]
[[Category:United Artists films]]
[[Category:World War II films made in wartime]]
[[Category:1944 drama films]]
[[Category:1940s English-language films]]