Since You Went Away
Since You Went Away is a 1944 American epic drama film directed by John Cromwell for Selznick International Pictures and distributed by United Artists. It is an epic about the American 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. The music score was by Max Steiner, and the cinematography by Stanley Cortez, Lee Garmes, George Barnes (uncredited), and Robert Bruce (uncredited).
Plot
In January 1943, Anne Hilton is an upper-middle-class housewife living in a 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 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.
Awards
Cast
- Addison Richards
- Adeline De Walt Reynolds
- Agnes Moorehead
- Aileen Pringle
- Albert Bassermann
- Alla Nazimova
- Andrew V. McLaglen
- Ann Gillis
- Barbara Pepper
- Charles Williams
- Claudette Colbert
- Craig Stevens
- Dorothy Adams
- Dorothy Dandridge
- Florence Bates
- George Chandler
- Guy Madison
- Harry Hayden
- Hattie McDaniel
- Irving Bacon
- James Westerfield
- Jennifer Jones
- John Derek
- Jonathan Hale
- Joseph Cotten
- Keenan Wynn
- Lionel Barrymore
- Lloyd Corrigan
- Monty Woolley
- Peggy Maley
- Rhonda Fleming
- Robert Walker
- Ruth Roman
- Shirley Temple
- Terry Moore
- Theodore von Eltz
- Walter Baldwin
- Warren Hymer
- William B. Davidson