anthonyappleblatt This is an excellent portrayal of returning G.I.s from the Pacific at the close of World War II. However, there are one or two problems with the adaptation from the novel They Dream of Home by Niven Busch. The novel has a number of the returning marines from ethnic backgrounds. Perry Kinchpole is black (he is not in the film). Bill Tabeshaw is a native American of the Zuni tribe and the Jewish Matt Klein is only mentioned by name. So, in this film all the returning marines are white. The character of Pat, the war widow is not a major character in the novel. She is the Irish American girl that Cliff left behind. She subsequently married a pilot she barely knew. But, with her expanded role in the film she becomes important and essential in showing the suffering and anguish of the young women who lost their husbands in the war. Furthermore, in the novel Cliff has been wounded and is discharged from the marines with a "psychic disability" and he suffers from "the shakes". Pat deals with Cliff's shakes by laying him down on a bed, covering him with a quilt and "After a time she lay down beside him, first outside the quilt but later inside . She felt sure she could really warm him with the heat of her own body the last of the shaking would subside.... It seemed wrong and incongruous now to have clothes on, underneath the quilt. Pat made small, purpose-full movements of disrobing...and when she slipped into Cliff's arms again her body was naked as her breath". This would not have passed the Hay's office. Still, for its time,'Till The End Of Time is a great film that deals with the problems of young people who had seen hell and were expected to just get on with their lives.

edwagreen Usual western cowboy, Guy Madison, tried something different when he made this 1946 film. Ironically, the best picture of that year, "The Best Years of Our Lives," also dealt with the problems faced by returning soldiers. Obviously, both films were timely.Madison, unfortunately, was miscast in the title lead. The way he called Dorothy McGuire a tramp sounded as if he were 14. Speaking of youth, the story line with the young girl next door infatuated with Madison was ludicrous at best. What were they trying to show, the years he had lost during the war serving his country, or that he was just a teenager at heart?Tom Tully went away from his usual tough guy image and played his understanding father. The always reliable Ruth Nelson, who was so good as Ellen Wilson, Woodrow's first wife, in the great 1944 film "Wilson," plays the endearing mother who showed how upset she was as time passes after Madison comes home from the war.The surprise here is the relative supporting role of Hollywood hunk Bob Mitchum in the film. Mitchum should have played the Madison role.The film has a resounding ending when bigotry is suddenly brought in by an American group referring to themselves as patriots.

ccthemovieman-1 This was a pretty good drama about men returning from World War II and trying to readjust to civilian life. In my one viewing of this film, I didn't quite know what to make of lead actor Guy Madison, whether he was a good actor or not. He wasn't bad, but sounded wooden in several scenes. Dorothy McGuire didn't look up to snuff for the leading lady role, but her acting and her voice is always top-notch, at least with me.The story had some humor, thanks to Jean Porter's character "Helen Ingersoll," an 18-year-old bobby-sox neighbor. She was a lot of fun to watch and listen to, with her mid ''40s teen expressions of the day.For pure drama, perhaps the most memorable scene was the veteran suffering from the shakes. It was mainly a human interest film about people who all had problems relating to their war experiences and were not handling things in a mature way. In that regard, the story got a little soapy, especially with the addition of the romance angle between Madison and McGuire.I didn't like the typical Hollywood slam on WASPs near the end when several guys from some patriotic organization were made to look like thugs. They smugly said their group excluded "Catholics, Jews and Negroes," which, of course, started a fight with the "good guys." In the 1930s through the 1950s, Catholics were treated with tremendous reverence in films and since then they've targeted with vicious attacks by filmmakers. Protestants, meanwhile, have almost always received precious-few good mentions on film, including this one. Oh, well......it was still a good drama worth watching.

halmp-1 To compare a mini-gem such as Till the End of Time with the hugely promoted, star-studded Best Years of Our Lives -- the film that, historically, often is regarded as the screen icon for the re-adjusting soldiers' genre -- is like comparing Ray Robinson or Roberto Duran with Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano.The same way that Robinson and Duran were, pound-for-pound, on the same level with their larger, heavier, stronger counterparts, Till the End of Time -- "pound-for-pound" -- is right with its larger, more celebrated celluloid counterpart.While Best Years, with its flashiness of celebrated cast (i.e. Frederick March, Myrna Loy), is much more expansive, Time expertly utilizes a small-scale, more focused look at the returning-soldier theme.As the proverbial slice-of-life, Time not only is more easily palatable for viewers, it also is quite accurate in the depiction of its conceptions and characterizations.The primary characters created by Guy Madison, Robert Mitchum and Bill Williams---as the returning World War II veterans -- and Dorothy McGuire, as the mildly cynical war widow with whom Madison's Cliff Harper becomes infatuated, are outstanding portrayals. Yes, Madison's sensitive performance in his first key role was effective, regardless of the less-than-sterling reviews traditionally given by critics.Fetching, twenty-year old Jean Porter, as the adorably saucy bobby-soxer who likewise is infatuated with Harper, also is quite effective.Excellent character performances are given by: Tom Tully and Ruth Nelson, as Harper's parents; Selena Royale, as the mother of Williams' Perry Kincheloe; and Bill Gargan, as the veterans' representative.Director Edward Dmytryk expertly orchestrates the film, which captures the unique flavor of its time frame as if it were bottling a rare wine.Though "Best Years" deserves much of its traditional praise, do not overlook "Time" simply because its focus is smaller. "Pound-for-pound" it is at least as good. Possibly even better.