THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)

At the end of WWII, three men with three very different lives come home.  Fredric March was a platoon Sargent in the South Pacific.  He's a banker with a loving wife (Myrna Loy) and two teenage children, including Teresa Wright.   Harold Russell (a real life Army veteran who lost both his hands in 1944) was a seaman who lost his hands in an explosion.  He lives with his parents and has a fiancee.  Dana Andrews is an Air Force captain and bombardier married to nightclub waitress (Virginia Mayo).  And she's been living the party life while he's been gone.  The three men's lives might be different, but all three face the same problems with readjusting to civilian life and putting the demons of war behind them.  That's all you really need to know about the story.

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES rightfully won a wheelbarrow full of Oscars, but I think it should have won two more.  Most notably Teresa Wright for Best Supporting Actress.  I thought she was absolutely stunning in her performance of a young woman tormented with her emotions.  Anne Baxter's performance in THE RAZOR'S EDGE (she did win) was good, but not as impressive as Teresa's performance.  Also it should have won for Best Cinematography.

Also, Dana Andrews should have won over Harold Russell for Best Supporting Actor.  Russell was good and he did get an honorary Oscar for his brave performance, but as far as acting skill goes Dana Andrews turns in one of the best performances of his career in this film.  And with as many outstanding performances as he had, that's saying something.

Side note: IMDb lists Joyce Compton as "Hat Check Girl (uncredited)" but I don't see her anywhere.

WIFE VERSUS SECRETARY (1936)

Big time publisher Clark Gable is happily married to Myrna Loy.  She doesn't have a job or really appear to do anything, so when her "friends" start filling her ear about Gable's sexy secretary, Jean Harlow, she at first dismisses the rumors but then when Gable spends a lot of time working on a business deal (phuff!  "business deal.  business deal?!" whoever heard of a guy running a giant corporation spending time on a "business deal"?  Hardy-har-har!) she doesn't ask any questions and immediately moves out then files for a divorce.  At the same time Harlow's boyfriend, James Stewart, gets all butthurt over Harlow working long hours.

I wrongly thought this was suppose to be a screwball comedy, but instead it's a badly written story about an idle wife causing her husband a bunch of needless headaches.  I love Loy to death, but I didn't care for her character here at all.  If Clark's secretary had been a snaggle-toothed sea donkey she would've been just fine with it, but instead since Harlow is hot she just jumps to conclusions and wrecks havoc with people's lives.  That's not funny or entertaining at all.

Amazing cast that deserves much, much better than this dead on arrival script.  Not really worth watching, but with such an amazing cast I don't see how you can resist.  If you need me I'll be in my room watching THE AWFUL TRUTH.