The Best Years of Our Lives
Short description
Three American servicemen meet on a flight home at the end of the Second World War, bound for the same Midwestern city. Al Stephenson, an infantry sergeant, returns to a bank job and to a wife and two nearly grown children he barely knows. Fred Derry, an Air Force captain, finds his marriage strained and his finances worse, and takes work as a department store salesman. Homer Parrish, a sailor who lost both hands in the war, comes back to his parents and to a girlfriend, uncertain whether he should hold on to her or let her go. Each man's homecoming is harder than the fighting he left behind.
William Wyler directed the film, the tenth of the twenty-two features he made in chronological order, following Mrs. Miniver and preceding Thunderbolt. Robert E. Sherwood wrote the screenplay, and Samuel Goldwyn produced. Dana Andrews, Fredric March and Harold Russell play the three veterans, with Teresa Wright, Myrna Loy and Cathy O'Donnell among a credited cast of 104. Made for about 2 million dollars, it took roughly 24 million worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 8.1 from 68,927 votes, and on TMDB 7.7 from 767 votes. A critics' rating of 8.9 from 98 reviews places it noticeably above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- A film adaptation of McKinley Kantor's novel 'Glory for Me'.
- The film had two working titles – 'Glory for Us' and 'Back Home'. Eventually, it was decided to settle on the current version, which caused dissatisfaction from the author of the source novel, McKinley Kantor.
- 'The Best Years of Our Lives' is director William Wyler's first post-war work and his last film for Samuel Goldwyn Company.
- Samuel Goldwyn originally intended to cast Theresa Wright, Dana Andrews, David Niven, Farley Granger, Walter Brennan, and Constance Dowling in the film. Ultimately, only the first two from this list were cast.
- June Haver, a 20th Century Fox star, was originally slated to play the role of Millie Stephenson, but was replaced by Myrna Loy.
- The fictional city of Boon City was filmed in Sacramento and Los Angeles, but according to the film's press release, Cincinnati served as its prototype.
- The film's advertising campaign lasted six months and cost half a million dollars.
- In 1989, the film was deemed nationally significant and added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
- Filming took place from April 15 to August 9, 1946, and the premiere was held in New York City on November 21 of the same year.
- Director William Wyler was indignant to learn that Samuel Goldwyn had sent Harold Russell to acting lessons. He believed that Russell's performance would be more natural without preparation. Furthermore, striving to make the film as realistic as possible, Wyler insisted that the entire supporting crew be recruited from real World War II veterans.
- On August 6, 1992, Harold Russell auctioned off the Oscar statuette he received for Best Supporting Actor for sixty-and-a-half thousand dollars.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
