I Want You

While THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES dealt with the readjustment of three servicemen returning from the horrors of WWII, I WANT YOU is a more sentimental look at the home front following the return of those men to peacetime U.S.A. Peacetime, yes, until the draft meant the calling up of enlisted men again because of The Korean War, a war largely forgotten by today's generation.

The script in no way compares to that of BEST YEARS, but there are decent performances that hold the story on track. DANA ANDREWS and DOROTHY McGUIRE are the most impressive, with some good acting by FARLEY GRANGER and MILDRED DUNNOCK helping to keep the story afloat. But somehow, one never gets the feeling of urgency or involvement that is felt during the Oscar-winning Goldwyn film that preceded it.

A distinct weakness of the film is PEGGY DOW as Granger's sweetheart, a limited actress who lacks the warmth to make her part meaningful enough.

Summing up: Pales by comparison to Goldwyn's other masterpiece, but is competent enough on its own terms to merit watching. And DANA ANDREWS delivers his usual solid performance.

I agree with the previous reviewer from 2007. Ironic in that I teach a college course on WWII and always end the semester showing the coming home scene of Homer from "Best Years of Our Lives." It has always been so powerful that I can't speak after showing it, and just let my class end on that note, of Homer raising his steel claw hand to wave good bye.

But what of the rest of their lives of that "greatest generation." The day after showing "Best Years," and ending a semester, TCM ran this little gem, "I Want You," and it is almost like a sequel of five years later, about a generation that fought a global war, thought they were coming home to peace and now face remobilization, and also watching their kid brothers getting drafted to go off to a distant unknown front. It is by no means as good as Best Years, but you will see the connection with so many of the same actors, and it almost looks as if it was shot in the same town.

One must definitely remember the context of the time to better understand this film. When made, the bitter quagmire of Korea was still being fought out, hanging over all the specter that it could escalate into yet another global war, this time with nuclear weapons. The tragedy is so evident, recalling how the three vets in Best Years say that all they want is a family and to live in peace. Again, when made, how the conflict would end, if it would ever end, was an unknown.

So definitely see the two films together in sequence. The greatness of the first will lead you into this second, that though no where near as good, is an accurate reflection on the tragic world of our parents and grandparents who after fighting WWII simply wanted to live in peace, and found they never would.

Samuel Goldwyn produced, and Mark Robson directed. The stars of the film Dana Andrews, Dorothy McGuire and Farley Granger. Alongside them Peggy Dow, Midred Dunnuck ( excellent in her role ) and another excellent performance from Martin Milner as a teenager too young to drink beer, but old enough to go off and fight in the Korean War. Some people did not go to war because they were indispensable but Milner was not, and his elderly father is left to grieve his loss. One could say these peripheral people in this film are outside of the core family that the main stars are in ( except for Dunnock who has some of the best dialogue, ) but in my opinion they are at the heart of the matter. Dorothy McGuire wants men to go to war, but changes her mind when her husband played by Dana Andrews enlists. No more spoilers. I found the film saddening, well acted and I was surprised that an almost forgotten film in a poor copy could affect me so much, and leave me with so many questions I had to ask myself. Robson directs reasonably well, and only Farley Granger in uniform as Dana Andrews brother did not quite convince. In Luchino Visconti's ' Senso ' he was again in uniform, and gave of his best and proved in my opinion to be a fine actor. If viewers can find this film it is well worth seeing.

"I Want You" is a 1951 film starring Dana Andrews, Dorothy McGuire, Farley Granger, Peggy Dow, Mildred Dunnock, and Martin Milner. The character that Dana Andrews plays, Martin Greer, is perhaps an extension of his character in "The Best Years of Our Lives" four years later. It's post-World War II, the men have returned, purchased homes, started families, and built businesses. Then troops begin to be sent to Korea and the draft letters start coming. The movie deals with the effect on a small-town family and the emotional exhaustion and recent memories of World War II. How difficult it must have been to go to war again, yet many did.

Martin refuses to write a letter asking that one of his employees, whose father also works for him, be exempt due to being necessary to his business; he begins an exemption letter for his brother at his mother's request, but he can't do it. In love with the daughter of a member of the draft board, Martin's brother Jack (Granger) believes that he is being drafted to put a distance between himself and his girlfriend (Dow). "We both know the reason why my knee was exempt three months ago and isn't now," he says to her father (Ray Collins). When he suggests at dinner that rather than have people go into battle, the Army should just drop bombs, his sister-in-law (McGuire) throws him out of the house, causing bad blood between her and her in-laws. And it begins a domino effect: Jack and Martin's mother (Dunnock) goes home and trashes her living room, filled with war memorabilia supposedly brought back from battle by her husband (Robert Keith) but in truth purchased in pawn shops; he spent the war as a general's orderly in a Paris hotel.

What is fascinating is that some of the conversation sounds either like what one heard during the Vietnam days or hears today - one push of a button and we'll all be blown to bits and the desperation to get a deferment. Other parts are strictly Dark Ages: Jack's upper class girlfriend Carrie doesn't want to get married until she's 25. She wants to travel, learn Japanese, and "maybe even get a job," all of these things apparently not doable once she's married, the ultimate career goal.

Most of the performances are excellent. McGuire gives a striking performance as a woman who lived as an army wife, and for whom the thought of her husband perhaps being asked to serve again brings up a lot of anger. "We've lived in this house two years," she says. "Two years. Is that all the happiness people are allowed today?...I don't want to be left alone anymore." Dunnock's character is more restrained by equally effective in her disappointment in having to constantly say goodbye to her sons as they go to war. Matinée idol Granger, at the time under contract to the producer of the film, Sam Goldwyn, always had a youthful and likable screen personality, though he was never much of an actor. Dow is fairly one-note as his girlfriend; she doesn't bring enough warmth to the role.

Dana Andrews brings heart to the part of Martin, a man who tries to live by his own conscience and with honesty. He's really the anchor of the film. Though Andrews had a limited range, what he could do was always very good and with a solid presence. The end of the film is extremely touching, in large part due to him.

I was not bored by this movie. I found it very interesting. We've changed in this country and yet we have some of the same concerns. A good deal of the rhetoric sounded quite familiar. Recommended.

Of course, the first thing - and movie - which you think first after watching this one is THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, produced by the same Samuel Goldwyn company, the analysis, character study of a small town regarding the issues that the Korean war will bring among those people. It prepares us to THE DEER HUNTER and many more films of this kind - including WE WERE SOLDIERS, Vietnam, Irak, Afghanistan wars and so on. This movie, unlike those more recent ones, doesn't evoke too much post war traumatic stress disorders. But Mark Robson, the director of this very one, will give us LIMBO in 1973, telling a story very close to the above titles: Vietnam war wives and widows dealing with a hopeless life and personnal problems. Good film this one, as LIMBO.