Till The End Of Time

(1946, USA, 105m, b/w)
d Edward Dmytryk p Dore Schary sc Allen Rivkin ph Harry J. Wild ed Harry W. Gerstad ad Albert D’Agostino, Jack Okey m Leigh Harline, Ted Mossman, Buddy Kaye cast Guy Madison, Robert Mitchum, Dorothy McGuire, Bill Williams, Tom Tully, William Gargan, Jean Porter, Johnny Sands

Grown-up and well-meant coming-home drama with ex-marine Cliff Harper’s transition from college boy to young working man severely disrupted by three and half years of service. He is physically unscathed but disorientated and directionless, with parents who won’t or can’t talk about it. His boxer pal has a focus for his rage – he’s lost his legs – and Mitchum breezes in and out to talk sense before the silver plate in his head starts to act up. Dymytryk directs with his usual straightforward sincerity but despite unfussy asides on nascent alcoholism and dour war widow McGuire’s promiscuity, fails to avoid the predictable pitfalls. He is not helped by a lumpen script and Madison’s singularly unexpressive central performance, but the integrity of his approach is matched by that of the cast to produce an endearing failure.

© Time Out Film Guide