This Korda film is a fairly good comedy that won an Oscar for Best Original Story. It starts out a little slow and the ending is fairly predictable; however, it is loaded with some of the best British film actors of that time and the story's process is full of humor and very good touches.
As the film opens, we see the picture of a boring, routine marriage. Robert Wilson (Robert Donat) has worked as clerk in a large office for 5 years (minus 8 weeks). It is 1940 and Bob has just been drafted into the British Royal Navy for the duration of the war. For all men working for FIVE YEARS OR MORE, it's the company policy to hold their jobs and continue their pay level by making up the difference between what they allow them to collect (during the war) and what the military pays them. Bob is hopeful that his 4 years and 44 weeks with the company will make him a five-year man. It doesn't. He loses both his company's job security and its partial pay supplement.
After this wimpy man climbs breathlessly up the stairs to his London flat, he tells his mousy wife, Catherine (Deborah Kerr). She merely shrugs it off with a sneeze and sniff from her perpetual cold.
Bob reports to the navy training camp and starts writing Cathy. She soon joins the WRENs (the British version of the WAVES), and they both dutifully write each other. As time passes they both become more competent people, leading more exciting lives in the service than they ever had during their marriage at home. Gradually, their letter writing starts to wane and their positive memories of each other start to fade; their memories become stuck on each other's most negative attributes.
While in the service, Cathy commanding officer, Dizzy (Glynis Johns), introduces her to her cousin, Richard (Roland Culver). She becomes infatuated with this worldly man who paints her portrait and teaches her to dance.
Both Bob and Cathy do some semi-heroic things in the service, building their confidence in themselves. After Bob's hands are burned while in action, he hospitalized to recuperate with his new Scottish buddy, Scotty (Edward Rigby). While there, he falls briefly in love with his recently-widowed nurse, Elena (Ann Todd). Her role is similar to that that Richard has with Cathy: passing flings that make them feel good about themselves.
After three and half years of service, they both get leaves to return home--at the same time!!. However, neither is too anxious to see the other. When they take their leaves, each brings along their new service buddies: Cathy brings Dizzy and Bob brings Scotty.
Of course, they have to get reacquainted, review their past views of each other, and introduce their new selves to each other. Though the outcome of the film is fairly obvious, the process of the renewed romance between the two 'new' people is entertaining, with some fireworks and protestations about each other's memories of their 'former' marriage.
As the film opens, we see the picture of a boring, routine marriage. Robert Wilson (Robert Donat) has worked as clerk in a large office for 5 years (minus 8 weeks). It is 1940 and Bob has just been drafted into the British Royal Navy for the duration of the war. For all men working for FIVE YEARS OR MORE, it's the company policy to hold their jobs and continue their pay level by making up the difference between what they allow them to collect (during the war) and what the military pays them. Bob is hopeful that his 4 years and 44 weeks with the company will make him a five-year man. It doesn't. He loses both his company's job security and its partial pay supplement.
After this wimpy man climbs breathlessly up the stairs to his London flat, he tells his mousy wife, Catherine (Deborah Kerr). She merely shrugs it off with a sneeze and sniff from her perpetual cold.
Bob reports to the navy training camp and starts writing Cathy. She soon joins the WRENs (the British version of the WAVES), and they both dutifully write each other. As time passes they both become more competent people, leading more exciting lives in the service than they ever had during their marriage at home. Gradually, their letter writing starts to wane and their positive memories of each other start to fade; their memories become stuck on each other's most negative attributes.
While in the service, Cathy commanding officer, Dizzy (Glynis Johns), introduces her to her cousin, Richard (Roland Culver). She becomes infatuated with this worldly man who paints her portrait and teaches her to dance.
Both Bob and Cathy do some semi-heroic things in the service, building their confidence in themselves. After Bob's hands are burned while in action, he hospitalized to recuperate with his new Scottish buddy, Scotty (Edward Rigby). While there, he falls briefly in love with his recently-widowed nurse, Elena (Ann Todd). Her role is similar to that that Richard has with Cathy: passing flings that make them feel good about themselves.
After three and half years of service, they both get leaves to return home--at the same time!!. However, neither is too anxious to see the other. When they take their leaves, each brings along their new service buddies: Cathy brings Dizzy and Bob brings Scotty.
Of course, they have to get reacquainted, review their past views of each other, and introduce their new selves to each other. Though the outcome of the film is fairly obvious, the process of the renewed romance between the two 'new' people is entertaining, with some fireworks and protestations about each other's memories of their 'former' marriage.