1945 Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore 119 minutes
Mary Rafferty's (Garson) father, Pat (Barrymore), blames his former boss William Scott (Crisp), owner of Pittsburgh's Scott Mill, for the accident that left him in a wheelchair, a fact that makes Mary's accepting a job as a maid in the Scott household all the more bitter.
The same day Mary starts her new job, Paul Scott (Peck) returns home. The entire Scott family quickly and warmly accepts Mary (she becomes especially close to Mrs. Scott and the only daughter, Connie) and soon she and Paul fall in love. Mary, however, is unwilling to risk Paul's standing in the community with an inferior match. Mrs. Scott, aware of and very sympathetic to the situation, tries to help Mary by taking advantage of a sudden opportunity: Connie eloped with an English nobleman, and as a wedding present, Connie can take Mary back to England with her.
Two years later, Mr. Scott, after urging Paul to marry their neighbor Louise, finds out about Paul and Mary. He sends her a telegram to come home, and she arrives at the height of a labor strike that has shut down the mill. Just after Mary agrees to marry Paul, the strike trouble comes to a head. Mary tries to put an end to the dispute between the Scotts and the union, but can peace be achieved in time for Mary and Paul to live happily ever after?
"The Valley of Decision" is based on the novel by Marcia Davenport, who was the half-sister of Efraim Zimbalist, Jr. Greer Garson was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as Mary, but lost to Joan Crawford for "Mildred Pierce." Watch for a young Jessica Tandy as Louise. Her husband, Hume Cronyn, was originally cast as one of Gregory Peck's brothers, but lost the part when the director decided the eight inch height difference between the two seemed unlikely for siblings. This movie was Dean Stockwell's feature film debut.
1949 Ronald Reagan, Richard Todd, Patricia Neal 102 minutes
Corporal Lachlan "Lachie" MacLachlan (Todd), serving in Burma, receives a lower-back wound in the last days of WWII. He grows increasingly bitter and suspicious as, himself fully recovered from his operation but kept for "observation," he watches his fellow Scotsmen recover and leave the British field hospital. The doctor doesn't explain to Lachie the severity of his situation, but tells head nurse Sister Parker (Neal) the truth: Lachie's wound required removal of one of his kidneys, and the remaining kidney is defective, giving him perhaps slightly more than a month before the organ gives out and he dies (in the days before kidney transplants). In order to make Lachie's final weeks happier, the doctor moves him into a ward with five other patients, including The Yank (Reagan) who's recovering from malaria. Sister Parker tells the five men Lachie's fate, asking them to befriend him.
Lachie, however, is suspicious of everyone and rejects their attempts at friendship. The men tire of trying to be nice to this rude, angry man, but Sister Parker urges them to keep trying, reminding them that he only has a short time left. Finally, the wall Lachie has put up around himself comes down, revealing how very lonely he's been. When the truth comes out that everyone has known Lachie's dying, except Lachie, how will he react to the friendships he was hesitant to accept?
"The Hasty Heart" is based on John Patrick's play of the same name. Reprising his Broadway role as Lachie, Richard Todd earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and he won a Golden Globe for Most Promising (Male) Newcomer. Todd followed Richard Baseheart in the role of Lachie in the Broadway production of "The Hasty Heart." At one point, Yank mentions "the Rock River, in Dixon, Illinois." Reagan was a lifeguard for five years along the Rock River in Dixon, where he saved seventy-seven people from drowning. This movie was remade in 1983 for TV and starred Perry King as The Yank, Cheryl Ladd as the nurse and Gregory Harrison as Lachie.
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1940 Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Gail Patrick, Randolph Scott 88 minutes
Ellen Wagstaff Arden (Dunne), presumed drowned after a shipwreck seven years ago, comes home the same day her husband, Nick (Grant) has her declared legally dead and remarries. Ellen flies to Yosemite, surprising Nick at the start of his honeymoon. He struggles to tell his bride, Bianca (Patrick), that his wife has come back, never quite managing to get it done. Meanwhile, back at home, Ellen isn't doing any better telling her two children, babies when she last saw them, that she's their mother. When Nick comes home with Bianca, Ellen pretends to be an old family friend from the South.
The first evening home, Nick is on the verge of telling Bianca the truth when he's interrupted once again. This time, it's an insurance man at the front door, informing Nick that Ellen was stranded on the island, not alone as Nick had assumed, but with fellow survivor Stephen Burkett (Scott). After Stephen runs into Ellen and Nick, he begins to actively court her, putting even more pressure on Nick to decide who is his favorite wife.
"My Favorite Wife" is based on Lord Tennyson's poem, "Enoch Arden," and re-teams Irene Dunne for the second time (the first was "The Awful Truth" in 1937) with Cary Grant, an actor she described as "more fun" to work with than other leading actors. She said, "I think we were a successful team because we enjoyed working together tremendously, and that pleasure must have shown through onto the screen."
The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Writing, Original Story. 1962's "Something's Got to Give," Marilyn Monroe's final, unfinished movie, was a remake of "My Favorite Wife" with Dean Martin as Nick. Monroe was fired from the film, then later rehired. Martin refused to finish the movie with anyone but Monroe so the project was never finished after her sudden death. The material, including some sets, were eventually turned into "Move Over, Darling" in 1963, with Doris Day and James Garner.
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