The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942)

Director:

Harold S. Bucquet

Writer:

George Oppenheimer (writer)

Release Date:

13 September 1943 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Homefront | Home Front | WWII

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Edward Arnold	...	Elliott Fulton
Fay Bainter	...	Stella Hadley
Richard Ney	...	Theodore Hadley
Jean Rogers	...	Patricia Hadley
Sara Allgood	...	Mrs. Michael Fitzpatrick
Spring Byington	...	Cecilia Talbot
Van Johnson	...	Michael Fitzpatrick
Isobel Elsom	...	Mrs. Laura Winters
Frances Rafferty	...	Sally
Dorothy Morris	...	Millie
Halliwell Hobbes	...	Bennett, The Butler
Connie Gilchrist	...	Cook
Stephen McNally	...	Peters (as Horace McNally)
Miles Mander	...	Doctor Leonard V. Meecham
Rags Ragland	...	Louie

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Sweden:Btl

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Goofs:

Continuity: When Mrs. Hadley, Mr. Fulton and Mrs. Fitzgerald leave at the end, they walk out of the house (closing the door behind them) twice.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Personalities (1942)

An All-star Cast of Character Actors

This begins in an elegant manner and is a serious film. It has a fantastic cast, almost entirely made up of character actors. Edward Arnold could be the only one ho ever starred in A pictures, though Fay Bainter, in the title role here, could have been said to also.

Bainter's character lives in a bubble. She's a rich widow in Washington, DC, who refuses to pay attention to the sounds of W.W.II, right up through Pearl Harbor. Her daughter (Jean Rogers, not quite believable as a child of privilege) meets a military man, the young Van Johnson. Her alcoholic son is sent off to war by influential Arnold, rather than disgrace Bainter, whom he loves.

Etc.

It works well, even to the end, though it becomes less plausible as it moves toward its resolution. Would patrician Bainter/Hadley really embrace the working class mother-in-law of her daughter to such a degree? Seems unlikely.

There are strange overtones of homosexuality in this movie. At its start we see a bouquet being delivered to Bainter. It evolves that the woman who cuts her hair sent it. Everyone wonders why. Her friend Spring Byington says, "Maybe she's musical!" and all laugh. My understanding from older friends is that this was a code for gay/lesbian in the 1940s.

This could be my imagination, but the bouquet is never explained and w never again hear about, let alone see, the hair stylist.

Regardless, it's an elegant movie that, with a bigger budget, could have been a very fine one.