I'll Be Seeing You (1944)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

William Dieterle

Writers:

Charles Martin (play)
Marion Parsonnet (writer)

Release Date:

5 January 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Family | Romance

Tagline:

Both living a secret...each afraid to tell!

Plot:

A soldier suffering from battle fatigue meets a young woman on Christmas furlough from prison and their mutual loneliness blossoms into romance.

Plot Keywords:

Christmas | Prison | Leave | Sergeant | Furlough

Cast

Ginger Rogers	...	Mary Marshall
Joseph Cotten	...	Zachary Morgan
Shirley Temple	...	Barbara Marshall
Spring Byington	...	Mrs. Marshall
Tom Tully	...	Mr. Marshall
John Derek	...	Lt. Bruce (as Dare Harris)
Chill Wills	...	Swanson
Kenny Bowers	...	Sailor on Train

Also Known As:

Double Furlough (USA) (working title)
With All My Heart (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:S | Sweden:15

Company:

Dore Schary Productions

Trivia:

Joan Fontaine, who was to play the female lead, was forced to withdraw due to previous commitments.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Mary tells the taxi driver the address is 617 North Elm Street, but on the phone she tells Zach the address is 617 Elm Street.

Quotes:

Mary Marshall: [after Barbara had partitioned all their stuff] Barbara, what I'm in prison for isn't catching.
Barbara Marshall: I'm sorry, Mary, I... I keep hurting you, and... I really don't want to.
Mary Marshall: I guess it is uncomfortable for you to meet somebody who's been in prison. Maybe when you get to know me, you'll feel differently.
Barbara Marshall: I want to know you, Mary. Really, I do.
Mary Marshall: How much do you know about me?
Barbara Marshall: Not much. Mother and Dad still treat me like a child. Everything's a big secret.
Mary Marshall: I don't think it would hurt for you to know. As a matter of fact, I think it might help. When I was your age, my mother died.
Barbara Marshall: Oh, I remember her. Way back when I was young. She used to make clothes for my favorite doll.
Mary Marshall: Yes, she was wonderful with her hands. And some time after that, my father went north on business. And then, when he died, I was on my own. I got a very good job as a secretary, and my job brought me in contact with a lot of very nice men, one of whom, might have turned out, I thought, to be the one who would give me all the things that you dream about when you're twenty and lonely. One day, when I was called into my boss's office, he invited me to a party in his apartment. He was single, and I started dreaming. Bosses do marry their secretaries. I took what money I'd saved and I bought an evening dress. I thought it was very fancy. I wanted to look good in front of his high class friends. He had sent me an orchid, a white orchid, the first one I'd ever had. I was wearing it. When the door opened, I walked into the biggest apartment I'd ever seen. I thought it was rich and elegant. I'd wanted to impress him, so I got there a little late. I'd wanted to make an entrance all by myself, but nobody else was there. I should have had sense enough then to get out, but I didn't. He'd been drinking a long time before I got there, I guess, and he kept right on. He told me that he hadn't invited anyone else, and that the white orchid, and all that was just his way of getting me up there. I - I tried to talk my way out, and then when that didn't work, I made a break for it. I didn't scream. I was too frightened, I guess. I tried to get away from him, but I couldn't. He seemed to be everywhere. Oh, it was all mixed up like some terrible kind of a dream. Once, I almost got away, when he fell over a chair. But he caught me again, and dragged me back. Then I pushed him as hard as I could, and he fell back through the window. His apartment was on the fourteenth floor.
Barbara Marshall: Oh, Mary... how awful.
[...]

Soundtrack:

I'll Be Seeing You

One of My Favorites

Criticize this movie as you will, call it schlocky, or cornball, or whatever, it will always be one of my favorites ... perhaps because it was one of the first late night tv movies I ever got to stay up late and watch at 12 yrs old. I lapped up this sentimental romance like a puppy laps up cream. It didn't occur to me to take it any way but seriously. And years later the sound of two stones hitting a lamp post at the end still makes my spine tingle.

Everyone else has outlined the plot, I'd just like to point out something really interesting. Ginger was around 33 when she made this movie playing a girl in her early twenties. And each time there's a close up of her face at Christmas, it's obvious the lens has been coated with vaseline or something... she looks softer and hazier than anyone else in the movie. "I'll Be Seeing You" is the epitome of old 1940's sentimental romances. And if you like that sort of thing, you'll love this one.