The Time of Your Life (1948)

Director:

H.C. Potter

Writers:

William Saroyan (play)
Nathaniel Curtis (adaptation)

Release Date:

3 September 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

You'll love these wonderful characters!

Plot:

A wide variety of persons come into Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, some to ask for work and others just to pass the time.

Plot Keywords:

Saloon | African American | Toy | Gunfire | Friendship

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

James Cagney	...	Joseph T. (who observes people)
William Bendix	...	Nick (saloon owner who loves horses)
Wayne Morris	...	Tom (Joe's stooge and friend)
Jeanne Cagney	...	Kitty Duval (stage name of Katerina Koronovsky)
Broderick Crawford	...	Krupp (a bewildered policeman)
Ward Bond	...	McCarthy (a blatherskite)
James Barton	...	Kit Carson (a cowboy also called Murphy)
Paul Draper	...	Harry (the natural-born tap dancing comedian)
Gale Page	...	Mary L. (a woman of quality)
Jimmy Lydon	...	Dudley Raoul Bostwick (a young man in love) (as James Lydon)
Richard Erdman	...	Willie (the pinball machine maniac)
Pedro de Cordoba	...	Arab philosopher
Reginald Beane	...	Wesley (the pianist)
John 'Skins' Miller	...	Drunk
Tom Powers	...	Freddy Blick (a stool pigeon and frame-up artist)

Runtime:

109 min | USA:105 min (Turner library print) | Canada:100 min (Ontario)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:G (Ontario) | Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #12768) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

General Service Studios - 1040 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

William Cagney Productions

Trivia:

William Bendix, who plays Nick, originated the part of Krupp on the stage.

Quotes:

Joe: Living is an art, it's not bookkeeping. It takes an awful lot of rehearsal for a man to get to be himself.

Movie Connections:

Version of The Time of Your Life (1976) (TV)

Soundtrack:

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

The Friendly Tavern

James Cagney had an affinity for nostalgic type stories and if The Time of Your Life is a contemporary piece for 1939 when it made its Broadway debut, it has a nostalgic feel to it.

No real plot here, just a whole group of character studies about the various habitués of Nick's Place on the San Francisco Embarcadero in the Thirties. The observer here is Joe, a man who just whiles a way the hours observing humankind in the bar with no visible means of support. He must be a retired civil servant on a pension like me. Maybe that's why I like the film so much.

Two members of the original Broadway cast did the film version, Reginald Beane the black piano player and William Bendix as Nick, owner and proprietor of the place. By that time Bendix was a big star with The Life of Riley on radio and he must have cost Cagney a bundle. But Bill Bendix is always worth it.

The villain of the piece is Tom Powers who either played thugs or policemen in film. As Blick, he's a bottom feeding scuzzball who either informs on people or blackmails them depending on how he can make some dirty money. In this case he focuses on a young woman with a shady past played by the star's sister Jeanne Cagney. It's probably her best film role.

Someone else remarked in a review that he thought it was timely that The Time of Your Life came out in 1948 as the McCarthy era was getting underway. True enough, but I believe that author William Saroyan had a specific political target in mind in 1939 in Congressman Martin Dies who headed the House Un-American Activities Committee when it was created in the late Thirties. Dies was that kind of a bullying interrogator that Blick is in the play.

Paul Draper who was the dancer/comedian in the cast was in fact blacklisted shortly after this came out. On Broadway his part was played by Gene Kelly. I guess getting Kelly from MGM would have blown Cagney's whole budget in 1948.

The Time of Your Life has always struck me as kind of an anti-The Iceman Cometh another play set in a tavern. But that one is by Eugene O'Neill and no one ever accused O'Neill of being optimistic. O'Neill's characters in his play are as pessimistic a lot as Saroyan's are optimistic. The two works really ought to be seen back to back.

The tavern as a setting for theater has a tradition that goes from Falstaff to Cheers. The Time of Your Life is an honorable addition to the tradition.