To Each His Own (1946)

To Each His Own (1946)

A marvelous sentimental (and now dated) story about a woman that reluctantly gives up her out-of-wedlock baby her unsuccessful quest to get him back and more than two decade effort to remain at least somewhat connected to his life. Olivia de Havilland won her first Academy Award for Best Actress and its producer writer Charles Brackett received an Oscar nomination for his original story. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen and Jacques Thery collaborated with Brackett on the screenplay.

The film opens during World War II in London with Miss De Havilland’s character a forty-something American woman encountering a British man while on blackout duty on New Year’s Eve. They don’t particularly like each other but she helps to save his life when he slips and falls on (and nearly off) a rooftop. He correctly surmises that she too has an empty lonely life like his since they’re both filling in for others on a night when most people are out celebrating. While having coffee together later she learns that he’s Lord Desham (Roland Culver); he learns that she’s head of a factory. He finally gets her to agree to a dinner date which after she’s interrupted and learns from an old friend that a certain officer is to arrive by train later that evening she breaks and then dashes off to the station. She learns that the train will be late so she sits to wait and reminisces about her past (i.e. her connection to the officer in question).

In 1918 Miss Josephine ‘Jody’ Norris (De Havilland) lives in the small town of Piersen Falls working in a drugstore for her pharmacist father (Griff Barnett). She has dreams of meeting her one true love; a moment she believes will transform life itself. In the meantime she “fights off” two would-be suitors Alex Piersen (Phillip Terry) for whose family and business the town is named and Mac Tilton (Bill Goodwin) a good looking salesman-type. Alex who’s enlisted in the army and hopes to become an airman gives Jody one more chance to accept his proposal else he’ll marry Corinne (Mary Anderson). After Jody once again conveys her vision of love telling him that he doesn’t fit into it Alex marries Corinne who’s also Jody’s good if not best friend. Jody dismisses and deflects Mac’s entreaties similarly.

A World War I bond tour comes to Piersen Falls by way of a military bi-plane doing air-show loop d loops; Captain Bart Cosgrove (John Lund in his film debut) plays a road weary army pilot who’s tired of all the small town stops and requisite responsibilities. Frank Faylen appears briefly as his co-pilot/navigator. Much to the chagrin of the town’s bombastic mayor Capt. Cosgrove takes a nap in the back room of the drugstore in lieu of speaking to the women’s social club etc.; he awakes when Jody brings him a sandwich just before the bond rally that evening. Naturally he’s interested in the attractive young lady if only for the night and he’s a breath of fresh air – the kind of man she’s never seen in her entire life – so that when they dance it later leads to romance. But their one night fling leads to the inevitable (at least in those days in the movies). While seeing a doctor in New York she learns that she has a condition that requires an operation to correct that will also terminate her pregnancy. While making arrangements for that she learns of Bart’s death and decides to keep the only reminder she’ll have of their ‘love’. Miraculously she survives her condition and has a healthy baby but is then left with having to figure out a way to avoid a scandal and still keep the child; her nurse Daisy (Victoria Horne) is willing to help her. Unfortunately their plan doesn’t quite work out.

The hope was that leaving the baby on the doorstep of a mother that already had too many kids would lead Jody to be able to offer to take in – adopt and support – the new infant. But while making arrangements to do just that Corinne and Alex lose their 4-lb. preemie and the mother gives the baby to them. Jody confesses to her father what has happened and he convinces her that it’s in the best interest of the child to let it go; she certainly doesn’t have the means that the Piersens have for its future. They name the baby Gregory and accept Jody’s offer to take care of it on their nursemaid’s day off. Jody essentially becomes a second mother to the boy and Corinne begins to show signs of jealously.

Approximately a year and a half later Mac returns to Piersen Falls from New York where he’s obviously been very successful and tries to woe Jody into joining him. She declines which he can’t understand but gives her his card just in case. Shortly thereafter the infirm Mr. Norris dies and after selling the store Jody feels that she has the means to support Gregory. She confesses the truth to Corinne who had suspected as much but refuses to part with her child. In fact she accuses her husband that he’d never really loved her that he still pines for Jody and gets him to admit as much in their presence. Jody leaves for New York and discovers that Mac’s cosmetics business is just a front for his bootlegging operation. Conveniently she’d arrived the day that his operation was being busted up and given her background in chemicals and his in sales proposes that they make it a legitimate operation together which they do. Adding Daisy as an officer of the company they become wildly successful even planning to open an overseas factory in London.

With Alex’s complicity Jody had kept up with Gregory through “accidental and on purpose” meetings such as outings at a rodeo. But the Piersen business was failing a proverbial buggy whip type operation which Jody had surreptitiously kept alive through her own relationship with the company’s bankers. She returns to Piersen Falls with the leverage to force Corinne to give up Gregory so that Alex can get the loan needed to convert their family factory into a new viable business. But after two months of living with ‘Aunt Jody’ six-year-old Gregory is still sad missing his mother. Mac urges Jody to tell the boy the truth; Jody tries but still doesn’t after she realizes that Corinne is the real mother the one that Gregory loves and that he’ll never accept her in that role. Jody returns to work opting for 14 hours days at the London location which brings the story back to the “present day”.

Again without revealing who she is Jody greets Gregory the spitting image of his officer father as he emerges from the train. After a brief conversation they’re interrupted by Gregory’s girlfriend Liz (Virginia Welles) who’s also in the service. Whereas it appeared that Jody would get to have dinner and take in a show with her still unawares son who even initially accepted her offer of a spare room to stay in during his one week leave after Gregory informs her that he and Liz who is his fiancé (surprise!) had been unsuccessful in securing their nuptials per the 15-day waiting period he tells Jody that he’ll be skipping his leave in order to expedite their next opportunity to wed. A forlorn Jody is then greeted by Lord Desham who ironically had taken the initiative to setup their earlier agreed-to dinner date despite her rash cancellation this same night. Insistent he wins her over while learning the truth of her situation (i.e. she agrees again to dine with him). Of course per his stature he’s in a position to make some changes regarding the circumstances and does so in the most marvelous ways. I won’t spoil the ending only to say that it delivers for those who love the happy tear-jerking kind.