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Dana Andrews (“Fred”) left, and Teresa Wright (“Peggy”), steering the wheel, in The Best Years of Our Lives.
The great Hoagy Carmichael (“Stardust,” Skylark,” and “How Little We Know,” which Lauren Bacall sings while Hoagy plays and Bogart watches in To Have and Have Not, below) was born today (November 22). Hoagy plays Uncle Butch, the piano player who plays “Among My Souvenirs” while Al (Fredric March) and Millie (Myrna Loy) dance and Fred meets Peggy at Butch’s bar in William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
And he’s thinking: if only I could get a good job.
And she’s thinking: when I think that he’s married, I sob.
And he’s thinking: I married a stranger.
And she’s thinking: a divorce would be a game-changer.
And he’s thinking: wait till my pal’s wedding and I’m the best man, Okay?
And she’s thinking: Okay.
Well, it’s been a long war. . .
[dialogue as rewritten to the tune oif Frank Loesser’s “Been a Long Day:” in How to Succeed]
See, too, this piece in The American Scholar.
<<< Director William Wyler made a number of wonderful movies (Mrs. Miniver, Wuthering Heights), but this is an all-time great. Three servicemen return to their small hometown after the end of hostilities in Europe and the Pacific in 1945. They represent the three primary divisions of military service and as many distinctions in socioeconomic class. Army sergeant Al Stephenson (Fredric March), a middle-aged man, holds an executive position at the local bank. In line for a promotion, Al is returning to his wife, Milly (Myrna Loy), and their two children, one of whom, Peggy (Teresa Wright), is old enough to witness a miserable couple and vow to “break that marriage up.” — David Lehman >>
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