August Movie of the Month: Homecoming (1948)

For August, I had a different film in mind but I decided to highlight Homecoming after a chat with my dear friend Debbie.

Homecoming is truly one of those films that is easy to dismiss at first glance, but it really is a little-known gem. Clark’s 1940’s post-World War II films are truly hit or miss and in most you can see his heart isn’t in it. He was different; the carefree man of Boom Town and Honky Tonk was no more. In just a few short years, he had seemed to age ten; his voice had even deepened and developed a more gravely texture that would remain. I suppose becoming a sudden widower and spending two years out of the comfort of Hollywood and in war planes can do that to a fellow. I think that from 1945-1950 Clark was rather lost. He was home again, the war was over, but, like many Americans, his life wasn’t the same as it had been before the war. Widowed, lonely, and without a sense of security, he wasn’t sure if his heart was in acting anymore and it tended to show in his movies. Critics noticed. Fans noticed. Debbie made an observation that is very profound: how the post-war themes of Homecoming seemed to really reflect Clark’s life at the time.

 Clark is Dr. Ulysses “Lee” Johnson, a successful surgeon with a loving and caring wife, Penny (Ann Baxter). When he volunteers for the Army and heads overseas to fight in World War II, he meets a snappy nurse, Jane “Snapshot” McCall (Lana Turner). At first his stuffy, conservative ways and her free-thinking style clash, but soon they are working well together in crisis and become friends. Penny becomes suspicious of their relationship when Lee mentions her frequently in his letters home. Her suspicions ring true, as Lee and Snapshot fall in love. When Lee returns home to his wife after three long years away, he is uncomfortable in his own home and is conflicted on what to tell his wife.

One of the main differences between pre-war Clark films and post-war, is that Clark is no longer the smooth lothario. He’s still a heartthrob, but more of a bumbling, faulted one. Which I don’t think is a bad thing; I rather think it adds charm. For instance, in this film, Snapshot nicknames Lee “Useless” and calls him that throughout the film. Can you imagine debonair Clark of A Free Soul and No Man of Her Own being called “Useless”? Well, he’s still debonair in that uniform though…

Clark and Lana had an easy chemistry and were comfortable with each other, in this, their third film together. This was quite a different role for Lana. She doesn’t wear a single gown or even lipstick—spending the entire film in a military uniform with her hair pulled back.

I find Clark’s chemistry lacking with Ann Baxter, however. She just didn’t fit the fretful doctor’s wife role to me. Also, it’s a little hard to sympathize with a woman who sits at home iwearing her diamonds and furs in her comfortable home and her biggest concern about her husband serving overseas is that he is cheating on her.

Well, I guess that turned out to be warranted though…

One ridiculous scene in the film has the worried Ann thinking back to when she met Clark, at a ballet years earlier. For this scene, they used cosmetic tape and stretched the sides of Clark’s face up, shaved off his mustache, put rouge on his cheeks, gave him a hairpiece and put hemorrhoid cream under his eyes. The result was not pretty, and he was far from looking like the Red Dust-era Clark he was supposed to. The process irritated Clark and he knew he looked ridiculous, so the rest of the flashback scenes that had been scripted were scrapped.

My favorite scene is Clark and Lana’s trip to a Roman pond, where they take baths, a sure luxury after months of dirt, dust and grime and only sponge baths. Clark’s nervousness while he “stands guard” during her bath while trying not to turn around and look at her is adorable.

I also like the last scene, in which Clark humbly confesses to his wife. I really think Clark played this role well—the husband who is sorry for what he did to his wife but is struggling internally with actually regretting his actions.

And I can’t help but think that in the first scene, when we see an aged Clark sitting in the fog with a sad look in his eyes as he recalls the past, there wasn’t a lot of acting involved.

You can read more about the film here and see more than 170 pictures from the film in the gallery.

 Homecoming is available on DVD through The Warner Brothers Archive Collection.