The Best Years of Our Lives

The Best Years of Our Lives

The Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 film about three WWII veterans who return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.

Year:
1946
1,302 Views
Filled with all the love and warmth and joy. . .the human heart can hold!
Three wonderful loves in the best picture of the year!
Samuel Goldwyn's greatest production

Al Stephenson:
I'm sure you'll all agree with me if I said that now is the time for all of us to stop all this nonsense, face facts, get down to brass tacks, forget about the war and go fishing. But I'm not gonna say it. I'm just going to sum the whole thing up in one word. [Milly coughs loudly] My wife doesn't think I'd better sum it up in that one word. I want to tell you all that the reason for my success as a Sergeant is due primarily to my previous training in the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company. The knowledge I acquired in the good ol' bank I applied to my problems in the infantry. For instance, one day in Okinawa, a Major comes up to me and he says, 'Stephenson, you see that hill?' 'Yes sir, I see it.' 'All right,' he said. 'You and your platoon will attack said hill and take it.' So I said to the Major, 'but that operation involves considerable risk. We haven't sufficient collateral.' 'I'm aware of that,' said the Major, 'but the fact remains that there's the hill and you are the guys that are going to take it.' So I said to him, 'I'm sorry Major, no collateral, no hill.' So we didn't take the hill and we lost the war.' I think that little story has considerable significance, but I've forgotten what it is. And now in conclusion, I'd like to tell you a humorous anecdote. I know several humorous anecdotes, but I can't think of any way to clean them up, so I'll only say this much. I love the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company. There are some who say that the old bank is suffering from hardening of the arteries and of the heart. I refuse to listen to such radical talk. I say that our bank is alive, it's generous, it's human, and we're going to have such a line of customers seeking and getting small loans that people will think we're gambling with the depositors' money. And we will be. We will be gambling on the future of this country. I thank you.

Peggy:
I've made up my mind...I'm going to break that marriage up. I can't stand it seeing Fred tied to a woman he doesn't love and who doesn't love him. Oh it's horrible for him. It's humiliating and it's killing his spirit. Somebody's got to help him...He doesn't love her, he hates her. I know it. I know it.

Al:
Who are you, God? How did you get this power to interfere in other people's lives?

Milly:
Is Fred in love with you?

Peggy:
Yes.

Milly:
You've been seeing him.

Peggy:
Only once, today. Oh, it was all perfectly respectable. But when we were saying goodbye, he took me in his arms and kissed me and I knew.

Al:
And you think a kiss from a smooth operator like Fred - you think that means anything?

Peggy:
You don't know him. You don't know anything about what's inside him. And neither does she, his wife. That's probably what she thought when she married him. A smooth operator with money in his pockets. But now he isn't smooth any longer and she's lost interest in him.

Al:
Whereas you're possessed of all the wisdom of the ages. You can see into the secret recesses of his innermost soul.

Peggy:
I can see because I love him.

Al:
So you're gonna break this marriage up. Have you decided yet how you're gonna do it? Are you gonna do it with an axe?

Peggy:
It's none of your business how I'm gonna do it. You've forgotten what it's like to be in love.

Al:
You hear that, Milly? I'm so old and decrepit I've forgotten how it feels to want somebody desperately.

Milly:
Peggy didn't mean that, did you darling?

Peggy:
Oh, no. I don't know what I do mean. It's just that, everything has always been so perfect for you. You loved each other and you got married in a big church, and you had a honeymoon in the south of France. And you never had any trouble of any kind. So how can you possibly understand how it is with Fred and me?

Milly:
We never had any trouble. [To Al] How many times have I told you I hated you, and believed it in my heart. How many times have you said you were sick and tired of me, that we were all washed up? How many times have we had to fall in love all over again?


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