To Each His Own (1946)

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

A successful cosmetics tycoon (Olivia de Havilland) goes on a flashback of her life story as she mans her assigned post during a bombing raid in 1944 London. This trip takes us to her youthful days as the beautiful daughter working in her father's pharmacy in small-town New York state where she's the prize for a couple of suitors, but falls for a barnstorming WWI pilot (John Lund) and ends up having a son out of wedlock. The prevailing morals make keeping the child out of the question, but her love for her son is at the center of the film, as is her emerging success as a businesswoman which allows her financial independence which opens more doors for her character. This role won de Havilland the Oscar for best actress and it is a great part which shows a woman taking on her times and succeeding in doing so.

Yes, this is a very effective melodrama, and yes, de Havilland deserved her Oscar, not only for her sincere performance at every point in the life of the character, but for her totally believable aging from 18 to middle age. At each step of the way she "evolves" the character into the appropriate age. A triumph of technique and sincerity.Seemingly no one in the world between 1939 and 2015 has ever noted that Brackett, for all his "original story" Oscar nom, totally stole the plot from Edith Wharton. Her novel, OLD NEW YORK, was made up of a series of novellas covering representative New York society from the 1840s onward. One of these, titled THE OLD MAID, became a play and then a 1939 film, starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins.THE OLD MAID introduced the Civil War to explain the demise of its leading lady's love and father of her illegitimate child, in this case a girl. In the novella, he was simply a playboy, off to Paris for art and she a NY fling.TO EACH HIS OWN moves the "war" up to WWI, changes the sex of the child, and then blatantly goes on to ape Wharton and the prior film. The only difference is that in THE OLD MAID, the character was against her daughter's marriage, while in TO EACH HIS OWN, she is very much "for" it.It galls me that people get praise for copying other's creations, as it does me hear with Brackett. Even more galling is the short-term memory loss of Academy members. Only 7 years passed between the two films. Surely someone in the writing departments of voters could remember the Wharton plot.Rent or buy both films and run them close to each other, enjoying the obvious similarities.

Believing she wasn't getting kind of roles she wanted at Warner Brothers, Olivia de Havilland sued the studio to get out of her contract and for several years didn't appear in films. Olivia finally won her suit, and this film, "To Each His Own" was her first for Paramount Pictures; and it is a gem of movie. Olivia plays Jody Norris, and she performs the role from a young naive woman to a somewhat hardened middle-aged one. The film is told in flashbacks; we first see an older Jody living in London during World War II. Jody had a son some 20 years earlier out of wedlock by a young pilot who is later killed. Because it was scandalous to be an unwed mother at the time, she concocts a scheme to have her baby raised by a wealthy couple (Mary Anderson and Philip Terry) in town. The scheme backfires on her, and they adopt the boy. Jody goes on to acquire wealth, but she always longs for her son. She gets the chance when the young man (John Lund) is stationed in London. The ending is slightly predictable, but what saves this film from becoming overly sentimental and sappy (although it is a tear-jerker) is the fine performance of Olivia de Havilland. The script is great, and the subject of unwed pregnancy is actually handled in a mature manner for 1946. There are some fine supporting performances of note, particularly Mary Anderson, playing Corrine, the neurotic woman who adopts her son. John Lund plays a dual role, that of Jody's lover and later her grown son. He does a fine job. Roland Culver is good as Lord Desham, a new love interest for Jody. A fine old Hollywood film, made the way they used to make them!

Olivia de Havilland won the Oscar for best actress in 1947 for "To Each his Own" a tearjerker, made in 1946. She was one of the great actresses of the day when movies were worth going to see. She made many good movies such as "Hush hush sweet Charlotte, Snake Pit are two good ones.They were released on DVD. But "To each his own is one of my personal favourites. 430 people on IMDb.com have rated this movie highly at 8/10 as of Sept./08, so why on earth has this good movie never been released on DVD. I am lucky to have it on video, but would rather have the DVD. In "To each His own", Olivia is Jody Norris, a small town girl working in her fathers store. She meets a handsome young air force pilot and they fall in love. He leaves to go to war and Olivia finds herself going to be a single mother. In those days young women were isolated and not supported when having a baby out of wedlock. Nothing like today. Olivia has a lot of heartache to go through, has the baby but faces further heartbreak. Her life moves on after she has the baby, who she was not able to keep, but I won't say any more. Get a hanky out for the ending. Studios, one of you need to get this movie out on DVD. If you can release a lot of junky movies on DVD, you can release this good classic on DVD. It would sell well. I'm tired waiting and getting older by the day. I've got about 100 good DVD movies, and need the DVD of this one as soon as possible.