Themes: Mothers and Sons, Women During Wartime, Adoption
Main Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Mary Anderson, Roland Culver, John Lund, Phillip Terry
Release Year: 1946
Country: US
Run Time: 122 minutes
Plot
Olivia De Havilland won the first of her two Academy Awards for To Each His Own. During World War I, De Havilland falls in love with a young soldier (John Lund). He is killed in battle before they can marry, leaving De Havilland to raise their child alone. She gives the baby up for adoption, then goes to work in the cosmetic business, working her way up to an executive post. While in London on business during World War II, Olivia comes face to face with her grown son (John Lund again), now a military officer himself. Though she resists revealing her true identity, mother and son are brought together by a wise old British peer (Roland Culver). Olivia De Havilland's Oscar win was doubly sweet in that To Each His Own was her first film after an enforced two-year absence, brought about when she sued Warner Bros. to get out of her restrictive contract. Long available only in washed-out TV prints, To Each His Own was eventually restored to its pristine 35-millimeter glory by the American Film Institute. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
By the time John Lund intones "I think this is our dance, Mother" at the end of To Each His Own, only a true curmudgeon will not have surrendered to this film, and almost everyone else will have given in long before. Judging by the elements that went into its screenplay, Each should have been just another woman's "weepie" flick, but by that strange luck of chemistry, what emerges is a truly involving and deeply felt melodrama. Yes, it's manipulative, but it's open about its manipulation, and the tugs it makes at the heartstrings are genuine and deserved. Credit for this must go to both Charles Brackett's surprisingly (for the genre) intelligent screenplay and Mitchell Leisen's superbly sensitive direction. Unusual for the time, Brackett's script is non-judgmental about its heroine's actions. She is not excoriated mercilessly for giving in to her passions, merely made to behave in a practical manner when confronted with their consequences. Indeed, Josephine Norris is a refreshingly modern and sensible woman, and one of the reasons that To Each His Own succeeds so well. Of even greater importance is the performance of the actress portraying her. Olivia de Havilland's Oscar was well deserved, even in a year that saw stiff competition from Rosalind Russell and Celia Johnson. De Havilland carries the film with a performance that contains nary a false note, and is affecting playing different ages throughout. The supporting cast, especially Roland Culver, is also noteworthy, but it's de Havilland that gets the roses -- and deservedly so. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
To Each His Own is a 1946 film directed by Mitchell Leisen, which tells the story of Jody Norris (Olivia de Havilland), who falls in love with a pilot (John Lund). He goes off to fight in World War I, leaving Jody to give birth to their son. In her attempt to keep his birth a secret, she loses him to another family and spends her life loving him from afar.
