Till the End of Time

Soldiers readjust to American life after World War II in this intimate drama. Ex-marine Cliff Harper (Guy Madison) goes back to his small New Mexico hometown where he's slow to get a job or enroll at college, preferring to hang out with old buddies as they come drifting back in from various places overseas. One buddy, Tabeshaw (Robert Mitchum), has a steel plate in his head, while another, Perry (Bill Williams), lost his legs. Cliff also gets his first glimpse of the modern American woman when he falls in love with Pat (Dorothy MacGuire), a war widow suffering traumas of her own.

Sincerity and intelligence rarely seem to go together in American film, but this portrait of small town life gets the combination right; it's full of nice moments, intelligent dialogue, and powerful performances. MacGuire is perfect as the vulnerable, sexually mature widow, and Madison is handsome and believable. Director Edward Dmytryk juxtaposes the inviting rural milieu with his characters' emerging modern sensibility and captures a nicely healing tone.