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Winner of seven Oscars, William Wyler’s touching and honest drama about returning soldiers is as relevant today as it was when it was released more than 60 years ago. While there are no stories of war objectors spitting on returning vets from WWII, the Great Generation’s fighters didn’t have it easy either. This intimate tale chronicles the adjustments three very different men have to make in their civilian lives because of their experiences at war. They cover the economic spectrum, which makes adjusting to their normal lives more difficult or easier in interesting and ironic ways depending on the situation. Brought to life by a first-rate cast, there is a reason this film placed #37 on the AFI’s Top 100 American Films list twice; it’s a timeless classic.

Based on MacKinlay Kantor’s novel, which was adapted by Robert E. Sherwood, winner of Best Screenplay, the story begins as three soldiers, strangers at the time, board a transport plane to get back home to Boone City. Fred Derry (Dana Andrews, LAURA) was a captain pilot during the war, but back home he worked as a soda jerk. A lower rank than Fred, Al Stephenson (Fredric March, 1931’s DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE) is an older man with a family, who as a civilian lives in a swank apartment and works at the bank. Homer Parrish (Harold Russell, PAYBACK) is a sailor, who after losing both hands now uses hooks. He worries that his girl Wilma (Cathy O’Donnell, BEN-HUR) will think differently of him when she sees him.

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