 Hey everybody, it's John Farr back with another virtual classic Tuesday from the Bedford Playhouse. Tonight we're featuring a movie that's near and dear to my heart, from 1946, the best years of our lives. I first saw this on television when I was pretty young, and it blew me away, and it still does. Before getting into how the film came about, I want to tell you about the man behind it, Samuel Goldwin. By 1944, Sam Goldwin had been a major player in Hollywood for decades. Along with David O. Selznick of Gone with the Wind, he was the most powerful independent producer operating outside the major studios of the day. Goldwin was, in fact, one of the true pioneers of the movie industry. He was born into abject poverty in Poland in 1879, and he arrived in America 20 years later with virtually nothing. His anglicized name was Samuel Goldfish. Over the first decade of the 20th century, he became a successful glove salesman in upstate New York. And early on, he saw the commercial possibilities in what was then called moving pictures. Though in 1913, he went into the picture business himself, producing the first feature film made in Hollywood, the Squaw Man, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Two years later, Sam became partners with theatrical producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn. They called their company Goldwin Pictures, combining the names Goldfish and Selwyn. Well, Sam liked the name so much, he had his own name legally changed then and there to Goldwin. In 1924, he sold the company, which was folded into Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions to create the studio known as Metro Goldwin Mayer. The studio would always carry his name, but he never actually worked for it. By this point, Sam was tired of having partners and his various partners might have been tired of having him. Thus, he decided that going forward, he would operate on his own as an independent producer, calling all the shots himself. Well, over the next 35 years, he worked just this way with his own talent under contract. A colorful character over the years, Sam would become known for his mangling of the English language. These were known as Goldwinisms. Here are just two of his most famous lines. Include me out, and a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on. Well, these lines made Sam Goldwin sound like a comical figure, but make no mistake. He was savvy, tough, and again, he exerted complete control over his films. So by 1944, Sam had been married to former actress Frances Howard for nearly 20 years. It hadn't always been an easy marriage, but he really trusted her judgment and they had a great partnership. Well, Frances had read an article called The Way Home in the August 7, 1944 issue of Time magazine, profiling various servicemen returning from the war. It really moved her, and she passed it on to her husband, suggesting the subject matter would make a great film. Well, Sam was noncommittal at first. It was all just ruminating in his head, but he quietly registered two possible titles for a movie, Home Again and The Way Home. Then he heard that the widely respected writer McKinley Cantor was coming to Hollywood looking for a film project. Cantor would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for his book, Andersonville. Well, Goldwin showed him the Time magazine piece and commissioned him to write a story and screenplay treatment, and he was paid $20,000 for that. The end result was a novel written in blank verse called Glory for Me, about three soldiers coming back to the same town after the war. Goldwin loved it, but he felt he needed a top screenwriter to transform it into a strong shooting script. He then approached another Pulitzer Prize winner, Robert E. Sherwood, whose script for Hitchcock's Rebecca had been Oscar nominated back in 1940. Well, Sherwood had quit screenwriting for the duration of the war to serve as one of FDR's top speechwriters. Sherwood agreed to come on board once his latest play premiered on Broadway. Goldwin also needed a top director, but thankfully he already had one in William Wyler, who'd been under contract at Goldwin since the mid-30s. Before the war, the two men had made movies together like Doddsworth from 1936, Wuthering Heights in 1939, and two years later, The Little Foxes with Betty Davis. Now, for most of the war, Wyler had been in his native Europe, going along on bombing missions to shoot all the action. The most famous result of this was Wyler's 1944 documentary Memphis Bell, A Story of a Flying Fortress, which was highly praised on release. Obviously, nature of this work was extremely dangerous, but it also brought Wyler very close to the young pilots, navigators, and warriors whose heroism he captured. The noise in those unpressurized planes had left Wyler almost completely deaf. He came home with just enough hearing in one ear to keep directing films. And with the war still a fresh memory for him, the only story Goldwin had that interested William Wyler was McKinley Cantor's Glory for Me. So by the time Robert E. Sherwood actually sat down to start writing the script, he had met with both Goldwin and Wyler. Perhaps he was simply out of practice, but very soon Sherwood felt blocked. He was particularly worried that by the time the film was released, the story would seem hopelessly out of date. Goldwin knew he was struggling and invited him out to work at his private home in Los Angeles and talk through his issues. Well, somewhere along the way, Sherwood had a breakthrough. One morning he came down to breakfast and talked Goldwin through the whole script virtually just as it would end up on the screen. Goldwin found roles in the script for many of his contract players. For Fred Derry, the bomber pilot who comes back to a failing marriage and a dead-end job as a soda fountain attendant, he cast Dana Andrews. Andrews had become a star in 1944 playing opposite Jean Tierney in Otto Preminger's classic Laura. Virginia Mayo would get to play Fred's flusy wife Marie while simultaneously shooting a Goldwin comedy called The Secret Life of Walter Middy with Danny Kay. On many days, she had to rush from one set to the other and alternate playing two very different characters. Farley Granger was initially slated for the part of disabled soldier Homer Parrish and newcomer Kathy O'Donnell would play Wilma, Homer's girlfriend. Finally, Teresa Wright was cast as Peggy, the grown daughter of the eldest soldier Al Stevenson. Her character's romance with Fred really anchors the story. To play her parents, Alan Milley, Goldwin had to go outside his own stable and approach veterans Frederick March and Myrna Loy. Well, March was now past his leading man days and so he eagerly accepted the part. But Goldwin worried that Myrna Loy might not be such an easy sell. He didn't think her part was too small and turned it down. Still a big star, she was best known for her wildly popular films with William Powell including, of course, The Thin Man. Well, it turned out, Loy had read the McKinley Cantor story and loved it so she quickly took the part after making sure she'd get top billing. Well, one last minute change on the casting front would actually do wonders for the film. In the original script, Homer Parrish returns home with a spastic condition caused by battle trauma. Weiler was concerned that actually portraying this on screen might be too much for audiences. But he had no alternative in mind until he happened to see a short film called Diary of a Sergeant about the rehabilitation of wounded veterans. There in the film was Harold Russell, who'd lost both of his hands and some dynamite he was holding during a training session exploded. Well, he had since mastered the use of the hooks that you see in the film. Weiler decided to test Russell for Homer and found he was a natural. But what he also liked about him was how gracefully he accepted his disability. One of the ironies of the story, of course, is that out of the three returning soldiers, Homer, the most visibly disabled, makes the most positive readjustment. Once finished, Sherwood Screenplay for best years of our lives was over 200 pages long, nearly twice the length of an average script. But neither Goldwyn nor Weiler saw much fat to cut. So finally the Hicks accepted it would be a long film, just 10 minutes short of three hours as it turned out. The best years of our lives was a uniquely personal project for William Weiler. Of all else, he wanted the film to feel totally authentic and to reflect an almost documentary style realism. For his actors' wardrobes, he insisted they buy regular clothes off the rack and wear them for several weeks off camera before shooting. He also demanded that the whole crew be comprised of military veterans. He then added new elements to the script drawing from his own wartime experiences. So during the war, Weiler flew in the very same planes that Fred Derry piloted. He personally knew several Fred Derry's. So he seized on the opportune discovery of an actual airplane graveyard nearby using it to create perhaps the film's most powerful sequence when Fred visits it. As you'll recall, the open space is filled with lines of old B-17 and B-25 bombers that overnight have become obsolete and irrelevant like Fred himself. Then there's an incredibly touching moment when Al and Millie first glimpse each other down a hallway after a very long separation. Weiler's own reunion with his wife in 1944 had unfolded just like that. Finally, the scene when Fred gets fired for punching the customer who criticizes the war effort to Homer. Weiler himself had socked a hotel doorman for mouthing off in the same way. These personal touches really add to the emotion and the essential honesty of the film. Goldwyn and Weiler were also extremely fortunate to have Greg Tolan on board as cinematographer. Tolan was already famous for having taught a young man named Orson Welles how to use a camera on a little film called Citizen Kane. He'd also worked on quite a few Goldwyn productions in the past, including two directed by Willie Weiler, Wuthering Heights and The Little Foxes. One pivotal scene in Best Years features Tolan's trademark use of deep-focus photography where objects in both foreground and background stay in focus. It's when Al and Fred meet at Butch's Bar and Al tells the married Fred to stop seeing his daughter, Peggy. Fred agrees to call her and heads toward the phone booth. Then as he enters the booth, we see Homer come in and go over to talk to Butch, who's played by singer-songwriter Hoge Carmichael. Well, in a single shot, we can observe Fred talking to Peggy in the background of the booth as Butch and Homer perform a sloppy duet of chopsticks in the foreground. By the way, a quick word on Hoge Carmichael. He wrote some incredibly popular music back in the day, including Stardust, Georgia on My Mind and Skylark. He'd made a very successful movie debut two years earlier, crooning with newcomer Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not. The Best Years of Our Lives was finally released to wild acclaim at the end of 1946. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times had this to say, It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be wholly and enthusiastically endorsed, not only as superlative entertainment but as food for quiet and humanizing thought. The film was a box office smash earning a whopping $11.5 million in North America over its initial run. That's huge. Now, part of this came from raising ticket prices due to the movie's prestige value and also its length, which meant fewer showings per day for exhibitors. At the 1947 Oscars, The Best Years of Our Lives won seven statuettes, including Best Picture for Sam Goldwyn, Best Actor for Frederick March, Supporting Actor for Harold Russell, Director for William Weiler and Best Screenplay for Robert E. Sherwood. And Harold Russell became the only actor ever to win two Oscars for the same role. Thinking he'd never get the votes to win the competitive Oscar, the Academy voted him a special one for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans. After this, Russell went back to college, earned his degree, and over time became a tireless advocate for the disabled. The other key players had more good movies ahead of them, particularly Weiler. But for most all of them, The Best Years of Our Lives reflected, if not a peak in their careers, certainly a special moment of triumph. Really, Robert E. Sherwood should never have worried. In the nearly 75 years since its release, the film has never once felt out of date. Thanks for joining me, everyone. See you back here soon. Okay, and now we're going to invite John to join us. Hey, John. Hello. So just a reminder, everybody, please feel free to post your questions at the Q&A button as we go along. We did have a couple of questions that were submitted in advance, which I will actually start with. So, John, right off the bat, someone had asked the question that given the subject areas of post-traumatic stress disorder and the plight of veterans returning home from the war, is such a contrast to the more standard feel-good patriotic theme films that came during and after the war? Did this make this a target for, say, the House Un-American Activities Committee? No. I mean, you have to understand the more upbeat patriotic war films were really done as propaganda during the war. And that was a very different thing. This was much more along the lines of All Quiet on the Western Front, which showed the trauma of modern warfare just happened to be the First World War. And that came out in 1930. So that was just as talkies were beginning. And that was really showing the trauma of the front of the battlefield and what it does to men. World War I was a very different kind of war than any other war. All wars were obviously terrible and awful, and the Civil War was so costly and so bloody, but the mechanization of warfare really came through in the First World War. And so that was what All Quiet on the Western Front was about. This really is no different. It just happens to be exploring that same theme in terms of the Second World War. But the movies that were made during the war were really propaganda films to make the public support the effort. And those were very different kinds of movies. And in fact, after the war, if you look at the types of movies that were being made from 1946 on, let's say well into the 50s, it was a much darker time with the atomic bomb, a reality, a lot of uncertainty, the Cold War. It was the time of film noir. Much sort of darker, more cynical view of humankind at that point as a result of the war. So I see this as very, I see best years of our lives as really very, very different and distinct from the more propaganda, a propagandistic films that were being made during the actual war. How do you think the film sets the tone for later films like on similar subjects like The Deer Hunter and Coming Home? There's an old saying, I don't know whether it's a Hollywood saying or broader than that, but there are no new stories. So, you know, I bring up all quiet on the Western Front, best years of our lives, and then those movies coming home in The Deer Hunter, which are really on the same theme of what the agonies and the horrors of war, which those who have not experienced it can never even begin to imagine what it's like or how it can absolutely traumatize one's psyche and one's ability to function. By the time Coming Home and The Deer Hunter came out, you know, it was how they treated those issues and those stories. It wasn't that the idea of battlefield trauma, whatever we call it, didn't used to be called PTSD, but it was the same, I won't say it's the same thing because, you know, it's all, I don't want to make it seem like it's, you know, I don't want to trivialize it. But it wasn't a new theme to be explored in films. What war does to a man particularly in the 20th century? Is there any significance to the fact that Dana Andrews character outranks Frederick March, even though he's younger, and he's less successful in civilian life? That's a really interesting question. Here's, here's what I think. You have Dana Andrews who's obviously a lot younger. Dana Andrews to become a pilot has to have terrific reflexes and great eyesight and as that, you know, the, the, to become a bomber pilot or a bombardier, whatever you were, you know, to be one of those people, you tended to be very young, young men. In fact, a lot of those guys were a lot younger than Dana Andrews was in that movie. And, you know, they had to have certain special attributes, but their bravery, you know, the danger that they, that they underwent. And the training that they underwent was such that they were going to get advanced very quickly. I mean, you know, they were going to be officers. I've read the character of Frederick March out is that he's a much older guy. And he may have, he may have been in the first war as a kid, you know, in the last few months of that war, maybe, maybe not. But he isn't going to be a pilot. He's too old. So he probably had to struggle to even get accepted, but he wanted to do it and he volunteered and he enlisted and he didn't go into a special officers program. So that wasn't that wasn't that uncommon actually. In fact, it's a really great part of the story because you have this contrast between this great hero, this pilot, who comes back and you know, has a dead end has dead end prospects. He was a soda jerk, whereas you have Frederick March he was a little older and just wanted to enlist and did. Didn't even bother to, to, to, you know, try to become an officer but wanted to serve and was in the infantry. He comes back to a cushy job in the back. But it's not that's not at all unbelievable in the context of the time. Now we have a couple of questions that have been submitted now by some folks who were tuned in this evening. Can you talk a little bit about the naturalism in the film, compared to some of the work that Weiler did later on specifically referencing the spectacle of Ben Hur. This is a much quote unquote quieter movie. How, how deliberate was that style. When he, Weiler was a director who liked to think that he could do anything. And when you look at his filmography, he was pretty much right. So when he took Ben Hur in 1959 he wanted to show the world that he could make a movie like Cecil B. DeMille. He wanted to do a spectacle he wanted to show that proved to himself and others that he could do a spectacle. You know, a David Lean or Cecil B. DeMille type spectacle which is thousands of extras and huge, then you know huge sets and a million moving parts. But But Weiler, you know, for him it was about the story. And this was a very unusual film for him because it was so personal and I said that in my introduction. He had just come back from this experience himself it was a it was in his immediate past that he had been in one of these bombers I mean what are we talking to two years and he had seen all of this up close. So the idea of dramatizing what these people that he hung out with in his life and death situations, what it was like to go home. After this amazing traumatic war experience was really really really close to his heart and so, and he had a certain view of it which is, he didn't want it to be romanticized too much. He wanted it to feel very real. And I refer to a documentary style or documentary like realism. And he wanted that. People don't know this but in those days, when you did a set to make the set look better and to make the whole film look glamorous, everything on a set, let's say it was a living room. It was a little larger than it should be. If you go on the set you look at everything looks just a little bit bigger, because it photographs better. Well for this movie he didn't want that. So everything is photographed at actual size. It feels like you're watching, this always felt to me like you're watching the story of real people and real families and, you know, Myrna Loy is so wonderful in it. You know, she sits so saying, you know, I love this man. He's back after this experience that I wasn't there for so I don't know what happened. And he's drinking too much and he's behaving a little oddly, but I love him so much that I that I'm going to be there for him and I'm going to understand it or I'm going to try to understand. That's that was like there was no. That was not a Hollywood, you know, romanticized role that was real that felt very real and I think that's what the film offers today. I think that Weiler wanted that for that particular film and every different film he did. He had a different idea about, but he he often said, Listen, 80% of it is the script. 80% of it is the story. If I've got that. And I've got good actors, I can do this. I mean, I can do it but he wasn't. He wasn't like Hitchcock and I don't mean this to put Hitchcock down but he wasn't sort of, you know what you're going to get with a Hitchcock film, because Weiler did a lot of different different kinds of films. I mean, Roman Holiday is one of the great romantic comedies of all time, wasn't known for romantic comedies, but he did them. And he did all sorts of different kinds of films he was probably one of the he was one of the greatest directors of all time. And he was very tough on actors. And he would never give them direction it drove. He wouldn't give them very specific direction he'd say do it again. Do it again. So when Myrna Loy who'd never worked with him went on this film. He was known as, you know, 40 take Willie, you know, and do it again, just do it again. Well, what do you want me to do different just do it better. That's what he would say to him. And she was terrified but she was actually pleasantly surprised on this particular picture so that was good. Hope that answers the question. Do you have any insights about the musical composition for the film was it Oscar nominated or did it receive any awards. That's a very good question. I can look that up right now. I think it I'm going to find out right now. If I'm not mistaken, it was Hugo Friedhofer. It's a very nice. It's a good score. And it adds a lot. But it's not a score that tends to be that, you know, there's not what people think of the movie and say, you know, it's the it's the music. But actually it was Hugo Friedhofer, and he did win an Oscar. So he did what he won an Oscar for best scoring of a motion picture film. What it is it's a it's a score that feels right for the film. It's got the movie I don't know why it's one of the reasons one of my favorite movies is that it has tremendous humanity and it's a very moving. To me at least I mean I'm emotional watching that movie that movie makes me extremely emotional and the and the and the score for the Friedhofer score really does add to it. It's a very moving movie about about people, and it's about people and it isn't just about the people who returned from the war different and need to try to figure out how to readjust it's about the people who stayed behind who have the people they love come and they're sitting there going who is this I mean they're not the same and that they are confused and and nervous about how do I, you know, how do I deal with this and how do I change to be right for this person. So yeah that guy won an Oscar. This gorgeous. Speaking of writing in that era, the relationship between Hollywood and writers in other genres playwrights like Robert Sherwood is amazing and includes some really incredible names like Robert Sherwood. When did this start to change you don't see that too much anymore. Well, in fairness, I mean that was sort of are also part of Sam Goldwyn's MO. He wanted always to make a pictures a a list pictures. He didn't, he wasn't like a studio that you know most of the studios had different levels of films that they would do they would do the be pictures, the pro whether or they were called programmers, and then they'd have their a pictures and and they would be selling the theaters basically a package, and you'd go in and you'd have the newsreel you'd have a newsreel and you'd have a be picture that was a serial. You know, half an hour or whatever, and then you'd have your main feature. It's all about a pictures and so he put a big premium on having the best writers available, working for him. And having said that, it is true that in those days, the scripts and the store there was much more of a focus on script and than there is today. Part of it is that in those days, people read more. So literature and words, language, complete sentences, like words of more than two three syllables were more common. And today. I mean it all everything started with with Star Wars, you know, back in the late 70s, and in terms of the kinds of movies that Hollywood wanted to make and how they introduced those movies how they distributed those movies how they promoted those movies. And over time with the advances in technology. The movies have become more comic book like they're more about how scenes are shot. They're more about visual effects. They're more about kinetic action all the time. And the scripts. There are exceptions. I mean European films, I would say, a really good European film or Asian film that the international films still are more I think story and script focused. But it's really hard for me sometimes to either I'm, I'm watching a new movie and I'm listening to dialogue and it's just, it's not it just doesn't have that the creativity and the cleverness. And the nuance that some of the great older movies had sad, very sad. Next question is nowadays we're led to believe that the spirit and economy of the US was a boom time for returning veterans and the public in general was this movie portraying a view of reality, or was it showing the plight of those few who found it to help to return to positions or find decent jobs. You know, there, there was the GI Bill. There was opportunity there was you don't worry that Fred is going to have a, you know, I don't worry that Fred Dairy is going to eventually be okay. But don't forget this is 1946. Back. And so, could you predicted a booming economy the growth that would happen and the No, I mean it was all, it was all going to happen. So, but there were opportunities. And, you know, the United States was coming into its I mean you know today we call the the Fred Dairy generation, the greatest generation I mean these was my father. He came back from that war, and he got on the GI Bill anyway was able to go to law school. So, but that wasn't everybody. I mean not everybody was able to do that. It was open to certain people there are various different reasons why certain people couldn't take advantage of it or didn't take advantage of it. There were opportunities and and the United States as a world power was at that moment, really for the first time well more than I would say more than ever as far as I can. A test was at the top of the heap in terms of being the ascendant world power. In World War One, they were, you know, there, we were a young country with lots of resources and people and, but after World War Two, when we won that war with our allies, we were, we were top of the heap. And then we had that we had that going forward for quite a long time. So there was a lot of opportunity. You don't worry that Fred and Peggy are, you know, he probably ended up becoming an insurance man and having a good career and then good home and family you don't worry that he's not going to make it because they were, I mean not withstanding some of the awful things that happened like the, you know, the McCarthyism and all that stuff. There are a lot of opportunities in America America was was about to go into into a big growth phase. Are you familiar with the book and or documentary five came back, which talks about wireless war experiences, among other directors. Yes, recommended. Yes, I recommended I recommend the film I recommend the book. It's it's he and some of the other great directors like John Houston and George Stevens, all these wonderful directors of Highlands Golden Age wanted to find a way to record what was going on in the war, and they each found their ways to do it and this this book and documentary basically traces these these amazing directors, and what each of them did, and what they brought back. It's wonderful. I'm glad that was brought because that is it's fabulous. You talk a little bit about this the cinematography is incredible, not only the ability to draw the audience to the important details or the character, but the images seem so clean sharp that they draw and hold the eye of the audience better than other films that in memory. You talked about Greg Toland a little bit you. Yes, or anything else to add about him. He was the best. I mean, you know he there was no one. There was no one better with a camera than Greg Toland. I would ask you all to, to, you know, look him up and look at and look at the look at his filmography. Again, I mean I go back to the story of what he did for and how lucky was was Orson Welles I mean he was a a precocious 25 year old theater director who came out to Hollywood and get was given carte blanche to do his movie. He had but Greg Toland to teach him how to hold it what a camera does. He had no damn clue. So you look at some of the movies that he did, all of which have a very haunting and arresting sort of visual style whether it's citizen Kane or weathering heights. The grapes of wrath. You know, it goes on and on he did the Bishop's wife. A golden film that I love I'll just mention this because before you know it will be it'll be December and it'll be Christmas time. Everyone thinks to watch it's a wonderful life every year but watch the Bishop's wife. It's a wonderful life is great but we've all seen it 30 times or I have. The Bishop's wife is a wonderful Christmas movie with Kerry Grant and Loretta young and David Niven. That was Samuel Golden. That was Greg Toland doing the cinematography. So, all a fire the little foxes. The westerner. The westerner met so I mean that he did. He did so many dead end is a wonderful early Bogart film. He, he was the best. He was the best there was. And, but again, like why learn that's why they would work well together. It wasn't like, All right, if it's great told and it's going to look, you know, it's going to be just this way. And I've said that he he really he understood the story understood the material, and then he would do whatever needed to be done. But his use of deep focus photography was was. I mean that was a real innovation that he that he mastered I love that scene where you're watching, you know them playing chopsticks and but in the background where you're really looking is Dana Andrews talking to Peggy. And you're having to imagine what what what he's saying to her. And you later find out but it's it's really it's an amazing moment, the way that whole shot is framed. Okay, I invite people to keep asking questions. We've been going at a pretty good clip here if you have any more please post them. Anyone about Dana Andrews sort of flies under the radar. This is probably the role he's best remembered for. Can you tell us a little bit more about him. He was very good he, you know, he, he was struggling for years. You know, he started out doing something else. And he, you know, he came from a family with not a lot of money and then he decided when he was late 20s, early 30s it wasn't just like, you know, leaving high school to become an actor he just all of a sudden decided. I want to, you know, I want to go out and try to be an actor I want to go to Hollywood and he spent a lot of years knocking around Hollywood and not really getting anywhere. And, and then he started, you know, it's again a lot of these these stories are familiar where you just he just kept at it kept at it kept at it. And I am hold on I want to tell you some of the movies that you know he had some small parts. There's a wonderful comedy called ball of fire. That was Sam Goldman. So Sam Goldman basically put him under contract finally but he wasn't a star right away. So he was in a movie called ball of fire. Which was a Gary Cooper movie. And he plays a gangster. And he does not it's not it's not a big part. And the other movie that he was in the following year that I loved but again not a huge part is the oxbow incident. And it's not really about you call it a lynching it wasn't it wasn't a black person being lynched it was a, it was out in the West and somebody gets hung who hasn't had a trial. And that was directed by William Wellman and it starred Henry Fonda. That was 42. Yeah, but again it was a featured role. So, but he kept, you know, he kept working kept working kept working and then he did Laura. And he plays the detective and Laura directed by Otto Preminger and that was a smashed that was that was a smash. And then he did, you know he was in a great movie called fall an angel, a walk in the sun a Western that I'm actually getting looking forward to watching called Canyon passage. Then he did best years our lives and then he turned around and did a very good early ilia Kazan film called boomerang. Did a picture with Joan Crawford called Daisy Kenyon. Another movie that I love from 1950 is called where the sidewalk ends a very good noir again with Jean Tierney. He had a drinking problem. And over time, he became the word was out on him and he was known to be unreliable. And then the, the roles were not as the movies weren't as good and the roles weren't as good. He was working. And I think he, he had a brother named Steve Forrest, who was on TV was a TV actor. Several brothers but his heyday was really from 1944 to 1950. I mean that was when he did all his best, his best work. Questions to anybody else would like to post a question for John. Please go ahead and do so. John you forgot to mention that boomerang was the first film shown at the Bedford Playhouse when it was first. Oh my God, how could I forgotten that. Yeah, it was and it's a very good movie. If you all haven't seen it in your area Kazan fans. You should definitely catch that one. I mean Dana Andrews is always very good. It was just that he had a terrible, terrible alcohol alcoholism issue. But he's wonderful in this. I had such a good time seeing this movie again. Seen it many, many, many times over the years but hadn't seen it in a while saw it with one of my sons who've never seen it loved it, which is saying something for black and white film that runs two hours and 50 minutes. I'm so glad you all watched it and it's a movie that I that I always return to. Alright, it looks like we don't have any other questions so thank you again john. We should announce to everybody that john is now taking a very well deserved summer break. And hopefully when he comes back. It will actually be at the theater, not wood. Let's hope. In the meantime, we're going to keep the virtual playhouse going and in a couple of weeks. We're going to have a conversation about some like it hot with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis, directed by Billy Wilder whose birthday was yesterday. I don't know if you knew that john, did you know that. Oh, it would have been 114. It would have been 114 if he was still so we want to thank you very much for coming tonight. And john have a great vacation. Thank you. When you're rested up will come back and we'll start doing some stuff on the big screen again with a little bit of luck. Look you forward to that. Alright. Thanks again for attending everybody have a good night. Thanks everybody.