Sombra en el cielo

This is a post-war story about the effects of what today we'd call PTSD. Ralph Meeker is a former marine who's confined at a VA facility in California. 90% of the time, he's a standup guy who seems to have a promising future, but whenever it rains, he turns into a major head case who can't escape his past wartime experience in the South Pacific. Nancy (Davis) Reagan plays his sister who is married to James Whitmore's character. They vacillate between whether or not to take in Meeker to provide a little support for his condition and give him a stable home life, as well as a potential job working with Whitmore at his roadside gas station and garage. The problem is that they've also got two young kids at home, and they don't want to expose them to their uncle's episodes whenever the weather turns inclement. They also are afraid Meeker might really wig out and hurt his niece and nephew during one of his "bad" days.

Jean Hagen plays Meeker's love interest. She too has some kind of mental incapacity, but the film never really explains how she got that way. And therein lies the problem with this picture. It's a great story with good performances by the four leads, but the script is a real puzzler. There are so many holes and unanswered questions with so little back story of the characters. This movie was released about 3 months after "Singin' in the Rain" came out, and it was fun to see how good an actress Jean Hagen was when you compare the two pictures. "Shadow in the Sky" is only an hour and 18 minutes long, and if the script were given an extra 20 or 30 minutes, some of those unanswered questions could have been addressed. It's the only film I can think of where Ralph Meeker can be seen in a speedo.

Strange little domestic drama concerning ex-soldier Ralph Meeker's attempts to readjust to civilian life many years after the war. Generally happy and normal, he can't handle rain, as it serves as a frightening reminder of the rain-soaked conditions he was constantly exposed to during one particularly brutal war time stint.

An extremely handsome looking movie, I was surprised at how the director, Fred Wilcox, composed so many of his shots in such a glistening, almost immaculate way. There always seems to be a lot going on inside the frame. It's visually exciting, almost experimental at times, a novel choice for this subject matter. There's one almost David Lynch-ian scene where Meeker is making an important phone call, and the little daughter is playing in the background, wandering through the house with a bag over her head saying "Give me some eyes. Give me some eyes". Filmed in a dream-like, consciously artistic way, it's quite odd.

All the performances are fine, especially James Whitmore's. He nails the big scene at the end, even though the important revelation about Meeker is sort of a dud. The film is also noteworthy in that it contains two well written women's roles. Nancy Davis plays a loving housewife and mother, but she's complicated and rounded out in a way that most women in these sorts of films around this time weren't allowed to be. And Jean Hagen plays a difficult, rather confounding mental hospital nurse who falls in love with Meeker. Frankly, their whole relationship felt a little confused and hurried but at least Hagen was not the typical angelic girlfriend.

This is a pretty intelligent, realistic and sensitively handled examination of mental illness. And it achieves the somewhat remarkable effect (almost as if it were a horror film) of portraying the simple event of rainfall as something sinister and threatening - its occurrence to be feared not just by Meeker's character but by all those who care about him as well.

Ralph Meeker plays a Marine veteran of the famous battle for Gualdalcanal. The experience left him with PTSD. His condition arises from the memory of carrying a wounded Marine (James Whitmore, who plays Meeker's brother-in-law married to Meeker's sister played by Nancy Davis (Reagan) to safety during a rainstorm as the battle raged on. While Hollywood made the fierce fight for Guadalcanal famous, this pic attempts to illustrate the longterm fallout of the battle on one Marine's psyche. It's pretty good, though it leaves you wondering why Meeker is so traumatized since he actually rescued his future bro-in-law rather than letting him die. If he had done that he might have really been traumatized by crippling guilt. But since he actually rescued him and only feels guilty about considering the possibility of just leaving him in the mud, the whole PTSD premise seems a little far-fetched. In any event, the acting is great between Meeker, Whitmore, Davis, and Jean Hagen, who is in love with Meeker. The weather forecast plays a pivotal role, especially if there's a chance of rain.

A Completely Forgotten Little Film that is quite Good and quite Different. A Number of Film-Noirs took on the PTSD of Returning WWII Veterans and most of them are Well Known and most of them are Fine Films. This one is Unique in that it is Virtually Unknown.

It has a Very Strange Feel to it and is a Serious and Surreal, at Times, Study that is more than Competently Directed and Acted. The Children are Central to the Plot and the Little Ones are Refreshingly Restrained from Stereotype.

Some of the Dialog is Succinct and Stringent. After a Tense Set-Up the Mentally Disturbed Ralph Meeker, at His Best, Confronts the Parents about the Kids and Tersely Taunts..."What did you think I'd do, chop them up into little pieces and put them in a suitcase?"

Tough Stuff for the Era and Reflects the Tone of the Movie. It is a Suspenseful and Fittingly Bizarre Film that Deserves more Attention.

They didn't call it post traumatic stress or PTSD back in those days, the term was shell shocked. But that is what Ralph Meeker is in this film Shadow In The Sky from MGM's B picture unit.

Meeker is a former Marine who served in the Pacific where his sergeant was James Whitmore who happened to marry his sister Nancy Reagan. Meeker has been in an out of veteran's hospital since the end of World War 2. He has a phobia about rain and the presence of Whitmore who was his sergeant during the war, but received a million dollar wound and went home acts as a kind of security blanket for Meeker.

We never really learn what his issues are and they certainly are a lot more complex than Shadow In The Sky lets on. But that was the way with most Hollywood films that dealt with psychological issues back in the day.

It's a good cast ensemble MGM gathered for this film which also includes Jean Hagen who works at the VA and might like to get something going with Meeker once he straightens himself out.

A good film for Veteran's Day.