While being stuck out in alien landscapes, with the prospect of war never ending, many Allied soldiers must have dreamed longingly of that moment when they would get off the boat, walk up their local street, bang on the front door and be greeted by their wives and children, whom they had not seen for years.
Unfortunately life didn't always work out out like that. In this Ministry of Information short, a soldier (Robert Griffith) has precisely that experience, but discovers to his cost that he is basically useless around the house. His spouse (Nancy O'Neil) is happy to do the chores while telling him to "take a rest," but this is precisely what he does not want to do. His little boy (Edgar Hill) is delighted to see him, but only because of the fact that the father can tell stories of derring-do in the Far East that the boy can pass happily on to his school-mates.
The soldier's topics of conversation are limited, too. He is not really interested in his wife's daily affairs, but prefers to regale her with nostalgic stories of the adventures he experienced during wartime. They might mean a lot to him, but he cannot understand that people on the Home Front experienced equal traumas, even if they were expressed in different ways.
The film ends on a melancholy note with the soldier announcing that he has to make one more tour of duty to complete his military service. The wife accepts the news stoically, but we get the sense that family life will be scarcely improved if and when he finally returns home.
