To Each His Own

After winning her two-year court battle with Warner Bros., OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND became a free-lancer and got her big chance when Paramount offered her TO EACH HIS OWN, a script that had already been turned down by Ingrid Bergman and Ginger Rogers. Everyone shines in this movie, from the leads (OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND and JOHN LUND) to the smallest bit players.

De Havilland was perfect as Jody Norris, realistically portraying a young girl of seventeen and then various stages of maturity, ending as a brusque, middle-aged business woman in war-torn London of 1944. Her range as an actress is fully demonstrated and she does a remarkable job of playing the heroine at various stages of development.

John Lund is excellent too in a dual role (her lover and later her grown son), Bill Goodwin as a good-hearted pal, Philip Terry as another suitor who still loves her after marrying her friend (Mary Anderson). Anderson never had a better role than she does as the jealous, neurotic wife unwilling to let Jody have her own child back.

An intelligent script, detailed period direction by Mitch Leisen, fine background score by Victor Young and memorable moments from every player in the large cast. This is one Madame X kind of story that still holds up today. Probably the best soap-opera of the '40s, played to the hilt by a wonderful cast.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Roland Culver as Lord Desham. Brilliant performance. And on top of all the drama, there's a lot of humor and touches of real Americana, especially in the early scenes depicting Jody's small-town life.

Summing up: This was a huge box-office hit in the summer of '46 and re-ignited Olivia's career after a three year absence from the screen.

What a gentle, tender story! This is a Romance 'par excellence' handled with maturity, insight, and simply told in flashbacks which take us back to earlier years, into the realities of life for a young woman who loses her true love during wartime (WW1) then finds herself unmarried and bringing a child into the world whom she must give up afterwards due to a twist in circumstances. It's a truly wonderful role for Olivia de Havilland, as Jodie Norris, and I can't think of anyone else who could play it so convincingly.

Roland Culver, in his supporting role as Lord Desham, provides a substantial backup for the elderly 'Jodie' who meets him rather abrasively during WW2 days but later relates to him the personal tragedy in her youth. He has the presence of mind and determination to see that old wrongs are set aright -- all of which leads to one of the most beautiful endings to a film anyone could wish for.

It's a film that poignantly reflects the war years when so many lives were uprooted, hopes dashed, yet carried on with courage. I wish they made more films like this one, it's a gem.

Although I don't think To Each His Own is as good as Olivia DeHavilland's other Oscar winner The Heiress or as good as the film she lost for in between these two, The Snake Pit, To Each His Own was the film that Olivia finally came into her own as an actress. She also showed Jack Warner a thing or two about type casting.

The story of To Each His Own is very much like something that Olivia's friend from Warner Brothers, Bette Davis, might have done. Bette won and was nominated multiple times for films like these and it's the stuff that Olivia badly wanted to do and was thwarted by Jack Warner who could only see her as the clinging leading lady to some dashing hero like Errol Flynn.

This film is all Olivia and she's the right age to do it. She was 30 at the time she made To Each His Own and the part called for her to age from her Twneties to her Forties. When we first meet her she's a a rather unhappy middle aged spinster doing duty as an air raid warden in wartime London. She's an American expatriate who is a cosmetics queen though her factory has now been converted to war use. She meets up with dashing Roland Culver who's a titled earl doing the same work and her thoughts go back to her years as a kid during that first World War.

A romance with a dashing flier played by John Lund and she's left pregnant and no chance of married when he's killed in action. Illegitimate birth was a horrible situation back in the day, so Olivia gives up the child to friends Philip Terry and Mary Anderson. Still the maternal instincts can't be snuffed out and she intrudes in their lives as well as a friend of the family her own child refers to as an 'aunt'.

Of course the whole thing becomes impossible and Olivia eventually moves to London when her factory becomes British based. Still she never stops thinking about the child someone else is raising.

Playing Josephine Norris as a young girl was no stretch because that's what she was playing all those years at Warner Brothers. But the more difficult challenge and what got her the Oscar for Best Actress was the way Mitchell Leisen guided her through the many stages of life. That called for Olivia to draw from the wellsprings of talent and ability that she knew she had and couldn't convince Jack Warner of the same.

The film was aided at the box office by the popularity of the song To Each His Own. You will not hear a note of it in the film, but The Ink Spots and Tony Martin had best selling records that year, The Ink Spots version going to number one on that Hit Parade that Lucky Strike sponsored. In fact I'm sure the popularity of the song and the film aided each other.

To Each His Own also earned an Academy Award nomination for Charles Brackett for Best Original Story.

You watch this film and you wonder just what Jack Warner must have been thinking when Olivia DeHavilland's name was announced on Oscar night.

This is a beautifully acted and realized "soap" kind of mother love films, which done in 1946, has the ability to still bring down the toughest EVIL MEANIE to his or her knees. De Havilland is deserving of the Academy Award she won for her range and her excellence as a screen actress. She may not have come from the Method school of training or RADA but her varied performances which can quite literally be called a brilliant melange of characters in THE HEIRESS to SNAKE PIT in which she is as good as it gets in female roles. Charlie Brackett wrote a tight screenplay for what could have gone on for hours and the art direction and music all work along with one of those great supporting group of character actors of the day. All told, it is De Havilland's controlled and believable performance that make this a film a must see for the most hardened critic. Grown men will not admit to liking this film because it more than likely will bring a tear of two.....it is that good.

After having only seen Olivia de Havilland in 2 films (Gone With the Wind and In This Our Life) I could tell she was a very natural actress, gifted at convincing you she is who she plays onscreen. I became interested in her and purchased To Each His Own on a recent holiday to America. I didn't know what to expect except I knew she won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance of Jody Norris in this wonderful film. Olivia puts a lot of actresses to shame with her understated, technical and extremely moving portrayal of a small-town girl forced to give up the son she bore out-of-wedlock to the county's richest family. Jody sells the family business once her father dies and goes to New York to roll in the high life and become a successful business woman. 20 years later she sees her son once again, and he learns the truth. A masterful performance by Olivia de Havilland and fine supporting performances, particularly by Mary Anderson as Jody's son's adopted mother and Robert Culver as Jody's friend Lord Deshem. A fine film that will have you in giggles and tears. Give it a chance, you won't be disappointed.