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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.

First, let me say I'm in awe of the previous reviewers and their spot-on knowledge of this film and Olivia de Havilland's body of work. Bravo, and thank you for pointing me towards this "hidden" treasure.

So allow me to confirm that this "small" 1946 movie is still riveting fare in 2010. The subject matter is just as relevant today and will speak to women for generations to come. In that regard, its forever timeless.

Filmed in b&w, and happily so, though 7 years newer than "The Wizard of Oz"... I'm still waiting for them to colorize the rest of that bloated Saturday matinée flick. *s* Tune in next time when I attack "Gone with the Wind," "Casablanca" and "Citizen Kane."

This film dealt with a delicate subject in a frank and realistic manner. I'm particularly impressed by the way this movie was story-boarded. It flowed brilliantly. If shot today, it would be shoved in my face, every stinkin' detail, nothing left to the imagination... plenty of yelling, smashing dishes and cussing.

Equally impressive is Ms. de Havilland's Oscar-winning performance. I couldn't take my eyes off her. When the movie took her back 20 years younger, my mouth dropped.

But it was much more than the make-up. It was Olivia.

Happy ending or sad? not telling. I'll reveal this, though. This 55 year old man doesn't typically cry at weddings or funerals, but by the closing credits, both cheeks were wet. But then maybe its because she reminds me of my mother, 1933-1981.

Search out this gem.

I found this web site so I could find this movie! This story was so captivating and Olivia's performance was so endearing that I was glued to the television at 2am and didn't care! For those of you who love the tales of tragic love denied and then bestowed - this is one of the best kept secrets of classic movies.

To Each His Own covers more than twenty years in the life of Josephine "Jody" Norris (Olivia DeHavilland), a successful American-born businesswoman now working in London as an air raid warden. Jody thinks back to an earlier time in her life when she had fallen in love with a handsome WWI fighter pilot named Bart Cosgrove (John Lund, in his motion picture debut). Shortly after she becomes pregnant by Cosgrove, Jody learns he has been killed in action. To avoid public scandal, she concocts a scheme to keep her child, but it backfires. Her son, who becomes a fighter pilot like his late father, doesn't know who his real mother is. But Jody's confidante, Lord Desham (Roland Culver, in a wonderfully understated performance), does, and he believes it's his duty to right the situation. A superior soap opera, the film is deftly directed by Mitchell Leisen and features restrained, impressive performances by the entire cast. For her efforts as Jody, deHavilland won the 1946 Oscar for Best Actress. Victor Young's music is never overbearing, and Charles Brackett and Jacques Thery's screenplay is wise and intelligently written.