L'Esclave du souvenir

Others here have already mentioned that Jane Russell was either miscast, or rose to the occasion playing this serious role. I was struck by how much she looked like an earlier obsession of Howard Hughes, Kate Hepburn.

If you think of Katharine playing Sylvia Scarlett, wearing a Fedora and kind of squint, it makes some sense. Jane has her hair pulled back and is barely made up. Her jawline is very similar too. Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. Is it an amazing portrayal? Not quite, but Jane is playing with some of Hollywood's best here, and she does pretty well. I'm fond of these "war at home" films, and this is good enough.

And Jane looks great. Too bad she didn't get more opportunities like this.

Jane Russell (Joan Kenwood) plays a young wife who has just lost her husband in the war. She goes through a range of emotions as she tries to deal with her loss and tries to find her place in life.

Jane was wonderful and handled a complex role like a Pro. Remember This was only her 2nd movie. You had the feeling she was a tried veteran. Mrs. Russell was made for the camera.

Louis Hayward Plays (Lt. Jim Cameron). He falls in love with Joan the moment he laid eyes on her. He soon finds out her tragic story. Louis was a great choice as the (new) man. They really worked well together. The inner play between the two was magical. This really was a well crafted motion picture, Well worth your time.

For some reason It has never been release to the public on VHS or DVD. I was able to get a copy from someone who had an original copy of the 35mm film. This movie needs to be made available!!!

Joan's deceased husband Barry was an aerial photographer. It is an odd twist that Louis Hayward, who plays Jim Cameron who hopes to become Barry's replacement, was a United States Marine combat photographer, and his work during the invasion of the Japanese-held island of Tarawa earned him a Bronze Star for courage under fire. It seems odd today to see someone offering a woman a cigarette and, when she says no, lighting up anyway without asking if she minds. Hayward smoked 80 a day and died of lung cancer at the age of 75.

Jane Russell looks lovely in this although there is something odd about her mouth when she speaks. I fell in love with her when I was taken to see Son of Paleface when I was six years old.

From the late 1930's until well after World War Two was over, the stories of women left behind as their men went off to war has been told. The best of the bunch "A Guy Named Joe" with Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunn, and Van Johnson, "Young Widow" isn't one of the best but it's not at the bottom either. Jane Russell broadens her acting range beyond playing the tough broad who has no time for male advances, in adding a soft vulnerable side. Louis Hayward plays her stalker/Love Interest doing all he can to break open the hard shell. It's just a tad ackward in having a British guy in a US Army Air Force uniform and flying a B-24, poor casting that doesn't work well. Dindbat Marie Wilson, Penny Singleton and Faith Domerque play housemates to Russell's character and they are the best, more comical, part of the film. It's not a bad film, it's watchable but it drags in places, the dialogue isn't great, and Russell's character broods far too much. It's as if the director and playwright regard the viewer are terribly slow forcing them to keep up the sad, moody and sour characterization for 3/4's of the picture or the folks won't understand. Check out Van Johnson in "The Miracle of the Rain" or "A Guy Named Joe" first, and then look for "Young Widow".

Young Widow was probably the first time that a lot of the movie-going public actually saw Jane Russell on the screen. With The Outlaw being pulled in and out of circulation for editing and reshooting, it was felt that she ought to do something to keep her name before the public. After all without a movie in circulation there was only so much The Outlaw and all the publicity around Jane's bosoms could do.

This was an independent film from producer Hunt Stromberg who normally worked at MGM. Which was the reason no doubt for the use of the song All Of A Sudden My Heart Sings as a theme which was introduced the year before by Kathryn Grayson in Anchors Aweigh.

But this United Artists film was a romance that was slow and sluggish and quite frankly Jane Russell didn't have the acting chops to pull it off. I could have seen someone like Teresa Wright doing this far better.

Russell is just that a young war widow who hasn't gotten over the death of her husband over Berlin. Despite that she's being given quite the rush by Louis Hayward another member of the Army Air Corps. Another rival is her boss, newspaper publisher Kent Taylor. But he's clearly running second throughout the film.

Though his name is nowhere to be seen, no doubt Howard Hughes was behind this film because of the presence of Faith Domergue in the cast who was another Hughes discovery. She's another widow trying to cope and turns to Russell for help. Given their respective chests the screen could barely contain them.

Jane would have to wait another two years for The Paleface, a really good and funny film to become a genuine movie star.