Sans ton amour

Strange Film with a blond floozy type (Loretta Young) getting ready to marry a gangster, though she's not aware of it.

With the evidence in her purse, she is arrested and sent to prison. Once out (but on parole) she works as a nurse's aide and falls for a troubled patient (Jeff Chandler).

Chandler's psyche being on the delicate side, she doesn't tell him about her past. After a few years of marriage and a child, the old boyfriend is released from prison and abducts her and her daughter.

He is caught, and her husband disowns her and doesn't allow her contact with the child.

I'm the biggest sucker there is, but this film became a little too cloying, even for me, as it continued.

The cast was good though I didn't care much for the daughter. I love Loretta, so I didn't consider this a waste.

Nothing can be confirmed about the true events regarding Loretta, Clark Gable, and their daughter, Judy. Loretta and Clark had an affair and Loretta went to a lot of trouble to keep anyone from knowing she had an affair or a child conceived from said affair. How it pertains to this film in my learned opinion is interesting. Loretta plays a parent who is forced out of her daughter's life but whose love bridges all adversity and she never stops loving and trying to get back into her daughter's life. It is said that Clark met Judy once and never saw her again. This happened sometime around 1950 when Clark and Loretta made "Key to the City". Was Loretta bothered that Clark saw his daughter once and that's all he wanted? Notably, "Because of You" was released in 1952 and not long after "Key to the City". In this film, Loretta is seen as a parent who could not possibly mirror what Clark was as a father to Judy. Loretta is as prim and proper as she always was during this period. After the first couple of scenes, that open the film, have her as a blond and dating a gangster. She is not exactly playing against type when she's doing that for barely the first 5 minutes. If she meets bad luck after that, the viewer is led to believe it's just her past and happenstance that she is meeting bad luck. She is still seen as proper and "holier than thou". In the past several years, her family has claimed that her affair with Clark was really a date rape and that's how she got pregnant. We(the public) are getting fed that when those events happened nearly a century ago. This is a message film to me and a drama. Not a very good one and made to make Loretta's character appear as the ultimate loving parent. Her co-star's character, played ably by Jeff Chandler, is nothing more than secondary. He probably took the part so he could play the male lead in a romantic saga for the first time. His celluloid career was just beginning but was later cut short by his unfortunate premature death. The drama is flimsy at best and I could write a better screenplay in less than 2 hours. I would guess Loretta, as a big shot long time movie star, got someone to snap up a story like this in no time. And to get it produced and filmed. I think she is indirectly slandering Clark Gable as a father and if Clark saw "Because of You", I'm sure he was aware of this fact. I think he may have had only one meeting with his daughter is really because of mom(Loretta). I hope what happened between that couple and their daughter goes away. We don't need to hear from the estate of that family(Loretta Young's) down the line about the relationship that Clark Gable and Loretta Young had anymore. Loretta saving face for nearly a century after Judy was born has become a tremendous bore. I recommend other films Loretta made that don't have her playing the world's greatest and most loving mother in the history of mankind. Class is dismissed.

Have you ever watched a film where one of the main characters was just too dumb to be believable? Sure, in a comedy such as "Talladega Nights" you expect this...but not in a drama like "Because of You"!

When the story begins, Christine (Loretta Young) is engaged to a sleazy man. When he gets arrested, she is arrested as well...though she is innocent. Regardless, she's sent to prison. While inside, she is trained as a nurse's assistant and upon release, she gets a job at a hospital...all the while on parole. During the course of her duties, she falls in love with a wounded vet who is suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. He is a swell guy but emotionally fragile...and she doesn't tell him about her past. She also agrees to marry him...but does so in Mexico so her parole officer doesn't know.

Years pass and she's been off parole most of this time. Her life is great and her new husband, Steve (Jeff Chandler), is not just a nice guy but is quite rich. However, when her old scummy boyfriend returns, her life is suddenly in chaos....and, once again, Christine says and does the wrong thing. This is a HUGE problem in the picture...as again and again, Christine make terrible choices...and dumb ones at that. So many that I found her character annoying and it detracted from the movie. And, believe it or not, there is STILL a lot more to the film after all this.

While I was not impressed with Young's performance (she was WAY too passive to be believable), Chandler's performance, especially when he learned the truth, was amazingly good. I also though the film went on too long...as the big confrontation scene between the couple occurred too early...and the impact of this seemed muted because of this.

Expectations were mixed here before watching 'Because of You'. The subject did intrigue somewhat, though with and do like Loretta Young in other things, always watchable and more and with a long and versatile career. Jeff Chandler too, another actor that died too young tragically with more to give, especially in 'Broken Arrow'. Haven't seen enough of Joseph Pevney's work it has to be admitted, personally am more familiar with him in support acting roles.

Do sadly have to agree with everybody else here regarding 'Because of You'. It has its good things but on the whole it didn't do it for me for reasons said very well already. It is a good representation for Chandler, who apparently considered it his personal favourite of the films he made (can actually name better myself, 'Broken Arrow' included). Not so much an against type Young, good to see a different side to her but the way her character is written lets her down.

'Because of You' has two particularly good things. One is the photography, which is both beautiful to watch and atmospheric. In fact, 'Because of You' is a well made film visually, as the costuming is also true to period and elegant and the settings expansive enough without being overblown, the atmosphere is also present in the lighting. The other particularly good thing is Chandler, who to me was excellent. Especially when he learns the truth agreed, some very intensely moving acting there.

Frank Skinner's score has some suitably haunting moments that fits well and doesn't make the mistake of being melodramatic like most of the rest of the film's components. The highlights dramatically being the big confrontation (which agreed should have happened much later and the film ended with it) and when Steve finds out the truth, the only scenes really to ring true.

In a film that is badly let down by its overwrought soap-opera-heavy and nonsensical story, with too many credibility straining scenes and a very drawn out and not particularly necessary final third. Personally actually thought 'Because of You' did get too maudlin, the sentimentality was hard to stomach and hard to believe in the daughter encounter especially. None of the supporting cast stand out in underwritten roles and Pevney's direction is as soggy as watery cucumber sandwiches.

Really didn't care for the characters, only feeling sorry for Steve in one scene. Not only because they were dull but also because they frequently made decisions that were stupid, came out of nowhere and made little or no sense. While it was admirable that Young played against type here, to me she was very bland (her looks were sensual but her acting wasn't) and suffered the worst from how badly the characters were written, far too passive and quite silly. The script is both under-cooked in depth and overwrought in the delivery of the excessive soapiness it frequently suffers from, it never sounds natural either.

All in all, very conflicted here. 5/10

The film is nothing but fluff--not even enjoyable fluff. I watched this film because I'm a fan of Loretta Young. It's a bit of a soap-opera and the plot is so unbelievable it's laughable. I found myself laughing at how silly the story was because it didn't make much sense. I found Chandler's character to be a bit annoying. He was always butt-hurt at something Young's character did or didn't do. What a cry baby!