CEL Communications and Entertainment Limited
Hello and welcome to the Bill Collins Movie Collection and to a very special movie experience,
the David O. Selsnick production, Since You Went Away. He wrote the screenplay too and he chose John Cromwell to direct the film.
He saw it as a kind of jigsaw puzzle of many stories which had to be linked together to show us a whole year in the life of a family during World War II
when the father had gone away to the war, Since You Went Away.
And David O. Selsnick got the services of Max Steiner to compose a beautiful score and he included in his score the song Together.
This film has tremendous emotional impact and I think you're going to fall in love with it and want to see it again and again.
Claudette Colbert plays the mother. It's one of her most endearing parts. Her daughters are Jennifer Jones, who later married the producer, David O. Selsnick,
and Shirley Temple, who was enormously popular at this period, in fact the most popular star that Selsnick had in his collection of stars.
Shirley Temple, Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotton. At the same time he was making this film, he was also going to MGM to make Gaslight, would you believe.
He was a very busy man, Joseph Cotton, in 1944.
Hattie McDaniel, the beloved mammy of Gone With The Wind. What a star. Instantly you'll adore her and look for her every scene.
And here's a collection of interesting people. Can you spot Craig Stevens, who became Peter Gunn on television?
Can you see the silent star Nazimova? She'll move you to tears. Kenan Wynne smoking the pipe.
And in the foreground, Monty Woolley. You must remember the man who came to dinner.
And two special young people. The tragic Robert Walker. He didn't have a happy life, but he's beautifully cast with Jennifer Jones in Since You Went Away.
And here's Guy Madison in his movie, Debut. Since You Went Away, notice the music of Max Steiner and you'll begin falling in love with the picture.
Since You Went Away is a movie that I love again and again, and I'm sure you're going to as well.
And now David Ersel's nicks, Since You Went Away.
Such a lovely movie, Since You Went Away. I adore it and I hope you do too. You'll love it again and again, I'm sure.
By the way, did you notice who played the father? We didn't see him in the film, but it's quite a famous actor, Neil Hamilton.
Next time, take a look closely at the photograph of Neil Hamilton. And I'm sure you must have loved the music of Max Steiner with that lovely refrain, Together.
A film of many wonderful moments. And if you enjoyed Since You Went Away, I have another movie for you in the Bill Collins movie collection.
I'll Be Seeing You. It stars Joseph Cotton, Ginger Rogers and Shirley Temple. It's a poignant romantic drama. I think you'll love it.
Do you know this book? Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum. It made a great movie at MGM in the early 30s with Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, who's devastating, and Wallace Beery.
What a movie. You'll never forget this one. And here's another movie collection film, Mutiny on the Bounty, with Charles Lawton and Clark Gable locked in a historic conflict.
Lassie Come Home by Eric Knight. What a lovely film that is. Lassie Come Home with Roddy McDowell, Dolem Crisp, Dame May Whitty, Edmund Gwynne, of course, and Lassie.
And Elizabeth Taylor in a small part. The Garden of Allah by Robert Hitchens. The Garden of Allah, one of the first films ever made in Technicolor.
Produced by David O. Selznick and starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Elizabeth Taylor at her best with Paul Newman and Burl Ives. It's by Tennessee Williams.
And here's a great treasure. The Great Waltz with Louise Rayner, Fernand Gravet, and Melissa Cordius. Movies to Own and Treasure.
And they're $24.95 each. And the films of this Bill Collins movie collection are available from major department stores and selected video outlets.
CEL Communications and Entertainment Limited.