Konterr Brilliant and touching

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

JohnHowardReid The advantages and disadvantages of television's bill of divorcement from history and chronology are very evident on a recent viewing of Homecoming. It doesn't matter much anymore that the film re-unites Gable and Turner who literally set the screen afire on their previous outing, "Somewhere III Find You", six years earlier. The romance is strong, but much more muted. Turner doesn't come on for at least half-an-hour and it's an equal length of time after that before the first silhouetted embrace. All that doesn't matter any more. Nor is it worth knowing that contemporary critics poured scorn on the movie, whereas the public loved it. What we have now is only the movie itself - divorced from history, from all the cries of studio publicity, from the derision of contemporary reviewers, and even from the word-of-mouth of acquaintances and friends.Actually, the film stands up rather well. True, the story is as artificially ' contrived as they come, but I found it both moving and engrossing - despite the feeling that it is scripted and directed with occasional too-obvious clumsiness and heavy-handedness. Gable is excellent - a strongly charismatic personality, playing with conviction and sincerity. Turner - in what is undoubtedly her least glamorous role - plays with unusual naturalness and professionalism. It is probably the most convincing performance of her career. The character is well-written. By contrast, Baxter seems artificial and too sweet. Hodiak makes the most of his big scene with Gable early in the film (effectively shot all in one take), but thereafter - like most of the support players who exist merely to provide cues and background - has little to do.All in all, "Homecoming" is big-budget screen entertainment - directed and produced with considerable style and expertise - that wears rather well, thanks to the magnetism of its stars, the appositeness of its dialogue and the realities of its plot.

Neil Doyle HOMECOMING was an enormously popular MGM hit when released because Gable and Turner gave it tremendous box-office power. But the majority of the reviews were pretty scathing. Yet, the public ran eagerly to see it.I tend to agree with the critics on this one. "Nothing more than a cheap, synthetic chunk of romance designed to exploit two gaudy stars," said Bosley Crowther in The N.Y. Times. "Pretends to be serious about serious things--war and medicine in particular." But my favorite comment came from another critic of a lesser paper who wrote: "Since they are two glamorous people, theirs is a glamorous war--in battle, in bombings, in death, there is no real agony, or ugliness or heartache. Even the mud in HOMECOMING looks slick and unreal, like it passed an MGM screen test." My reaction was pretty similar. I see this kind of romantic war movie as a chance to get CLARK GABLE and LANA TURNER in a heavy-handed chance at dramatics that supposedly pulls the heart strings while the good little wife ANNE BAXTER stays behind on the homefront worrying that her husband will have changed too much for their marriage to stay intact.Turner actually does do a fine job in her death scene, but the whole story just seems like a contrivance to give two very popular studio stars the chance to romance against a background of World War II, as they did a few years earlier in SOMEWHERE I'LL FIND YOU.No matter. Of course Lana's fans are going to see her in anything--ditto for Gable--and they were certainly the target audience for this kind of pulp romance.

bkoganbing As a rule I'm not much into romantic films, but there are exceptions and Homecoming is one of them. Clark Gable and Lana Turner did four films together and this is the third one. It's Turner's show here. It's a great tribute to her charisma and star quality that she looks incredibly sexy in those army fatigues she has to wear as per the plot. Lana Turner in heryounger days had a quality of winsomeness that was never showcased than when she plays Jane "Snapshot" McCall, idealistic army nurse.In this cynical age we would look with incredulity that a widow with a young son would follow her late husband off to war because his ideals became her ideals. Yet Turner makes you believe that in this film.The plot is simply Clark Gable, very successful doctor in a small mid-west city, goes to World War II basically because its expected of him. He's a self centered guy, nice home, loving wife played very well by Anne Baxter, all the material things you could want and not a clue about why we are in World War II. He has a fellow physician friend, John Hodiak who does a lot of pro bono public service work who tries to act as a conscience, but fails. I guess Turner had something to offer Hodiak didn't. At first Dr. Ulysses Johnson (Gable) and Nurse McCall don't hit it off after she's assigned to him as a nurse. But her beauty and idealism get to him he falls for her big time. Because its 1948 Hollywood and Anne Baxter is by no means a bad person there was no way Turner was going to wind up with Gable in the end. She has to die, but Turner is given a death scene that is one of the most moving in the history of film. You have to be made of stone not to be touched by her and Gable at her bedside.John Hodiak, a very talented and almost forgotten figure today is also terrific as Gable's friend Dr. Robert Sunday. Gable will be working with Hodiak at the clinic Hodiak has in a poor neighborhood and he will be doing it because of the social conscience Turner has instilled in him. There are no bad people in this film except the Nazis shooting at Gable Turner and the rest of Eisenhower's army.I believe this is Lana Turner's best film and fans of her's should not miss this one.

spirit11 I found the film quite engaging, but as a M*A*S*H fan, I couldn't help but notice how many times plot lines from this movie showed up in the series.1) Hawkeye and Hotlips caught under fire trying to get back to their unit, and winding up in the clinches? Gable and Turner did it first. 2) Henry Blake dying suddenly on his return home? No return home, but an unexpected attack on a hospital unit leaves the commander dead. 3) BJ's first time in the unit, and how it made him sick? Gable's first day in the unit, and the wear and tear on him. 4) Hotlips? Snapshot. 5) BJ wanting to tell his wife about "straying", but talked out of it by Hawkeye? Gable DID tell his wife. 6) Hawkeye's buddy the writer, dying on the table in front of Hawkeye? Monk, Gable's delivery man from home, dying in front of him.It's a good movie, and well written. And I think Gable and Turner were great. You can probably find more links to M*A*S*H than I did!