Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

LeonLouisRicci After the Vietnam War when returning vets started protesting and complaining, some WWII veterans were taken aback and called them whiners and cowards.One need only see this film to get it. Coming home from combat is not an easy thing, and yes, a number of good soldiers, after the Big War, had a very hard time adjusting to civilian life. This film is a very realistic portrayal of that unfortunate situation and pulls few punches. The tone is perfect and the performances are excellent. The "neat little bow" ending is abrupt and unconvincing and keeps this from being pure film-noir, but "til the end" it is one powerful presentation of the post-war predicament. A nod also must be given to the inclusion of a set-up to announce to ALL of America that it took a ALL kinds of Heroes to win the war. Catholics, Jews, Negroes and others...not just WASPS.That, after all, is a situation we still have to deal with and its victims are ever present.

dougdoepke No need to repeat the plot. That scene where Pat (McGuire) and Cliff (Madison) encounter the shell-shocked outpatient is genuinely disturbing. For a screenplay, that's a tough problem to treat in a single set-up. Pat's little anecdotal lesson works pretty well-- the soldier is relieved of his demons for the moment. But for how long, I wonder. And what will become of him, sitting alone, quaking, and afraid to go home. And how many others will come home like him. The script says the inner wounds will wear off eventually, but then it had to say something like that, otherwise the movie's hopeful tone would be compromised. And that would be counter to what the country needs following four years of horror. It' a decent, earnest movie, produced by the studio's (RKO) head honcho Dore Schary, so it's a prestige production. Looks like they took a gamble on an unknown Guy Madison in the lead role. He certainly looks the part—I can just about hear the echoing squeals of bobby- soxers even 60 years later. He does bring an earnestness that's refreshing, even if his range is pretty limited as the heavier scenes show. Newcomers Mitchum and the underrated Bill Williams also register, along with the dewy-eyed Dorothy McGuire before she became a favorite movie mom. But I especially like Jean Porter's vivacious teenager. It's really her Helen who projects the buoyant spirit of the coming consumer age.There were, of course, a number of these "adjustment" films as the country struggled with a return to normalcy. Where this movie excels is with the uncertainty of a recovering civilian world. Each main character is drifting as a result of the war. Each has been changed and must now work out how to fit back in. Then too, I like the rather ambivalent way the movie ends, avoiding easy solutions. There's one other sequence worth noting. The barroom brawl is both over-done and clumsily staged. Nonetheless, it makes an important point. Namely, that the war has changed society as well as individuals. A post-war America will be more inclusive than the traditional America. The logic appears to be that since it took everyone to win the war, no one should be excluded from the fruits. Given the civil rights movement soon to emerge, the movie thus proves prophetic. Too bad this worthy movie effort now seems so obscure. Despite the years, it remains an affecting look at a key period in American life and merits catching up with.(In passing—that's filmmaker Blake Edwards of Pink Panther fame as the shop foreman that Cliff tangles with, soon to become a screenwriter, and then an A-picture producer-director.)

bkoganbing Though Till The End Of Time boasted a hit song which filled the radio airwaves for months after the film was released, seen today it looks a whole lot like a dress rehearsal for The Best Years Of Our Lives. Not that it is a bad film, but Sam Goldwyn did so much better with a very similar plot involving three returning war veterans.In this case we're talking Marines, veterans of the Pacific Theater who have just come home and are trying to readjust to civilian life. At least Guy Madison is all in one piece. He meets up with attractive war widow Dorothy McGuire who's having a much harder time. Her late husband was a flier, the glamor job of the service and just about anyone else doesn't measure up. But Madison has one advantage, he's alive and McGuire is not getting any younger.Till The End Of Time was a followup film for Robert Mitchum who had just had his breakthrough role in The Story Of GI Joe. He plays Madison's best friend, the cowboy of Kwajalein, who talks about getting enough money together for a chicken ranch in New Mexico, but just can't quite get around to ending the partying from being discharged. Mitchum got the most notice from this film and this cemented his number one status at RKO for years.Like The Best Years Of Our Lives this film dealt with three veterans and the third is Bill Williams, later television's Kit Carson, who is a double amputee. Not much call for prize fighters which he was before the war with no legs. Selena Royle is particularly touching in her role as Williams's mother.The acclaim this film got was drowned out by the Goldwyn masterpiece which ironically enough was also released by RKO. But besides Mitchum's performance, the title theme from this picture was a big record hit in 1946. Adapted from Chopin's Polonaise by Ted Mossman and Buddy Kaye, Till The End Of Time gave Perry Como one of his earliest gold records just as he was breaking out as a singer. Doris Day also had a big seller with the Les Brown band.A lot of the plot elements from The Best Years Of Our Lives are found in this film. Served up nicely, but not quite the same flavor, still tasty though.

halmp-1 To compare a mini-gem such as Till the End of Time with the hugely promoted, star-studded Best Years of Our Lives -- the film that, historically, often is regarded as the screen icon for the re-adjusting soldiers' genre -- is like comparing Ray Robinson or Roberto Duran with Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano.The same way that Robinson and Duran were, pound-for-pound, on the same level with their larger, heavier, stronger counterparts, Till the End of Time -- "pound-for-pound" -- is right with its larger, more celebrated celluloid counterpart.While Best Years, with its flashiness of celebrated cast (i.e. Frederick March, Myrna Loy), is much more expansive, Time expertly utilizes a small-scale, more focused look at the returning-soldier theme.As the proverbial slice-of-life, Time not only is more easily palatable for viewers, it also is quite accurate in the depiction of its conceptions and characterizations.The primary characters created by Guy Madison, Robert Mitchum and Bill Williams---as the returning World War II veterans -- and Dorothy McGuire, as the mildly cynical war widow with whom Madison's Cliff Harper becomes infatuated, are outstanding portrayals. Yes, Madison's sensitive performance in his first key role was effective, regardless of the less-than-sterling reviews traditionally given by critics.Fetching, twenty-year old Jean Porter, as the adorably saucy bobby-soxer who likewise is infatuated with Harper, also is quite effective.Excellent character performances are given by: Tom Tully and Ruth Nelson, as Harper's parents; Selena Royale, as the mother of Williams' Perry Kincheloe; and Bill Gargan, as the veterans' representative.Director Edward Dmytryk expertly orchestrates the film, which captures the unique flavor of its time frame as if it were bottling a rare wine.Though "Best Years" deserves much of its traditional praise, do not overlook "Time" simply because its focus is smaller. "Pound-for-pound" it is at least as good. Possibly even better.