To Each His Own: A Review

TO EACH HIS OWN

To Each His Own is a very daring film for the times. The film centers around an illegitimate birth, a downright scandalous subject in 1946. To Each His Own is sadly not remembered. If it is remembered, it is because Olivia de Havilland won her first of two Best Actress Oscars for it. That is a terrible shame, for To Each His Own is a beautiful and moving film.  

The London Blitz has brought together two disparate people as air raid wardens: British Lord Desham (Robert Culver) and American expatriate and businesswoman Jody Norris (de Havilland). She is brittle and aloof. Jody is bossy and does not like being bossed. None of this, however, dissuades Lord Desham from finding her attractive. Jody is cool and dismissive, expressing no excitement at a potential romance. She does show excitement, however, for one thing. Gregory Piersen (John Lund), an Air Force pilot she knows from her hometown, is coming to London. Jody even bumps into Gregoy's fiancée, British girl Liz Lorimer (Virginia Welles), at the train station. Jody remembers Gregory or Griggsy as she nicknamed him, when she was his nanny. 

Jody is also his birth mother.

We go into her memories as they wait at the station. Jody was the local beauty, attracting all sorts of attention. She is squired by enthusiastic traveling salesman Mac Tilton (Bill Goodwin) and Alec Piersen (Phillip Terry), scion of the local bigwig. Jody delights in the male attention but won't commit to either. Then along comes Captain Bart Cosgrove (Lund in a dual role). A World War I flying ace, the town makes a big show of having this Lindbergh-like figure here. Bart is instantly attracted to Jody. For once, she reciprocates. 

A whirlwind secret romance develops. Captain Cosgrove knows the dangers of early aviation, but that will not dissuade him from the skies. It will not dissuade Jody either. They spend an unseen night of passion, and Jody gets knocked up. She discovers this when she consults a doctor who tells her that she needs surgery, which would cost her the baby. When she learns that Cosgrove has been killed in a flying accident, Jody opts to have her child in secret. She then plans to adopt her own son and tries to pull a fast one with the "baby left on her doorstep" routine. Sadly, her frenemy Corinne Piersen (Mary Anderson) has just lost her own baby. Alec, who had gone on to marry Corrine, pushes Jody to let them have this "unwanted child". Jody manages to see her son on Thursdays and every other Sunday. Eventually, Jody reveals the truth, but Corrine won't give her son up.

Despondent and with her own father dead, Jody moves away and reunites with Mac, who is now a bootlegger using the fictitious Lady Vyvyan Cosmetics as a front. To his surprise, the cops get wise to this scheme. Hurriedly, Jody takes the Lady Vyvyan line and, using her skills, transforms it into a lucrative and legitimate business. She also uses her fortune to try and take Griggsy by force. Jody uses Alec's financial troubles as leverage to try and get Greg back. This blows up in her face, and now facing the truth, sadly lets him go. Now, with Greg facing the same fate as his birth father, will Jody be able to both help and be with her long-lost son?

To Each His Own is a solid weepy, the type that would emotionally move all but the hardest hearts. Right off the bat, To Each His Own indicates that this is a deeply moving film of a mother's love thanks to Victor Young's score. As the film continues, the audience cannot help feeling for Jody's plight. 

One thing that is surprising is how Jody's premarital sex and pregnancy are handled. We do have some acknowledgment of the times. After giving birth out-of-town, Jody attempts to pass herself off as a widow. The nurse Daisy Gingras (Victoria Horne) is not fooled. "You've sinned. You'll pay for it all the rest of your life", she tells her. However, what is surprising is that Horne does not deliver this line in a harsh or condemning tone. Instead, Daisy tells Jody this very matter-of-factly, with no sharpness whatsoever. Daisy is clearly an old hand at these "birthing widows", but she does not judge. She merely points out to Jody, not directly but with understanding, that Jody opting to be a single mother has social and moral repercussions. 

It is a credit to Charles Brackett's screen story (with a screenplay by Brackett and Jacques Thery) that the issue of illegitimate birth is both in the open and without any sense of sensationalism. It is handled in quite an intelligent way. I cannot remember if the suggestion of abortion was there. My sense is that such a thing would be totally unacceptable due to the Hays Code. However, we know that Jody must either have surgery or keep the baby. This might have been a way to get around the suggestion of abortion.

To Each His Own also does well in not portraying Jody as a longsuffering saint. She joins forces with a bootlegger. That is her lesser crime. A large part of an admittedly long film is her efforts to try and buy Gregory. She uses Alec's dire straits to cajole Corinne into basically selling her child. Jody is so blinded with the idea of having her biological son back that she does not care or think how it will affect him.

As an adopted child, Gregory already feels unwanted. Jody does not think on how Greg has grown up knowing Alec and Corinne as his parents. Jody does not think that both of them have been good parents, loving and nurturing to Gregory. She might not even care. It is only when Jody sees how miserable and despondent Gregory is despite his lavish settings that she realizes how wrong she is.

Jody attempts to justify her actions by pointing out that she is Gregory's mother. "Just bringing a child into the world doesn't make you that!" Corinne angrily replies. Jody sees that painful truth. As much as she may have loved Bart, and may love the idea of being Gregory's mother, she was never in a place to be the latter. 

One feels for the unfortunate series of circumstances working against Jody. This is due to Olivia de Havilland's performance. She opens up hard and defensive. However, as To Each His Own continues, we see how Jody was playful, flirtatious and fun. She has great rapport with Griff Barnett as her father Daniel. "Don't let them wait too long", he advises his only child. "What started out as love might wind up as diabetes". De Havilland and Lund have a great scene when he tells her about the reality and danger of flying. Throughout the film, de Havilland makes Jody into someone who loves deeply but not well. Her final scene will be deeply moving to the viewer. 

Gregory and Liz are desperate to get married before he goes off to battle again. Unfortunately, his pass gives him no time to fulfill the 15-day waiting period for a marriage license. At the swanky nightclub that Lord Desham takes Jody, Greg and Liz to, His Lordship surprises them with someone ready to marry Greg and Liz. He has used his influence to get Greg and Liz an exemption. This has already moved Jody. However, at the impromptu wedding dance, Gregory asks Jody to dance. It will be hard not to shed at least one tear at this moment.

To Each His Own has many strong performances. I was surprised at how I did not dislike John Lund given that I find him generally stiff and dull. To be fair, his dual roles do not ask much of him. However, he handled both roles well. Mary Anderson was spared from playing the wicked woman stealing Jody's baby. She was at times unsympathetic to downright nasty. However, she was also given moments of tragedy, such as when she is vaguely aware that her own baby had died. 

I find it tragic that To Each His Own and Olivia de Havilland's Oscar-winning performance have pretty much been forgotten. It is a terrible shame given that To Each His Own is a solid melodrama. It also went probably further in pushing against the Hays Code than I think has been recognized. A film that should be better known, To Each His Own is one that I think audiences will remember if they ever get a chance to see it. 

DECISION: A+