The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947)

The Guilt of Janet Ames: Directed by Henry Levin. With Rosalind Russell, Melvyn Douglas, Sid Caesar, Betsy Blair. An obsessively bitter war widow and one of the men her husband saved in WW2 meet. He tries to convince her the sacrifice was necessary, but her problem isn’t that simple. And can she help him with his wartime emotional scars he hides with alcohol?

“Iu0026#39;m afraid that for one to appreciate The Guilt Of Janet Ames one would have to have seen the Gary Cooper film Peter Ibbetson which came out from Paramount a dozen years earlier. I think that in 1947 there were probably newnadult moviegoers who did not get the reference.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBased on a Daphne DuMaurier novel Peter Ibbetson is the story of a paralyzednand imprisoned man who meets and has a whole life with his true love through dreams.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn this film Rosalind Russell plays an embittered war widow. Her husband was killed by jumping on a live grenade and saving five others around him.nRussell feels that none of these people could have been worthy of the sacrifice he made that got him the Congressional Medal Of Honor. She resolves to meet them all to confirm her suspicion.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne of them is Melvyn Douglas who has become quite an alcoholic since hisnwar service. He was the editor of a newspaper and a crusading journalist before the war. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRussell gets hit by a car and his name is found in her pocket along with thenother four. Nothing too serious in physical injuries, but she has a hystericalnparalysis now. Douglas is sent for when they find the scrap of paper and nheu0026#39;s known to the hospital staff.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eKnowing who she is, but her not knowing him, Douglas stimulates her imagination and she discovers what the others could be like with some small bits of information. The fantasy scenes are really quite good, thenbest being a young Sid Caesar in a standup routine about psychologicalnfilms of which this is surely one. Thinking of the recently released Spellbound, I wonder what Alfred Hitchcock must have thought when hensaw Caesaru0026#39;s routine. Itu0026#39;s worth seeing the film for that alone.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the end Russell and Douglas learn a good deal about each other and themselves. The Guilt Of Janet Ames is not on par with a film like Spellbound, but it does have its moments and the stars acquit themselves well.”