To Each His Own (1946) is a hidden gem I hope all classic film lovers and lovers of good film no matter what genre or year get the pleasure of experiencing. I had never heard of it but DVR'd it awhile ago and have watched it several times now savoring the experience with each viewing. I have been completely captivated and transported by Olivia de Havilland's outstanding performance. I'm so grateful she won the Oscar. I've seen The Heiress and she deserved that one, too, but this film is, to me, even better as a whole. The love story is so sweet yet passionately portrayed for the times. Her devotion to the child and making her life's work such a success so that she can care for him is admirable. She's a tough woman that flashbacks to all that made that tough exterior, but the interior is all love and devotion. I have this on two lists for "Unexpected Favorites" and "Favorite Endings," but I need to make some more lists because this belongs on great performances, great films, etc... I don't want to give too much plot away as I don't want to spoil this for anyone. If you are reading this and have yet to see this movie, especially if you are a mother and, especially, a mother of sons like I am, I recommend this movie and wish you the best as you experience a masterpiece!

Believing she wasn't getting kind of roles she wanted at Warner Brothers, Olivia de Havilland sued the studio to get out of her contract and for several years didn't appear in films. Olivia finally won her suit, and this film, "To Each His Own" was her first for Paramount Pictures; and it is a gem of movie. Olivia plays Jody Norris, and she performs the role from a young naive woman to a somewhat hardened middle-aged one. The film is told in flashbacks; we first see an older Jody living in London during World War II. Jody had a son some 20 years earlier out of wedlock by a young pilot who is later killed. Because it was scandalous to be an unwed mother at the time, she concocts a scheme to have her baby raised by a wealthy couple (Mary Anderson and Philip Terry) in town. The scheme backfires on her, and they adopt the boy. Jody goes on to acquire wealth, but she always longs for her son. She gets the chance when the young man (John Lund) is stationed in London. The ending is slightly predictable, but what saves this film from becoming overly sentimental and sappy (although it is a tear-jerker) is the fine performance of Olivia de Havilland. The script is great, and the subject of unwed pregnancy is actually handled in a mature manner for 1946. There are some fine supporting performances of note, particularly Mary Anderson, playing Corrine, the neurotic woman who adopts her son. John Lund plays a dual role, that of Jody's lover and later her grown son. He does a fine job. Roland Culver is good as Lord Desham, a new love interest for Jody. A fine old Hollywood film, made the way they used to make them!

Although I don't think To Each His Own is as good as Olivia DeHavilland's other Oscar winner The Heiress or as good as the film she lost for in between these two, The Snake Pit, To Each His Own was the film that Olivia finally came into her own as an actress. She also showed Jack Warner a thing or two about type casting.The story of To Each His Own is very much like something that Olivia's friend from Warner Brothers, Bette Davis, might have done. Bette won and was nominated multiple times for films like these and it's the stuff that Olivia badly wanted to do and was thwarted by Jack Warner who could only see her as the clinging leading lady to some dashing hero like Errol Flynn.This film is all Olivia and she's the right age to do it. She was 30 at the time she made To Each His Own and the part called for her to age from her Twneties to her Forties. When we first meet her she's a a rather unhappy middle aged spinster doing duty as an air raid warden in wartime London. She's an American expatriate who is a cosmetics queen though her factory has now been converted to war use. She meets up with dashing Roland Culver who's a titled earl doing the same work and her thoughts go back to her years as a kid during that first World War.A romance with a dashing flier played by John Lund and she's left pregnant and no chance of married when he's killed in action. Illegitimate birth was a horrible situation back in the day, so Olivia gives up the child to friends Philip Terry and Mary Anderson. Still the maternal instincts can't be snuffed out and she intrudes in their lives as well as a friend of the family her own child refers to as an 'aunt'.Of course the whole thing becomes impossible and Olivia eventually moves to London when her factory becomes British based. Still she never stops thinking about the child someone else is raising.Playing Josephine Norris as a young girl was no stretch because that's what she was playing all those years at Warner Brothers. But the more difficult challenge and what got her the Oscar for Best Actress was the way Mitchell Leisen guided her through the many stages of life. That called for Olivia to draw from the wellsprings of talent and ability that she knew she had and couldn't convince Jack Warner of the same.The film was aided at the box office by the popularity of the song To Each His Own. You will not hear a note of it in the film, but The Ink Spots and Tony Martin had best selling records that year, The Ink Spots version going to number one on that Hit Parade that Lucky Strike sponsored. In fact I'm sure the popularity of the song and the film aided each other.To Each His Own also earned an Academy Award nomination for Charles Brackett for Best Original Story.You watch this film and you wonder just what Jack Warner must have been thinking when Olivia DeHavilland's name was announced on Oscar night.

As an unreserved fan of Olivia de Havilland I have to say that this was not her best film despite the fact that she acted her role brilliantly and won an Academy Award for it. I genuinely believe the film was let down by a very average supporting cast, not the least of whom was the very forgettable John Lund. Only Bill Goodwin, Roland Culver and Mary Anderson gave suitable support. The story line today seems very unbelievable, but stood up very well in the Forties. Mitchell Leisen did an excellent job of directing, and the aging of Olivia as Josephine Norris was very good. Her acting as a young beautiful girl( smitten with a flier) to the somewhat frustrated middle-aged woman was quite brilliant - the make-up was good and made the transition very believable. When one compares Miss de Havilland with her performances in "The Snake Pit" amd "The Heiress", I find it hard to believe she did not end up with 3 Oscars!