#fred derry

Fred, who was part of a bomber crew, suffers from what we will later learn are recurring nightmares of a combat mission gone wrong; Peggy, either through instinct or because she works at a hospital (job unspecified) has encountered PTSD before, is able to comfort him and calm him, while later on we’ll find out that the other person who knows about his nightmares is not terribly sympathetic. I can only imagine that this scene in 1946 must have seemed very radical, because while I’ve seen a lot of contemporary WW2 films, this is only one of two I’ve seen which deals with PTSD sympathetically (oddly enough, the other also starred Dana Andrews, though he wasn’t the character who underwent the breakdown.) 

War made Fred much more than what he was before (a soda-jerk from the wrong side of town became an officer and a gentleman with money in his pockets and medals on his chest), but war also broke him and there are cracks where the pieces don’t quite fit. Fred is so stoic and taciturn about his war that even his father has to find out almost by accident what he got those medals for, and I love that the movie makes it clear that real men do cry :) 

This is the moment where Peggy starts to fall in love with Fred (who made a hasty marriage during his Air Force training); earlier in the evening, Peggy was amused by Fred’s desultory drunken efforts at flirtation, and she put him into her bed to sleep off the drink with a kind but impersonal efficiency. But here, Peggy (and the audience) can’t help but me moved by Fred’s vulnerability, and from that knowledge, what was a physical attraction that she wasn’t willing to do anything about (since Fred is married) turns into love. For his part, Peggy’s delicacy about the nightmares, and her sweetness, make a powerful impression on Fred as well.

It’s the ultimate hurt/comfort story (I love them :D) which only gets more painful from here because both Fred and Peggy are such decent, good people that the obstacles in their path truly do seem insurmountable and it’s painful to watch them try to do the right thing with regards to each other and their responsibilities: .