Review of Today We Live

Despite often being maligned for its sometimes wooden acting and dialogue, and somewhat choppy screenplay, I enjoyed this adaptation of William Faulkner's story "Turnabout", which lacked the leading female character played by Joan Crawford, with her big soulful eyes, during the peak of her physical beauty. She has 3 handsome leading men to interact with, in Gary Cooper, future husband for a spell: Franchot Tone, and Robert Young. Three of these 4 stars were supposed to be Brits, although none spoke with a British accent or lingo. Coop was the cast American exception. Interestingly, his given name is Bogard(not 't'), sometimes referred to as Bogey, as was up and coming actor Humphry Bogart, when not acting. Coop's character has an awkward dual identity. For some obscure reason, this American is brought over to England, to run the estate of Joan's recently deceased father, which includes Joan, who moves to the guest house. He also is a pilot, and soon joins the RAF as a bomber pilot.......... I wasn't aware that there were multi-crewed bombers in WWI, which became more numerous and sophisticated as the war dragged on. In addition to bombs, they also sported several machine guns, usually pointing in various directions. I also learned that the Brits had small torpedo boats: rather primitive precursors to the PT boats of WWII. One of these would play a role in the climactic scene, near the end, when Tone and Young were blown up along with a German warship, in an effort to spare Cooper from being shot down in a similar attempt to sink this German ship.......... Upon his arrival, Joan's character soon fell in love with Cooper. But, then, she received a notice that he had been killed in a training accident. Thus, she promised to marry Young's character, who had been a family friend since they were small. But then, taking a cue from "Too Many Husbands", Coop showed up, saying he was only wounded. Now, Joan's character has a dilemma. Which is eventually solved by default, when Young's character is killed by his torpedo. Prior to this, he had somehow been rendered blind in launching a torpedo in a prior incident. He didn't want Joan's character to feel an obligation to consummate a marriage with him, in his disabled condition(a similar situation occurred in the later "Pride of the Marines"). Thus, he and Joan's brother, played by Tone, played heroes in sacrificing themselves so that Coop, whom Young felt Joan more loved, would likely live. ........ I more enjoyed the second half, which emphasized combat scenes and background, as opposed to the preliminaries of the first half.......... Character actor Roscoe Karus is also often involved in scenes, especially in the second half. ........... Tone would also participate in Joan's other film released in 1933: "Dancing Lady", with long time lover Clark Gable, and they would eventually marry. But, it didn't last, as they had too little in common, Tone being a 'blue blood' Yankee.