Are These What We Were Fighting For?
September and October 1943 were deep in the war. An end was not in sight, and who knew how long we'd fight? A movie to be relevant had to address the conflict somehow. That would change as audiences got sick of war in every reel, but for now, all eyes and hearts were focused on victory and how it might be achieved. Features not dwelling on the struggle were often held back from release pending outcome of the war, a glut caused by popular product enjoying longer than ever runs. Heaven Can Wait was an Ernst Lubitsch comedy in period dress, being topical to gas-lit era and no time else. So what did this have to do with winning the war, asked 20th's institutional ad published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer? "A nation that can laugh is a nation that will win," was Fox answer, "Buy More Bonds!" a footnote, along with names of Fox personnel in uniform (John Ford among them). And lest our fighting force be ignored, we're assured that they too will enjoy Heaven Can Wait at far-flung battlefronts. Claudia stands for a homefront defended, fresh-face Dorothy McGuire the sort of girl waiting for warriors to return. Claudia was a stage-derived, bucolic-set domestic comedy as far away from battle tension as it was possible to be. Maybe that had something to do with the show's success, and immediate demand for a sequel. Note upcoming Fox product touted in both ads, including the never made One World, to be produced by Zanuck and based on Wendell Willkie's "great book."
