A Guy Named Joe

I finally watched this MGM film released in March of 1944. I’ve put off watching it because…well it was going to be a tear jerker and I have to be in a certain mood to watch a movie I know I will need a box of tissue to get through. But recently after finding letters written between 1943 and 1944 in the attic of my mother-in-laws house I felt this was the perfect time to watch and write about A Guy Named Joe. The letters tied up in a faded red ribbon in an old wooden box were written between my mother-in-law age 18 and her boyfriend Stanley age 21.
Being a Classic Hollywood kind of girl it was interesting for me to read the letters between these two as Stanley shared that his favorite song at that time The Dreamer sung by Dinah Shore and featured in the Warner Bros. movie Thank Your Lucky Stars(Sept. 1943) reminded him of Zelma. Zelma wrote to Stanley that she had been to the movies and had seen A Guy Named Joe and that the movie reminded her of him.
A Guy Named Joe was written by Dalton Trumbo, in the movie a British child hanging around the air base watching the fighter planes come in explains to his friends that ‘anyone that’s a right chap is a guy named Joe according to American slang’.
Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, one dead one alive are rivals in this film vying for the attention of Irene Dunne the girl that saves the day. What a perfect meaningful movie to watch on Memorial Day to remember the sacrifices made long ago for what we have today. A special shout out to Stanley who lost his life after the D-Day push July 18, 1944 and is buried with his band of brothers in St. Laurent, France. Gone but not forgotten!