this be a deeply move story with superb act although i do not reach for the kleenex . i would call it a very difficult lesson in life to be learn and about let go of the past and thinking of present value and the future instead reach forward to the positive in life and release the past something not everyone be prepare to do . it be of a young couple and elizabeth and john ( claudette colbert and orson welles ) and who be abruptly part by the duty of john service in the first war . he be injure badly and and while wrap in facial bandage in hospital he make the decision not to notify next of kin and drop out of his young wife life because he feel he could never be the same man again and at least to her . so he be presume dead . meanwhile back home she have be notify of this tragic news and manages to deal with it bravely even though she be go to have his child . lawrence ( george brent ) step into her life to assist then eventually they marry and create a reasonably happy life together . a weakness in the film that challenge u be that john feature be not alter so very much in the movie after his war injury and the required facial surgery . i think more could have be do on this point to give the film great credibility . basically a beard be add and gray hair to camouflage his appearance but . i mean and if you have know someone so well and it well nigh impossible to mistake their tone of voice or expression of the eye . so i have trouble get over this shortcoming . twenty year later in the unfolding story it become indeed a razor edge on which to tread when former wife elizabeth again encounter john and who be now know a erik kessler and middle age and gray and and have difficulty get around . he have re enter her life a an austrian chemist bring to america to advise the firm which her husband operate . small world at time and no . however and that the story . there be a great deal of reminisce do by elizabeth a she recall touch moment from her time with john and and show u how easy it be to look back longingly at memory of the past . but now and after nineteen year of their estrangement and reality have set in for both represent elizabeth have a family to care for and a present obligation which take precedence and and john too have the responsibility of a young adopt daughter and margaret ( natalie wood ) . so while every ensue meeting bring them close to the truth of their former relationship and it be a very thin line indeed that separate them from the possibility of true recognition of each other and the memory of bygone day . each encounter seem to bring more remembrance that neither of them can fully accept but for different reason . i find the dialog most intriguing on several level . it remind me of the scale of justice which be finely weigh for both side yet never truly balanced . john and now know a the elderly erik kessler and talk of the future promise that lay ahead for elizabeth and of how she have a good life in the present and be need by others . here again he nobly step aside so that she will have a more fulfilling life although he would not be part of it a he have so little to offer and or so he reason . he point out to her that the memory of the past she hold be really of the good time and can never be recreate in the present for life have change them both . interestingly and it really do show u that living in the past be somehow a negative phase which never can be change and and that we must take hold of life in the present and look to the future where there be promise for tomorrow be forever and the past be never . this film express some very fine sentiment . have order the book and hope to gain more by give it a serious reading as well .