This is a deeply moving story with superb acting although I didn't reach for the Kleenex. I would call it a very difficult lesson in life to be learned, about letting go of the past and thinking of present values and the future instead - reaching forward to the positive in life and releasing the past - something not everyone is prepared to do.<br /><br />It is of a young couple, Elizabeth and John (Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles), who are abruptly parted by the duty of John's service in the First War. He is injured badly, and while wrapped in facial bandages in hospital he makes the decision not to notify next of kin and drop out of his young wife's life because he feels he could never be the same man again, at least to her. So he is presumed dead. Meanwhile back home she has been notified of this tragic news and manages to deal with it bravely even though she is going to have his child. Lawrence (George Brent) steps into her life to assist then eventually they marry and create a reasonably happy life together.<br /><br />A weakness in the film that challenges us is that John's features were not altered so very much in the movie after his war injuries and the required facial surgery. I think more could have been done on this point to give the film greater credibility. Basically a beard was added and graying hair to camouflage his appearance but ... I mean, if you've known someone so well, it's well-nigh impossible to mistake their tone of voice or expression of the eyes ... so I had trouble getting over this shortcoming.<br /><br />Twenty years later in the unfolding story it becomes indeed a razor's edge on which to tread when former wife Elizabeth again encounters John, who is now known as Erik Kessler, middle aged, graying, and has difficulty getting around. He has re-entered her life as an Austrian chemist brought to America to advise the firm which her husband operates! Small world at times, no? However, that's the story.<br /><br />There is a great deal of reminiscing done by Elizabeth as she recalls touching moments from her time with John, and shows us how easy it is to look back longingly at memories of the past. But now, after nineteen years of their estrangement, reality has set in for both: Elizabeth has a family to care for, a present obligation which takes precedence, and John too has the responsibility of a young adopted daughter, Margaret (Natalie Wood).<br /><br />So while every ensuing meeting brings them closer to the truth of their former relationship, it is a very thin line indeed that separates them from the possibility of true recognition of each other and the memories of bygone days. Each encounter seems to bring more remembrance that neither of them can fully accept but for different reasons.<br /><br />I found the dialog most intriguing on several levels. It reminded me of the scales of Justice which are finely weighed for both sides yet never truly balanced. John, now known as the elderly Erik Kessler, talked of the future's promise that lay ahead for Elizabeth, of how she had a good life in the present and was needed by others. Here again he nobly steps aside so that she will have a more fulfilling life although he won't be part of it as he has so little to offer, or so he reasons. He points out to her that the memories of the past she holds are really of the good times and can never be recreated in the present for life has changed them both. Interestingly, it really does show us that living in the past is somehow a negative phase which never can be changed, and that we must take hold of Life in the present and look to the future where there is promise - for tomorrow is "forever", the past is "never".<br /><br />This film expresses some very fine sentiments. Have ordered the book and hope to gain more by giving it a serious reading as well.