I was extremely disappointed in this film.<br /><br />The acting was unconvincing, and the message of the film—"this could be everyone's century"—is glib and sweet enough to give one cavities.<br /><br />The dilemma between Gregory Peck's and Dorothy Maguire's characters could have been intriguing but it is so bogged down by a too-sappy-for-words love story that it never gets the chance.<br /><br />I can see that back in the 1947 this film would have been daring, which is probably why it won the Best Picture Oscar. But the historical value of the film did not save it for me. By the standards of what makes a classic, this film never manages to be more than mediocre.<br /><br />The only good things about this film are the scenes between Philip and his secretary (June Havoc delivers her shockingly hypocritical lines perfectly) and the fact that we get to see the handsome Gregory Peck a lot.