Since You Went Away

With her husband away fighting overseas, an American mother and her two daughters adjust to wartime shortages, taking in a boarder and facing the anxieties and grief of separation. The family navigates budding romances, financial hardship, and the looming fear of loss. The film captures daily life and sacrifice on the American home front.

The American home front during World War II saw rationing of goods, widespread women's employment in war industries, and millions of families coping with loved ones serving overseas, themes extensively depicted in wartime cinema to bolster civilian morale.

A fictional family drama reflecting genuine, well-documented conditions of American home-front life during the war.

Directed by John Cromwell

Cast: Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple

Positioned at 1943–1944 within the World War II phase of the war, as part of the American home front during World War II. This is entry 88 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• home front
• rationing
• wartime family
• American civilians
• wartime morale film

• 

  The Book Thief

  1938–1943

• 

  Mrs. Miniver

  1939–1940

• 

  Atonement

  1935–1940

• 

  Hope and Glory

  September 1940 – May 1941

• 

  Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

  18–22 February 1943

• 

  In This Corner of the World

  1944-1945