Since You Went Away (1944)

This timely film portrays an American family for a year just after their husband or father is called off to go to war.
Anne Hilton (Claudette Colbert) worries about the family budget as Tim (only seen in pictures) is earning less in the army than in advertising. She lets go the family's long term maid, Fidelia (Hattie McDaniel) but Fidelia is very loyal and continues to work for them on her days off. They also take in a border as there is a dreadful housing shortage. They add retired Colonel William Smolett (Monty Woolley) who is a softy underneath but has his curmudgeon like tendencies.
The two daughters also contribute in their own ways, Jane (Jennifer Jones) becomes a nurse after finishing high school while Bridget (Shirley Temple) starts a victory garden and runs scrap drives. Anne wonders if she can do more but at least she worries about that. Her one friend, Emily Hawkins (Agnes Moorhead) doesn't even do that.
Because a film needs main male character, Tony (Joseph Cotton), a long-time family friend pops up and Colonel Smolett's grandson, Bill (Robert Walker) also appears as Jane's love interest and fiance, but he won't let her marry him in case something happens to him while he's overseas.
As this is war, there are troubling times. Tim is missing in action and Bill is killed without ever repairing his bitter relationship with his grandfather.
At least the film ends on a happier note. Jane tells Emily off, which is a great scene. Anne becomes a Rosie the Riveter, training to be a welder and Tim is coming home, alive.
While the opening is contrived and forced, the film is actually pretty good despite being horribly dated. It is nice showing the home front, though I would rather have the family be an actual middle class family, without a showy house (that only had three bedrooms) and maid. But it showed a rehabilitation hospital containing men with crippling ailments or injuries from the war, but there were only glimpses of this. I could have done with far more. Still, the acting is good and it is brilliant having a film where women have purposes outside of the house. Grade: B+
Side Notes:
-The minor character of Gladys (Jane Devlin) needed more explanation. She is Brig's friend but is terrified of adults despite being a teenage; it's just odd.
-It is hard to imagine Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker being married in real life with two young sons, though by the time this was being filmed, their marriage was eroding and the screenwriter and producer, David O. Selznick, was falling in love with Jennifer.
-There is another good minor character of Zofia Koslowska (Alla Nazimova) who immigrated from an unnamed European country, though that could have done with more explanation.
-The police officer pulls over Tony and Anne because he's lonely. 
-It is ridiculous that Jane and Bill can go out into the country and roll around in the hay (almost literally) without a care in the world. Where is the owner of this land?