The Impatient Years

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• 1944
• 1 hr 31 mins
• Comedy, Drama

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• Watchlist

Standing before a divorce court judge are Sergeant Andy Anderson and Janie Anderson asking him to dissolve their marriage. Janie's father, William Smith, objects and the judge allows him to give his version of their story. They had met in San Francisco fifteen months earlier and, after knowing each other only three days, had gotten married. Andy was sent overseas the day after the wedding and when he returns and despite the fact that Janie had borne him a son, they find they are almost strangers. Mr. Smith suggests, and the judge orders, that if they retrace their actions over the four days they knew each other they would regain their love. They return to the coffee counter where they met and, later, their actions and conversations in the hotel where they register in separate rooms arouses the suspicions of the hotel clerk and the old, ubiquitous wartime "bellboy" who set themselves up as Janie's guardian. Janie and Andy go to the license bureau and even go to the same minister, with his wife as the repeat witness, and get married again. While dining out, Janie becomes ill and they jest that Andy must have tried to poison her. The clerk and the bellboy overhear this and telephone Mr. Smith to come save his daughter, and he arrives with the military police only to find Andy smothering her with a pillow, and doesn't buy the explanation he was trying to cure her hiccups. Mr. Smith has him committed to a hospital. Janie explains everything to her father and they rush to the hospital to find that Andy has been discharged, and they have no idea where he has gone.