What a wonderful movie! As is often the case I was drawn to it by the names - Robert Donat, Deborah Kerr, Glynis Johns and Alexander Korda. How can you go wrong? I learned later that this was the flick that made Kerr a star, and understandably so. Glynis Johns is always a delight to the eye.The story line - a humdrum couple separated and transformed by the war - sounds like the makings for a pretty humdrum soap opera, but the script is very well done and involves us in the stories of these two people as they drift away from each other (or so they think).The great Alexander Korda's direction is spot on and masterful. Particularly impressive are the cutaway shots from husband to wife as each of them travels home to meet each other on leave after 3 years apart from each other, he in the Navy, she in the Wrens (Britain's naval corps for women). We learn from their conversations with their traveling companions about their apprehensions about reuniting. The scene where they face each other with their doubts is shot completely in the dark, a master stroke, reflecting the fact that they really don't know each other anymore.It's also a very good snapshot of wartime life in Britain.Altogether a wonderful find. Thank you Turner Classic Movies.

I love the idea behind "Vacation from Marriage". After all, with spouses separated for years during WWII and with so much social upheaval, it's not surprising that marriages were seriously disrupted, strained and often ruined. Yet, oddly, very, very few films talk about it. Off the top of my head, the only other one which addressed this was "The Best Years of Our Lives".The film begins with a married couple (Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr) living very, very ordered and predictable lives together. But because of the war, he is drafted in and she soon volunteers for the service. Due to their experiences, they both slowly evolve in unexpected directions. And, the more they change, the more they both start to wonder if the marriage can stand these changes. After all, neither wants to go back to their old, dull lives. Yet, because they haven't seen each other in three years, neither is sure how to address this when they meet. Overall, it's a very well acted film--with lovely writing and adept direction. Well worth seeing.By the way, at one point in the movie Robert Donat's character is talking with Ann Todd and she talks about explorers. She then says that Captain John Smith married Pocahontas. As a retired history teacher, I cringed, as she married John Rolfe. In fact, according to some accounts, she couldn't stand Smith!

In all good love stories, two people meet for the first time, and there's something there. Exactly what that "something" is, nobody can say. A spark, a special chemistry… most likely (and perhaps least romantically) it is our subconscious recollection of the author's dramatic obligation – this man and this woman must fall in love. 'Perfect Strangers (1945)' {released in the US as "Vacation from Marriage"} is unusual in that its star-crossed lovers have not only met before, but have been married for years. Robert (Robert Donat) and Catherine (Deborah Kerr) are a meek British couple who are separated for three years by WWII, each partner taking a role in active combat. When the pair finally reunite, both have changed so tremendously that they find themselves unwilling to return to their mundane former lives.Robert is a shy and submissive accountant. Just as his job requires perfect balance and order, so too does his life depend on the routine exactness of habit and ritual. In the early part of the film, his behaviour is directed by a stream-of-consciousness voice-over, which maps out conversations in advance, with little avail. Catherine, beset by a perpetual sniffle, is a tired and delicate young thing, the sort of wife that Robert aptly describes as "dependable." At the onset of the War, both join the Navy, and become completely different people as a result. This positive depiction of War – as a great big adventure, more than anything else – was typical during the early 1940s, and 'Perfect Strangers' doesn't, in this regard, add much to Carol Reed's 'The Way Ahead (1944).' Instead, that both Robert and Catherine become changed people is accepted as a given.Robert Donat's casting in the film was quite deliberate. At the film's beginning, he sports a moustache that obviously references his shy, reliable teacher in 'Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939).' During the War, he loses the moustache, and the transformation in his screen persona is dramatic: he's suddenly the handsome war hero of so many Hollywood action pictures. Deborah Kerr, too, attains a youthful sexual vitality that sees her transformed from a meek, "dependable" housewife to a veritable "pin-up girl." Even though their transformations have run parallel to each other, there is an undeniable rift present; one skillful match-cut sees Robert and Catherine dancing, but in the arms of other partners. There's a moment in the film, when the troubled couple glimpse each other in the light for the first time in three years, and… there's a spark. Just like they've never met.

This outstanding gem had me hooked from beginning to end. Although the subject matter, a relationship between husband and wife that derails after a three year separation, is common enough the strong performances of the main characters kept me interested in their lives, their growth, and ultimately the outcome of their reunion. Robert Donat has never been one of my favorite actors but here he shines as the husband who, having grown as an individual during the war is utterly bewildered by his wife when he meets her on his leave. As for Deborah Kerr, she is utterly enthralling. She is capable of convincingly portraying both a plain Jane as she does here and in "Separate Tables" and a glamorous heart-stopper as in the pub scene, when Donat sees her for the first time after their three year separation. In fact, I would say that I liked her performance here better than in "From Here to Eternity" for which she was also nominated for an Oscar. I also can't say enough about the camera work. There are numerous scenes worthy of portraits. One in particular stands out, at the very end, where Kerr is sitting at her picture window looking out over bombed out London. It's enough to take your breath away.I only have two criticisms: Kerr's character doesn't need to powder her nose repeatedly. One time is enough to make it clear that she has left her unglamorous self behind. More than once seems vain. But then again perhaps the director intended that. I also have a problem with the final scene. I think it's rushed, almost as if the director ran out of time. After the rancor and vitriol that Kerr and Donat hurled at each other it seems unlikely they would have embraced so passionately so soon. To get to that point they needed more dialog to resolve their differences. In its absence I would have preferred it if they had just held hands leaving their ultimate destiny more ambiguous and thus more realistic.