BRIGHT VICTORY

USA | 1951 | 35mm | 97 min.
Director: Mark Robson
Cast: Arthur Kennedy, James Edwards, Peggy Dow
After he gets blinded by a German sniper’s bullet in 1943, Sergeant Larry Nevins (Kennedy, in an Oscar-nominated lead performance) begins the long and painful road to recovery. Landing in a military hospital, Larry pursues a romance with attending nurse Judy (Dow), while his casual racism affects his growing friendship with an African-American soldier, Joe (Edwards). This powerful, somewhat neglected postwar drama about a veteran’s redemption through courage and love will be screened in an excellent 35mm archival print. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Craft/Work: A History of Occupational and Art Therapies, open in the Ebling Library Historical Reading Room from September 8 through December 17.