If you were to rewatch any Jimmy Stewart movie you would find the "Hitchcock" look in a lot of them. You would also see what looks like a PTSD episode in several scenes of It's A Wonderful Life. Let's talk about that.
Photo by Talk Film Society
Audi Murphy and Jimmy Stewart both had PTSD. I'd like to honor those veterans by talking about their war experiences. In It's A Wonderful Life the film crew recognized that when Stewart's character broke down it wasn't acting. Look for the scene where George Bailey comes home and screams at the children, then clears a table in one swoop. He then snaps out of it and apologizes after looking at what he'd done. It looks convincingly like real fear in the actors' eyes. Watch the clip below from the time 6:42 to almost the end if you want to see the scene I am referring to. One Facebook post once claimed that was a PTSD episode, but I don't have positive (written) proof of it (and not for lack of searching). All I can say for sure is that it sure looks like one. Another scene to look for is when he is praying at Martini's and breaks down into sobbing. (Those were real tears.)
Audie Murphy never showed this type of emotion on film, as far as I know, but was a terror on the film set. He slept with a loaded gun beside him and David Niven (another actor who worked with him) says that he would wake up and let out a whole round into the air. He is highly decorated and survived battles that he technically shouldn't have. He came back looking a lot better than Jimmy Stewart in the face department, yet he paid a high cost for surviving his missions.
Jimmy Stewart
I'm starting with Stewart. He was a pilot during World War II and was a commander. His fear was that he would make a mistake and cause someone else to die, which caused confirmed PTSD (flak happy, according to the time period). That is proven. He did, in fact, suffer from PTSD. Whether that was what motivated his performance in It's A Wonderful Life isn't totally proven, but makes complete and total sense. That was the first movie he filmed upon returning from WWII. He looked like he had aged 10 to 20 years. It was said that he couldn't articulate how the war had changed him, but he could release the emotion of it during an acting performance. Given that, I understand why Hitchcock used him so often.
Photo by Montgomery Advertiser
His final mission was in February 1945. He was grounded for PTSD issues, then returned at the end of August. The only other movie offer he got was a movie about him, including his war service in the main storyline. He refused. He almost refused It's A Wonderful Life. He took it because it was the only offer he had at the time. During the filming he was still having nightmares, getting shaky, and sweating. He had just gotten to the point of holding food down again. Hearing loss had also developed since the war. Part of the reason for the edgy performance was that they were concerned the movie would bomb (it came out even, in the end), and part of Stewart's performance was rage because he battled whether he had an important role in Hollywood anymore. Again, PTSD was still present in him and it came out in those scenes where George Bailey was breaking. Still, I will not tell you that I have positive proof of this. He did in fact get mood swings, which would explain the real fear during the scene clip I included above. He did lash out in rage like that and then pause as if he lost himself for a minute, which leads me to believe that was a real PTSD mood swing captured on film.
Stewart wrestled with guilt and rage in silence. It came out in the acting roles he chose to take. There was one instance where they bombed the wrong city by mistake and Stewart felt guilt for killing civilians. He once lost 13 planes and 130 men (his friends) died. Shenandoah and Winchester 73 were darker film roles that he wouldn't have been able to do before the war. He now had a dark side to him. Early in the war they used him for PR stunts until he demanded he see real action. He piloted a B-24 (the 445th) and was commander of the 703rd Squadron. The body count rose fast and he had gotten to know his men, so it got to him quick. Every dead man was one job he could have done better. He never talked about any of it until the end of his life. In 1976 her returned to military service in Tibenham, England where he was a squadron commander for four months. He was also a bomber pilot during the Vietnam war. He had nightmares for the rest of his life, if I understand my research correctly. Correct me if I'm wrong.
'The nightmares come every night. There was on oxygen at 20,000 feet with 190s zipping past, spraying lead and firing rockets, flak bursting about the cockpit. B-24s hit, burning, spinning out of formation.
Bail out! Bail out! Do you see any chutes? How many chutes? Whose ship was it? Oh God, not him?
Not them! Bodies, pieces of bodies smacking off the windshield. And the most frequent dream, an explosion under him and the plane lifted by it and the feeling that this was the end.'
At the end of his service he was awarded the Air Medal with oak leaf clusters, the Distinguished Flying Crosses, and the Croix de Guerre. He also was sent to a treatment center at some point (the flak farm), according to his men. After the war he sought out roles that let him release his emotion, which again explains choosing films like Vertigo and various other Hitchcock films.
Audie Murphy
This guy was dangerous to be on set with. While his PTSD didn't show up on film screens, it did scare his coworkers. In comparison to Stewart he looked fabulous and attractive. His PTSD led him to have a loaded gun with him, so I'd imagine his mind wasn't as good-looking as his face. He never truly left the war behind, not mentally. He was one of the first to talk openly about his PTSD. He was considered a hero for his war service. He didn't like being publicized for having medals when he felt that the men who never made it home should have gotten them. He didn't want the attention he got and resisted being called a hero.
Murphy lied about his age to join the Marines but was too small to join. He ended up in the infantry. He was a highly skilled soldier and marksman. By WWII's end, he was the most decorated soldier and had earned 28 medals. Murphy says it made him grow up too fast. He dealt with depression, insomnia, and nightmares. He could only sleep with a loaded gun under his pillow. He became addicted to pills and realized it, so he locked himself into a motel room and went through the withdrawal for a week. He died at age 45 in a plane crash. He wanted a simple burial with no military involved and got a military honored burial, despite what his will said. His stone is plain and inconspicuous, like an ordinary soldier's grave. His birth year is incorrect because of falsified information when he enlisted.
He held off a German attack by himself and led a counterattack while wounded. He'd had his men hide while he did so and then led them out. Read these quotes from History Channel and you can see how bad it was. He'd held off Germans for an hour at the point of going back to his men in the woods.
After emptying his M-1 carbine at the enemy, Murphy grabbed his field telephone and took cover atop the burning tank destroyer. Over the radio, he could hear the artillery commander asking how close the Germans were to his position. “Just hold the phone and I’ll let you talk to one of the bastards!” he yelled back.
Dazed and bloodied, he jumped from the still-burning tank destroyer and limped to his men. He later wrote that as he walked away, one thought in particular kept racing through his mind: “How come I’m not dead?”
Photo by Jeremy Roberts
The truth was that he survived so many battles and injuries that he was forever scarred by his PTSD and the war itself. He had a massively successful Hollywood career. Despite that, he could never relax or feel the peace that the war was over. It never really ended in his brain. He spoke out saying the military should provide better medical care to veterans. During the war he survived at least three wounds, malaria, gangrene, and many dead friends.
Conclusion
These two men came home and couldn't shake the war. As a result, we have movies that have a dark edge to them and many westerns branded with Murphy's face. Murphy nor Stewart wanted to be glorified for their service. Stewart didn't get as much attention for his service as Murphy did due to how Stewart aged during the war. After looking into both these men I respect them even more.
Well done, First Lieutenant Major Audie Murphy and Major General Jimmy Stewart!
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