Maura Casey

Read the book, which is so much better than this movie. Joe was abandoned by his father because he wanted his second marriage to work and would not stand up to his wife, who didn’t like her husbands oldest boy, it was a heartless abandonment in the middle of the depression, he and his girlfriend were BOTH working their way through the University of Washington, working class kids in love with each other but having to work hard. That was hinted at in the movie. At the end you see Joe as a grandfather with his grandson - and the audience never realizes he married his girlfriend and they stayed in love for 60 years! This movie skimmed the surface, a tune played with a kazoo but the book is a great symphony.