‘Dear Willy’ Tells a War Tale of Love and Hope

One of the great pleasures of writing A Talent for Trouble about the life and Hollywood movies of the director William Wyler was discovering the letters he and his wife Talli wrote to each other during World War II, when he was overseas in the Army Air Force and she was home in Los Angeles caring for their children. Their intimate, newsy correspondence is now the basis of a new documentary directed by Taylor Alexander, which will premiere on Oct. 8 at Fairfield University.

Wyler was often accused of being inarticulate because of his style of directing, which frequently consisted of many takes and few instructions to his actors. Laurence Olivier, for example, couldn’t bear to do another retake during the making of “Wuthering Heights.” He went up to Wyler and confronted him: “For God’s sake, I did it standing up. I did it sitting down. I did it fast. I did it slow. I did it with a smile. I did it with a smirk. … How do you want me to do it?” Wyler stared at him, bemused: “I want it better.” Not helpful.

But in fact Wyler had no trouble expressing himself. He spoke several languages and was especially demonstrative to Talli. His letters were sometimes passionate, always affectionate, and characteristically showed a graceful lightness of tone. In a letter of May 11, 1943, he writes from a B-17 bomber air base in Bassingbourne, England, that he misses his family, that he hopes they miss him, too, and that “each day — no matter how dull or exciting — amounts to the same thing, come evening.”

I’m glad I have such a nice family to miss. And I think about all the wonderful things we’ll do when this mess is over. And what a fine life together we’ll have. And how glad we’ll all be that we did the things we felt. And how much closer we will be than those that have been together. How we will then have another child just for the hell of it, and to show that we’re still young and useful. I love you.

In another letter, he writes:

I see you especially well when I’m alone. And I’m often alone. I say good-night to you as I go to bed and I see you when I get up and have a thing called breakfast. But our breakfasts were the best. You must think of them too. That’s what I call breakfast — with wife, child, dog, pool, sunshine and eggs. But we shall have it again. We won’t be quite so young maybe. But we’ll be just as happy because we were happy and we knew it. It didn’t pass us by. I was very happy. My life was full and rich, and you made it so.

Married for 43 years, the Wylers eventually had five children and were one of Hollywood’s most famously long-lasting couples.