‘Dear Willy’ Tells a Tale of Love, Hope, and War | Straight Up

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 exchanged during World War II, when he was overseas in the Army Air Force and she was home in Los Angeles caring for their children. The letters they wrote are 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. When Laurence Olivier couldn’t bear to do another retake during the making of “Wuthering Heights,” for example, he demanded to know, “How do you want me to do it?” Wyler was not helpful. “I want it better,” he replied.

But in fact Wyler had no trouble when it came to expressing himself. He spoke several languages and was especially demonstrative to Talli. His letters were sometimes passionate, always affectionate, and usually showed a graceful lightness of humor. In a letter of May 11, 1943, he writes that he misses his family and hopes they miss him, noting 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. Willy died in 1981. Talli died in 1991.