Class of ’44

Three friends—Gary Grimes as Hermie, Jerry Houser as Oscy, and Oliver Conant as Benjy—graduate from high school in the spring of 1944, as World War II looms over their futures. At a post-graduation party, Benjy tells them that he’s enlisted in the Marines. While he heads to boot camp, Hermie and Oscy spend the summer working at a loading dock, and by the end of summer they bid Benjy farewell as he heads off to fight in the Pacific Theater.

At their fathers’ urging, Oscy and Hermie go to college. Much of the film unfolds as slice-of-life vignettes about college life during wartime, with the war’s impact on the home front serving as a constant backdrop.

While Hermie is serious about his studies, Oscy uses college as an opportunity to meet women. On the campus newspaper staff, Hermie meets and falls in love with Julie, Deborah Winters as Julie, a well-to-do student. At Julie’s suggestion, Hermie and Oscy join a fraternity and navigate the rigorous hazing rituals. Shortly after moving into the frat house, Oscy is expelled for bringing a prostitute into his room, and Hermie has to deal with an annoying roommate. Oscy soon leaves and enlists in the Army.

Hermie and Julie’s relationship strains when Julie reveals she intends to go out on a non-romantic date with an old boyfriend who is in town on shore leave. Hermie distrusts Julie, and they break up. One night at the frat house, Hermie receives a devastating phone call from his uncle that his father has died unexpectedly. He returns home for the funeral, where he’s reunited with Oscy, who has completed basic training and is now a clerk typist on Governor’s Island. Oscy takes Hermie out for a night of drinking in his father’s memory, culminating in a barroom brawl. Back at Hermie’s house, a drunk Hermie voices his inability to accept his father’s death, and Oscy stays up through the night to watch over him.

Hermie returns to college and is about to call for a cab at the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad station when Julie arrives in her car. She tells him that Hermie’s mother has told her about his father’s death and that she has come to reconcile. She also reveals that he has passed his final exams for the semester, even though he cheated, and has successfully completed his freshman year. Hermie and Julie reconcile and climb into the back seat of Julie’s car as the film ends.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 09:24