I'll Be Seeing You (1944), directed by William Dieterle.
The soldier seems absent minded, dissociated and quietly upset. He is invisible to most of the crowd, but the woman in the train seat opposite spots him immediately. She has secrets of her own, on holiday furlough from prison for manslaughter.
She invites him to meet her family and they warmly take him in. He is able to tell her about his trauma and fears, but she cannot be honest with him. How are they ever going to work it out?
This is a small wartime romance that has some good features:
Obviously the talent: Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotten and director William Dieterle. And Shirley Temple, age 16.
A serious look at PTSD. They go to a war film and he can barely look at the screen. He has sweats and heart palpitations and a voice driving him mad, telling him he is not going to make it, that he will crack up and be sent to an asylum. A companion film might be the more lushly romantic Random Harvest (1942) where Ronald Colman is the mute, shell-shocked soldier.
It is a Christmas film! Stories of lonely people getting together at the holidays are perennial favorites. Another companion film might be the lighter Remember the Night (1940) with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck.
Where would movies be if people were honest with each other?
Photographed by Tony Gaudio. Miss Rogers is dressed by Edith Head.
This is available on Blu-ray from Kino, but my thumbnails are from the DVD.