At first the girls resent the intrusion of this stranger who calls himself their father, and make a pact to ignore him so that he will leave. However, Jim gradually wins them over with his worldly understanding of life.
Buff is fascinated by Gabriel Lopez, the son of a Portuguese fisherman, but her mother, who knows Gabriel's troubled history well because she is often called upon to intervene between him and Judge Hornsby, disapproves of the match. Despite her mother's warnings, Buff begins dating Gabriel. When Jim lies to Nan about Buff's whereabouts after a missed curfew, Buff thanks him for helping her out. Jim gains even more respect when he secretly brings Nan flowers and a cake for her birthday, which everyone else had forgotten, and allows Sam to take the credit. Regardless, Sam tells Jim that he is concerned that his presence is disrupting the family and persuades him to leave. Before he goes, Nan begs Jim to take back his advice to Buff that she elope with Gabriel, sensing that Gabriel will do to Buff what Jim had done to her.
In Gabriel, Jim sees his own nonconformist attitudes and wanderlust, and through Jim's persuasion, Gabriel comes to realize that he is not cut out for a conventional family life. In the end, Gabriel and Jim, two kindred spirits, go off to travel the world together, leaving Nan behind to marry homebody Sam, and preventing Buff from repeating her mother's mistake.
Producer: Henry Blanke, Hal B. Wallis
Director: Michael Curtiz
Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, based on the play Fly Away Home by Dorothy Bennett & Irving White
Cinematography: James Wong Howe, Ernest Haller
Art Direction: John Hughes
Music: Max Steiner
Film Editing:
Cast: John Garfield (Gabriel Lopez), Claude Rains (Jim Masters), Fay Bainter (Nan Masters), Jeffrey Lynn (Johnny Heming), Donald Crisp (Sam Sloane), May Robson (Penny), Frank McHugh (George).
BW-107m. Closed Captioning.
