Green Dolphin Street (B+ or 3.5/4 stars)
1947's romantic adventure 'Green Dolphin Street' (directed by Victor Saville) is a solid example of MGM studio throwing all of their $$ on the screen; with a good cast, meaty source material, & a gorgeous production in every respect. Do I think the story is a bit nutty? Yes. Are some transitions from scene to scene a bit rushed? YES. But here's a grand film in the vein of those old Hollywood romantic epics where the whole is better than some of its parts. 'GDS' tells the tale of a pair of beautiful sisters living in Channel Islands in the 1840s. Marianne Patourel (Lana Turner) is headstrong & smart; always planning far into the future. Marianne's beloved sister Marguerite (Donna Reed) is shy & quiet; a traditional woman of the times.
Both girls fall for their new neighbor, William Ozanne (Richard Hart - tall, dark & handsome), who is the son of their mother Sophie's (Gladys Cooper) old flame, Edmond (Frank Morgan, The Wizard of Oz). Unfortunately, it looks like William may wind up being an alcoholic like his hard-drinking father, whom Sophie had been forbidden to marry. Instead, she married kindly Octavius (Edmund Gwenn, Santa in Miracle on 34th Street); whom she was loathe to marry back in the day, even if their union produced their two beautiful daughters. To that, Marianne is determined that William will not live an aimless life. Instead, she schemes to turn William into a responsible officer-&-a-gentleman and, with her father's help, gets him a commission in the Navy.
Despite all this, William secretly proposes to sweet Marguerite. Yrs. later, however, when fugitive sailor William is living in New Zealand - how the plot gets him there is too involved to explain here, haha - and finally ready to marry, he drunkenly sends a letter to Octavius asking for the hand of ... Marianne {I mean, COME ON}. No one is more shocked than William when the Green Dolphin ship arrives in NZ and it is NOT the correct sister. But his enigmatic business partner, Timothy (Van Heflin), convinces him that he owes it to Marianne to marry her & make a life of it; even though Timothy secretly loves Marianne. SO much more happens: betrayals, babies, MANY deaths, a ludicrous scaling of a mountain, a native uprising, a tidal wave, & an Academy Award-winning earthquake.
There is much to this movie that I found confounding {plot-related}, but there is also much to admire, including the quarreling yet intimate relationship btwn. Marianne & Timothy; he understands Marianne's strengths & faults more so than her own husband, William. Van Heflin is just great, here. His final scene with Marianne - a mature, honorable judgment of their relationship is just excellent. And speaking of excellent, the last scene btwn. Gladys Cooper & Edmund Gwenn, as she confesses to him & Marguerite how she had fallen in love with him AFTER their marriage, is just deeply moving & engrossing; the kind of scene where you forget that these actors are 'acting'. Donna Reed nails the role of Marguerite, the rejected fiancee who faces a litany of crushing disappointments & admirably changes course with her life direction. The whole cast impresses, including Dame May Whitty, Reginald Owen & Moyna MacGill (Angela Lansbury's real-life mother).
And I can't not mention Lana Turner, who really imbues Marianne with a stubbornness & steeliness, but also kindness & vulnerability; especially once she arrives in NZ. She is fully fleshed-out, both flawed & honorable; her determined nature is both her best & worst feature. Despite being unclouded about William's flaws, she remains fully-committed to him. I liked so much in this film, but yeah, to call this film a MELODRAMA is an understatement. It's the kind of film where one scene contains a marriage, followed by a death scene, followed by a baby being born, followed by another death, followed by a weather disaster, rinse & repeat for 141 minutes! As was usually the case back in the '40s, every studio wanted to create the 'next' Gone with the Wind. THIS film has the filmmaking pedigree {stunning} & the box office, but lacks some of the finesse & magic of GWTW. But despite my shaking my head at some screwier plot points, I enjoyed this film a great amount.
Both girls fall for their new neighbor, William Ozanne (Richard Hart - tall, dark & handsome), who is the son of their mother Sophie's (Gladys Cooper) old flame, Edmond (Frank Morgan, The Wizard of Oz). Unfortunately, it looks like William may wind up being an alcoholic like his hard-drinking father, whom Sophie had been forbidden to marry. Instead, she married kindly Octavius (Edmund Gwenn, Santa in Miracle on 34th Street); whom she was loathe to marry back in the day, even if their union produced their two beautiful daughters. To that, Marianne is determined that William will not live an aimless life. Instead, she schemes to turn William into a responsible officer-&-a-gentleman and, with her father's help, gets him a commission in the Navy.
Despite all this, William secretly proposes to sweet Marguerite. Yrs. later, however, when fugitive sailor William is living in New Zealand - how the plot gets him there is too involved to explain here, haha - and finally ready to marry, he drunkenly sends a letter to Octavius asking for the hand of ... Marianne {I mean, COME ON}. No one is more shocked than William when the Green Dolphin ship arrives in NZ and it is NOT the correct sister. But his enigmatic business partner, Timothy (Van Heflin), convinces him that he owes it to Marianne to marry her & make a life of it; even though Timothy secretly loves Marianne. SO much more happens: betrayals, babies, MANY deaths, a ludicrous scaling of a mountain, a native uprising, a tidal wave, & an Academy Award-winning earthquake.
There is much to this movie that I found confounding {plot-related}, but there is also much to admire, including the quarreling yet intimate relationship btwn. Marianne & Timothy; he understands Marianne's strengths & faults more so than her own husband, William. Van Heflin is just great, here. His final scene with Marianne - a mature, honorable judgment of their relationship is just excellent. And speaking of excellent, the last scene btwn. Gladys Cooper & Edmund Gwenn, as she confesses to him & Marguerite how she had fallen in love with him AFTER their marriage, is just deeply moving & engrossing; the kind of scene where you forget that these actors are 'acting'. Donna Reed nails the role of Marguerite, the rejected fiancee who faces a litany of crushing disappointments & admirably changes course with her life direction. The whole cast impresses, including Dame May Whitty, Reginald Owen & Moyna MacGill (Angela Lansbury's real-life mother).
And I can't not mention Lana Turner, who really imbues Marianne with a stubbornness & steeliness, but also kindness & vulnerability; especially once she arrives in NZ. She is fully fleshed-out, both flawed & honorable; her determined nature is both her best & worst feature. Despite being unclouded about William's flaws, she remains fully-committed to him. I liked so much in this film, but yeah, to call this film a MELODRAMA is an understatement. It's the kind of film where one scene contains a marriage, followed by a death scene, followed by a baby being born, followed by another death, followed by a weather disaster, rinse & repeat for 141 minutes! As was usually the case back in the '40s, every studio wanted to create the 'next' Gone with the Wind. THIS film has the filmmaking pedigree {stunning} & the box office, but lacks some of the finesse & magic of GWTW. But despite my shaking my head at some screwier plot points, I enjoyed this film a great amount.