Zauberer der Liebe

Wealthy and beautiful Loretta Young is all set to marry Broderick Crawford and settle down to a normal life, but for a lark she takes her gang of socialite friends to see the Great Arturo, the magician in town. Next thing you know, she's ditched her family and friends, married Arturo, and joined his traveling magic act.

David Niven is that charming showman Arturo and his bride quickly realizes that he's not only a showman but a thrill seeker--and a party animal, as well. One morning Young and Niven are both surprised to read in the paper that he has drunkenly promised to jump out of an airplane in handcuffs.

Niven thinks, I can't disappoint my audience! I have to do it even if it kills me! Young thinks, Wouldn't it be sweet to have a nice quiet home in the country? Therein lies the conflict that, unfortunately, drags on for the rest of the picture.

Young is fine as the earnest young woman in love with a disaster waiting to happen. And Niven is quite convincing as the out-of-control daredevil who just can't stop himself. However, the question is - What exactly do they see in each other? The characters just don't seem to have any reason to be together.

The strong supporting cast includes Billie Burke, Ray Walburn, Zasu Pitts, and C. Aubrey Smith. Hugh Herbert is very good as Niven's assistant.

It's a handsome production but while the stars do look good it's too bad that neither of their characters seems very bright.

Watching a beat up copy on Tubi in 2022.... Wonder if anyone else noticed at the start of the opening credits the title reading '"Movies for Television"? Television was in it's earliest stage then and with World's Fair promising so many future advancements, this seemed to be a nice tie-in at the time.

Of course, the impeccable David Niven and lovely Loretta Young carry this film along...but Eve Arden adds fun to the production. Of course, to me, this is the same person nearly unchanged in her real TV program "Our Miss Brooks" which I grew up watching as a child!

And, it's interesting to see a very young Broderick Crawford playing a nice guy early in his career.

If there was ever one thing every one could agree about David Niven is he had no small amount of debonair charm. It got him through many a film when the role required little else. I would say that is the case in Eternally Yours.

Loretta Young, granddaughter of Episcopalian minister C. Aubrey Smith, meets and falls in love with a magician. That would be David Niven. But he's more than a magician, he's the current Houdini wannabe who has skill as a hypnotist and an escape artist.

Niven likes the life of a traveling entertainer, but Loretta wants to settle down with a home. After a death defying leap from a plane when he's handcuffed behind him, Young can't deal with the tension any more and she leaves him. He finds he can't go on without her, but she ups and divorces him and marries Broderick Crawford.

Of course the rest of the film is about Niven winning Young back in the best tradition of Cary Grant who may very well have been offered this part before Niven. Loretta is certainly worth winning back. I'm betting that Ralph Bellamy turned down the Ralph Bellamy part so Broderick Crawford was cast. Niven enjoys tweaking him in this film, but I'm not sure why unlike Bellamy who was usually a well meaning goof, Crawford didn't just punch him out.

The climax takes place at the 1939 World's Fair and you might want to see Eternally Yours for some nostalgia footage of that event. But it is a film that really does get by on the charm of its leads.

ETERNALLY YOURS (United Artists, 1939), a Walter Wanger Presentation directed by Tay Garnett, is a light romantic comedy with familiar overtones assisted by magical ideas thrown in for good measure. Starring Loretta Young and David Niven, their third collaboration and first in which they are the main attractions to an original screenplay written by Graham Baker and Gene Towne, about a magician's love for a lovely lady engaged to another.

As the opening credits get underway with an offscreen male vocalist singing the title tune, the story begins with a view of New York City followed by a bridal shower taking place at the Angel's Rectory, founded by Bishop Hubert Peabody, grandfather of its guest of honor, Anita Halstead (Loretta Young), engaged to Don Burns (Broderick Crawford). Along with her assortment of female guests, including her best friend, Gloria (Eve Arden) and Aunt Abbey (Billie Burke), Anita acquires an advertisement introducing debonair magician and mind reader, Tony Halstead, better known as The Great Auturo (David Niven), to which she and her friends decide to attend his special afternoon engagement for ladies to see what their future foretells. Of the many ladies surrounding Arturo, he immediately spots and becomes attracted to Anita. Following his private reading with her, Arturo and Anita get married. With Anita acting as his assistant, they go on a world tour performing magic acts. Eighteen months later while in England, Anita feels its about time she and Tony settle down for a normal married life in Connecticut. Tony, however, has other plans. After doing his death defying stunt jumping 100,000 feet from an airplane with his hands handcuffed behind his back with only moments to free himself and open his parachute in time for a safe landing, Arturo intends on resuming this dangerous act. Unable to live in worry any further, Anita leaves and divorces Tony. She later resuming her relationship with Don and marries him, while Lola DeVere (Virginia Field) becomes Arturo's new assistant. While his divorce from Anita finds him incapable of performing successfully, his next trick is to get Anita back.

ETERNALLY YOURS is helped considerably by its worthy cast of Hugh Herbert as Arturo's servant, Benton, breaking away from his typical buffoonery by playing it straight; Raymond Walburn and Zasu Pitts as the Binghams, Harley and Cary; Ralph Graves (Mr. Morrissey); Fred Keating (Master of Ceremonies) and its director, Tay Garnett, as the airplane pilot. In spite of its impressive cast, the end result is a fairly amusing comedy. Loretta Young (with some extreme close-ups) and David Niven (in his star making performance) do well in their initial lead pairing. Though it contains no slapstick nor climatic chases, the death defying airplane jumping sequence is both exciting and fearful. Young and Niven would team again a couple more times in the 1940s, with the Christmas fantasy of THE BISHOP'S WIFE (RKO Radio, 1947) opposite Cary Grant, to be their most famous and possibly best collaboration of all time.

As much as ETERNALLY YOURS has played regularly on commercial television since the 1950s, its renewed interest and rediscovery turned up further in the 1980s when shown on public television, availability on video cassette and decades later, on DVD. Cable television showings over the years included the Nik-at-Night Movie, Arts and Entertainment and finally Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: July 25, 2012). Being a public domain title, ETERNALLY YOURS at least is a look back at future Academy Award winners of Loretta Young, David Niven and Broderick Crawford in material quite common then and something worth having a look today. (**1/2)

I enjoyed this picture a lot. It has the warmth of the classics, yet the characterization and the whole plot fits to today's world. The incredible chemistry between the two leads is (I found) very rare among movies from that age.