My Love Came Back

Olivia de Havilland seldom got a chance to exploit a gift for comedy during her long stay at Warner Bros., but occasionally she did and this is one of her better efforts. She's charming as a gifted violinist who has a secret sugar daddy (Charles Winninger) sponsoring her studies. Misunderstandings occur when Jeffrey Lynn and Winninger's children suspect the worst. Jane Wyman and Eddie Albert are amusing as fellow musicians and the excellent supporting cast includes Grant Mitchell, S.Z. Sakall and Spring Byington.

It's a lot of fluff done in a sprightly style with a musical montage that is done in innovative style with the two stars waltzing against a background of musical notes. Director Curtis Bernhardt said de Havilland was delightful to work with during this particular movie--but was not too happy with her attitude two years later when she played Charlotte Bronte in "Devotion". He felt she was behaving in a self-important manner. Anyway, here everything clicks--and it's nice to see her enjoying herself in a comedy role for a change.

"My Love Came Back" is the inappropriate title for this sweet, blithe romantic comedy that was unlike anything Olivia de Havilland ever did. Olivia de Havilland winningly displays fine comedy talent and really makes the movie shine beyond what was apparently a programmer film, although she is ably assisted by Jeffrey Lynn and S. Z. Sakall (beginning his most famous period, as a Warner Brothers supporting player). Eddie Albert and Jane Wyman make for believable foils for de Havilland and make an ingratiating, warm comedy team. A film beautiful to watch for its shimmering black and white cinematography, breezy yet warm score, and, once again, the radiant comedic performance of Olivia de Havilland to carry the picture.

"My Love Came Back" is another film that must have stretched the minds and imagination of the Warner Brothers team for a title. Youth, age, music, family, romance, and comedy are what this film is about. Considering the year, it seems a good and much more descriptive title might have been, "Music for all Ages."

This isn't a musical in the sense of revues or plays set to music. Rather, it resembles musical biography when the subject or main character is a musician - singer, song writer, composer, instrumentalist. The star here is Amelia Cornell, a gifted and outstanding violinist in the Brissac Academy of Music. Olivia de Havilland plays the role superbly in a fictional story that mixes some fine classical and swing music into something of a wacky story. It's a good one, but it involves a few subplots and genres that are centered around the musical world.

Thus, it mixes in business, family, friendship, livelihoods, and study with jealousies, suspicion, misconceptions, innuendo, romance and comedy. The humor is in the situations, and it holds this whole plot together, which otherwise would not be very good as drama. What brings this all to life and makes it such an enjoyable film is a cast of superb supporting actors and emerging stars of the day. The second female lead is Jo O'Keefe, played by Jane Wyman. She and de Havilland would go on to win Academy Awards, and they would be in one more comedy together - "Princess O'Rourke" in 1943.

The male lead isn't so well defined, although Jeffrey Lynn has first billing as Tony Baldwin. His role is okay, but Lynn never seemed to put much life or oomph into his roles. But Charles Winninger as Julius Malette and Eddie Albert as Dusty Rhodes add to the zest that Amelia and Joy provide. S.Z. Sakall is very good as Gez Payer, the academy music conductor. Spring Byington is good as Mrs. Malette in a somewhat subdued role from her normal persona. Grant Mitchell is the best known of the rest of the cast, as Dr. Kobbe. William Orr and Ann Gillis play Malette grown children, Paul and Valerie.

This is a humorous, warm and entertaining film that fans of any of its cast, especially, should enjoy.

This pleasant little picture is of interest primarily as it illustrates Olivia de Havilland's development as a star at Warner Bros. after GONE WITH THE WIND. If this picture had been done at Universal a few years later, the plot about mistaken identity with a classical music background might have been perfect for Deanna Durbin. Done a few years earlier it might have made a very funny screwball comedy with Jean Arthur. As it is, the title suggests that Warners was trying to sell this as a 'women's picture' rather than a comedy, and de Havilland plays it straight and very naturally. In fact, looking far less glamorous than Jane Wyman does as her friend, Olivia looks ravishing and is completely delightful, though her touch with comedy is heavy. Frankly, this film should have been livelier and the raciness implicit in the plot is unfortunately undercut at least partly by de Havilland's earnestness in the role.

Of interest to certain viewers will be the presence of two young actors getting The Build Up, neither of whom made it as stars. Jeffrey Lynn is tall, charming and very handsome, but not a memorable screen presence. Blond and big-jawed, you may wonder why William T. Orr didn't work more, but his bio suggests he had his eye on other career prospects: he married Jack Warner's stepdaughter and had a very long career as a TV producer. In addition, handsome young George Haywood has a walk-on near the beginning, making one wonder who at Warners had such a sharp eye for male pulchritude . . .

This movie is basic definition of a programmer, a movie devoid of any ideas of its own except those that have been gleamed from other movies, and characters that are composites of characters that we have seen in other movies, stock characters so they are called. That said, the movie is delightful and it was a hit in its year of release, not a big hit for a hit none the less. Olivia de Havilland, a few years before becoming Oscar winning actress headlines this stepper. Obviously, it was to escape movies like this that Olivia sued WB and won but there is a fun to this cut-out characters. The story is that of a girl whom is a violin prodigy and has a school scholarship but is working on the side to make money to send back home to the suffering family. To make things easier, a benefactor gives money to her disguised as a scholarship. This causes people to think she is his "unknown woman". Complications arise and all is well that ends well. Note, there is a bit of whimsy flight of fancy on the part of director Curtis Bernhandt who turns Olivia and co-star Jeffrey into peris dancing on a large scale of written compositions for great classical music as they dance to the music.