My Love Came Back

With some great music as background, "My Love Came Back" is a very enjoyable film from Warner Brothers, starring Olivia de Havilland, Jeffrey Lynn, Jane Wyman, and Eddie Albert.

De Havilland plays a promising violinist who catches the musical ear - but mostly the eye - of a benefactor (Charles Winninger). De Havilland innocently lets him escort her to things that will further her musical education, having no idea that her new school scholarship comes directly from him.

Mixups and misunderstandings result when she falls for Winninger's business manager, played by tall, handsome Jeffrey Lynn, who comes off in this as sort of an American Ray Milland.

Meanwhile, her roommate, played by a vivacious, blond Jane Wyman and her fiancée, the delightful Eddie Albert, try to drag her into their swing music band. Albert and Wyman, along with S. K. Szall and Spring Byington, make up a great supporting cast.

De Havilland is a perfect sweet young thing, playing the comedy very earnestly. Her soft look is in contrast to Wyman, who's positively eye-popping as a blonde. It's hard to connect her with the same actress who would star as the deaf mute in Johnny Belinda, or for that matter, the dowager of Falcon Crest!

Lynn never made it to star status, partially because of World War II interrupting his career, but he enjoyed a long one anyway, as well as a career in real estate.

One of the things that makes this film is the marvelous music, not only classical but swing. This is a movie that's well worth seeing and makes for good listening as well.

Amelia Cornell (Olivia de Havilland) is a gifted but always late violinist. She has to give lessons against the rules of her scholarship. She needs the money for her family. Wealthy businessman Julius Malette (Charles Winninger) is taken with her. He agrees to take over the Presidency of the Academy to help her. He assigns his right-hand man Tony Baldwin (Jeffrey Lynn) as his replacement at the company although his son Paul is terribly jealous. Amelia's friends, Dusty Rhodes (Eddie Albert) and Joy O'Keefe (Jane Wyman), introduce her to modern swing music and she decides to quit the Academy. In order to keep her, Julius gives her more money, but assigns Tony to pay for it.

This is a very sitcom kind of rom-com. It is a few white lies turning into some romantic chaos. The main thing is that Winninger is able to keep his motive pure. I would maybe keep Tony with Valerie. She has a cuter chemistry and better first scene. There is no need for Amelia to pair up with anybody. All in all, this is charming and cute little misunderstanding that isn't very threatening. It makes for fine light entertainment.

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.

Olivia de Havilland is smart and funny as Amelia Cornell, star pupil and violinist at a prestigious music academy.

Wealthy patron Charles Winninger means well when he instructs his company's vice president (Jeffrey Lynn) to start sending de Havilland $100 scholarship checks to help her make ends meet; unfortunately his patronage looks fishy and starts a round of misunderstandings and modest deceptions that keep the plot moving but are really not too worrisome.

Along the way, de Havilland and Lynn meet and fall for each other, not surprisingly. Jeffrey Lynn never made it too big in Hollywood but he did have several featured roles right around this period, and he's actually quite good—handsome, energetic, snappy.

De Havilland's roommate Jane Wyman (also a violinist) and her boyfriend Eddie Albert (piano) are hilarious as fellow musicians hoping to form a swing band—really, the scenes featuring Wyman and Albert are the movie's funniest.

S.Z. Sakall is fun as always as the academy's orchestra conductor; Spring Byington has a fine bit as Winninger's smart wife; and William Orr and Ann Gillis are both good as suspicious siblings.

I guess it's all pretty silly….Olivia de Havilland certainly had more challenging starring roles. Still, as a light comedy the picture is completely enjoyable. Also: de Havilland delivers a great last line!