Invitation

Always believing she had a happy marriage, a young wife's trust in her husband is shaken when she discovers that her father had paid him to marry her. Van Johnson and Dorothy Maguire made the perfect movie, in that the smoothness of each other was almost perfect, one would not ever know, Van was being paid. The ending was a surprise!I could watch this movie again and again. It was heart-warming.

An underrated, somewhat ignored film, Invitation , is much more than a soap opera. The cast, including Van Johnson, Louis Calherne, and Ruth Roman, deliver solid, professional performances. But it's wonderful Dorothy McGuire who raises the film to the fine level it attains. Her performance as a sick woman whose father has bought her a husband so she can have a short time of happiness before her demise , is positively incandescent. Her performance is full of subtlety, nuance, shading and real pathos. Sincere, sympathetic and utterly believable at all times, she makes the film very poignant. Recommended highly!!

This glossy MGM film bears traces of DARK VICTORY, with Dorothy McGuire suddenly finding out about her impending doom and that her marriage is a sham--a convenience arranged by her loving father and a man who always had a soft spot for her, Van Johnson. To her credit, McGuire plays the role with great simplicity and sincerity, especially moving once she finds out what's really going on around her. Her quiet reaction to what Van Johnson reveals (in a long monologue) is one of the finest aspects of her overall performance. Her face reflects so many shaded nuances of expression as she tries to understand the truth.

But sadly, the script never lives up to its promise. Despite some fine acting by Louis Calhern as her father and Ruth Roman as a vindictive woman who has been cast aside by Johnson, none of it is told in a compelling enough format. It's as though Ladies Home Journal had a hand in selecting the impeccable furniture and set designs. Gottfried Reinhardt's heavy direction seems incapable of infusing the story with a real sense of life.

It's no help that there's little real chemistry between Dorothy McGuire and Van Johnson. He gives a decent performance but it's as though his heart isn't in the role--there's not much he can do with it. Despite his limitations, McGuire commands the screen with an incisive portrayal and has seldom looked lovelier even though she is supposed to have barely a year to live. Ruth Roman is quite convincing as "the other woman" in Van's life.

An asset is the haunting theme, "Invitation," which could have been used more forcefully for the final thirty minutes of exposition.

I'll admit it - it's taken me a long time to write a review for this movie, because Dorothy McGuire was my favorite actress and since she passed away last year I've had trouble watching this, my favorite movie of hers.

"Invitation" is truly a film unlike any other. Dorothy McGuire is so beautiful (although the department did their best to make her look plain for the part), and she captures the passion of this role completely. Dorothy plays Ellen, who discovers something that makes everything she knows seem like a fraud. She realizes she has to question her whole life, her family, and her husband's loyalty. I don't want to give anything away, because it's meant for you to go on the same journey as Ellen. Dorothy is simply heart-breaking, and in my opinion it was the performance of a lifetime.

The supporting cast is superb, most notably Van Johnson and Ruth Roman, but this movie really belongs to Dorothy. She carries the whole film on her shoulders, and never falters once. It's a very emotional film, and I am still saddened when I think of her loss. She was an actress I always had a great respect for, and always hoped to meet. But, as she herself says at the end of the film, "There is something much more important than keeping alive, and that is knowing that you have lived."

I never liked Dorothy McGuire as and actor, but in this film she was spot-on!

Van Johnson never made a bad movie (he's the glue that holds "Battlegound" and "The Caine Mutnity" together). HE never looks like he's acting; has that college boy look (always up to the next girl adventure).

It's a compelling story that is easily plausible and very human. I'm guessing that it was shown back to back with "Til We Meet Again," a similar tragic situation, yet much more intense. So if you liked "Invitation" you had to enjoy this one as well, assuming you liked the actors: George Brent and Merle Oberon.

I do not like spoiling a movie by telling specific about it; reviews should be, in my intractable position, your response to story and actor. Stop telling what happens.

I love these old B/W film. The quality forever surpasses predictable crap made today.