The Constant Nymph

I know a lot of folks like this film. I am not saying they're at all wrong...it just didn't work for me. Much of this was because the relationship between Albert and Tessa was just a bit creepy to me...and wasn't always convincing.

When the film begins, Albert (Charles Boyer) is a struggling composer. And, when he goes to visit an old friend and his children, the old man dies...leaving the daughters to stay with their grandfather. But Albert decides to spend more time with them...sort of like a godfather. The problem is that 14 year-old Tessa (Joan Fontaine) is smitten with him and longs to become his lover one day. This is when it got a tad creepy for me. Fortunately, Albert didn't reciprocate. However, after Albert marries, his marriage is a bit rocky...and all the while Tessa is watching him...longingly.

My other problem with this very slickly made film is that I hate the idea of actresses in their mid-20s playing 14 year-olds. This rarely works well and I think an 18, 19 year-old could have pulled it off better. Mind you, Fontaine isn't bad (except when she occasionally stares off into space...something that she did here and in "Rebecca"...and I have no idea why)...in fact she's MUCH more convincing than Ginger Rogers in "The Major and the Minor"...a film than many love but which I think is among Billy Wilder's worst movies because of this.

So, overall you have a very slick love story that many folks love...but I didn't. I didn't hate it...but that's hardly a glowing endorsement. Plus what do I know? The Academy thought Fontaine was just fine....

What a disappointment! A great cast miscast. Shades of Lolita! Better the title should be "The Cloying Nymphet". Ordinarily I like Joan Fontaine, but at 26 she was too manufactured as a 14 year old. Certain poses she would strike were appropriate and in keeping with the age of the character but only certain and only a few at that. I don't know the novel so I can't compare. But in the movie, all she needed was a piece of straw dangling from her mouth and she could have been a consumptive flat-chested Jane Russell beckoning Boyer - an easy 20 years older - in the person of a dense lech to come away from his piano and jump in the hay with her. He, too, is a favorite, but there was something repelling about the 2 of them in action with one another. Alexis Smith, as her older (although she was 4 years younger) cousin who is married to Boyer's lech, stole whatever scenes she was in, dupe that she was. Peter Lorre, a floating in and out presence who had nothing to add and added plenty of it. I kept waiting for - and hoping that - Eduardo Ciannelli as a butler (!!!) no less, to pull out a gun and say stick 'em up. Charles Coburn, again another masterful actor, got lost in the scenery. Dame May Witty was the most fun in her great Dame manner. And finally, the Tyrolean background was obviously the Warner Bros. backlot on a bad day. Out of circulation for 70 years, I'd always been curious about it, especially for the assemblage of actors. Curiosity killed this cat.

Based on a novel by Margaret Kennedy, this film The Constant Nymph, starring Charles Boyer and Joan Fontaine, is a typical 1940's studio retelling of a classic style romance, the story of a fragile young girl's infatuation and adoration for an older, attractive musician.

While I think the production values and the sensuality of Letter From An Unknown Woman are superior to this film, this story also manages to captivate the viewer with its own brooding romanticism, solid performances, and beautiful music by Erich Korngold (Amazon sells CDs of this music in several movie soundtrack anthologies). Thankfully my copy of this film is pristine and that improves one's enjoyment of it.

Striking Alexis Smith as the unloved wife delivers a mighty performance, and almost steals the picture from Joan Fontaine and Charles Boyer. The supporting actors are also very good, including Charles Coburn, Peter Lorre, Brenda Marshall, Dame May Witty, and Jean Muir. I admit I was a bit frustrated by the character of the musician played by Charles Boyer. Men who marry women just because they are attracted to them and not because they love them irk me to no end. That was the situation here and it sets the viewer up for a very frustrating experience by the end of the picture.

The Constant Nympth is a decent romantic melodrama, with a very touching conclusion, but it's not outstanding or unforgettable, like Letter From An Unknown Woman surely is.

I saw this film on television when I was in my early teens but unfortunately, due to legal problems over the screenplay rights, it cannot be shown on television or released to video at this time. I have collected several recordings of Korngold's beautiful score including a moving performance of his Tone Poem "Tomorrow". The film's star, Joan Fontaine, has said this is, along with "Letter From An Unknown Woman" (1948) her favorite among her films. Fortunately the film is safeguarded in the Turner vaults and hopefully they will be able to bring this truly wonderful movie back into the public eye in the near future.

Saw this film in theatrical release back in the 1940's and remember so well the music by Korngold. Outstanding acting by Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine and the first film appearance of Alexis Smith. Most notable was the final 7/8 minutes of the film which presented a full scale cantata for solo soprano and orch written by Korngold. It was a "first" Something like this had never been done before in a Hollywood film. I have searched for years to obtain a video but without success.