Il villino incantato

My wife and I had seen this wonderful,hopeful romantic film, long ago.When we retired to the Ocean Shore, we built our dream cottage. All who visit have remarked on the feeling they get when they enter our home. We christened it The Enchanted Cottage and had that name carved across our mantle.We love to tell the story behind the name and even have a copy of the Movie to share with others as the video is no longer available.Our friends are charmed by the premise, and share our feeling about this absolute gem of a movie.

The Enchanted Cottage is about two emotionally wounded people who find themselves and find love in the cottage where the man was supposed to honeymoon with his intended bride and the woman worked as a maid to the lady who owned the place.

Robert Young who is a Boston Brahmin has plans to marry the beautiful Hillary Brooke and they've got a beautiful seaside cottage owned by Mildred Natwick in which to honeymoon. They're about to close the deal when it's announced that Pearl Harbor has been attacked. Like so many others the war puts a hold on personal plans and Young goes off to enlist.

But Young comes back from the war facially disfigured, no longer the charming and self assured to the manor born type he was before. He takes the cottage not for a honeymoon, but for solitude as he wants to shut the world out.

Dorothy McGuire plays the rather plain Jane maid who Natwick employs and who crushes out big time on Young at first sight. He doesn't notice her back then, but he notices her now and the two when they start to open up and communicate discover love. Is it them or is it the cottage they're in who some say does cast an enchantment over folks.

The Enchanted Cottage is a Madame X style weepy woman's picture made enjoyable by the sincere performances of its stars. McGuire is truly touching why she did not get an Oscar nomination is really ridiculous. The film did get one nomination for Best Musical Scoring.

On hand also is Herbert Marshall as a blind veteran from the first World War who is a pianist. Marshall was in fact a wounded veteran, he lost a leg in combat there and understood his character very well. He guides the younger generation to some self realization. Spring Byington plays Young's mother and her usual flighty character takes on a bit of an edge to it as she can't see what kind of angst Young is going through.

The Enchanted Cottage holds up very well for today's audiences, it could probably be remade with very few changes made and then only to place and time because the message about love is timeless.

When I was a little boy, my mother used to say that "The Enchanted Cottage" was her favorite movie. It was a long time before I ever saw it.

This is a lovely little film. Herbert Marshall does his usual good job playing someone impaired in some way but with a great deal of emotional fortitude. Mildred Natwick, cast a bit against type (she was a lovely comedienne) as the landlady, a dour WWI widow, ends up being sweet.

This is one of Robert Young's best performances, and I think that he is often underrated. He was something of an insecure man, and he projects his humanity so well in this and in many other films of the 1940's; of course, I'd gladly buy insurance from Jim Anderson, too!

What really strikes me about this film, though, is that the Young character, returning from the war, finds himself to be disfigured, and "Laura Pennington" believes herself to be ugly and unattractive. One of the things that has often struck me about people is how little their actual physical beauty affects how they perceive themselves, and how that influences their behavior.

Could it be that Robert Young's scar and Dorothy Malone's plainness are more in their minds than on their faces? Could it be that love can transform not only the plain so that they believe that they are beautiful, but also that it can transform the beautiful so that they can see that quality in themselves? The reason that this film works--and it works wonderfully well--is that it appeals to every person who has ever felt inadequate, and that there are very few people (and let's face it, those very few are probably sociopaths) who don't feel inadequate.

Pinero, the playwright of the original, understood this all to well, but it has never been a popular way of looking at things: in a way, this film is a "revenge of the nerds," which says (as does the nerd film) that beauty is, truly, in the eye of the beholder.

Really nice acting on the part of all concerned, including the wonderful Spring Byington. We don't have Hollywood actors like Byington and Marshall anymore, those wonderful character actors whose presence in a movie was part of the tissue that held it together, and connected it with other films. Lubitsch, Sturges, Capra, RKO, Warner Bros, and even MGM had a stable of these actors whose presence illuminated their work and expanded on it. Someday I will make a list of them and dilate on this subject further. This is a little gem that needs to be seen more often.

"The Enchanted Cottage" appeared during a decade marked by World War II, the advent of the rough reality of film noir, the increased use of Technicolor to enhance box office appeal and the decline of the film studios accompanied by the rise of television. In this period of great change appeared some of the most endearing black and white romantic fantasies ever produced by Hollywood. Why? Perhaps these films were meant to take us back to a better place, where decency, honor, love and sincerity influenced our behavior much more profoundly than they do today.

During the 1940s, we were enthralled by the beauty of such classic romantic fantasies as "Random Harvest", "Ghost and Mrs. Muir," "Tomorrow is Forever," "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," "Sentimental Journey," and "The Enchanted Cottage." Was it coincidence that during a time of such instability and stress, many of us sought out the almost magical effect of these stories of hope and redemption? Occasionally a small later film-----like "Marty"-----would explore themes somewhat similar to those posed in "The Enchanted Cottage" about how beauty is in the eye of the beholder-----and that possessing a good character and a sensitive soul were much more valuable than the attractive looks that often produce superficial and transitory relationships between people.

"The Enchanted Cottage" seems to cast a spell upon its viewers-----as many of these postings reveal. Apparently its story of the purity of true love is timeless.

And to the poster who ventured the opinion that "The Enchanted Cottage" surpassed "Random Harvest" as a romantic fantasy, let me venture a gentle disagreement. In any event, seek out all of these great films of the 1940s and be transported to a time when being sentimental was not a sin and believing in the power of romance was not an embarrassment.

This movie moved me the first time I saw it, I was 7 years old. I didn't really understand the plot, but I knew it made me feel so happy inside. Now that 30 have passed, I can see the beauty in this story of love and enchantment. It brings hope to anyone that feels they will never find that special someone. For those of us that have found that special someone, then when you watch this movie, you can be reminded that though there are trying times in every relationship, you can always find that one thing that made you fall in love to begin with.