Il villino incantato

This is a lovely, almost-forgotten little RKO weepie from the 40's. It boasts touching performances from it's two leads, Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young, and a fine supporting turn by the always good Herbet Marshall.

'Enchanted Cottage' has a real message. This is a film about seeing with your heart, not your eyes. Laura Pennington (McGuire) and Oliver Bradford (Young) learn to do so while cast under the magic spell of the 'enchanted cottage' they are inhabiting. It seems a hokey concept on paper, but this film really works.

Laura is a homely maid who looks as if she is going to spend her days as a spinster. She takes on a job at a pretty cottage owned by a dour old widow. Oliver Bradford originally wanted the cottage as a honeymoon location for him and his soon-to-be bride. However, Oliver was called to war a day before their wedding. He is disfigured and scarred as a result, and upon arriving home, his fiancé expresses disgust (although we never see it) at his changed appearance. Crippled, bitter and lonely, he takes the cottage as a single man. The kind-hearted, yet plain, Laura helps him in his loneliness, as she too knows what it feels like to be judged on looks alone.

They eventually decide to marry out of convenience. But the spell of the enchanted cottage starts to work on them on their wedding night, as they realise the true love and affection they harbour for each other, a love that goes past face value and transports them into another realm.

It is a tender love story. McGuire is never anything but convincing as the downtrodden yet kind Laura; she impressed me a lot more here than in her Oscar-nominated work for 'Gentlemen's Agreement'. All the time throughout watching the film I was thinking of her as a perfect actress for 'Jane Eyre'. She certainly could play the plain, ordinary girl well, with emotional depth and understanding. Indeed, the relationship between the once-handsome but now-scarred Oliver and the homely, unwanted maid Laura is reminiscent of the Jane-Rochester relationship.

The widow seems to subscribe to the English novel theory too; her stopped clock at the time of her husband's death is very 'Miss Havisham' from 'Great Expectations'.

Marshall is great, giving his usual understated performance as the blind composer who cannot 'see' with his eyes, but can feel with his heart and his brain.

A great musical score accompanies the scenery well, and appropriately dark cinematography complements the darker points of the story too. This was a war-time pic, and once again we are being shown the harsh realities of war through the disabled figure of Oliver. Still, this is more of a love story than propaganda.

This was made by the cash-strapped RKO studio, and today it is little-known. Apparently finding this film is hard, but here in Australia the ABC free-to-air network plays it regularly. I view myself as lucky.

This a tearjerker, and a beautiful romance story. Keep the tissues nearby.

8/10.

This was a nice, short fairy tale-type romance with truly nice people in the leads: Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire. One of the best features of this film, to me, was listening to McGuire's soft, sweet feminine voice. It certainly went with the nice, compassionate character she played in this movie ("Laura Pennington").

Robert Young, as "Oliver Bradford," also is very good in here and Herbert Marshall is outstanding as the blind neighbor, "Major John Hillgrove." The annoying character was played by Spring Byington but her "Violet Price" role was small.

This is the story of a plain woman and a battle-scarred World War II pilot who meet at this cottage, fall in love, see each other as beautiful thinking that some mystical power at the cottage and transformed their faces, but in the end find out they haven't changed at all. They find out that love changed they way they looked at each other. Sounds corny, but a lot of profound truth to it.

I read one famous critic write that this film could have been better. Well, I don't doubt it, but you could say that about most movies. I have no complaints with it. I do have a question: it's listed at 91 minutes but my tape only plays for 79. Did I have 12 minutes cut out of the story on my VHS?

"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.

In an age where men and women alike use plastic surgery to nip and tuck themselves into homogenized oblivion, "The Enchanted Cottage" is a nearly forgotten parable of what true beauty is and what love should really about. A simple story of a plain, lonely woman (Dorothy McGuire) and a deformed soldier (Robert Young) who seek refuge in a supposedly magic cottage made for newlywed couples. As their relationship grows, they gradually find each other beautiful in the other's eyes. This sweet little movie always puts a lump in my throat and will renew your belief in love. No matter what you look like, no matter what you think of yourself or how society judges you, there is someone out there who is meant for you and who finds you beautiful just the way you are. McGuire and Young are just superb and have a lot of chemistry. A must-see.

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.