Son roman d'amour

Vanessa is an amazing film. Every actor is pitch perfect, the production values are top draw, yet the film fails to entertain. We have an opera with full audience, a garden party with hundreds, a horse parade with thousands, a fort in Egypt, mansions in various locations. This might have been MGM's most expensive film of 1935. We have Helen Hayes, perfect in the role as loving, long suffering, and duty bound. Her scenes with Otto Kruger are exceptional. Few pairings have been more affecting. I've written of Kruger's ability to do any acting task. Here he succeeds brilliantly. Montgomery is usually is a bit shallow for my taste. Here he is properly wild and stalwart. The rest of the cast is populated by wonderful character actors, doing their jobs particularly well, especially May Robson and Henry Stevenson. The large cast includes several favorites, including Violet Kemble Cooper, Ethel Griffies, and Lionel Belmore. Since everyone does their job so well, we must credit the director, William K. Howard, with an excellent job. Checking his filmography, I see no outstanding films, but a few good ones. It is difficult to imagine that MGM would entrust such a prestigious and expensive film to his care. And yet, the film ultimately disappoints. This is clearly the fault of the screen play. For a company like MGM to approve it, reflects badly on the studio. Of course, I'll watch it again, but only to see Hayes and Kruger working so brilliantly together.

"Vanessa, Her Love Story" is a bad film and I can understand why Helen Hayes took a break from movies after making this one. Despite a lush look and wonderful cast, the script is simply a mess...seldom making sense and offering little of interest.

The film begins at the Harries family matriarch's 100th birthday. This is odd, as through the course of most of the film the old lady thrives and she must be nearly 110 by the end of the movie...perhaps even older!! At the celebration you meet the main characters--Benjamin (Robert Montgomery), Vanessa (Hayes) and Ellis (Otto Kruger). Benjamin is a bit of a wild guy and although he wants to marry Vanessa, he wants to sow a few more wild oats and they agree to marry....later. However, just before their wedding, Vanessa's father has a heart attack and accidentally sets the house ablaze. Benjamin arrives to save her but it's too late for the father. Inexplicably, Vanessa blames Benjamin for the fire and tells him she never wants to see him again. All of this is 100% illogical.

Benjamin leaves and soon marries a woman who is unfaithful. He then joins the army and loses an arm. When he returns, he finds Vanessa has married Ellis...a hopelessly paranoid and insane guy whose family hid this from Vanessa. She is miserable, Benjamin is miserable and Ellis constantly assumes his wife is cheating on him and plots to kill her. What happens from here on, see the movie....but I wouldn't bother. The bottom line is that the film looks nice but the plot is hopelessly convoluted and bizarre...and quite syrupy sweet to the point of annoyance.

Helen Hayes and Robert Montgomery are two adorable people in love in the very old-fashioned melodrama Vanessa, Her Love Story. They're young and impulsive and they still believe in love-at least at the beginning of the movie. The beginning is wonderful, as they fall in love and become engaged. Then the drama shows up and turns it into a very heavy movie.

The night before their wedding, there's a fire in Helen's house. She's asleep and groggy, so Bob runs into the burning building and rescues her. He's too late to drag Helen's dad, Lewis Stone, out of the house, and Helen calls off the wedding. She vows to hate him forever, and while drowning his sorrows, Bob falls prey to a scheming barmaid and her father, Donald Crisp. That's not even half of the drama packed into this 75-minute movie, so if that sounds good to you, you'll want to rent this on a rainy afternoon. If you liked Splendor in the Grass, this movie is right up your alley. I'll watch anything with a young, handsome Robert Montgomery in it, so I was very entertained. I've seen thousands of old movies, so an overdose of melodrama doesn't bother me, but if you're not prepared for it, you'll find yourself saying, "Anything else?" halfway through. You'll also get a healthy dose of Helen Hayes, who gives a classically dramatic performance. You can imagine her hitting the back row of a theater, but since the story is so over-the-top, she doesn't really feel out of place.

This film starts off with the 100th birthday of the matriarch of the Herries family, which traces its origin back to "Rogue" Herries in the 1700s, who sounds like some kind of William Wallace character with a very wild streak. The matriarch (Madame Judith Paris played by May Robson) talks about how every now and again another rogue is born into this now respectable family. Cue the late entry to the party of dashing Benjamin Herries (Robert Montgomery) as that implied spiritual heir of Rogue Herries, also cue the figure of Vanessa Paris, Judith's granddaughter,, looking like her heart just leapt in her chest.

So Benjamin and Vanessa are in love, but Benjamin wants a year to travel the world and get that wild streak out of him before settling down. Distant cousin Ellis Herries (Otto Kruger) is in love with Vanessa and is the settled type who can offer her a lifetime of security and boredom. So Benjamin returns a year later, and he and Vanessa agree to marry, and this is when the parade of tragedy tropes begin to occur.

Some of the tragedies are foreseeable, some are downright predictable, but then the oddball ones begin to pile on to the point that the entire thing becomes ridiculous. Two things really stand out as not ridiculous but rather weird. The first one is Guinness Book of World Records weird. May Robson is playing a woman of 100 in the late 19th century when this film starts. It is not said exactly, but I count about 15 years passing, and yet the woman is still alive at the end, walking on her own power, and in complete control of her mental faculties. The second one - I guess you'd just have to be British. There is everybody just fawning over and falling over one another at just the appearance of any British royal - Prince Edward and Queen Victoria in particular. Oh well, I guess if you spent the latter part of the 20th century watching "Windsors behaving badly" it does just not seem such a big deal to see somebody whose claim to fame is nothing more than exiting the right birth canal.

What saves this one? The acting skills of the fiery Robson, the dashing Robert Montgomery, and the versatile Hayes in particular, and the strength of the supporting cast of MGM stalwarts in general. I also liked how the film did not try to falsely paint Helen Hayes, primarily a stage actress, as some kind of great beauty. Montgomery, towards the end, as Benjamin, actually states that it is not that Vanessa (Hayes' character) is beautiful, it is just that overall she has a unique kind of loveliness.

This is probably a take it or leave it proposition for most people, but if you are a Robert Montgomery completist as I am, you'll probably want to see it once.

I would say, that I enjoyed this movie, to a certain extent..... Because, it was romantic, touching, and it starred Robert Montgomery...... One of my fave actors, from the golden age...... He, and Helen Hayes had pleasant chemistry in this movie...... Right beside, Joan Crawford, as his best leading ladies....... Their likable chemistry, almost managed to distract me, from how dated, and old fashioned this movie was..... Which is the main reason, why the film didn't succeed in all ways...... Also, there were poor, dull, dated performances, from the miscast actor, who played Ellis, Vanessa's insane husband, and the barmaid woman...... There were some parts, that were unnecessary for the story, and made no effect anyway....... For example, about Robert Montgomery marrying the barmaid woman..... Many situations happened too quickly, like when Vanessa gets angry w/ Benjie, and then forgives him so quickly....... The film could've been stretched longer...... Otherwise, for those who enjoy romance movies, this is worth a look...... I also look forward, to watching other Robert & Helen Hayes movies soon......