Love Story

The English films of this time - with a few exceptions - are stunningly awful, as this relic reminds us.

Packed with derivations from films that weren't any good in the first place (DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT, BEETHOVEN'S GREATEST LOVE) we get the studio-with-location-insets romance of classical pianist (wouldn't you know) Margaret Lockwood, who is not quite as awful as she would be in her post war efforts, and soon to be blind (he practices walking in mine shafts !) Stewart Granger, which inspires her to go riding in Pony Carts singing traditional numbers then pushed by the radio and composing the Cornish Rhapsody, in which she entombs the sound of sea gulls and breaking waves.

Never convincing and never throwing up appealing fantasies, this twaddle just offers a complacency which disturbs in its historical context. Despite it's attempts at high gloss, it's also remarkably drab.

this lovely and stylish film, shows the highly underrated talents of Ms. Margaret Lockwood. She is the Pianist, with a secret, who falls in love with a man, also hiding a secret. she makes the biggest sacrifice for him, "when you love somebody set them free." the cast is incredibly likeable, and good acting all round

Had heard of this movie, more particularly with concern to its music but my first opportunity to actually watch it was last night when ABC showed it as a early hours of the morning item, which coincided with a does of my insomnia.

One shudders to think that Hollywood may have done with this, as the premises of the skyline would so easily lend to laying on the melodrama and clichéd sentiment with a trowel. Thankfully, British understatement, be it in direction and performance, makes this an effective and tasteful exercise.

The musical motif, the Cornish Rhapsody, is possibly being the most famous legacy of this film. It was one of a number of series of rather similar quasi- piano concertos from British films of that era that found a place in the musical memory. The most noted of these being the Warsaw Concerto. I was interested to read an earlier post stating that it was Harriet Cohen who played the piece, as I did have a thought that it may have been a job for Eileen Joyce.

During the dark days of 1944 this film showed hope and endurance. It is in the widest sense of the word a romantic film, but the dark undertones of personal illness and impending blindness must have struck a very realistic response in the audience of the time, wondering for how long they had to endure the hazards of war. No spoilers but Margaret Lockwood faces her problem and Stewart Granger comes to terms with his. Patricia Roc, who is equally in love with Granger, must face life as it is, and her acting is faultless. Well directed and with superb photography nothing jars, and the haunting music of ' Cornish Rhapsody ' ranks with the best of film music, and Lockwood who plays a pianist ( and supposedly ) composes it herself does it full justice. Romantic with an edge it is a landmark of good British film making. The scenes set in the Minack Theatre in Cornwall are brilliantly filmed, especially when the ' Cornish Rhapsody ' is played by Lockwood in for me her greatest role. The final dialogue must have deeply resonated with those watching back then, and in many ways still do.

Described by the late David Shipman as 'riotous'. Both Margaret Lockwood and Stewart Granger (who makes no mention of it in his memoirs) suffer nobly in this glossy and garrulous early example of the 'disease' genre that swept the cinema in the seventies after the 'other' 'Love Story'.

One of the few Gainsborough romances in a contemporary setting, it's basically 'Last Holiday' done as a chick flick with concert pianist Lockwood pounding the ivories in as glamorous a wardrobe as wartime clothing restrictions permitted.