An MGM "woman's picture" at its finest, made with sensitivity and sincerity. Greer Garson is genuinely bewitching as the singer-dancer who falls in love with a shellshocked war veteran; she twinkles her nose, flashes her legs - its quite captivating. Ronald Colman is excellent as the veteran, conveying with simple expressions the trauma of his experiences. The story demonstrates the sheer power of narrative - you can imagine the gasps from the audiences when Garson appears as Colman's secretary; I remember watching it with my mother when younger - she was only glancing at it but still got dragged in to the story and when Colman was to get remarried she hissed "bigamist" .
It toys with audience's feelings: poor old Garson is there waiting for Ronnie to twig, almost gets there... then knocked back, then almost gets there... then knocked back. The later Letter from an Unknown Woman is a lot like this - a guy who just doesn't get it. (I read a very funny spoof of this story once, by Nunally Johnson I believe, or maybe Ben Hecht, about a musician who keeps impregnating this woman and not realising it's the same one.)
Another film this reminded me of was The Shawshank Redemption, where you think the story is going to be resolved in the space of a few years, but keeps going on and on... it's something like 20 years or so.
Australia's Ann Richards has a very small role as one of Colman's rellies, but to be honest I had trouble spotting her. Apparently she was up for the part Susan Peters played, that of Colman's new girlfriend; Peters is quite good and has an effective scene in a church where she realises for good Colman doesn't love her (poor Peters was permanently paralysed in a hunting accident in 1945 and died of pneumonia six years later at the age of 31).
Sometimes this does go over the top - it's very much set in MGM la la land of white picket fences and cherry blossoms, and an England where the workers cheer Ronald Colman, as the factory owner, for helping break a strike (no doubt Louis B Mayer thought of himself that way at times). But if you're going to go into the jungle, you've got to go all the way - and they do here.
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