![]() Muir (1947) (1947), similar in many ways to The Enchanted Cottage, except that it features a young widow falling in love with the ghost of an old sea captain who also inhabits the cottage she rents. The key word is 'enchanted'and not 'haunted.' As Laura describes it, haunted is 'restless, easy, afraid it's ugly' whereas enchanted is 'to be happy and gay and beauty.' With that in mind, viewers often recommend The Ghost and Mrs. Outside the house, a car pulls up, and Oliver and Laura, both looking fit and beautiful, walk toward the door, stopping first to kiss each other. The final scene ends as the movie begins, with Hillgrove playing piano to a room of guests. Oliver and Laura decide to write their names on the window with the other lovers who have lived there before them. Mrs Minnett ( Mildred Natwick) reminds them, so long as they look at each other with love, they will always be beautiful to each other. Realizing that their apparent transformation was due to the enchantment of the cottage and that no one else sees them as they see each other, Oliver and Laura come to accept themselves as they are. However, Violet doesn't get the gist of it and reacts in dismay when she sees the young couple. As Oliver and Laura change their clothes, John Hillgrove ( Herbert Marshall) attempts to warn them about Laura and Oliver's transformation. In the scenes where Laura is supposed to be ugly, she is lit from below in the scenes where she is supposed to be beautiful, she is lit from above, which is more flattering.Not long after the wedding, Oliver's mother Violet ( Spring Byington) and stepfather Freddy Price ( Richard Gaines) come to visit. The film makers achieved Laura’s “homeliness” using make-up, ill-fitting clothes, and a drab hairstyle.Robert Young loved the film so much that he named his own California home The Enchanted Cottage.There was also a silent movie of The Enchanted Cottage made in 1924.The film is an adaptation of a 1923 play by Arthur Wing Pinero.I guess most of us have felt like outsiders at some point in our lives, and perhaps that is the reason so many people find this movie still resonates today. When they are in each others’ company though, they feel better about themselves, and they act with more confidence, and feel better about themselves and each other. Upon reflection though, I think the movie is not really about whether or not Laura and Oliver are ugly, it is about the fact that when they are out in public they feel ugly. Half way through watching the movie I said to Mrs Sunday that I wished the movie makers had had a bit more courage and had Laura look like Nanny McPhee and Oliver look like Two-Face from Batman, perhaps with bits of pottery stuck to his face. And as for Oliver’s “disfigurement”, I have seen far worse. Yes, it is true that Laura’s eyebrows are a bit bushy, and her hair looks as though it was styled by blind John, but was she really not good enough for a sex-starved GI to dance with? I doubt it. Neither actor was looking forward to the love scene. My complaint was this – homely Laura and disfigured Oliver are not desperately unattractive! When I first watched it though, I did have one minor complaint…well, quite a major complaint actually…well, in fact, it was a complaint about the concept the whole movie is based upon. Oliver and Laura are upset at the realization they have been deceiving themselves, but they recover, and at the end of the movie, appear to be happy, and still in love. When the couple try to convince Oliver’s mother though, she tells them the truth. Despite not being able to see them, John suspects the truth – that no transformation has really taken place, and they just look beautiful to each other because they are in love. Oliver and Laura explain to him that somehow the cottage has changed them – Oliver’s scars have gone, and Laura is now beautiful. One day, John receives a note from them asking them to visit, as “something extraordinary” has happened. At first it is a marriage of convenience, but after a while they genuinely fall in love, and they put it down to the magic of the enchanted cottage. He makes friends with neighbour John, a blind composer, and he develops a friendship with Laura. Gradually though, he comes to terms with his condition. He decides he wants to live as a recluse in the cottage. ![]() Even though she tries to apologise, and begs forgiveness, Oliver breaks off the engagement. ![]() When Beatrice first lays eyes on him, she recoils in horror. “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s … oh, bugger.”Įventually, Oliver returns to the cottage, and we discover he has received disfiguring facial injuries. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |