feaito Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 I had taped this marvelous films from TCM, last year and I watched it for the first time in my life, on the past weekend. What a remarkable movie! It contains, as far as I've seen her, Hedy Lamarr's best performance ever...she's luminous here, human, warm, heart-wrenching, not the aloof goddess of other MGM films (which I like too). She gives a complex, multi-layered performance as a liberal, independent, unprejudiced, modern working woman who falls in love with a lad (grandly impersonated by Robert Young) who comes from an aristocratic, old fashioned, "blue-blood" family from Boston. They meet while working together in an advertising/publicity company, but their relationship is not an easy one, due to Marvin's (Hedy) unease with his family's morals, mores and ways... The movie is told in flashback, with H.M. Pulham (Robert Young) remembering his childhood and younger days, when he's well into his forties, married to a woman of his same "Social Circle" (Ruth Hussey-what a good actress she was, giving a first-rate performance in a role so different from the one she played the previous year in "The Philadelphia Story"). You can tell this movie was directed by a first rate director like King Vidor, who can handle so well "sociological" issues. Good performances too by Van Heflin as Young's pal, Bonita Granville as his sister, Charles Coburn as his father at al. An engrossing film, Watch it when it's scheduled again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leopoldsplumtree Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Yup, Hedy's role in this movie did have a little more, well, substance than some of her other ones for MGM. I like the "aloof goddess" also, though ;-) I heard Ava Gardner has a bit part somewhere in H.M. Pulham, Esq. I haven't spotted her yet, but I haven't put much effort in it. I'll try again one of these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feaito Posted March 24, 2005 Author Share Posted March 24, 2005 Antar! What had been of you pal! I did not spot Ava either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayresorchids Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 This was the movie that taught me how to pack business clothing so that it would not wrinkle (turn it inside out and roll it). I love Robert Young. Had a grandad who resembled him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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