Dreadfully Boring

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

In the movie, Maryanne is surprised and Marguerite shocked when their mother reads the letter in which William asks for Marguerite's hand in marriage. Throughout the film this is reported as a "drunken mistake" on his part, as he meant to write Maryanne instead of Marguerite, it is their mother who makes the change while reading the letter.The films shows the page three times. So for reasons relating to her own background, Cooper makes that switch intentionally yet never is that revealed. How much better-and happier-it seemed that couple would have been. When William, at the very end, tells of the name change due to being drunk, I wondered if HE knew of the switch or was just justifying when be believed to be his mistake. Heartbreaking when the ship arrives in NZ and he sees the wrong sister..does he tell the truth or make the best of a bad situation?

Lana Turner, playing 'bad sister' to Donna Reed's 'wholesome sister' in 19th century New Zealand, looks great in her period costumes but gives yet another of her plastic performances permeated with frantic unease. She and sibling Reed are both vying for the new man in town, with romantic complications sending the sisters on wildly divergent paths. Adapted from Elizabeth Goudge's novel "Green Dolphin Country", the film has some memorable set-pieces: a fabulous earthquake (undermined, unfortunately, with campy hysterics), a ferocious tidal wave, and a haunting, beautiful moment in which Reed scales a steep tunnel on the inside of a mountain and is taken in by the nuns. Relative balderdash is nonetheless an entertaining piece of work; pure Hollywood, though a first-rate example. Director Victor Saville shows a great deal of style, and the time and place of the story are vividly captured. **1/2 from ****

Lana Turner and Donna Reed are sisters, who both love the same man, played by Richard Hart, in this sweeping drama that covers everything under the sun: adventure, love, faith, loss, and a letter written while intoxicated. Through a series of misfortunes, Richard Hart is sent to an island and can't go back to his home. But he writes his love to come join him, but as their names are similar, he got confused and wrote the wrong name. His father, Frank Morgan and their mother, Gladys Cooper, knew each other when and loved one another, but as he was not good enough for her father, she was betrothed to another man, Edmund Gwenn, Lana and Donna's father. The plot revolving around the older actors is very moving, and of course they are great in their roles, especially Gladys Cooper, who sadly never won an Oscar. And, Dame May Witty is memorable as a Sister at the abbey that sits away from the mainland in the English Channel, where you can only get to it when the tide is low. Featuring Oscar-winning special effects for an earthquake, this is not to be missed, for any serious movie lover or fan of Lana Turner.

Weeding out the comic book movies aimed at 10 year old's, there's almost nothing at the movies this summer. So I remembered this MGM classic from 60 years ago when I was in 3rd grade and found the VHS at Video Vault. In 1947, kids used to love the westerns, Walt Disney, and action pictures, but we were also smart enough to appreciate certain movies made for the grown-ups. Green Dolphin Street is one of them.A romance-adventure filling the screen from St Pierre off the coast of France, to the China coast, to New Zealand. Big ships at sea, tribal warfare, an earthquake, a tidal wave, a crawl through the smuggler's rock cave, the glorious site of Mont St. Michel --- a convent on a rugged mountain island cut off from the mainland once a day by the high tide. On top of this add two beautiful sisters and two rugged men. All this brought together with MGM's talent for making the big ones with uncompromising bigness, but not forgetting a strong storyline.In 1947 I thought the earthquake in New Zealand was pure fiction, but a Google search proved that quakes are frequent there.Others will disagree, but I found the special effects of 60 years ago to be much more effective than the silly, overblown stuff they do these days. Exhibit 1 is Peter Jackson's stunningly stupid "remake" of 1933's KING KONG, where the original film and its special effects still stand tall after 80 years, and the newer thing is a failure that struck out fast.Good movies often lead to travel. If you drop everything after GDS and head for Mont St. Michel, visit the monastery (not convent) and have the omelet at Mere Poulard's -- the best you'll ever have anywhere on Earth.Godless liberals who squirm at the sight of a Christmas Crib will be most uncomfortable with the many devout religious scenes in Green Dolphin Street. The secret is that Hollywood was frequently religious back then; patriotic too!