A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Grace Kelly (in return for the great sacrifice of wearing dowdy clothes and glasses) got the Oscar, but it was Bing Crosby who deserved it for his portrayal of a man who lies as naturally and as often as breathing to preserve his image as a nice, sweet guy. His alcoholism seems a lesser flaw than his essential phoniness--he blames his wife for things she has not done so that everyone can admire how graciously he forgives her; he vilifies in private a fellow actor to whom he is charming in public. It was far more courageous of Bing to show what people might have conjectured, with some justice, was the dark side to his public happy-go-lucky persona than it was for Kelly to wear baggy cardigans. Anyone who has had one of these men in their lives will relish this characterisation, given tremendous force by its being done by such a beloved entertainer. The best performance, though, is William Holden's, and the only one with energy and sex appeal. (What do you say of a woman who makes a picture with William Holden and Bing Crosby and has an affair with...Bing Crosby?) Yet all of them are at the mercy of Clifford Odets's couch-bound drama--and that's the analyst's couch, not the casting one. This is a story in which characters who live a life of secrecy or lies, on being confronted with The Truth, suddenly exhibit a remarkable degree of honesty and self-knowledge and come out with an articulate expression of their psychology. And for all the self-consciously sophisticated dialogue, the instigation for Bing's alcoholism is a piece of Victorian sentimentality-- he stops holding the hand of his cutesy-wootsy little blonde son for one minute, and the kid rushes into traffic to get run over. Poor Bing also has to deliver one of the most tasteless lines in the history of cinema: "I gave that woman ten years of the worst kind of hell outside a concentration camp."The songs Bing is given, though they are by Ira Gershwin and Harold Arlen, are limp and mediocre, and the ones he sings onstage, at his audition and as part of the musical in which he appears, are dire. In fact, the stage show is so awful it is hard to believe it was not written in a spirit of parody--it's a combination of the worst parts of Oklahoma! and Our Town; the sign on the hotel in the set even says Our Town Hotel, for God's sake! Everything we see is, like the audition song, stuff that would have been considered dull and corny 20 years earlier. The scenes backstage, however, are rich in amusing theatrical atmosphere.Odets was a notorious misogynist, a trait that he cannot keep from creeping into the movie. When Holden makes scathing remarks about Kelly, his ex-wife, or women in general, he sounds much more believable than when he has to express his love for Kelly in uninteresting, awkward dialogue. And though the music surges at the end to bless Kelly when she decides to reject Holden and return to Bing (and was there ever any question she wouldn't? come on, who has top billing?) I couldn't buy the tragic nobility. The alcoholic and his enabler, both characters who live by sucking the blood of other people, have done it again: they have leeched off the warm, impulsive Holden, screwed him up, and then tossed him aside, having gained the strength to go on. One can't help wondering--did Odets know this and cynically misrepresent it to his audience, or did he fool himself?

Whenever film articles mentioned mismatched couples on the silver screen (such as Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte in "I Love Trouble" and the travesty that was Bennifer in "Gigli"), I'm always surprised that Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby never get mentioned. After all, you have gorgeous, fashionable, classic blonde Kelly teamed up with jug-eared crooner Crosby, who was 25 years her senior (poor Bing didn't even have the physical vitality of Fred Astaire or Cary Grant to help him pull off a May/December romance on screen). You'd be hard-pressed to find a stranger looking pair, and they worked together twice: in "High Society", Kelly's final film before leaving Hollywood for royalty, and two years earlier in "The Country Girl"."The Country Girl is barely remembered today, save for Grace Kelly's controversial Best Actress Oscar win. Judy Garland seemed like the surefire contender for her comeback vehicle "A Star is Born". Even the flippant Groucho Marx was outraged, calling Garland's loss "the biggest robbery since Brink's". I confess to be in the majority of people who love "A Star is Born", and feel Ms. Garland was indeed gypped by the Academy that year. But I decided to be fair and check out "The Country Girl" and see for myself. So, how does Ms. Kelly's performance measure up?Well, it's by no means a bad performance, it's just not a particularly great one. In "The Country Girl", 25-year-old Kelly plays Georgie Elgin, a prematurely middle-aged woman whose husband, Frank (Crosby), is a former song and dance man whose star has faded due to tragedy and alcoholism. A stubborn, ambitious producer, Bernie Dodd (William Holden), is putting on a new musical (which, from what we're shown, looks incredibly quaint and dull) and is obsessed with making it Frank's comeback vehicle. Bernie believes in Frank, and also believes the dour Georgie is responsible for Frank's drinking and flaky behavior (Holden utters misogynistic lines that will either shock or amuse modern audiences). What unfolds are cruel revelations, sexual tension, and second chances for everyone involved. One of my biggest issues with "The Country Girl" is that it suffers from the same problem as 1940's "Kitty Foyle", in that our heroine is eventually torn between two men, but both men are so unappealing, you desperately hope she ends up with neither (but this is old Hollywood, so consider yourself warned). Georgie must choose between Frank, who is nothing but a millstone around her neck, and Bernie, who is a short-sighted jerk of the highest order (he is given character development, but it's too little, too late).Perhaps I'm just petty, but I believe that "The Country Girl" set an obnoxious precedent for Hollywood actresses that has endured to this day: Want that Oscar? Drab up, and it's as good as yours. Why not? It's worked for Halle Berry ("Monster's Ball"), Charlize Theron ("Monster"), and Kate Winslet ("The Reader"). I believe a performance should come first, a look second. One great example is Olivia de Havilland in "The Heiress". Ms. de Havilland was one of the loveliest leading ladies ever, but she was thoroughly convincing as a dowdy spinster. Her appearance followed her performance, not the other way around. I know Ms. Kelly's choice to shed her normally polished, glamorous image to play a weary frump was seen as gutsy at the time, I wasn't all that impressed. Why? It's Grace Kelly, for Heaven's sake. Even in dumpy sweaters, mousy hair and glasses, she still looks like the future princess of Monaco. Male audience members could even argue that Georgie has the "sexy librarian" look. And, it true, gutless Hollywood fashion, we are given a flashback of Kelly looking predictably radiant and a complete makeover towards the end of the filmOverall? Ms. Kelly is reasonably convincing, but aside from her affected look and her tired voice, it feels more like a show-off piece than an actual performance that leaps off the screen. Likewise, Crosby does his best, but he comes off more as his Father O'Malley from "Going My Way" having a lousy week. Holden is in fine form as cranky, sexist Bernie, who is forced to eat his words in one of the film's most rewarding scenes."The Country Girl" isn't terrible, but it is extremely dreary and outdated. I maintain that Judy Garland should have won for "A Star is Born", a magnificent musical that still holds up today. "The Country Girl", on the other hand, is proof that an Oscar here and there doesn't mean much in the long run.

This film has several notable performances, most prevalently Grace Kelly as Georgie Elgin, and Bing Crosby as her alcoholic husband/theater entertainer.Elgin is attempting to make a comeback and his wife ostensibly is trying to help him. William Holden portrays Dodd, who is a manager, and also helping Elgin to get back on stage. Notice how the prominent verb is "helping". Everyone is helping the chronic alcoholic (Crosby) who is well beyond help (other than professional) at this point.Grace Kelly delivers a flawless performance as co-dependent in denial, but she still has time to be saved. There is a side-story with Holden falling in love with her but this seem rather extraneous as there is already considerable substance to the story. Kelly appears frumpy, yet a deeper and caring character here. I enjoyed her performance here which is opposite the typical socialite and shallow roles she often was relegated to (other than Hitchcock films, the fluffy musical "Touch of Class" and other light fare, in which we cannot see her true acting ability).Crosby is also superb as Elgin, a broken man leaning on his wife, drinking cherry cough syrup (in those days half alcohol) and pretending he isn't addicted. The denial of the alcoholic and his spouse is explored here, quite something considering the time this film was made, when things such as alcoholism, mental issues, and domestic violence were swept under the rug.Overall a moving film worth viewing more than once. 10/10.

This movie is utter torment for the modern viewer.Filming a play is difficult; to be true to the play and to the film medium is challenging. "Country Girl" is extremely two dimensional.The only lively scene is where Jacqueline Fontaine sings 'Love and Learn' with Bing.The acting is wooden. It would seem that Charlise Theron climbed onto the ugly-Oscar wagon, but Grace Kelly got there first. She is totally unconvincing as a housewife. Bing looks elderly and weary; the music is dull but he does his best with the material.The only acting strength comes from William Holden. His character learns and grows. The scene in which he kisses Grace, while somewhat unexpected, is powerful.Cliché is piled upon Cliché. At times tears are jerked; tears of fury and pain. The modern audience expects a little subtlety. And Bing's alcoholism seems to be a try-on by all parties; an excuse to behave very badly and add a few more clichés. The only cure for him in the context of the film would be shedding Grace - and maybe going after Jacqueline.Sure, there are good points. The audience disbelieves Grace and believes the charming Bing, but it is shown the truth in excellent filmic style, and swings just when Bill Holden does, into trusting Grace.And the almost-ending, where Bing releases Grace, is filmically sound. Bing is on one side of the room and the other two share a shot. That chunk of the script is good. Bing does 'noble' very well.Yet at the end Grace - lovely again - runs after Bing and good old Bill just watches from a window, giving a stylish long and elevated shot of Bing and Grace going home together. In real life she would have taken a break from both and ended up with Bill, or someone else.Was this an ending added after tryout? Grace states that she wants Bing to stand on his own feet and be a man again so that she can be free, yet she goes back to him. Tryouts? Codependance? Infuriating!Somehow the focus of this film was all wrong and the result was slow torture.Not recommended!!!