Tonight's Movie: The Enchanted Cottage (1945) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

One of my favorite experiences at the TCM Classic Film Festival last spring was seeing the world premiere restoration of THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE (1945).

The 2K digital restoration was created from 4K scans of the original nitrate negative, supplemented at some points by additional elements. The need for using extra elements for some scenes was due to the negative having been cut for the film's rerelease in the 1950s. Audio was restored from a 35mm print track.

To make the screening even more special, actor James Cromwell was on hand to introduce the film, which was directed by his late father, John Cromwell.

Before the movie began James Cromwell told Ben Mankiewicz that THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE was one of his father's all-time favorites. It's of note that Cromwell was also the director of a couple of my own personal favorite films, SON OF FURY (1942) and SINCE YOU WENT AWAY (1944).

THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE also has a Mankiewicz family connection, as Ben's grandfather, Herman J. Mankiewicz, cowrote the screenplay with DeWitt Bodeen, based on the play by Arthur Wing Pinero.

The movie reteams Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young, who had previously filmed the movie version of McGuire's hit play, CLAUDIA (1943). CLAUDIA was McGuire's first film and THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE was her second, to be followed by her superlative performance in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945).

In addition to the CLAUDIA sequel CLAUDIA AND DAVID (1946), McGuire and Young also later worked together in the very enjoyable 1978 TV version of LITTLE WOMEN, playing Marmee and Mr. Lawrence. The teaming of these actors brought out the best in one another, especially in CLAUDIA and THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE.

THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE is a sensitive and mystical tale of a couple transformed by their time together in the titular cottage. Laura Pennington (McGuire), a plain, awkward maid, slowly forms a connection with the cottage's new tenant, Oliver Bradford (Young).

Oliver, a veteran, has broken off his engagement with his fiancee (Hillary Brooke) after his face has been grievously scarred during the war; his right arm was also disabled. As Oliver and Laura get to know one another, the lonely Oliver suggests he and Laura wed. At first it's to be a straightforward transaction of sorts between two needy, physically "imperfect" people, but very quickly Oliver and Laura confide genuine love for one another.

As their love develops, Oliver and Laura are physically transformed, seeing each other as handsome and beautiful. They believe a miracle has happened for them in the cottage...but has it?

This is a lovely movie, filmed in gleaming black and white by Ted Tetzlaff and tenderly scored by Roy Webb. It sustains its spell for 91 minutes, as the mystery of Oliver and Laura's miracle gradually unfolds.

Some reviewers have issues with love making the couple physically beautiful to each other, feeling there should not be such an emphasis on looks, but I don't read it that way at all. I believe love makes any couple more attractive to one another, and the couple's glowing appearances as their love develops strike me as both simultaneously magical and logical.

The story is really about kindness, on multiple levels, and the transformative power of love; part of the reason the movie works so well is that the message is delivered in a way that's touching and emotional yet not overly sweet. Having not seen the film in decades, I wondered if I would find it maudlin, and that was not the case at all.

The moving acting of the two leads is ably supported by Mildred Natwick and Herbert Marshall, playing the only two characters Laura and Oliver interact with for much of the film. Natwick plays the somewhat mysterious owner of the "enchanted cottage," while Marshall plays their kind neighbor, a blind pianist.

Oliver's hapless mother and stepfather are played by Spring Byington and Richard Gaines.

The Warner Archive Collection's Blu-ray disc of the restored print is superb. It looks far different from the murky print I recall watching on TV when I first saw the film three decades or so ago. We are truly fortunate to be able to see a film like this in such perfect condition.

Disc extras consist of the trailer and two different radio productions of the story: A 1945 Lux Radio Theater production with Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire, which runs 60 minutes, and a short 30-minute General Electric Theater production from 1953, starring Joan Fontaine. I love these types of radio productions and am always glad when they're provided as extras.

A recommended movie and disc.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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