1942 review
http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D02EFD71339E33BBC4B51DFB6678389659EDE
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“Hawdd yw hi, i fod yn ddewr o tu nôl i mur.”
🐉
Gee-- wonder if we saw the same movie?
Some things never change. Reviewers think if they pontificate about how bad something is, it makes them seem smarter.
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Never say never...
I was a little shocked to read it. I thought at first it was a joke, then it seemed almost bitter.
~
“Hawdd yw hi, i fod yn ddewr o tu nôl i mur.”
🐉
The word "spoiler" did not exist at that time, but imagine reading the below item in 1942:
the film tells the story of an unattractive, hysterical girl enslaved by maternal tyranny and how through the ministrations of a psychiatrist, and even more through an abortive love affair on a southward cruise, she finally emerges from the dark chrysalis of her neurosis into the light of day. But the man whose love restores her is himself unhappily married to a woman he dares not hurt, and his own child has been victimized by the insecurity of an unsettled home. After several renunciations, Miss Davis and Paul Henried, as the married lover, form a curious partnership to aid the child. Violently in love with each other, they enter a platonic relationship in which Miss Davis keeps the child and Mr. Henried keeps his unwanted wife.
Um.... the reviewer has told the entire story. So he has basically ruined it for whomever might have liked to have enjoyed the movie unfettered by the knowledge of how it all ends.
It's hard to look back at pieces like these without being aware of what readers at that time probably knew. For instance, we know that Gone with the Wind was a famous novel that everyone had read. So if a reviewer referred to the final "Frank, my dear I don't give a damn," he would not have given anything away.
I'm not sure if the novel Now, Voyager by Olive Higgins Prouty was that well known to the extent that movie goers would have already known the ending.
At any rate, you are right. The tone of the review is bitter.
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Never say never... share
The novel had been a bestseller at the time, so it was quite well known. Prouty's name was familiar to moviegoers; she had also written the novel "Stella Dallas" which had already been adapted as a hit play in 1924 and filmed twice, once in 1925 as a silent (which was a hit) and a sound remake in 1937 with Barbara Stanwyck (which was a HUGE hit) and which had spun off a very successful radio soap opera that ran from 1937 to 1955.
It's safe to say that movie audiences of the time were most likely familiar with the book's plot, and really, spoiler sensitivity is a more modern phenomenon which I don't quite understand...some people seem to think that if you find out how a movie ends, there's no point in seeing it, but for me, I enjoy seeing how it gets there, and watching the acting and the craft of the filmmakers.
"Value your education. It's something nobody can ever take away from you." My mom.
I think the first time you see a film, it's best to view it totally "cold." That is: with no knowledge of how it will end. I think that helps respect the vision of the creators.
As to spoiler sensitivity being a more modern phenomenon, I am not sure I agree. I find it really annoying to watch movie previews nowadays because they just give away way too much of the plots. But looking at the trailer for Now, Voyager (https://youtu.be/t861z2ww0-Q), it does seem that nothing much was left out.
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Never say never...
One must remember that there was a lot of "snobbery" about films in those days - particularly from the reviewers of the day.
Even larks and katydids are, supposed by some, to dream