This insightful story of a young lady (Dorothy Maguire), and her family such as it is, and a man (Robert Young) and his family, such as they are, get its center from the character of a blind neighbor (Herbert Marshal) who knows them all. The girl, retiring, awkward and shy lives in "the enchanted cottage" with its owner, an older lady (Mildred Natwick) whose financial situation forces her to rent the cottage out. The man played by Robert Young was facially disfigured in WW II and returns from the war directly to the cottage, to hide from his former rich and dashing life as the fine son of a wealthy family, and his former fiance (Spring Byington) all of whom can not initially accept his disfigurement when he returns from the war to seek utter solace in the obscure locale of the enchanted cottage. The relationship between Maguire and Young has many halting and awkward moments as they each come to grips with their own large difficulties. Yet one circumstance after another comes to help each of them to start to overcome their own problems by concentrating of the problems of the other.
But this viewer finds much more than a touching a powerful love story, as this film shows ever so clearly how the many powers of kindnesses and thoughtfullnesses, and the lesser powers of blunders and mistakes, come to spread and affect all the characters as they haltingly, yet steadily move past their own individual problems into the bright sunshines of brotherhood and lasting love.
This viewer also hopes that the strong and gently kind ways of the people in 1942-43 time period of the movie will once again flower in our now much more brash and brutal society, so that we may have a culture that is fitting and kind to the best in all of us. If the enormous task of making a movie was itself done to produce this one film, then certainly our people of today can learn the enduring lessons for themselves that are shown by the human behaviors, which are raised to the sublime in this film. Our men and women of the year 2002 could gain much for all of ourselves by seeing and giving thought to the clear and simple values portrayed in "The Enchanted Cottage". This film shows that much more enduring messages than crash and slash can be put profitably into a film.
(Now lets get up an effort to have "The Enchanted Cottage" returned to video availability, as it is currently available only on Turner Classic Movies - so watch that schedule and set your VCR to get this real gem for your life.
But this viewer finds much more than a touching a powerful love story, as this film shows ever so clearly how the many powers of kindnesses and thoughtfullnesses, and the lesser powers of blunders and mistakes, come to spread and affect all the characters as they haltingly, yet steadily move past their own individual problems into the bright sunshines of brotherhood and lasting love.
This viewer also hopes that the strong and gently kind ways of the people in 1942-43 time period of the movie will once again flower in our now much more brash and brutal society, so that we may have a culture that is fitting and kind to the best in all of us. If the enormous task of making a movie was itself done to produce this one film, then certainly our people of today can learn the enduring lessons for themselves that are shown by the human behaviors, which are raised to the sublime in this film. Our men and women of the year 2002 could gain much for all of ourselves by seeing and giving thought to the clear and simple values portrayed in "The Enchanted Cottage". This film shows that much more enduring messages than crash and slash can be put profitably into a film.
(Now lets get up an effort to have "The Enchanted Cottage" returned to video availability, as it is currently available only on Turner Classic Movies - so watch that schedule and set your VCR to get this real gem for your life.