Review of Lydia

Lydia (1941)
6/10
Interesting Oberon vehicle
24 March 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Exotic Anglo-Indian beauty Merle Oberon, best known for her great turn as Cathy in the 1939 film version of 'Wuthering Heights', is at the centre of this pleasant, melodramatic 1941 offering. She plays Lydia MacMillan, an ageing wealthy philanthropist who has never married. Lydia and three of her suitors meet together early in the film, and in an extended flashback they, and the viewer, find out why the lovely, winsome girl never ended up with a ring on her finger.

Oberon gives a very good performance here. She is convincing as both the beguiling young Lydia and the mature, somewhat hardened older version of herself. Edna May Oliver, in a role she would have relished, is also fine as Oberon's aunt. Joseph Cotten is in the mix too, in one of his nice-guy roles.

It's a very sentimental, shamelessly romantic piece with some poignant moments.

6/10
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