I was a little bored with the first half hour of this film, but a well-written turn of events sends this movie in the right direction. It mixes a few classic themes (marry vs. deportation, country comes to town, wealth vs poverty, town goes to country, etc...) that could have made this movie completely formulaic. However, formula goes out the door with Jimmy Stewart's charm and Hedy Lamarr's stunning beauty.
Once both characters spend screen time together, consistently, the energy of this slightly screwball romantic comedy picks up quickly. The grandmother is all wisdom, wit, and heart. Her common sense needlework samplers are artfully placed and still hold true today. The grandmother's calm voice, the sound of crickets chirping, and the other country nuances slow down the pace to a level that seems so foreign to an actress like Hedy Lamarr. She seems so out of place, but that is what makes her so enjoyable to watch. She melts slowly from the WWII city girl ice queen fugitive until she's relaxed and calm as if she can go home again, but this time to a slice of Americana rather than Austria and with a moral upstanding young man if that's the choice she's willing to make.
This has just been made available for purchase on DVD. It's now on my "to buy" list and certainly worth a watch on TCM if you enjoy this genre and these wonderfully magnetic actors.
Once both characters spend screen time together, consistently, the energy of this slightly screwball romantic comedy picks up quickly. The grandmother is all wisdom, wit, and heart. Her common sense needlework samplers are artfully placed and still hold true today. The grandmother's calm voice, the sound of crickets chirping, and the other country nuances slow down the pace to a level that seems so foreign to an actress like Hedy Lamarr. She seems so out of place, but that is what makes her so enjoyable to watch. She melts slowly from the WWII city girl ice queen fugitive until she's relaxed and calm as if she can go home again, but this time to a slice of Americana rather than Austria and with a moral upstanding young man if that's the choice she's willing to make.
This has just been made available for purchase on DVD. It's now on my "to buy" list and certainly worth a watch on TCM if you enjoy this genre and these wonderfully magnetic actors.