What is love between two people? Where does the attraction come from? That feeling of caring for another and realizing at that moment you can't live without that significant other by your side. Meeting someone unnoticeable and after time the layers of the indiscreet become strikingly alluring. I've personally had that experience with a girl who sat in front of me in seventh grade science class. We would talk and gradually play dots on scrap paper which led to tickle games. Yet I never looked at her as being attractive. One day she smiled at me for saying something profound. A glow came over her and I was smitten with her loveliness. I was suddenly attracted to her. I was infatuated with her. To this day many decades later I often wondered why she was my first love and how this phenomenon occurred. How spending time with someone develops into true love and desire. The movie The Enchanted Cottage is about a developed relationship between a homely maid and a disfigured Air force pilot. Our story begins with a meeting between the owner of this cottage Mrs Minnett (Mildred Natwick) and a lonely homely woman looking for work as a housekeeper Laura Pennington (Dorothy McGuire). Mrs Minnett explains the history of the cottage to Laura and the couples or honeymooners who spent their years there. Mrs Minnett does need a housekeeper as prospected renters are coming in the way of an engaged couple. A handsome couple played by Hillary Brooke as Beatrice and her dashing air force pilot Oliver Bradford portrayed by Robert Young. Oliver emphasizes that they will marry in a few weeks and use the cottage for their honeymoon. Oliver is confident that he will not be deployed into service for a while but unfortunately the Japanese sudden attack on Pearl Harbor thrusts the United Stares into World War II. Oliver puts his marriage plans on hold till the war ends. Oliver ends up severely injured losing the use of his hand and half his face is disfigured. Oliver some how goes back to the cottage discreetly with face covered and goes into seclusion. Meanwhile our story focuses on Laura and the rejections by men because of her homeliness at a local canteen function. The two lost souls find each other. At first pity becomes friendship which blossoms into love for each other. It's impossible to spoil this movie because everyone who views this romance is moved emotionally in different ways. Duly noted performances in this picture. The baritone articulate voice of reason Herbert Marshall. Marshall plays a blind pianist who points out to Oliver that his own misfortune opened his real eyes to the world through other senses. Marshall drains the self pity out of Oliver in a methodical relaxed way. Marshall seems to be the foundation throughout the movie as go between Oliver and his stuffy Parents. Speaking of stuffy vain parents great performance by Oliver's Mother played by Spring Byington. The Screenplay is well written as Young and McGuire have an ice breaking conversation about the comforts of having a hobby. Young tells McGuire metaphorically about a friend of his that spends his days making miniature ships in glass bottles. " If you look at it largely all of us one way or other are full master schooners or brigantines, whaling ships or even canoes. Ready to sail into life. Only there we were locked up in glass bottles." A wonderful film to watch about life's hardships and how to deal with them. It's not the Cottage or an elixir. It's the power of time and communication between two people that develops the "MAGIC" relationship regardless of flaws in a human beings makeup. This movie affirms my marriage to my wife. Beauty truly comes from within.FYI... Initially I was confused because I perceived the Laura actress Dorothy McGuire as an attractive woman regardless. Try to decipher how the Laura character is different to the eye between her beauty and ugliness. Dorothy McGuire refused to use facial makeup but instead used loosely fitted clothes when ugly and tapered well fitted attire for the beauty scenes.
The Enchanted Cottage brings up these questions about love relations and the
The Enchanted Cottage brings up these questions about love relations and the