Copyright 13 April 1945 by Loew's Inc. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 3 May 1945. U.S. release: 14 April 1945. U.K. release: 26 November 1945. Australian release: 28 March 1946. 12 reels. 10,787 feet. 120 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: In 1880 Pittsburgh, Mary Rafferty becomes a servant in the home of William Scott, despite the opposition of her father, Pat Rafferty, who had been crippled in an accident in Scott's steel mill. Mary endears herself to Clarissa, William Scott's wife, and to the four children: Paul, Constance, William Jr, and Ted. Eventually love comes to Mary and Paul, but she decides not to wed him because of her lowly position.
NOTES: Number 7 at the domestic box office for 1945. Initial domestic rental gross: $5,560,000. Photoplay Gold Medal Award: Best Film of 1945. Photo-play Gold Medal Award: Greer Garson, Best Actress of 1945. Number 4 on the Film Daily Annual Poll of domestic film critics and commentators. Film debut of Marshall Thompson, according to many reference books, but in point of fact his initial movie was 1944's Reckless Age. Greer Garson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, losing to Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce. Also nominated: Best Music Scoring in the Drama/Comedy category, but Stothart lost to Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound.
COMMENT: Here's another of those stories that appear so often in vintage movies. It's all about the humble servant girl who makes good in the big house on the hill and marries the young master. When our little slavey is played by that wide-eyed mistress of do-goodiness Greer Garson, and the upright chip by the impeccably stolid Gregory Peck, we just know we are in for a studiously well-mounted yet craftily well-wearisome time.
But wait! In this movie the unexpected happens. True, we should have remembered that the script is based on a three-decker novel. So just as she is about to marry half-way through the film, there is trouble at the mill. This leads to consequences that add ten years to the happy consummation (which translates into another hour of screen time which the director can put to good use with lots of dewy-eyed close-ups of Miss G. and lots of stolid close-ups of Mr P. putting an eminently respectable brave front on things).
When this film was made, a sort of fourth-rate Girls Own Paper Pride & Prejudice like this had a lot of box-office clout. The men were all overseas in the war and the home audience consisted mostly of women seeking this sort of synthetic escapism. And it must be admitted that though there are some glaringly obvious backdrops, the miniatures of the mill are impressively realized and Joseph Ruttenberg's black-and-white photography (which makes the film look like the first pull of a brand-new steel engraving) is always visually stylish to look at. The sets, costumes also help.
At times, Garnett's direction is quite deft, though mostly he is content to let his players amble (or fulminate in the case of Lionel Barrymore) through their scenes. This easy-going attitude makes it even more difficult to accept the second half of the film where Duryea and Thompson who seemed so mildly agreeable in the first half, show a mildly disagreeable side to their characters. With Jessica Tandy, oddly enough, the reverse is true. She is always so disagreeable that her big speech loses most of its impact because it's so predictable! So we have here a situation where a director tries two opposite methods to keep our interest in the piece and both of them don't work, leading to the conclusion that the contrived, artificial, unbelievable and completely hackneyed and derivative script itself is the problem.
SYNOPSIS: In 1880 Pittsburgh, Mary Rafferty becomes a servant in the home of William Scott, despite the opposition of her father, Pat Rafferty, who had been crippled in an accident in Scott's steel mill. Mary endears herself to Clarissa, William Scott's wife, and to the four children: Paul, Constance, William Jr, and Ted. Eventually love comes to Mary and Paul, but she decides not to wed him because of her lowly position.
NOTES: Number 7 at the domestic box office for 1945. Initial domestic rental gross: $5,560,000. Photoplay Gold Medal Award: Best Film of 1945. Photo-play Gold Medal Award: Greer Garson, Best Actress of 1945. Number 4 on the Film Daily Annual Poll of domestic film critics and commentators. Film debut of Marshall Thompson, according to many reference books, but in point of fact his initial movie was 1944's Reckless Age. Greer Garson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, losing to Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce. Also nominated: Best Music Scoring in the Drama/Comedy category, but Stothart lost to Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound.
COMMENT: Here's another of those stories that appear so often in vintage movies. It's all about the humble servant girl who makes good in the big house on the hill and marries the young master. When our little slavey is played by that wide-eyed mistress of do-goodiness Greer Garson, and the upright chip by the impeccably stolid Gregory Peck, we just know we are in for a studiously well-mounted yet craftily well-wearisome time.
But wait! In this movie the unexpected happens. True, we should have remembered that the script is based on a three-decker novel. So just as she is about to marry half-way through the film, there is trouble at the mill. This leads to consequences that add ten years to the happy consummation (which translates into another hour of screen time which the director can put to good use with lots of dewy-eyed close-ups of Miss G. and lots of stolid close-ups of Mr P. putting an eminently respectable brave front on things).
When this film was made, a sort of fourth-rate Girls Own Paper Pride & Prejudice like this had a lot of box-office clout. The men were all overseas in the war and the home audience consisted mostly of women seeking this sort of synthetic escapism. And it must be admitted that though there are some glaringly obvious backdrops, the miniatures of the mill are impressively realized and Joseph Ruttenberg's black-and-white photography (which makes the film look like the first pull of a brand-new steel engraving) is always visually stylish to look at. The sets, costumes also help.
At times, Garnett's direction is quite deft, though mostly he is content to let his players amble (or fulminate in the case of Lionel Barrymore) through their scenes. This easy-going attitude makes it even more difficult to accept the second half of the film where Duryea and Thompson who seemed so mildly agreeable in the first half, show a mildly disagreeable side to their characters. With Jessica Tandy, oddly enough, the reverse is true. She is always so disagreeable that her big speech loses most of its impact because it's so predictable! So we have here a situation where a director tries two opposite methods to keep our interest in the piece and both of them don't work, leading to the conclusion that the contrived, artificial, unbelievable and completely hackneyed and derivative script itself is the problem.