Another unofficial reworking of Tennyson’s ENOCH ARDEN (presumed dead husband comes home to find his wife newly married or engaged), here set against the end of WWII with gauntly handsome Michael Redgrave upsetting the plans of his own ‘widow’ (Valerie Hobson) on the eve of her marriage to old pal James McKechnie. Taken from a Daphne Du Maurier play, it’s sudsy, but effective; smartly held together most of the way by director Compton Bennett and married scripters Muriel & Sydney Box. (These three fresh from making James Mason a major star in the hit psycho-drama THE SEVENTH VEIL/’45.) The plot leaves co-star Flora Robson a bit underused as housekeeper/nanny, so they try to make up for it with a big last act speech that settles all unresolved issues in a rushed ending. The film is fine as far as it goes, but does it go far enough? Missing is a proper account of Hobson’s success as an independent single woman, thriving in politics after beating her depression by winning her husband’s old seat in parliament. Here, it's used mainly to make Redgrave look like a selfish sore loser. Worse, there’s the problem of playing those old ENOCH ARDEN tropes with a straight face after Hollywood comically demolished them in TOO MANY HUSBANDS with Jean Arthur and MY FAVORITE WIFE (Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott). Compton & the Boxes aren’t strong enough moviemakers to lead us back to serious.
DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned, the underrated TOO MANY HUSBANDS and the slightly overrated MY FAVORITE WIFE, both 1940.
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