Released just months after Leo McCarey’s LOVE AFFAIR, this tempest-tossed romantic melodrama was ‘the other’ Irene Dunne/Charles Boyer film of 1939. Adapted from a James M. Cain story, it repeats the earlier film’s dramatic pivot, evolving from playful banter to serious, even tragic events, here with a personal revelation in the wake of a hurricane both literal & spiritual, paradoxically upending and strengthening the budding relationship. And what a surprisingly sophisticated relationship it is for a 1939 movie, with Dunne’s stuck-in-a-rut waitress meeting--cute with Boyer shortly before she inspires her timid co-workers to go out on strike.* Boyer turns out to be a union man as well, just not the same union. He’s a world class classical pianist falling hopelessly in love (who wouldn’t?), but also hopelessly stuck in a marriage-of-inconvenience with mentally unstable wife Barbara O’Neil. Sticky stuff in most hands, but director John M. Stahl, who somehow kept the religious goo down to acceptable levels with Dunne in MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION/’35, had an uncanny feel for how far he could push these things. And the speed and simplicity of production at no-frills Universal Pictures also helps.
DOUBLE-BILL: Boyer & O’Neil would play a similar mind-game of marital misery next year in ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO/’40.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Sophisticated musical selections too, with Boyer challenging the storm raging outside his Long Island mansion with Rachmaninoff’s piano transcription of Bach’s Chaconne for solo violin; a Schubert song for Dunne (handled in a simple mastershot); and a little Mozart played on the church organ when they take shelter from the hurricane.
CONTEST: *This ‘meet-cute’ starts when another waitress can’t accommodate Boyer’s special request. A precursor to an iconic film moment of the ‘70s, name the film and the moment to win a MAKSQUIBS Write-Up on a film of your choosing.
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