The Enchanted Cottage (1945)

The Enchanted Cottage - 1945

The next film, 1945's "The Enchanted Cottage", has only recently been made aware to me and has quickly shot to the top of my favorites list.  It stars Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young as two people who marry out of convenience and find a love that changes them completely.

The supporting cast includes Herbert Marshall, Mildred Natwick, Spring Byington, Hillary Brooke, Richard Gaines, Alec Englander, and Josephine Whittell.

The film opens with a party given by blind composer John Hillgrove.  He's a good friend of Oliver and Laura (Young and McGuire).  They've sent word that they can't make it that evening and he plays a song, their song, the story of their love, to the gathered guests.

The film cuts to a view of the cottage.  It was once part of a large New England estate, but the main house burned down and this wing was all that was left.

It's a charming cottage, nothing very grand, but charming, nonetheless.  Laura Pennington is summoned by its owner, Mrs. Minnett, who is renting it out and needs someone to help her as the cottage's maid.  Laura is thrilled at the prospect as she's heard so much about the cottage since she was a little girl.

Mrs. Minnett talks things over with her over tea.  The couple coming to live at the house will be there that very afternoon.  Mrs. Minnett is a curious lady.  She sees that Laura is very plain-looking and has no family in the village and needs a home.

Laura meets Oliver Bradford and his fiancee.  While Mrs. Minnett shows the lady around the upstairs, Oliver and Laura talk.  She tells him a bit of the history of the cottage.

The cottage had traditionally been lived in only by newlyweds.  Each couple had written their names on a window with a special instrument.  Oliver and his fiancee leave the cottage saying they will be back in a few days as a married couple.

On the very day their wedding is supposed to be held, Oliver is called into the war as a flier.  He and his fiancee don't get married, preferring to be a modern couple and wait until Oliver comes home.

In the absence of any residents at the cottage, Laura goes to work for the local servicemen's canteen.  When the canteen manager tells her to go and dance instead of wash dishes, Laura is disappointed and hurt when no one will dance with her because of her looks.  She returns to the cottage in despair.  Soon, a letter comes from Oliver Bradford saying he will want the cottage for an indefinite period.

He returns to the cottage alone, and we find that he has been severely injured during the war.  He refuses to see his mother, stepfather, and his former fiancee (who couldn't face him when she first saw him in the hospital).  He lives in complete despair, almost taking his life before Laura stopped him and began talking to him.

Enter John Hillgrove and his nephew Danny and dog Roger.  Being blind, Oliver lets John become a friend, and both he and Laura value and treasure this friendship immensely.  John lets Oliver vent his frustration over his disabilities, and Oliver comes out of his shell more and more.

One day, Oliver gets a letter that upsets him.  He waits until nightfall and then leaves the cottage to walk.  Laura sees him and follows him into the night.

She offers a sympathetic ear, and Oliver tells her his parents want him to live with them, either at their house or the cottage, and a full-time nurse.  Oliver proposes marriage to Laura as a solution to the problem.  At first, Laura isn't at all thrilled by the prospect, but Oliver wins her over by telling her how much he enjoys her company and cares for her.  They marry in a small ceremony.

A while later, after hearing that John has gotten back from one of his concert tours, Oliver and Laura summon him to the cottage to reveal that something extraordinary has happened.  He can tell it in their voices.  He asks them to explain it to him.

Laura begins telling the story.  On the evening of their wedding, they were alone having dinner.  Neither could really say anything to the other.  Laura loved Oliver since she first saw him.  Oliver felt ashamed at the way they were married, more out of convenience than love.  Laura went to the piano, saying she wanted Oliver to understand how she felt through music.  She felt a change in the room as she played, and Oliver began to look different.  Oliver said that he felt the change later in the evening, when he kissed her goodnight.

They appeared to each other as the other always dreamed.  He as he did when Laura saw him when he first came to the cottage.  She more beautiful than any woman Oliver could have imagined.  John tries to make sense of what they've told him, and urges them to share the story with no one.  Let it be for themselves.

Oliver's parents come to visit.  John tries to explain to them that Oliver and Laura's love has transformed them in each other's eyes.  He begs them to play along as if they saw a great change in them.  Finding out the truth could shatter their happiness.

At the top of the stairs, Oliver and Laura are as they look to one another as they descend.

But when they arrive downstairs, we see them as his parents do, just as they always were.

Whenever Laura and Oliver talk to each other, we see them as they do.  But when others talk to them, we see them as they truly are.  Oliver's parents can't manage to keep up the story, and they shatter the couple's new image.

After his parents go, Oliver and Laura are bewildered.  Mrs. Minnett tells them the secret of the cottage, "Keep your love burning.  Keep it burning, and I promise you you’ll never be anything to one another but fair and handsome.  That’s the charm.  That’s the secret, the old enchantment the cottage holds.  And it’s of your own making."  They go and inscribe their names in the lovers' window.

We cut back to the party scene that John is giving in honor of his new musical composition.  Oliver and Laura arrive late, and just before they enter, we see them as they see themselves.

Cast rundown:

   Dorothy McGuire...................................Laura Pennington

   Robert Young........................................Oliver Bradford

   Herbert Marshall...................................Major John Hillgrove

   Mildred Natwick....................................Mrs. Abigail Minnett

   Spring Byington....................................Violet Price

   Hillary Brooke.......................................Beatrice Alexander

   Richard Gaines.....................................Freddy Price

   Alec Englander......................................Danny Stanton

   Josephine Whittell.................................Mrs. Mainwaring

And that's all for The Enchanted Cottage.  It's a very moving, beautifully-filmed movie.  Robert Young later called it the greatest love story ever told, and he hated to see it end.  He was so moved by the film that he named his residence "The Enchanted Cottage".  A remake was supposed to be made in the 1970s, with Robert Young starring as John Hillgrove and Dorothy McGuire starring as Mrs. Minnett.  Young hosted a screening of their movie at his house.  After watching it, Dorothy McGuire said she couldn't bring herself to do the remake.  It was too good the way it was.

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