Invitation (1952)

Invitation - 1952

Coming up next is 1952's "Invitation", in which we find a young woman who is terminally ill.  She finds that the life she's been living is not all it appears, and her world crumbles around her when she finds that even her very existence is in jeopardy.  Have your Kleenex handy!

The film's cast includes Van Johnson, Dorothy McGuire, Ruth Roman, Louis Calhern, Ray Collins, Lisa Golm, and Barbara Billingsley.

Ellen Pierce is living a life in which she wants for nothing.  She's got everything her heart desires: a husband, a home, etc.

Her father has generously footed the bill for their living expenses.  Ellen can't believe how lucky she has been, especially in regards to her husband Dan.

Unbeknownst to Dan, Ellen goes to see her physician, who happens to be visiting her father.  Ellen tells him of an episode where she blacked out.  It's becoming a more common occurrence.  Only this time, Ellen said she felt afraid when she came to.  The doctor tells her to just take it easy and rest and she should be feeling back to normal in no time.  What Ellen doesn't know is that after a bout of rheumatic fever when she was a child, her heart was severely weakened.  Now, she only has months to live.

After visiting with her father and the doctor, Ellen goes to visit her friend Maud.  Maud, however, is behaving in a hostile manner towards Ellen.  Having been an old girlfriend of Dan's, Ellen can understand why Maud feels that way.  But something Maud tells her causes Ellen to re-think the relationship.  It was something that Maud told her at her wedding.

At the wedding, Maud told Ellen that she could have Dan on loan for a year.  At the time, Ellen just thought Maud had had too much champagne and didn't really give it much thought.  In the present, Maud reminds Ellen that the year is almost up.

Eventually, Ellen works out the truth.  Everything in her life seems to have been planned for only one year, including the employment of her housekeeper.  She calls her father and angrily confronts him with what she knows.

Wanting his daughter to be happy in her final year, Ellen's father even paid Dan to marry her.  Ellen confronts Dan as well, who acknowledges the truth of the accusations.

Dan opens up to Ellen about the whole truth of the situation.  He also tells her that he fell in love with her during the course of the year.  "The days we’ve spent together, the things we’ve done together, building our home here, walking in the woods out there on the weekends, all the little things.  I found that the times I wasn’t with you, everything seemed very empty."

He tells Ellen that there is a doctor who can do an experimental procedure, and it may give her a normal life.  While he was investigating the possibility, he ran into Maud, who was angry as ever.  "Ellen may get well.  If she does, she may wish she hadn’t," Maud tells him.

After Dan gives her a chance to think, Ellen goes to him and tells him that he's made life worth living for her.  "Oh, Dan, I’m so glad to have had my life, because I have it.  Because out of all the sham and deceit something happened.  Because in loving me, you’ve given my life a meaning, a reason, a justification.  You’ve made the past years worthwhile, and the future glorious."

The two reconcile, and Ellen agrees to undergo the experimental procedure.  When she asks Dan how long it would be before they know if it works, he tells her the doctor said they would know by the spring.

The next thing we know, it is spring.  Ellen kisses her husband goodbye as he makes his way to work.

Cast rundown:

   Van Johnson...............................Dan Pierce

   Dorothy McGuire.........................Ellen Bowker Pierce

   Ruth Roman...............................Maud Redwick

   Louis Calhern..............................Simon Bowker

   Ray Collins.................................Dr. Warren Pritchard

   Lisa Golm...................................Agnes

   Barbara Billingsley.......................Miss Alvy

And that's it for Invitation.  The wedding gown in this film was designed by Helen Rose, who also designed the wedding gown of Grace Kelly.  This gown appears to be an earlier version of that dress.

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