About Loretta---I wonder if her growing attachment to Catholicism ought not to be mentioned when considering her career.~Miss Goddess
Of course, this had an effect on her acting and occasionally I suspect that it led to her to create some rather inhibited portrayals, but her inner conflicts may have enhanced some parts. I sometimes think that her ability to play characters who were conflicted by their emotional & ethical choices was heightened by her religious faith. This seems evident to me in less overtly "holy" movies of the '40s and early '50s such as
And Now Tomorrow,
Cause for Alarm,
The Stranger and some other films. In these roles her characters seem a bit more complex than the elegant clothes horse types she'd been relegated to playing during that middle period of her film career.
Having grown up seeing the films in which she played close to her own ideals, such as
The Farmer's Daughter,
The Bishop's Wife, and
Come to the Stable, I'm also quite fond of these films, though her early movies may be her best, dramatically. Of course, the spiritual conflict that she felt playing parts in the changing censorship atmosphere in movies may have been one of the reasons why she left movies for good in the early '50s.
I have heard that the silent version with May McAvoy and Dick Barthelmess is even superior. Could it be? ~feaito
Fernando, I was completely unaware that there was a silent version of
The Enchanted Cottage. From what I've been able to find in a quick search, it was made in 1924. IMDb only has one person in Wales commenting on it. I wonder where and if a print of this exists? Wouldn't it be an interesting double bill to see both versions?
MissGoddess wrote:
However, Herbert Marshall is one of the reasons I like it so much, and I have to say his beautiful voice (and "voice of wisdom") contributes a lot to the result.
He was indeed a very gifted actor April.~feaito
Wow, two other people who appreciate the mellifluous
Herbert Marshall! I heard a record once of him reading various poems from Shakespeare to W.H. Auden, and never forgot it, or him. Also think he's the bee's knees whenever he plays a worldly-wise fellow such as Somerset Maugham in
The Moon & Sixpence and
The Razor's Edge. I also love it when he plays a morally sketchy type as he does so effectively in
High Wall and delightfully in the earlier
Trouble in Paradise. Even though I know he's the bad guy, Mr. Marshall, not to mince words, put the "oo" in smooth, LOL...
What do you think our chances are of getting TCM to put together a Herbert Marshall Star of the Month sometime?. What's that you say? Something about a snowball in hell?