evanston_dad I've never thought that Lana Turner was much of an actress, but I liked her quite a bit in "Green Dolphin Street," a rambling costume drama from 1947. Turner carries the film, and without her it otherwise wouldn't have much spunk.Turner plays a feisty young woman who's ahead of her time and isn't content with a lady's lot in 19th Century England, while Donna Reed plays her boring sister. Both fall for the same man, Reed because she genuinely loves him, Turner because she sees in him the raw stuff that she can manipulate into the man who's deserving of her. Much of the film is set in New Zealand against the backdrop of a Maori revolution, while the rest takes place in an English seaside village. There are lost loves, nuns, death, and even an earthquake, all of it mostly ridiculous. But if you can overcome the plot contrivance that sets the entire thing in motion -- the suitor of one of the young ladies accidentally puts the other's name in a drunken letter proposing marriage -- you just might find yourself having a good time."Green Dolphin Street" is pretty much straight up soap opera, but it does flirt with some serious themes about gender equality that make it a rather bold statement for 1947, a time when women were being told to resume their rightful places as mothers and wives and relinquish more important matters back to men.A bevy of character actors like Frank Morgan, Edmund Gwenn, Gladys Cooper, and May Whitty add some class to the proceedings.The aforementioned earthquake garnered "Green Dolphin Street" the Academy Award for Best Special Effects, while it received additional nominations for its black and white cinematography (by perennial Oscar bridesmaid George Folsey), editing, and sound recording.Grade: B+

jacobs-greenwood Directed by Victor Saville, with a Samson Raphaelson screenplay based on Elizabeth Goudge's book, this overlong adventure-romance drama is notable for its Academy Award winning Special Effects, Oscar nominated B&W Cinematography, Editing, and Sound. The cast includes Lana Turner, Donna Reed, Van Heflin, Richard Hart, Frank Morgan, Edmund Gwenn, Dame May Witty, Reginald Owen, and Gladys Cooper."A hundred years ago on an island called Saint Pierre in the English Channel", at the convent which rests at the top of this rocky cone- shaped 'mountain', Mother Superior (Whitty) receives a letter which tells that Dr. Edmund Ozanne (Morgan) is coming back home to settle there. She is quick to visit Sophie Patourel (Cooper), who had been the forbidden love of his life, but Sophie's wealthy parents would not allow her to marry below her class. Sophie later married Octavius Patourel (Gwenn); they have two comely daughters, Marianne (Turner) and Marguerite (Reed). Like her mother, Marianne is coveted by a working class craftsman named Timothy Haslam (Heflin). Dr. Ozanne moves in across the street with his eligible bachelor son William (Hart). They soon meet the Patourel's daughters and are saved from a potentially embarrassing introduction by their mother, who arrives in time to steer the conversation. William makes an impression on both young ladies: despite his unkempt appearance and indifference to her, Marianne sees his potential whereas Marguerite is instantly smitten with him.Sporting a knife wound, Haslam visits the doctor, whom he talks out of reporting the injury to the police. Marianne and William both admire a new clipper ship, the Green Dolphin, from ashore, and decide to row out to see her. She thinks it's a good omen that the ship bears the same name as his house's street. Captain O'Hara (Owen) welcomes them, then regales them with tales of his voyages and native New Zealand. Marianne impresses the captain with her knowledge of ships; her father runs a shipping business. Meanwhile, O'Hara's crew has discovered a stowaway, Haslam, who explains he was injured while killing a man in self defense. Needing another able bodied seaman, the captain tells his crew to hide Haslam below decks until they sail. Neither Marianne nor William saw any of this, and soon she is planning his future, using her father and his influence to get her would-be suitor a position aboard the H.M.S. Orion. In a few years time on "his majesty's ship", William should become an officer and a gentleman, a suitable husband for Marianne.But William's heart belongs to the simpler Marguerite, for whom he buys an engagement necklace while in the Orient. Afterwards, however, he reenters the establishment where he is given a Mickey Finn, taken advantage of, and left unconscious on the shoreline. He's missed his ship and is therefore a deserter. Fortunately, the Green Dolphin is in port and William is given passage to New Zealand by Captain O'Hara. There, he meets Haslam, known by the Maori natives as "Tai Haruru", a respected man in Wellington; he runs a lumber business. Haslam employs William, who later writes a letter to Octavius for permission to marry his favorite Patourel daughter. The only problem is that he was drunk, and O'Hara unwittingly delivers the letter which actually asks for Marianne's hand in lieu of Marguerite's. Both daughters are stunned, as is their mother Sophie who had just learned of the necklace from Marguerite; soon Marianne is happily sailing for New Zealand.Haslam learns of William's letter as the Green Dolphin is coming into Port Wellington. Though he'd been relieved to learn that his partner wanted Marguerite, Haslam is the first to see Marianne aboard the ship. He then 'forces' William to agree to marry Marianne and never let her know that he'd intended otherwise. Their marriage is predictably sad, though Marianne is soon with child. Haslam tolerates Marianne's interference in his business, and tries to keep the Ozannes together. But then there is an earthquake. A dam breaks such that a huge torrent of water rushes down the countryside and into the river where William had been transporting lumber, his fate unknown. Meanwhile, Haslam had saved Marianne and even helped her to give birth to a daughter, whom she names Marguerite Veronica. Of course, William survived but is not pleased by his daughter's name, insisting they call her Veronica. Later, a Maori uprising provides another situation for Haslam to rescue the Ozannes, who soon decide to move to Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand, where they establish a successful shipping business. Haslam had declined to go with them, but did privately reveal to Marianne his secret love for her before she left. William gives his wife full credit for their business's success in a speech to his 'new' partners.Eventually, the Ozannes decide to return to St. Pierre where Marguerite is about to become a nun. She had lived with her parents until each died, Octavius dying shortly after Sophie, who'd delivered a deathbed confession that she'd grown to love her kind husband. Lost and alone, Marguerite found God and the convent, which she'd actually had to climb a smuggler's vertical tunnel to reach. When Marianne and William return, she learns of her husband's proposal to her sister when Veronica accidentally finds the necklace and the letter. Upon confronting him and learning the truth of it, Marianne refuses to listen to William's protestations that 'that was then, this is now' he loves her now. At the convent, she tells Marguerite what she knows, but her sister speaks of God; Marguerite explains her new love, mission, and commitment and asks Marianne to understand. She's then willing and able to believe William, who tells her again that he loves her and not Marguerite. Both realize their love for each other will be as everlasting as Marguerite's is for God as they watch her complete her vows.

vitaleralphlouis Weeding out the comic book movies aimed at 10 year old's, there's almost nothing at the movies this summer. So I remembered this MGM classic from 60 years ago when I was in 3rd grade and found the VHS at Video Vault. In 1947, kids used to love the westerns, Walt Disney, and action pictures, but we were also smart enough to appreciate certain movies made for the grown-ups. Green Dolphin Street is one of them.A romance-adventure filling the screen from St Pierre off the coast of France, to the China coast, to New Zealand. Big ships at sea, tribal warfare, an earthquake, a tidal wave, a crawl through the smuggler's rock cave, the glorious site of Mont St. Michel --- a convent on a rugged mountain island cut off from the mainland once a day by the high tide. On top of this add two beautiful sisters and two rugged men. All this brought together with MGM's talent for making the big ones with uncompromising bigness, but not forgetting a strong storyline.In 1947 I thought the earthquake in New Zealand was pure fiction, but a Google search proved that quakes are frequent there.Others will disagree, but I found the special effects of 60 years ago to be much more effective than the silly, overblown stuff they do these days. Exhibit 1 is Peter Jackson's stunningly stupid "remake" of 1933's KING KONG, where the original film and its special effects still stand tall after 80 years, and the newer thing is a failure that struck out fast.Good movies often lead to travel. If you drop everything after GDS and head for Mont St. Michel, visit the monastery (not convent) and have the omelet at Mere Poulard's -- the best you'll ever have anywhere on Earth.Godless liberals who squirm at the sight of a Christmas Crib will be most uncomfortable with the many devout religious scenes in Green Dolphin Street. The secret is that Hollywood was frequently religious back then; patriotic too!

cooke_mark Although I've been a vintage film buff for years, I saw this film for the first time this week. Glady's Cooper's deathbed scene, played with Edmund Gwen and Donna Reed, has now become one of my favorite, most touching moments in film. Her dignity and courage, Gwen's simplicity and kindness, and Reed's ethereal beauty, along with the composition and lighting of the scene (including the candle-lit crucifix at the rear), riveted my attention and emotions from beginning to end. By the end of the scene I had tears streaming down my face, and believe me I'm a hard nut to crack.Otherwise, I thought there was a fine performance from Van Heflin (worthy of a look-alike Orson Welles), a rather startling and frightening depiction of a New Zealand earthquake and flood, very beautiful costumes and sets, and did I mention that Donna Reed is so beautiful you can barely stand to look at her? Her scene with Lana Turner below the crucifix at the convent, in which she describes her happiness at becoming a nun, is worthy of Ingrid Bergman in "The Bells of St. Mary's.