Enchantment *** (1948, David Niven, Teresa Wright, Evelyn Keyes, Farley Granger) – Classic Movie Review 8882

‘Just About the Most Wonderful Love Story Ever Filmed!’

Director Irving Reis’s 1948 film Enchantment is a fairly enchanting, well-crafted, plushly produced little romantic melodrama, based on Rumer Godden’s novel Take Three Tenses, about a London house’s story (in three steps) at number 99 Wiltshire Place.

David Niven leads the cast as an English Guards officer, General Sir Roland Dane, or Uncle Rollo, who in his last days recalls his lost love, when he was tragically involved with Lark Ingoldsby (Teresa Wright) in the Victorian level of the saga. The appearance of his great-niece starts him re-evaluating his life.

Unfortunately, Niven quarrelled with producer Samuel Goldwyn and it was his last movie for his employer since his first, Splendor, back in 1935.

Poor Teresa Wright looks like she is in agony rather than ecstasy in Enchantment (1948).

Farley Granger on the other hand is making his second movie for Uncle Sam Goldwyn, after his 1943 film debut in The North Star, in the modern part of the yarn, as Lark (Wright)’s Canadian aviator nephew Pilot Officer Pax Masterson, romancing Niven’s great-niece Grizel Dane (Evelyn Keyes).

Jayne Meadows as Selina Dane, Leo G Carroll as Proutie, Shepperd Strudwick as Marchese Del Laudi, Philip Friend as Pelham Dane and Henry Stephenson as General Fitzgerald are all also assets to the cast.

It is a beautifully constructed film, and master cinematographer Gregg Toland makes it look wonderful in black and white, though it was to be his last movie. He died of a coronary thrombosis on 26 September 1948, aged 44.

Also in the cast are Colin Keith-Johnston, Gigi Perreau, Peter Miles, Sherlee Collier, Marjorie Rhodes, Warwick Gregson, Melville Cooper and Edmond Breon.

Enchantment is directed by Irving Reis, runs 102 minutes, is made by The Samuel Goldwyn Company, is released by RKO Radio Pictures (1948), is written by John Patrick, based on Rumer Godden’s novel Take Three Tenses, is shot in black and white by Gregg Toland, is produced by Samuel Goldwyn, is scored by Hugo Friedhofer and is designed by George Jenkins.

Farley Granger had also previously enjoyed three notable loan-outs to other producers by Goldwyn: The Purple Heart (1944), Rope (1948) and They Live by Night (1948).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8882

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Farley Granger (1925–2011).