That Forsyte Woman [The Forsyte Saga] **** (1949, Errol Flynn, Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Robert Young, Janet Leigh, Harry Davenport, Aubrey Mather) – Classic Movie Review 8575

‘This is the story of That Forsyte Woman and the men who were such fools about her!’

MGM’s 1949 Technicolor romantic drama That Forsyte Woman [The Forsyte Saga] makes a deliciously tasty meal of John Galsworthy’s novel A Man of Property (the first book from his epic sequence of novels The Forsyte Saga) about the lives and loves of a family of London merchants in the Victorian age.

It raises to success with the help of Greer Garson’s regal performance as the faithless Irene, Walter Pidgeon’s smooth turn as family black sheep Young Jolyon, Robert Young as the romantic artist Philip Bosinney and Errol Flynn’s critic-surprising success as the unsympathetic Soames.

Some of the other players’ accents were found too American for a London family saga, and especially for British audiences, and director Compton Bennett gives it a studio-bound feel, filming entirely at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 10202 West Washington Blvd, Culver City, California. But otherwise it is a well-acted, entertaining, honourable effort, profiting from restricting the script to the first book of the mammoth saga, finally conquered as a whole by BBC in 1969-70 in a TV mini-series classic of 26 episodes of 50 minutes, The Forsyte Saga.

It was an Oscar nominee for Best Costume Design, Color (Walter Plunkett, Valles).

It also stars Janet Leigh as teenager June Forsyte, who is in love with Bosinney, Harry Davenport as Old Jolyon Forsyte and Aubrey Mather as James Forsyte.

Also in the cast are Gerald Oliver Smith, Lumsden Hare, Stanley Logan, Halliwell Hobbes, Matt Moore, Florence Auer, Phyllis Morris, Marjorie Eaton, Evelyn Beresford, Jimmy Aubrey, Frank Baker, Billy Bevan, Lilian Bond, Leonard Carey, Constance Cavendish, André Charlot, Jack Chefe, Wallis Clark, David Dunbar, William Eddritt, Herbert Evans, Morgan Farley, Jimmy Hawkins, Tim Hawkins, Leyland Hodgson, Olaf Hytten, Colin Kenny, Richard Lupino, Charles McNaughton, Renee Mercier, Albert Petit, Norman Rainey, Isabel Randolph, Jean Ransome, Nina Ross, Rolfe Sedan, John Sheffield, Reginald Sheffield, Gabrielle Windsor and Wilson Wood.

It was originally planned in 1933 as a project with the three Barrymores, Lionel, Ethel and John.

That Forsyte Woman [The Forsyte Saga] is directed by Compton Bennett, runs 113 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Jan Lustig, Ivan Tors, James B Williams and Arthur Wimperis, based on John Galsworthy’s novel A Man of Property, is shot in Technicolor by Joseph Ruttenberg, is produced by Leon Gordon, is scored by Bronislau Kaper, and is designed by Cedric Gibbons and Daniel B Cathcart.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8575

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