Love Story (1944)

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I have no doubt that the title of this film was changed due to the popularity of the Ryan O'Neal/Ali McGraw film of a later generation. But Love Story has certainly stood the test of time no matter what you call it.A couple of the most beautiful women of the British cinema, Margaret Lockwood and Patricia Roc of the World War II era, compete for the affections of Stewart Granger. Granger and Lockwood have some secrets that they are withholding from each other. Granger is an RAF flier on leave because his eyes were injured during a bomb explosion and he is going blind. But an untried and tricky operation might save him. Lockwood had a bout of rheumatic fever which has left her with a weakened heart that won't get any better. She's a famous concert pianist who discovers she's slowly dying when she's examined after trying to enlist in the service for war work.They meet at a seaside resort where Granger has gone back to his old trade of mining engineer looking for valuable molybdenum deposits for the war effort. In the end everybody's secrets do come out including a couple that Lockwood's rival Patrica Roc has.Almost as much a character in the film as the players is the seaside area of Cornwall. Miles from any large city where population and war industry made it a target of the Luftwaffe, the seaside of Cornwall has never been more beautifully photographed. You'll not hear a shot or a bomb, the only explosion involved is during a key sequence in an old mine. Granger's keeping his secrets and some think he's a slacker not being in the war, but he proves he has the right stuff.Love Story really cements Granger's star status in British cinema and at the end of the decade he's in Hollywood. Lockwood and Roc both had some American film credits but never attained the international status Granger did. Love Story on the other side of the pond ranks with films like Love Letters, Casablanca, and I'll Be Seeing You as great World War II romantic dramas.

I love anything with Margaret Lockwood in it. Stewart Granger also had something, I think. The settings are great and the music too. I've never been to that spot where the open air concert takes place but its on my list. But mostly what I like about this film is the totally ludicrous plot. It's one of those truly whacky films of the forties where nobody tells anybody anything but the characters variously are dying/ suffering from a serious condition such as amnesia or (as here) encroaching blindness but, because they're British, they can't tell each other or anybody else. It's obviously completely bonkers but they just don't make them like it now.

I'm a sucker for any film which portrays wonderful skill at pianoforte (I even liked dear old Cornel Wilde playing Frederic Chopin!) and better still with the deliciously beautiful, raven haired Margaret Lockwood - I've been a fan of hers ever since she portrayed the Gainsborogh Films, "Wicked Lady (1945)".Add to that her co star in that film, the attractive Patricia Roc and Gainsborough stalwart, Stewart Grainger then add a delightful Cornish location setting with empty roads you can remember as a kid, driving down to that county from London in the mid 1950s; and for me that is a recipe for a great film.I was not disappointed having bought this rare film (not generally seen today on tv networks) by successfully bidding on "EBay.com".The music played by Harriet Cohen to Hubert Bath's score was a major enjoyable feature.What is it about these beautiful actresses of the 1940s I find so appealing?It certainly is not the way they keep lighting up on screen but my mother told me that during WWII virtually everyone she knew smoked.I suppose your life expectancy could be short when you began to realise any day could be your last before a German bomb landed on you.Considering I was born in 1946, I personally find brunette actresses such as Margaret Lockwood, Jennifer Jones, Hedy Lamarr, Gene Tierney etc. a hundred times more sexy than todays obvious sirens.As this is rather a rare film, I will provide a plot so readers may judge for themeselves whether to investigate it further.Sorry for the spoiler:Margaret Lockwood plays Lissa a talented and successful concert pianist based in London.Lissa feels she should apply to the WRAF to help the war effort before her agent is about to arrange another international tour.However Lissa fails her statutory medical and is then alarmed to discover by illicitly reading her confidential medical file that she has only three months to live!As she has spent too much time on her art but not enough enjoying a holiday, she arranges a break for herself in Cornwall (for non-cognoscenti it is a county in the extreme south west of England, famous as an internal holiday resort - remember this is war time).She checks into a hotel and there meets an avuncular guest who is a wealthy retired industrialist who befriends her and agrees to finance the play to be produced there.Whilst there, Patricia Roc (who plays a London professional actress) comes down to Cornwall to stay with the intention of producing the play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream".Also there is Patricia's friend, an ex miner cum archaeologist called Kit, (Stewart Grainger) who is cynical about the world as only these two know his sight is failing and an operation is too risky to contemplate.He practices in secret for the time he will become blind.Whilst out on the cliffs looking at an old mine shaft Kit meets Lissa and they initially become friends.Kit however keeps reciting the song of the "Miller of Dee" (Musically) "I care for nobody, no not me and nobody cares for me"; meaning he does not want any serious emotional entanglement as he does not think it fair he should inflict a cripple on any future partner.Lissa however finds she is falling in love with him and tries but just cannot keep to the "only fun" agenda.On the music front, Cornwall (the sound of the sea, seagulls crying overhead etc.) inspire her to write "Cornish Rhapsody" for pianoforte.Kit even announces his engagement to Patricia Roc but really they are just platonic friends who grew up together.Realising her romance is apparantly doomed from the outset, Lissa plans a return to London but not before she gives her debut of "Cornish Rhapsody" before the play can start as Patricia first has serious emotional problens to contend with and cannot go onto the improvised exterior stage which has views of the sea and where the audience sits on the rocks and cliffs.Kit then suddenly appears at the London debut (The Royal Albert Hall) of "Cornish Rhapsody" after he and Patricia both realise they would merely be going through the motions if they married.He discloses to Lissa his infirmity and is comforted by her belief that although the odds are against it, he should have the corrective op.Mercifully it is a success but then Lissa has her own health problem to disclose to Kit.The film ends on a hopeful note.We all want Lissa to live happily with Kit but fate must be tested first.I always think whether the producers of films between 1939-1945 are trying to tell us the viewer an allegorical story of struggle of good against an implacable foe in such cases.Highly enjoyable for me 8/10.

The first time I saw "Love Story" it was in London fifty years ago, and till now, when I take this movie into consideration, I unceasingly hear - together with the accurate, majestic and melancholic theme of Hubert Bath "Cornish Rhapsodie" - the sea-mews flying and crying on the cliff! In my opinion, "Love Story" is a masterpiece of poetry: a simple film that was able to speak to the heart of a generation of people concerned in the most terrific war, and who understood the charm of hope and of life.