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Sick Product of a Sick System

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

From the credits onward, the movie dips and rolls, just like the earthquake and the good ship 'Green Dolphin' via the mighty Pacific. Plot aside * and it is a whopper of a plot, many countries traversed, etc. * it is the characters who made me like the movie. Turner was consistently good, to my surprise: she is ambitious for someone else and wants to be kingmaker, well there are many like that out there, mostly female. I know a few. She gets her comeuppance emotionally at the end of the movie, and ought to have been devastated, but she is strong, maybe not as strong as she thinks she is, but strong. I recommend this movie for Turner fans, which I am not. I also recommend this movie for fans of well done historical dramas, which this is, in terms of scenery and ambiance.

I accidentally stumbled on this movie on television while trying to pass a lazy summer day when I was a child. I was instantly intrigued by the two beautiful female stars, and the impressive period setting, as well as by the fact that I had never heard of the film. I was in for a big surprise. I expected a mildly entertaining but ultimately conventional Victorian melodrama, but the film was wrought with twists and turns that I never would have expected based on the first few minutes. In addition, it is filmed with lavish spectacle and breathtaking special effects that are no less than awe inspiring for 1947. I had been raised on classic movies but I had never seen anything like it and I haven't since. I was bewitched by the sheer magnitude of the production, and by the bizarre fantasy element of its setting. It is not so realistic as to be mundane, but has a sort of charming phoniness about it (not sarcastic at all) that makes watching it almost like going to Disneyland. I was inspired to research New Zealand and channel Island history, and read the book. I have not found a movie yet with so profound a sense of exotic mystery as this one. My first viewing of this was a once in a lifetime experience. I hope it will be the same for you.

I had really low expectations for this film since the Maltin guide was so indifferent about GREEN DOLPHIN STREET. And, in the beginning, I would have agreed, as the movie seemed pretty slow and not especially engaging. However, I am very glad I stuck with it, as the film got better and better and ultimately had a lovely payoff for the viewer.The reason why I liked it so much was the excellent way that two parallel stories were nicely overlapped in order to illustrate that just because a marriage might start out badly by not marrying your "true love" doesn't mean you can't live happily ever after! The first of these relationships is that of Marianne and Marguerite's parents. The mother had loved another man but was forced to marry another by her parents. However, on the mother's deathbed, her and her husband's exchange and affirmation of their love was a beautiful screen moment. The exchange between Edmund Gwen and his dying wife was so powerful and terrifically done it nearly brought tears to my eyes. Later, when a similar theme was played out in Marianne's life, it, too, was dynamite and very, very satisfying and warm. Both relationships remind me of Garth Brooks' great song, "Unanswered Prayers", in that what we want may not actually be what is best for us in the long run (by the way, I hate country music but love that song).So my advice is stick with this movie. Sure, it could have easily had 20 minutes edited out to make the film tighter, but the acting and writing are so good and pay off so well, it's worth the effort.