Weekend Cinema Spotlight: The Enchanted Cottage

"The Enchanted Cottage" (1945)

Since January will be my birthday month, I am going to spotlight some of my favorite classic films. I have already spotlighted some of my favorites but I look forward to sharing more with you.

Have you ever heard of the phrase--"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"? It means that what you think whats beautiful is based on your opinions and your standards of beauty. It also means that beauty is beyond what people see, it can be found deep inside a person.

When I was nineteen I fell flat on my face for this green-eyed, caramel skinned, tongue pierced boy. He was just amazing to look at but there were times when his personality would rear its ugly head and in those times he suddenly didn't look so cute. It was at that time in my life when I learned from personal experience that what makes a person beautiful or attractive is not just their bodies and faces but who they are that shines through that body. So a unattractive person could appear to be super cute if they have an amazing personality and vice versa.

The first time I saw "The Enchanted Cottage" I assumed that it was going to be about a homely looking girl who fall for a dashing, handsome soldier and nothing becomes of that. But boy was I wrong--this film is so much more.

"The Enchanted Cottage" Trailer

It stars Dorothy McGuire as Laura who is hired to be a maid to a honeymoon cottage by Mrs. Minnett who is played by Mildred Natwick. Robert Young plays Oliver who originally rents the cottage as place to stay once he married. Unfortunately Oliver comes back from the war horribly disfigured and decides to stay in the cottage as a means of escape from the life he once had, which includes his fiancee Beatrice who is played by Hillary Brooke.

As they spend time with one another, Laura and Oliver begin to fall in love. Suddenly Oliver is once again handsome in Laura's eyes and Laura is beautiful in Oliver's eyes. Laura believes that the cottage is an enchanted cottage and that somehow they have been transformed into beautiful people.

They eventually marry and carry on as if they are the most attractive couple around. You see, when you are watching the film you believe just as they do because that is all that you are shown. Except on occasion in Mrs. Minnett's eyes, you can tell that something must be wrong.

It is through the blind eyes of their close friend Major John Hillgrove played by Herbert Marshall (who was not only an actor but a WWI vet!) that the truth of their special situation is revealed. Laura and Oliver look only beautiful in each other's eyes. He still is disfigured and she is still homely but to one another they are not.

They say love makes you blind, that sometime you cannot see things clearly because of what you feel so strongly for that person. But you can also overlook another's disfigurements, bald spots, or missing tooth even. That love makes you see the beauty that lies in another. The reality of what is, is SO much better because of how you feel about one another.

Now isn't that the most beautiful story you have ever heard? See why I love it so? It's a very hard movie to find but if you can please watch it. It makes you really appreciate the magical powers that LOVE holds.

xox