I agree with the Leonard Maltin Film Guide when it says: "Never quite as good as you want it to be", about THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE.
True, there are some nice moments and the story is a good blend of romance and fantasy, much in the same vein as the fragile tale Robert Nathan wrote for "Portrait of Jennie". But here the theme is that for true love, one has to look beyond the surface and see the inner qualities that make a person beautiful in the eyes of the beholder.
Basically, it's the story of an unattractive girl (DOROTHY McGUIRE) who gives solace to a war hero (ROBERT YOUNG) when he returns from the war so facially disfigured that he shuns the company of others. Gradually, in the strange seaside cottage that has sheltered many lovers over the years, something enchanting happens when they see each other with new eyes because of their ripening love for each other. They think they've really changed, but the manager of the cottage inn (MILDRED DUNNOCK) knows that to everyone else they still appear as they were.
HERBERT MARSHALL is a blind pianist in a rather stiff, uncomfortable performance. HILLARY BROOKE is Young's fiancé who eventually gives up on him, and SPRING BYINGTON is his annoyingly meddlesome mother.
Some of it works beautifully, other scenes never quite have the intended effect. But it's sensitively played and MILDRED NATWICK gives what is probably the most interesting performance in the film as a woman whose own past hides a sad secret.
True, there are some nice moments and the story is a good blend of romance and fantasy, much in the same vein as the fragile tale Robert Nathan wrote for "Portrait of Jennie". But here the theme is that for true love, one has to look beyond the surface and see the inner qualities that make a person beautiful in the eyes of the beholder.
Basically, it's the story of an unattractive girl (DOROTHY McGUIRE) who gives solace to a war hero (ROBERT YOUNG) when he returns from the war so facially disfigured that he shuns the company of others. Gradually, in the strange seaside cottage that has sheltered many lovers over the years, something enchanting happens when they see each other with new eyes because of their ripening love for each other. They think they've really changed, but the manager of the cottage inn (MILDRED DUNNOCK) knows that to everyone else they still appear as they were.
HERBERT MARSHALL is a blind pianist in a rather stiff, uncomfortable performance. HILLARY BROOKE is Young's fiancé who eventually gives up on him, and SPRING BYINGTON is his annoyingly meddlesome mother.
Some of it works beautifully, other scenes never quite have the intended effect. But it's sensitively played and MILDRED NATWICK gives what is probably the most interesting performance in the film as a woman whose own past hides a sad secret.