Green Dolphin Street [VHS]

Green Dolphin Street [VHS]
by Victor Saville

Green Dolphin Street [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Donna Reed, Frank Morgan, Lana Turner, Richard Hart, Van Heflin
Director: Victor Saville
Cinematographer: George J. Folsey
Editor: George White
Producer: Carey Wilson
Writer: Elizabeth Goudge
Writer: Samson Raphaelson
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, NTSC
Running Time: 141 minutes
Release Date: 1994-03-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Studio: MGM (Warner)

VHS Movie Reviews of Green Dolphin Street [VHS]

Movie Review: Oh, that kiss!
Summary: 5 Stars

Based on the novel by the incomparable Elizabeth Goudge, Green Dolphin Street is a story that will sweep the viewer into the passion of unrequited love, tragedy, and the healing that comes with final acceptance of the things we can't change. Donna Reed and Lana Turner, both superb actresses, play sisters who are loyal to each other, but in love with the same man. ("Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister, and Lord help the sister who comes between me and my man!")When their mutual love interest, William (in a drunken haze) summons the wrong sis to join him on the other side of the world for a life of hardship and adventure, Turner's Marianne is thrilled to be leaving her provincial life. Reed's Margurite is heartbroken to be left behind, believing (rightly) that it was she he loved. Knowing that Marianne will be cruely humiliated if he does not marry her, William "goes through with it". But though he is a dutiful husband, he cannot express love he does not feel. (In the opening pages of her novel, Goudge explained that a similar marital mix-up had actually happened in her own family!)
The story moves between New Zealand and St. Pierre Island, following the three for several years as they each try to make sense of their empty lives.
The "rock" in all this drama is Timothy Haslam, played by Van Heflin. He takes William under his wing, and together, they and Marianne build a thriving business in the wilderness. Finally knowing he will never see her again, Haslam declares to Marianne that he has loved her for years. Their kiss goodbye is one of the sweetest and sexiest in movie history. Chaste, (after all, she's married to his best friend)
yet expressing all the passion that might have been.
Each of the sisters face danger, and the special effects, including an earthquake and tidal wave are especially good for a movie made in the forties.
Too bad GDS was not made in color, as the costumes and scenery would have been beautiful. This movie is one those for which a remake would be almost heresy - it's that good.

Movie Review: Green Dolphin Street
Summary: 5 Stars

This was one of my mothers favorite movies and when I watched it with her years ago it became one of my favorite movies. It is full of adventures, romance, and natural surprises. One that intrigued me for years was the tidle bore around St. Micheal Monistary in France. It started me on a search to learn more about them.

Movie Review: LOVE LOVE LOVE - What Kind of LOVE?
Summary: 5 Stars

Love. That's what this film is about. The different kinds of love and the interaction of learning to love with developing a sense of self. I won't repeat what all the other reviewers here have done so well but add a couple of additional observations. First of all the set location of a tidal flat on an isle was dramatic and awe inspiring. This setting also is important to the plot as Donna Reed climbs literally and figuratively to a new level in her life in her character, Marguerite. SPECIAL EFFECTS. Don't trash this film for the special effects.....actually, they are quite good for the time and as other reviewers have written, these effects surround the earthquake and volcanic activity in New Zealand. DIALOGUE - Quite profound at times, especially the sequences and dialogues where Lana Turner's Marianne discusses the development of the virtue of humility, which she sorely lacks in her youth. CHARACTERS - this is a longer than average movie which enables time for EXCELLENT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT - depicting the characters in many varying circumstances. SPIRITUALITY - This is an excellent depiction by Donna Reed about how, oftentimes, people only develop a personal relationship with God after severe shock and depression in their lives and how their finding of God helps them to become healed and renewed. Quite well done by Donna Reed.

Movie Review: Marguerite, Marianne, and the Maori
Summary: 3 Stars

"Green Dolphin Street" is one of those cheesefests of Hollywood's Golden Age that has slipped into obscurity. At least "Black Narcissus",the camp classic,has its own Criterion Edition. Why NOT the love triangle set in New Zealand, with its needlessly complicated plot and Lana Turner in her fantastical outfits?

"Green Dolphin Street" is all about two sisters who live on the Channel Islands between England and France. There's the good girl, Marguerite (Donna Reed), and the bad grrrrl Marianne (Lana Turner). They're both enamored of the dull William (Richard Hart) William sets off to China as a trader. After a drunken night, he dashes off a letter to his intended... but he writes "Marianne" instead of "Marguerite." Friends don't let friends drink and write. William realizes his mistake too late. Marianne is brash, bossy, and constantly demeaning William for being a wimp. In the meantime, the heartbroken Marguerite decides to enter the convent. There's an action sequence involving the tide that challenges her faith. Meanwhile, William and Marianne settle down in New Zealand. They deal with the Maori. Marianne also gets an action sequence- she gives birth during an earthquake. The earthquake goes on and on and on and on and on. There's "death by tiki" for a hapless Maori. The action constantly shifts between Marguerite in her French convent and Marianne in the New Zealand wilderness. It's trippin',and it was 1947,not the '60s! It's cheesiness lies in the fact it's based on a novel that won an MGM contest. There's even Frank Morgan (the wizard from the 1939 classic),and MGM regular Van Heflin as the heavy.

"Green Dolphin Street" lags at several points. However,it compensates through its tackiness. Ironically, Green Dolphin Street's legacy has been musical rather than cinematic. Miles Davis turned the movie's theme into a jazz standard.

Movie Review: Love the One You're With
Summary: 4 Stars

This is certainly a different sort of movie and, for that, I am willing to look more on the positive side. The most unique aspect of this film is the New Zealand location and the insight to the early days of its' European colonization. The relationship between settlers and Maoris is nicely developed along with the apparent geological issues that New Zeraland faces. I learned a few things in those categories. For one thing, I had always thought of the Maoris as a sea-faring culture and I didn't realize that New Zealand was as impacted by earthquakes as it apparently is (was?). There is a major scene in the movie that shows a major earthquake and it looks like it was probably ahead of its' time, technologically speaking.

The story itself has to do with loving your second choice. There are two generations that demonstrate the love that materializes in the wake of true love that was intercepted. The first example is almost mentioned in passing until a death bed confession brings the whole movie into focus. It is the second example that plays out over the course of the movie and, all in all, is rather well presented. Believe it or not (and I had a hard time believing it) a young man sends for the WRONG sister to come from the Channel Islands to join him in New Zealand for the purpose of marriage. In those days you couldn't just say "oops" and book a return flight. As we follow the sister who won the groom, we also find out what happens to the one left behind. There is a feeling of "all's well that ends well" to "Green Dolphin Street" that gives us a positive feeling. However, there were a few odds and ends that kept this from being a great movie. Frankly, for example, I thought the earthquake was a bit too much and, in hindsight, it added nothing to the story. There seemed to be a lack of purpose for some of the characters; Frank Morgan and Van Heflin come to mind. Morgan wasn't given enough of a chance to demonstrate that he was once a secret love or that his downfall was the result of of that same denied love. He merely looks like a sort of retired vaudvillian with a tag-along bumpkin of a son (where did the son come from-or did I miss something early in the movie). Van Heflin plays the movie's heavy and does a credible job in the role. Other than doing the right thing at the right time on a couple of occassions, he just seems to be another member of the troupe.

With such a unique array of settings and circumstances, I found the movie compelling to a degree that offset the occassional disappointments. It's a bit long; probably due to an interesting but unnecessary earthquake.

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