The Constant Nymph

Thank you Alexis Smith... She is the only leading actor in this claptrap who is not woefully miscast. And the only character on whom the faux Hollywood British accent doesn't seem phony. Hearing the Sanger children speak the same way is risible. I must have paused this film 100 times; that's the effect treacle has on me.

A somewhat icky soap opera about a young girl (Joan Fontaine) who's in love with a family friend (Charles Boyer) and waits around for him to realize he's in love with her too before she drops dead of one of those mysterious things people dropped dead from in melodramas from the 1940s. If "The Constant Nymph" isn't super icky, it's only because Fontaine is obviously way too old to be playing the age she does (I could never figure out just how old she's supposed to be, but not out of her teens when the movie starts) and because she does such a bad job of playing that age that her character comes across as more mentally deranged than immature. In the film's first few minutes, there's a brief moment where her character leans over in pain and clutches her side, and from there you know it's only a matter of time before she kicks the bucket. Waiting around for that to happen is a bit of a dull affair, but the film is nice to look at and has Charles Coburn to offer, and he's always a welcome presence. I suppose fans of either Boyer or Fontaine will find more to like about this film than I did, but I've never been crazy about either one of them. Fontaine received her third and final Oscar nomination for Best Actress for this movie. Grade: B

I know a lot of folks like this film. I am not saying they're at all wrong...it just didn't work for me. Much of this was because the relationship between Albert and Tessa was just a bit creepy to me...and wasn't always convincing. When the film begins, Albert (Charles Boyer) is a struggling composer. And, when he goes to visit an old friend and his children, the old man dies...leaving the daughters to stay with their grandfather. But Albert decides to spend more time with them...sort of like a godfather. The problem is that 14 year-old Tessa (Joan Fontaine) is smitten with him and longs to become his lover one day. This is when it got a tad creepy for me. Fortunately, Albert didn't reciprocate. However, after Albert marries, his marriage is a bit rocky...and all the while Tessa is watching him...longingly. My other problem with this very slickly made film is that I hate the idea of actresses in their mid-20s playing 14 year-olds. This rarely works well and I think an 18, 19 year-old could have pulled it off better. Mind you, Fontaine isn't bad (except when she occasionally stares off into space...something that she did here and in "Rebecca"...and I have no idea why)...in fact she's MUCH more convincing than Ginger Rogers in "The Major and the Minor"...a film than many love but which I think is among Billy Wilder's worst movies because of this. So, overall you have a very slick love story that many folks love...but I didn't. I didn't hate it...but that's hardly a glowing endorsement. Plus what do I know? The Academy thought Fontaine was just fine....

Charles Boyer and Joan Fontaine star in "The Constant Nymph," a 1943 Warner Brothers film directed by Edmund Goulding. The film also features Alexis Smith, Peter Lorre, Charles Coburn, and Brenda Marshall. Joan Fontaine plays Tessa, a 14-year-old who is part of the Sanger family, who is visited by a friend, composer Lewis Dodd. Dodd is very close to the entire family, and the father (Montagu Love), an old man, asks Lewis to contact his late wife's brother (Charles Coburn) should anything happen to him. He wants his daughters - Toni (Marshall), Paula, and Tessa to be taken care of. Tessa has always been in love with Dodd, but at her age, it seems like a childhood crush. Sanger dies that night, and in the next scene, we see that Charles has arrived with his gorgeous daughter Florence (Smith) and the smitten Lewis marries her immediately. Toni marries; Tessa and her younger sister ultimately go off to school but run away. The younger girl then joins Toni, but Tessa stays in the house with Lewis and Florence. Florence is jealous of Tessa's close relationship with Lewis; Tessa understands his music and knows his potential, and they have a long history. Florence's resentment of her becomes more and more obvious. This is a really wonderful film, so lovely that it's surprising it hasn't gotten more attention, though Joan Fontaine was nominated for an Oscar. She's 26 here, playing fourteen. In the beginning, she's all arms and legs, awkward, lanky, and a ball of energy. Put it this way - I dated this movie as being before Rebecca! So was she convincing? Yes. Despite her Oscar nominations, I still think Fontaine is underrated. One isn't certain how much time has passed during the film, but naturally the character cleans up and wears better clothes. She then seems more mature. Boyer does a marvelous job as the composer searching for his voice through music; and Alexis Smith is great as she goes from friendly, polite with an edgy, and then just plain awful. The rest of the cast is top-notch, with Lorre as a suitor of Toni's who becomes her husband. "The Constant Nymph" is a story of unrequited love, a search for self, and the self-expression an artist can have once he's allowed himself to feel. Don't miss this when it comes around again on TCM as it doesn't look like it's on DVD. Thank goodness for TCM bringing us these forgotten gems once in a while.

Deeply, deeply strange. It must have been a hit of some sort when it first appeared in 1943 since Joan Fontaine was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar but now it's hard to imagine this extremely old-fashioned load of twaddle having an audience of any kind. It was based on a book and then a play and set in some strange studio-based Swtizerland and then in some strange studio-based London where French avant-garde composer Charles Boyer lives with his rich, spoilt wife Alexis Smith while her sickly schoolgirl cousin, (a very overage Fontaine), pines for him. I think it's meant to be a 'women's picture' or romantic drama of the kind director Edmund Goulding was famous for but it's much too bizarre to be engaging on any level while a supporting cast that includes Peter Lorre, May Whitty and Charles Coburn is totally wasted. It's never revived which is perfectly understandable and is nobody's finest hour though in its favour, it's too terrible to be actually boring.

The Constant Nymph (1943) Joan Fontaine, Charles Boyer, Alexis Smith. O.M.G! When I was a teeny bopper in 1943 when this came to our neighborhood theater, I was entranced. A girl only a bit older than me in love with an older dreamy guy - and he loves her back. O.M.G! But , but! I watched the DVR'd copy last night and I was soooo disappointed. Fontaine is drippy. It is one of Boyers worst films. Smith comes out with her dignity in tact. And, I was underwhelmed by the music. I've longed to see this again all these years, but now wish it was still among the 'lost.' "Be careful what you wish for - you just might get it." 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035751/

I forgot to mention in my review that Kennedy followed this movie with a story about the youngest of the "Sanger's Circus", his son Sebastian. She began with a play "Escape Me Never" which was followed by a film of the same title directed by Peter Godfrey and released in 1947. Although its plot was evidently similar to "The Constant Nymph", it failed to achieve the success of the latter film. By the way, I can tell one of your reviewers where to get the music from the film, though unfortunately not the video, although I did see the video on TV in the '50's so the cellulose nitrate on which it probably was recorded must have lasted that long, anywqy. Unless Turner copied it on acetate, I assume it is gone forever.

This is one of those films I have been waiting for years to see, having been out of circulation for at least 50 years. It was well worth the wait. Joan Fontaine is the type of actress that just doesn't exist anymore. She plays exquisitely fragile, ethereal, delicate types of women with depth, passion, soul and devotion. This is yet another impeccable performance that rated her an Academy Award nomination and I cannot think of another actress who could have pulled off, entirely successfully, playing a 14 year old girl. She is haunting, beautiful and tragic. Charles Boyer and Alexis Smith are fine in their roles but it is Fontaine who carries the film and Edmund Goulding directs in a luxurious style highlighting the delicate relationship between Fontaine and Boyer. They could never make this type of film anymore and that's alright because they wouldn't know how to deal with the subject matter. Music, poetry, art, disillusion, loss, heartache and romance between a pubescent girl and adult man is something mainstream Hollywood no longer knows how to make interesting to the public and for that matter it seems like the public doesn't really crave this any longer. Joan Fontaine is still alive and she must have been ecstatic to know that this film has garnered so much acclaim and interest. My only disappointment being that since Miss Fontaine is still alive why hasn't she been interviewed? You know she hasn't many years left. She must have amazing stories and insight to share with her public. Would kill to see her interviewed on TCM. I have a feeling Robert Osborne has contacted her since he seems to pay attention to detail and I imagine she has been approached but most likely has declined - please, please be persistent in getting a live interview and with her and her sister as well. They are the last of the greats from Hollywood's golden era.

I saw this film on television when I was in my early teens but unfortunately, due to legal problems over the screenplay rights, it cannot be shown on television or released to video at this time. I have collected several recordings of Korngold's beautiful score including a moving performance of his Tone Poem "Tomorrow". The film's star, Joan Fontaine, has said this is, along with "Letter From An Unknown Woman" (1948) her favorite among her films. Fortunately the film is safeguarded in the Turner vaults and hopefully they will be able to bring this truly wonderful movie back into the public eye in the near future.

In this last and only American version of The Constant Nymph the omnipresent Code had to be dealt with rather delicately in order for this film to get to the big screen. It involves nothing less than a middle aged man falling in love with an underage girl. No wonder the original casting of Errol Flynn was scratched by Jack Warner. In 1943 as Robert Osborne said rather delicately himself, Flynn was having some 'legal problems'. He sure was, he was facing a charge of statutory rape and was fighting for his career. No wonder he was scratched and Charles Boyer substituted as the pianist/composer. Even without the rape charge I don't Flynn would have been suitable casting in that role in any event. But it was Joan Fontaine who got the Oscar recognition with a nomination for Best Actress playing a teenager of barely legal age who has a congenital heart problem and who charms Boyer. In the original novel and the play made from it, Boyer's character actually runs off with the Fontaine character. Some of the same territory was tread on by Billy Wilder in The Major And The Minor, but Ginger Rogers was only pretending to be an adolescent. Boyer meets Fontaine and her siblings Brenda Marshall, Jean Muir, and Joyce Reynolds at the home of their father Montagu Love. When he dies the girls go to their uncle Charles Coburn to live, except Marshall who marries Peter Lorre. That in itself is something, how often does Peter Lorre get the girl? Boyer marries Coburn's daughter Alexis Smith, but Smith senses something wrong and develops a jealousy of Fontaine. Turns out that while Boyer doesn't do anything, she's right to be suspicious. The novel by Margaret Kennedy was turned into a play by Basil Dean and debuted in London with no less than Noel Coward and Edna Best in the leads. It ran 148 performances on Broadway in the 1926-27 season and two film versions across the pond were made, a silent with Ivor Novello and another sound version that starred Brian Aherne who would later marry Joan Fontaine. I'd be curious to see how the whole May/September romance was handled there. Fontaine lost the Oscar that year to newcomer Jennifer Jones who was also playing a juvenile of a different kind in The Song Of Bernadette. The Constant Nymph is a strange yet curiously winning film. One wonders how the story would be done today in a film.