Lydia (1941)

Lydia MacMillan, a wealthy old woman who has never married, is invited by an old beau, Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, for a reunion with the men who have been in her life to reminisce about the ... See full summary »

Director:

Julien Duvivier

Writers:

Julien Duvivier (story), Leslie Bush-Fekete (story),

Stars:

Merle Oberon, Edna May Oliver, Alan Marshal

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Merle Oberon	...	Lydia MacMillan
Edna May Oliver	...	Sarah MacMillan
Alan Marshal	...	Richard Mason
Joseph Cotten	...	Michael Fitzpatrick
Hans Jaray	...	Frank Andre
George Reeves	...	Bob Willard
John Halliday	...	Fitzpatrick
Sara Allgood	...	Mary
Billy Ray	...	Johnny
Frank Conlan	...	Old Ned

Storyline

Lydia MacMillan, a wealthy old woman who has never married, is invited by an old beau, Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, for a reunion with the men who have been in her life to reminisce about the times when they were young and courted her. In memory, each romance seemed splendid and destined for happiness, but in each case, Lydia realizes, the truth was less romantic, and ill-starred.

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Plot Keywords:

reunion | old flame | memory | france | recollection | 

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Taglines:

The Story of a free woman and her romances!

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 September 1941 (USA)

Also Known As:

Illusions

Filming Locations:

General Service Studios - 1040 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alexander Korda Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The poem Lydia and Bob quote at the ball is "The Night has a Thousand Eyes" by Francis William Bourdillon, a late Victorian English poet (1852-1921). The text is "The night has a thousand eyes,/ And the day but one;/ Yet the light of the bright world dies/ With the dying sun./ The mind has a thousand eyes,/ And the heart but one:/ Yet the light of a whole life dies. /When love is done."

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Connections

Remake of Dance Program (1937)

User Reviews

A lot of grog needed to survive this

Merle Oberon (Lydia) is invited to a reunion where 3 of her former suitors are waiting to meet her once more. Everyone is now old and the 3 men - scientist Joseph Cotten (Michael), blind pianist Hans Jaray (Frank) and sporty George Reeves (Bob) - are dying to find out why she never entertained any of them. The reason is that there was a 4th man - sailor Alan Marshal (Richard) - who Lydia was always in love with and he arrives at the end of the film and delivers a bombshell. Before this, Merle Oberon recounts the story of her life during the time that they all knew her. The film is told in flashback and wrapped up with Alan Marshal's arrival.

It sounds interesting but it's not. Unfortunately, the cast are terrible. Myrna Loy is annoying and I'm afraid that we are just not interested in her life at all. This makes the whole film quite tedious as we just don't care about what happens in her love live. The story introduces four other bland characters - Cotten is likable but dull - Jaray is sickly sentimentally blind and so we have to have a rubbish boring section about blind kids which will make you want to heave with it's political correctness (although at least in those days blind children went to a special school for the blind instead of being integrated into a classroom with sighted children) - Reeves plays for comedy and is terrible at it. He's just not funny at all - and Marshal is both bland and blind (to love).

The story is further ruined by a soundtrack that has been turned up disproportionally high so that every time there is any music or sound effects, the audience can't hear the dialogue as it is completely drowned out. As a result there are many complete sections that we can't hear and therefore we cant follow the plot. Who the hell let this go through! We hear more of people's footsteps than actual talking.

A final word goes to the ghastly idea of making everyone look old. We have 5 gruesome looking characters who are all impossible to identify with coz they look like freaks, and Merle Oberon makes the fatal error of thinking that she can act old by shaking her head a lot every time she speaks coz that's what old people do. What a ham.

The only good thing about this film is Edna May Oliver (Lydia's grandmother) who does provide some comic moments. If you like this film, you are a very boring person. It's sh*t.