Forever Amber (1947)

Redundant and unnecessary.

How sad is this?

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

While watching "Home Sweet Homicide"there was a reference to the novel this movie is based on,and,oh well I had seen it as a youth and hardly remembered other than I liked it.Time to revisit.What a idea for a novel over 70 years old,set in a period over 350 years old,England under King Charles 11.The story may seem like a pot boiler in todays terms,but for its day it had to be something as I'm sure this movie was,and for me,still is.Forget that Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene,George Sanders and a host of other great actors of that day made this fine film,or that Otto Preminger directed.Whats important is the story.Based on a novel by Kathleen Winsor we have a epic story of a love consummated but never achieved.By that I mean even though the two principals conceive a child on a lonely rainy night the faiths intervene to prevent them from having a true relationship despite the far reaching unbelievable attempts of the woman and the seemingly indifference of the man at that moment.Although the faiths are not done with them until………….

Somewhat saucy romp has a ravishingly beautiful and amber haired Linda Darnell in the lead full of piquant carnality, lavish costumes and settings and a scene stealing George Sanders as Charles II. What it doesn't have is a lively pace and that to some extent is its undoing. Preminger was the wrong director for a piece of entertainment like this that required a florid touch, Michael Curtiz would have been much more at home at the helm.The novel this is based on was a notorious but tremendously successful sensation of its day. That book while certainly not "A Great American Novel" is a highly enjoyable piece of pulp fiction full of sex, murder and double crosses in fancy clothes with a complex, very entertaining heroine at its center who has a good heart but is not overly burdened with morals. Unfortunately since they tried to film it in the forties when the Production Code was in full force the more salacious plot points had to be excised. What made it to the screen has its moments but shows the heavy hand of censors most evident in the abrupt ending but scattered throughout the movie. Still a fun romp with Linda giving a spirited performance and for those who haven't read the book a somewhat racy tone.A troubled production from the beginning what with censorship problems, a recast leading lady, Linda Darnell stepped in after production had started when Peggy Cummings didn't work out and Lana Turner couldn't be borrowed from MGM and a martinet in the director's chair. There are still a few amusing stories connected to the backstage upheaval that went on. Linda Darnell had worked with Preminger before on Fallen Angel and it had been rough going but she truly came to loathe him during production of Amber. Later while filming A Letter to Three Wives Joseph Mankiewicz needed her to throw a look of disgust at a picture unseen by the audience, to achieve that look he slipped a picture of Preminger into the frame without her knowledge, he got his look. A small sampling of Preminger's directorial style: after acting out a scene for Linda and Cornel Wilde he screamed at them as they tried to do as he had instructed "Don't do it like I did it! Do it like I meant it!"One peripheral story: when Ava Gardner was briefly married to Artie Shaw he flew into a rage and berated her when he caught her reading Forever Amber saying it was trash and she should be focusing her attention on things that would enrich her mind, he was that kind of husband. They divorced shortly after and within the year he had married Kathleen Winsor...the author of Forever Amber!

FOREVER AMBER (1947) - This is a film that just misses the mark. Cornel Wilde is very one dimensional and uninteresting as Bruce. Linda Darnell, while quite beautiful, is a bit too melodramatic and unnatural in her acting. Their romance seems forced and lacks chemistry. Since the main plot relies on this romance, it weakens the entire film. If it was awful, then I would have turned it off. However, it isn't something that lingers in the mind that I can't wait to see again. This story of a social-climbing, loose woman who claims to love Bruce with all her heart while doing everything to advance herself and showing no restraint or patience for him seems like it would have been very unappealing for its era. I kept hoping there would be something redeeming about it. Therefore, I kept watching.Historically, it is very interesting and that is a good reason to watch. There were also some fine performances particularly from the precious little Bruce and the King (played by the always spot on George Sanders). It is a film, though, that tries too hard, and it came off as a weak, marginal epic.

I have seen this movie twice and I confess to loving every detail about it. It is truly a guilty pleasure and anyone who says that it isn't is NOT telling the truth. It's a true "bodice ripping" soap opera with a great cast. Amber is a fantastic tragic heroine, who's blind obsession is a rather simpering Bruce. Other males characters are far more interesting, never mind that fact that some are darn right sexy. I don't exactly get it about Amber's Bruce-obsession, but I do admire the way she calmly steps over the warm bodies to get what she wants. The only flaw that I see in this character is her inability to be a mother. But in the end, it looks like all is saved when the boy heads off the the New World with his father and stepmother. Poor, Amber....Ha!