My Own True Love

1948, Movie, NR, 84 mins

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Story features Douglas as a middle-aged man who's having a romance with Calvert. His son is supposed to be missing in a Japanese prison camp but the boy shows up. The son, Friend, has lost a leg in the war and has no interest in life. Though Douglas can't understand, his fiancee does. It seems she was a prisoner herself and knows what Friend is going through. When she learns that Friend also lost a Malayan wife and son in the war, her heart truly goes out to him. She leaves Douglas in an effort to reunite the father and son. Friend interprets her compassion as romantic interest, and when he finds out the truth, he tries to kill himself; but eventually, with Calvert's help, he decides to go back to school. Douglas and Calvert reunite and all ends happily. Despite the fine performances by the principals, this is not a very good movie. This was the second film for British leading lady Phyllis Calvert. Although speculation had it that she and the film's producer, Val Lewton, were anything but the best of friends, her skilled performance remains as the picture's highlight. Lewton, a master of the fantasy-horror film, was less adept when he ventured beyond the limits of that genre, and MY OWN TRUE LOVE is sadly lacking in the famed Lewton touches (moments of determined understatement, subtle visual shadings, pregnant silences). It also falls victim to the over-bookishness that marred some of his productions. Still, Lewton's passion for exotic drinks finds its way into the film--note the fuss Shields makes over a concoction called a Glowing Heart. The script, however, is weak, going for easy payoffs, and is short on dramatic tension. Bennett's direction is similar, presenting the events without the slightest effort at insight. MY OWN TRUE LOVE is little more than a tearjerker. leave a comment
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My Own True Love
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