The Good Fairy
by William Wyler
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Eric Blore, Frank Morgan, Herbert Marshall, Margaret Sullavan, Reginald OwenDirector: William Wyler
Brand: Kino International
Cinematographer: Norbert Brodine
Editor: Daniel Mandell
Producer: Carl Laemmle Jr.
Producer: Henry Henigson
Writer: Ferenc Molnár
Writer: Jane Hinton
Writer: Preston Sturges
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-11-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 2602
Studio: Kino Video
Product features:
- GOOD FAIRY, THE (DVD MOVIE)
Movie Reviews of The Good Fairy
Movie Review: Delicate Charm
Summary: 5 Stars
"You know something funny? He didn't mention you either."
Margaret Sullavan's waif-like delicacy proved perfect for this Wiliam Wyler film adaptation of Ferenc Molnar's fanciful play about a young orphan who causes confusion by trying to do a good deed and ends up finding love in the process. Wyler also fell under Sullavan's spell while filming this and the two became a couple.
A fabulous cast that includes Frank Morgan, Herbert Marshall, Eric Blore, Beulah Bondi, and Reginald Owen in a comic gem of a performance, act out Preston Sturges screenplay to marvelous perfection. Wyler and Sullavan let the charm slowly build, each new ingredient adding to its flavor until this sweet and delicate confection can't be resisted.
Luisa (Margaret Sullavan) gets a chance to leave the orphanage for the first time to work as an usherette in a movie theatre called The Dream Palace. It is there that she meets waiter Reginald Owen and they have a fanciful friendship, he trying the entire film to protect her innocence from Frank Morgan's Konrad, a rich meat exporter who has fallen under Sullavan's spell, not fully realizing she is genuine.
Complications arise when she makes up a white lie about being already married and picks idealistic lawyer, Max Sporum, out of the phone book to be her wedded husband. He falls under Sullavan's spell also, but totally unaware that Konrad has made him a rich attorney because Luisa is his good fairy. Luisa falls under the spell of Max's simple yet charming ideals until the inevitable occurs and everyone discovers the truth.
Frothy and lighter than air, this film slowly works its way into your heart until you too fall under Sullavan's spell. Owen is terrific as her protector and has some wonderful moments. Perhaps the most memorable scene is between Luisa and Max on the phone, when she tells him tearfully, "Think of me kindly. Almost--almost as if I loved you."
This early 1930's film has a bit of sophistication similar to foreign films which requires more of an attention span than filmgoers of today are used to having to muster but is well worth the effort. Remade in a slightly more American fashion as a Deanna Durbin vehicle, "I'll Be Yours," also highly recommended, film buffs, and fans of Sullavan especially, don't want to miss this one.
Summary of The Good Fairy
GOOD FAIRY - DVD MovieThe Good Fairy is an amusing minor specimen of the sort of Continental whimsy Ernst Lubitsch raised to a fine art. William Wyler, though soon to acquire major-director status, displays little affinity for comedy, and, title notwithstanding, the often-magical Margaret Sullavan is notably less magical than in her other '30s efforts (she and Wyler had a great love-hate thing going during filming, and eloped on his motorcycle right afterward). The real stars are screenwriter Preston Sturges and the breed of exuberant character actors with whom he would make manically beautiful music upon turning director himself: Reginald Owen, Eric Blore, Torben Meyer, Luis Alberni, et al. Herbert Marshall sporadically brings a Lubitschean delicacy to his role as the struggling lawyer who doesn't know he's "married" to Sullavan's sweetly balmy movie usherette (it's a long story), and Frank Morgan, as a plutocrat who desperately wants to play the roué, is really the Wizard of Oz in training. --Richard T. Jameson
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