The lead players really make this one work. Without Robert Montgomery and
Helen Hayes topping the cast Vanessa Her Love Story could have been one
weary and dreary Victorian melodrama. For Hayes except for a brief appearance
in Stage Door Canteen in 1943, this film marked her farewell to Hollywood and
her return to Broadway until the mid 50s.
Montgomery and Hayes seem destined for the altar when a family tragedy for Hayes disrupts their engagement. Montgomery marries barmaid Agnes Anderson who dies along with their child.
Hayes marries Otto Kruger whom she discovers carries madness in his genetics. Montgomery loses an arm, it's hinted that it's in the Sudan with the presence of a young Lord Kitchener in the cast. That finishes him for the service.
Back in the United Kingdom the two rediscover each other but Kruger won't let her go. The two become a notorious item.
Interesting that the three principal cast members of this film are not British. Montgomery and Hayes are Americans and Kruger is from South Africa. The rest of the cast is divided equally between British and non-British players. Of course with Henry Stephenson playing the chronicler of all the events of this story this IS a British story. He's usually the kind of civilized fellow the British like to see themselves as. He's the character of Hugh Walpole, the novelist who wrote the book this film is based on.
Montgomery and Hayes make it all work somehow. I doubt will see a remake of Vanessa Her Love Story, way too old fashioned for today's taste.
Montgomery and Hayes seem destined for the altar when a family tragedy for Hayes disrupts their engagement. Montgomery marries barmaid Agnes Anderson who dies along with their child.
Hayes marries Otto Kruger whom she discovers carries madness in his genetics. Montgomery loses an arm, it's hinted that it's in the Sudan with the presence of a young Lord Kitchener in the cast. That finishes him for the service.
Back in the United Kingdom the two rediscover each other but Kruger won't let her go. The two become a notorious item.
Interesting that the three principal cast members of this film are not British. Montgomery and Hayes are Americans and Kruger is from South Africa. The rest of the cast is divided equally between British and non-British players. Of course with Henry Stephenson playing the chronicler of all the events of this story this IS a British story. He's usually the kind of civilized fellow the British like to see themselves as. He's the character of Hugh Walpole, the novelist who wrote the book this film is based on.
Montgomery and Hayes make it all work somehow. I doubt will see a remake of Vanessa Her Love Story, way too old fashioned for today's taste.