Reviews

I find Marjorie Morningstar curiously affecting but I'm not exactly sure why. I must have seen the movie twenty times from its original release in 1958 to 2004. When I first saw it it seemed a coming-of-age movie of a very beautiful New York Jewish girl. It also seemed prissy and prudish. The best thing about the movie was Ed Wynn as Uncle Samson. I felt at the time he gave an Academy Award perfor mance. I still do! When I saw the movie in the 1960s I thought it was the dumbest, squarest most ridiculous movie I'd ever seen. Natalie Wood camping around in clothes her Grand Mother would have been embarrassed to wear. Gene Kelly, [who I used to idolize} looking fat and pale with an obvious rug on. And talk about lack of chemistry! Kelly and Wood acted like they hated each other. Marty Milner was just absurd. Would anyone want to marry this nerd? Within the last five years I've probably seen it ten times and even made a a trip to Schroon Lake, N.Y. where it was filmed and stood on the beach where Kelly and Wood went swimming. I now see the movie in two ways. First, it's about values and once again Ed Wynn seems sensational because he believes in what he is saying. I doubt if any of the other Hollywood cynics believed a word of it.Second, and this has a lot to do with the haunting song, "A Very Special Love" which Kelly keeps singing.It speaks to me of my youth and my Summer loves with a wistfulness that calls me back to a gentler time. I'm sure I'll see this movie again.