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commonwombat
Reviews
Love Story (1944)
a pleasant surprise, British reserve holds sentiment at bay
Had heard of this movie, more particularly with concern to its music but my first opportunity to actually watch it was last night when ABC showed it as a early hours of the morning item, which coincided with a does of my insomnia.
One shudders to think that Hollywood may have done with this, as the premises of the skyline would so easily lend to laying on the melodrama and clichéd sentiment with a trowel. Thankfully, British understatement, be it in direction and performance, makes this an effective and tasteful exercise.
The musical motif, the Cornish Rhapsody, is possibly being the most famous legacy of this film. It was one of a number of series of rather similar quasi- piano concertos from British films of that era that found a place in the musical memory. The most noted of these being the Warsaw Concerto. I was interested to read an earlier post stating that it was Harriet Cohen who played the piece, as I did have a thought that it may have been a job for Eileen Joyce.