Love Story (1944)

Rivaling fellow dark haired British leading ladies like Vivian Leigh and Merle Oberon, Pakistani born Margaret Lockwood is a treasure. American classic film fans mainly knew her as the heroine in Hitchcock's classic mystery, "The Lady Vanishes", she swept into my top list of favorites with a series of delicious scheming roles in Gainsborough melodramas such as "The Wicked Lady". Alternating between man killers and heart breakers, she is finally coming into her own thanks to the release of a good majority of her films in formats of DVD that we can watch here. Once you see her, you'll never forget her.In this sleeper, she's a nice girl, a concert pianist who finds that she has a terminal illness. Determined to enjoy life, she fights this dark victory to take a trip that she fears may be one way passage. Along the way, she wins the hearts of many, particularly the handsome Stewart Granger (along with James Mason her mist regular leading man).Yes, this is a trite, often repeated plot, similar to an American melodrama, "The Other Love", which starred Barbara Stanwyck. Handsome Granger seduces the audience with his trim physique clad only in tight swimming trunks. Excellent supporting cast and a romantic and often humor filled atmosphere makes this a sweet formula women's picture that adds a World War II setting to increase the timeliness of when this was made.This is just more than romance and tragedy; there's also a bit of social drama too as Granger deals with possible blindness. Patricia Roc and Hugo Walling are both great supporting cast members involved in the individual dramas of these beautiful young people who are facing individual tragedies with their individual forms of dignity. Lockwood proves herself to be more than just a beauty; Even at her coldness, she was absolutely seductive. Whether kitten or black widow spider, she is not somebody whom you can turn your eyes off of.

I have no doubt that the title of this film was changed due to the popularity of the Ryan O'Neal/Ali McGraw film of a later generation. But Love Story has certainly stood the test of time no matter what you call it.A couple of the most beautiful women of the British cinema, Margaret Lockwood and Patricia Roc of the World War II era, compete for the affections of Stewart Granger. Granger and Lockwood have some secrets that they are withholding from each other. Granger is an RAF flier on leave because his eyes were injured during a bomb explosion and he is going blind. But an untried and tricky operation might save him. Lockwood had a bout of rheumatic fever which has left her with a weakened heart that won't get any better. She's a famous concert pianist who discovers she's slowly dying when she's examined after trying to enlist in the service for war work.They meet at a seaside resort where Granger has gone back to his old trade of mining engineer looking for valuable molybdenum deposits for the war effort. In the end everybody's secrets do come out including a couple that Lockwood's rival Patrica Roc has.Almost as much a character in the film as the players is the seaside area of Cornwall. Miles from any large city where population and war industry made it a target of the Luftwaffe, the seaside of Cornwall has never been more beautifully photographed. You'll not hear a shot or a bomb, the only explosion involved is during a key sequence in an old mine. Granger's keeping his secrets and some think he's a slacker not being in the war, but he proves he has the right stuff.Love Story really cements Granger's star status in British cinema and at the end of the decade he's in Hollywood. Lockwood and Roc both had some American film credits but never attained the international status Granger did. Love Story on the other side of the pond ranks with films like Love Letters, Casablanca, and I'll Be Seeing You as great World War II romantic dramas.

This 1944 Gainsborough melodrama was not a costume production, yet LOVE STORY retains and builds upon many of the trademark Gainsborough elements. The film was made as a sort of morale booster/romantic escapist drama in the midst of World War Two. Looking at it today, it does seem outdated and melodramatic in many ways, yet it is still remarkably poignant in it's theme of "When you love someone, you set them free".Lockwood and Granger star together in this film, a year on from the smashing success of THE MAN IN GREY. However, Miss Lockwood is no wicked, social-climbing villianess here. Instead she's a charming pianist who learns that she has a heart condition that will soon lead to her death. Determined to make the most of what little time she has, Lockwood's character Lissa Campbell checks into a Cornish hotel. There she meets Kit Firth (Stewart Granger), a former RAF pilot who is also harboring a painful secret. He is going blind. The pair quickly fall in love, yet both cannot bring themselves to tell the other the truth. Granger's childhood friend Judy (Patrica Roc)also begins to cause trouble between the pair, as she's secretly in love with Kit.The plot is melodramatic, yet it's quite entertaining. The performances are generally good, with Lockwood showing she could play a sympathetic heroine as well as she could play a scheming bitch (THE MAN IN GREY). Granger makes an attractive lead, while Roc gets quite an interesting role. Roc was usually the second lead to either Lockwood or Phyllis Calvert in the Gainsborough dramas, yet her Judy is not the tearful milksop of THE WICKED LADY. She is a strong, independent, caring yet jealous and manipulative friend of Granger, who will do almost anything to covet his affections. Roc gets some nice catty scenes with Lockwood, and she pulls them off well.While the script descends into slush at times and some of the location work is rather ordinary (not to mention the "faking" of Miss Lockwood's concert scenes), LOVE STORY is generally an entertaining melodrama with quite a few virtues. I prefer my Gainsborough dished up with a dose of Mason and played out in Regency-era England (or Italy, in the case of the delicious MADONNA OF THE SEVEN MOONS), yet LOVE STORY is a worthy entry in the Gainsborough romantic cycle.

this lovely and stylish film, shows the highly underrated talents of Ms. Margaret Lockwood. She is the Pianist, with a secret, who falls in love with a man, also hiding a secret. she makes the biggest sacrifice for him, "when you love somebody set them free." the cast is incredibly likeable, and good acting all round