The Constant Nymph (1943)

The Constant Nymph
Directed by Edmund Goulding
Written by Kathryn Scola from a novel and play by Margaret Kennedy and Basil Dean
1943/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Amazon Instant Video

[box] “Infatuation is not quite the same thing as love; it’s more like love’s shady second cousin who’s always borrowing money and can’t hold down a job.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage[/box]

Despite Joan Fontaine’s excellent performance, the overwrought melodrama lost me by the end.

The premier of the last opus of composer Lewis Dodd (Charles Boyer) was a big flop.  It seems critics just don’t appreciate his dissonance.  He is only really happy in the home of oft-married fellow composer Albert Sanger.  Albert informs Lewis that he will not be great until he has been able to cry.  Albert’s fourteen-year-old daughter Tessa (Joan Fontaine) inspires Albert to write a piece with melody and even provides the words.  The ethereal girl is also madly in love with the composer.

When Tessa’s father dies, Albert calls on her immensely wealthy Uncle Charles (Charles Coburn) to come and rescue Tessa and the other children from London.  During the uncle’s visit, Albert falls in love with Charles’s daughter Florence (Alexis Smith). After they marry, Florence can’t wait to pack the children off to boarding school.

Some time passes and Albert and Florence are constantly bickering.  He refuses to live up to her high-society expectations.  The free-spirited girls run away from boarding school and show up at the house.  Charles is delighted to see them but Florence is intensely jealous of Tessa, with whom Charles clearly has a special bond.  Finally, Charles realizes that this bond is romantic love for his muse.  Will he and Tessa find happiness?  Not while the Hayes Code is in effect.  With Peter Lorre and Dame May Whitty as friends of the family.

I’m just not crazy about the whole premise that if we have an adult playing a young teenager it is some how OK to explore these March-September romances.  Joan Fontaine gives the part just the right other-worldly quality to make this work, however.  Her Tessa’s fundamental innocence keeps the ick factor down to a minimum.  The biggest problem I have with the film is Alexis Smith’s overacting.  She ramps up the jealousy and drama up past the point of endurance.  Her self-realization is unbelievable as well.  I saw the ending coming.

Joan Fontaine was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Constant Nymph.

Trailer