Peter Ibbetson (1935)

“The wretcheder one is, the more one smokes; and the more one smokes, the wretcheder one gets—a vicious circle.” ― George du Maurier, Peter Ibbetson

This unusual romantic fantasy features some beautiful expressionistic cinematography by Charles Lang and music by Ernest Toch.  Whether the fantasy quite works is a matter of opinion I suppose.

The story begins with two playmates, the boy Gogo and girl Mimsy, who are English expatriates in Paris.  They bicker as children do.  Then Gogo’s mother dies and Mimsy grieves with him.  Probably the most wrenching scene in the entire film is when Gogo’s uncle comes to take him away to England over the heartrending protests of both children.

Segue to perhaps 20 years later and Gogo, now called Peter (Gary Cooper), is an architect in London.  He suffers from a pervasive sense of emptiness that he cannot pinpoint.  He wants to quit his job but his boss convinces him to take a holiday in Paris instead.  There, he visits the house where he grew up, remembers his time with Mimsy again, and realizes the source of his sadness.

He is recalled to England to design a new stables for a Lord and his Lady in Yorkshire. There he meets Mary, the Duchess of Towers (Ann Harding).  They are strangely drawn to each other and discover they share the same dreams at night.  I will stop the plot summary to avoid spoilers but suffice it to say that nothing can separate these two in their dreams any more in life or after death.   The photographic effects come in particularly during extended dream sequences.

I enjoyed the film but it does require a total suspension of disbelief.  Also, although I like both of them, Cooper and Harding, two very grounded earth-bound actors, were perhaps not the best choices for these roles.  The first part of the film with the children and the development of the feelings between the adults worked better than the fantasy for me.

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