.png)
- OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
- This is one of those movies to see over and over for certain memorable scenes, the hauntingly beautiful piece, A VERY SPECIAL LOVE, and for the novelty of watching Gene Kelly in a strictly dramatic role. But as for the treatment the film gives to the Herman Wouk novel, MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR experiences the usual celluloid plastic surgery and comes out an approximation of the 1950's best seller. For central to Wouk's fiction is the New York Jewish community and its effect on a young woman struggling with her own sexual identity. In short, what we get in the film is Natalie Wood, nascent and alluring, but resembling more a Beverly Hills rich girl than a Jewish American Princess.
MORNINGSTAR is undoubtedly Natalie Wood's maiden flight as a leading lady. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE may have brought her to the public's attention, but MORNINGSTAR was the movie that launched her as a star and sent her career skyrocketing. The obvious parallel between the coming of age of Marjorie in the film and Natalie Wood as a leading lady cannot be ignored.
Noel Airman (Gene Kelly) is a shiftless romantic forever working on his musical PRINCESS JONES. He's more or less a drifter and supports himself in summertime by working as a dramatic director at a Jewish summertime resort in the Adirondacks where young girls are drawn to him like moths. It is there that he meets a very young and impressionable Marjorie. Her obsession with him begins immediately and the more irresponsible Airman behaves, the more deeply she is drawn into him. The Marjorie--Noel relationship is the movie's centerpiece as Marjorie simply refuses to see Airman as a deadbeat and supports his pipe dreams about a Broadway production. She even influences her best friend (Carolyn Jones) to get her boyfriend, well-connected Jesse White, to put financial backing together to produce Airman's play. The production flops, of course, because it's so romantically saccharine and Kelly finally realizes he's going nowhere. Taking to drink, he escapes to Europe and heartbroken Marjorie goes off after him.
Natalie Wood's performance as Marjorie Morningstar is superior and is performed with the same passion characteristic of almost every role she ever tackled. However, Kelly's performance as Noel Airman is, for the most part, superficial. It wasn't his first dramatic role by a long shot, for Kelly was always a fine actor in his own right and showed his talents in many of his musicals such as COVER GIRL and AN American IN Paris, but MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR was his first non-dancing dramatic effort.
Most of the others in the cast, with the exception of Carolyn Jones, Marjorie's common-sense best friend, come off as stereotypes. Ed Wynn hovers around Wood as the wise Uncle Sampson sprinkling common sense over Marjorie's romantic dizziness. Claire Trevor and Everette Sloan are Marjorie's uppity, bigoted Jewish parents who will tolerate nothing less than a wealthy husband for their daughter. Marty Balsam is a complete figurine playing Marjorie's wimpy suitor. But the most obtuse character in the film is Wally (Mary Milner), the struggling playwright who's been in love with Marjorie forever. Milner is portrayed as a Marjorie's shoulder to lean on lurking behind the scenes for years. Then in the bat of an eye, he's suddenly transformed into a successful Broadway playwright! The transition is laughable.
In the end, Marjorie matures and finally seees Noel as a self-destructive dreamer. She visits the old summer camp on the Adirondacks for one last time and looks on as Noel draws impressionable young girls into his web all over again. The sequence itself is very effective; however, the movie's very last scene in which Marjorie boards a bus and discovers a smiling Wally behind her in the rear view mirror now ready to step into her life big time is a bit much.
MORNINGSTAR works if you don't want to hold the script up to the light and just enjoy Wood and Kelly in a film. The theme song, A VERY SPECIAL LOVE, casts the appropriate mood over the summer camp atmosphere and, if nothing else, strikes a cord in all of us who ever had a nostalgic vacation romance.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
NO ESTRENADA EN SALAS CINEMATOGRÁFICAS EN ESPAÑA
Marjorie Morningstar fue la protagonista de una novela de gran éxito de Herman Wouk. Convertida en película tenía grandes riesgos: condesar su apretado texto en poco más de dos horas de celuloide y los previsibles problemas de su tratamiento con la identificación de los personajes: la clase alta judía de Nueva York. Con estas limitaciones, hacer una película comercial era una dificultad añadida que condicionó sus resultados artísticos. Finalizado el rodaje de la cinta, el guionista Everett Freeman quiso retirar su nombre de los créditos "aunque no le dejaron" porque consideró que la película no reflejaba el espíritu de la novela y mucho menos las costumbres, entonces ocultas, de la clase judía. Los productores prefirieron central la historia en el mundo del espectáculo de Nueva York más que en el de los judíos acomodados. Natalie Wood compuso admirablemente su personaje, una chica que quiere rebelarse contra su entorno. Y Gene Kelly supo sacar un gran partido a un personaje inicialmente pensado para Danny Kaye. Para muchos críticos, Kelly compuso uno de los mejores personajes dramáticos de su carrera, de especial dificultad para él, ya que interpretaba a un "showman" mediocre, de segunda categoría. Aciertos parciales, un buen reparto y algún número musical son los alicientes de una película con poco que ver con el libro original. ÁNGEL COMAS.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Meet the Morgensterns
If you grew up in a Jewish home or even a mixed household as I did there were two books in every domicile. One would have been Leon Uris's Exodus and the second was Herman Wouk's Marjorie Morningstar. I guess I can appreciate the film more than most since I saw a lot of the characters in my youth and afterwards.
Everett Sloane and Claire Trevor, formerly of the Bronx, now reside in a doorman building in Manhattan. Everett is a self-made man who's now living the American dream, albeit Jewish style. And Claire, if she's gone a bit high hat, is still a very concerned mother and a pretty shrewd judge of character or the lack thereof. In fact Claire Trevor has the best performance in the film.
The Morgensterns have two children, daughter Marjorie and son Seth. It's Seth's bar mitzvah that the story opens with, but it's Marjorie who the film is about.
Remember this is post World War II America and Claire wants for her daughter a man as successful as the one she married. No great thoughts about alternative avenues for women. But Marjorie is determined to explore alternatives.
With best friend Carolyn Jones, who's very into alternatives, Marjorie takes a job as a counselor in a summer camp. And in a neighboring camp she meets Noel Airman, the camp theater director. Now Marjorie's smitten and wants a show business career.
Though Natalie Wood plays Marjorie and the title role, the most complex part is Gene Kelly as Noel Airman. Kelly as a dancer has just the right theatrical background to understand an underachiever like Noel Airman. He's all surface charm, and even talented. But there are a lot of people in the theater who never become successful at it in monetary terms. The few that do are lucky, they might get the right breaks, but they all work hard at what they love.
Noel won't commit to work. He wants it all, but he doesn't want to work for it. He also doesn't realize that show business is a business and there are a lot of people out there as talented as he without his issues.
In fact the key scene in the film is when Claire Trevor on meeting him, sizes him up correctly in five minutes. Kelly sizes Trevor up as well that she's a bit of a snob, but at least she has her's.
This film brought Natalie Wood real star status. It was her break out role from what was essentially brat pack pictures from the 1950s. She's so beautiful here it's hard to imagine the tragedy that awaited her. A perfect Jewish princess, in the nicest sense of the term.
Ed Wynn who never was able to translate his vaudeville and radio success to Hollywood until late in life also shines here as Everett Sloane's Uncle Samson. He's the happy go lucky contented man, but not terribly successful of the previous generation. He represents as much as the family loves him, what they've escaped from.
In life and more so in Hollywood life, things do have a funny way of resolving themselves. And Marjorie in a way she and we don't expect gets her real heart's desire. But for what and how you have to watch this very nostalgic re-creation of upper middle class Jewish life in New York City.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A truly unique film
I have reviewed well over 13,000 films here on IMDb. Because of that, I have noticed that with most films there is a certain sameness and predictability about them. And, in light of this, I was very pleasantly surprised by "Marjorie Morningstar"--a truly unique and lovely film from start to finish.
Natalie Wood plays Marjorie Morganstern--a very impressionable 18 year-old who goes off to work at a summer camp. There she meets an older man (while the character was supposed to be 32, Gene Kelly was 46 at the time) who seems very talented and highly attractive. It's no surprise she falls for him, but all he really wants, at first, is to score with her. For 1958, the film is very blunt about this and even uses the word 'sex'--very, very unusual for its time. However, she wants more. When her parents find out about him, her mother is particularly worried--at 32, Noel (Kelly) should be more than just a summer camp counselor. As far as Marjorie is concerned, however, Noel is a genius--and will one day be a great playwright. It's clearly a case of a young girl seeing a man as she HOPES he'll be versus who he really is. What's next? See the film.
The film has many strong things going for it other than the uniqueness of the plot. For Kelly, it's a wonderful opportunity to get away from his pretty-boy song and dance persona and show some depth. And, for Wood, it's one of her first non-child roles where she is a serious leading lady. Apart from their nice work as well as some strong support from Ed Wynn and Martin Milner, the film has a gorgeous musical score--very haunting and sweet. Overall, this is a lovely film--- with so much more going for it.
UPDATE: I just saw a rerun of an old fifties TV show "Four Star Playhouse" and noticed that "Breakfast in Bed" actually had a lot in common with the film. However, while the film was hard-edged and rather sad, the show was more comedic...and less interesting.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Gene Kelly--Is there anything he can't do?
I recently saw this movie after adoring Gene Kelly's musicals since I was a kid. It is quite a departure of what I'm used to seeing him in, but still wonderful. This is pretty standard fare for Natalie Wood, but it is a rare treat to see Gene Kelly in a dramatic role. After reading his biography, it is a sad irony that his character somewhat mirrored what was happening in Gene Kelly's personal life, in that his days of glory were something of the past. This is not the Gene Kelly you know, but if you want to see him in something different, take the phone off the hook, grab a box of Kleenex and sit down with Marjorie Morningstar. It will stay with you.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Gentle coming-of-age drama that is now an interesting period piece
Natalie Wood's star quality shines in this rather weak adaptation of Herman Wouk's poignant novel about a young New York Jewish girl trying to break into show business in the 1950s. As Marjorie, Wood's acting is ... well, wooden ... but her beauty and intelligent eyes hold your interest.
Handsome Gene Kelly is miscast as Marjorie's unhappy, older love interest, but his dance numbers are a highlight. Good performances come from Claire Trevor as Marjorie's confused but understanding mother, and Carolyn Jones as Marjorie's kooky but tragic best friend. Ed Wynn appears in one of his last movies in a too-obvious role designed to wring out the most in laughter and tears. He's effective, but he deserved better.
It's a great look at the '50s and what appears to be the last innocent time of America. It's a gentle look at New York City and life at a little summer theater in the Catskills. Was the world ever this way? It's nice to think so, at least.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Marjorie Morningstar- A Very Special Picture ****
The very beautiful Oscar nominated song A Very Precious Love highlights this great film about a young lady finding love as a summer counselor at a camp.
Natalie Wood portrays Marjorie Morgenstern in this classic flick. Gene Kelly is the older guy of her dreams while Martin Milner is memorable as the young man she will find her place with. It is shocking that Bette Davis's favorite director, Irving Rapper, allowed Gene Kelly to be in the title role of Noel Airman (Ehrman). Kelly was more like an air-head in the role. With the exception of a drunken and condemnation scenes of the backers for his play, Kelly showed no attachment to Noel whatsoever. Kelly even sings the Oscar nominated song, A Very Precious Love in a horrible way. No wonder the song lost the Oscar.
There is definitely Jewish stereotyping in this one. Can you imagine Claire Trevor as Rose Morgenstern? Yet, she pulls it off with a grace rarely scene. She really plays it well as the typical Jewish mother. Ed Wynn again proves that he was greatly under-estimated as a dramatic actor. Everett Sloane is wonderful as the father. Both he and Trevor are able to project the Jewish parental look and feelings of the post-war Jewish generation in America.
With George Tobias and Martin Balsam in supporting roles, the film is well represented by a Jewish presence. See it for yourself. You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy it. This is definitely one for the young at heart. Hollywood kept making the same mistakes and no one caught it. The scenes of sabbaths at an Orthodox temple show woman carrying pocketbooks. This is a definite no-no on the sabbath. Notice that they were trying to show an orthodox synagogue as the men and women were totally separated in seating arrangements. The same mistake was made in 1952's "The Jazz Singer" with Danny Thomas and Peggy Lee.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Dated of course but sweet
I used to see this movie on television in the "old" days but since it hasn't been on for a long time, and since I'm a Natalie Wood fan, I recently bought the VHS. I was not disappointed! There are so many good actors in it! What kills me the most about this movie (I have read the book, but we're discussing the movie now) is that Noel keeps telling Marjorie about how he might never want to marry her, AS IF she's the one saying she wants to get married - yet we never hear this come out of her mouth! She would have been just as "unconventional" as he was if he'd said something about becoming partners in some kind of acting situation, or songwriting, or singing. I mean, he was in his 30s, she was only 18. So let's see, he loved her so much that he didn't want to collaborate with her? What DID HE want her to do, just wash his clothes? Anyway, I still loved this movie. And every time Ed Wynn came on screen, I said "He's so SWEET!" I remember when Windsor/Detroit movie host extraordinaire Bill Kennedy (Moonchildren! Natalie born 7/17 and Bill 6/27) would show this movie, he would explain it all to us... he was the one we were watching when we found out Natalie was gone. Bless 'em all for the good old days.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
MY WEB PAGE TO NATALIE WOOD
