Enchantment (1948)

Written by CinemaSerf on July 9, 2022

David Niven is old soldier "General Rollo Dane" who returns to his family home after a long absence. Once there he is visited by his niece who wants a WWII wartime billet. Grumpily, he accedes and shortly thereafter they are visited by Farley Granger ("Pax") who turn out to be the nephew of Niven's childhood sweetheart "Larke" (Teresa Wright). Through a series of reminiscences we learn of the blossoming of their young love - despite the machinations of his older sister "Selina" (Jayne Meadows) and of how it all fell apart. Meantime we see the burgeoning romance between the latter day youngsters as they, too, fall in love. Niven features sparingly, and when he does he doesn't quite sparkle. The film sort of plods along with a certain inevitability that seemed completely unnecessary had only the hero actually "grown a pair". It looks good, but I'm not sure I'd bother to watch it again.