Good start, but then it gets ruined

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

David Niven, aged up with white hair and wrinkles, returns to his childhood home. He's alone and has clearly lived a life of sadness and regret. While wallowing in his memories, he learns of a blooming romance between his niece, Evelyn Keyes, and his former love's nephew, Farley Granger. As the young lovers face their obstacles, Niven recounts his love affair with Teresa Wright.This is an incredibly beautiful film, with a love story that should be remembered and ranked up with the greatest classics, like Gone with the Wind and Casablanca. Unfortunately, this film has mostly gone unremembered through the years, and I can't understand why. With Hugo Friedhofer's beautiful score, a sensitive screenplay adaptation by John Patrick-writer of The Hasty Heart, Some Came Running, and Love is a Many-Splendored Thing-and fantastic performances by Niven and Wright, this should be a go-to classic on anyone's list. After a role like this, it's a wonder David Niven didn't play continuous romantic leads the remainder of his career. He and Teresa have a wonderful chemistry together, and with the infinite sadness in his eyes, it's a wonder I didn't bawl my way through the entire movie.The preview is a great representation without giving anything away, a rare treat in old movie previews. If it tugs at your heart, rent the movie. You might bump it to the top of your list of cinematic romances. Bring your Kleenexes, though. Enchantment is a tearjerker.

....What a wonderful film......Technically superior..........The slow dissolves from past to present.....done so slowly was refreshing to see especially when compared to the rapid jerky crap that we see today..........and the narrowing of the spot on the key being held by Jayne Meadows....indicating the compression of her character into the key in the door being opened by Evelyn Keyes indicating the opening of the relationship between Keyes and Farley Granger was SPECTACULAR!!!!What a wonderful way to express character and story.Wish we could see techniques like this today.....Gigi Perreau's scene in which she makes her lower chin quiver when brought into her new home at the beginning of the film was very moving........have only seen Hepburn, Brabara Rush and Marisa Haggarty of CSI Special Victims able to do this on the screen....an incredible acting accomplishment.......

First a house talks to us. Then we meet an elderly man. A young woman comes to the house, which is, or was, his. (The exact tense of this is never clear.) He tells her a little about his childhood. Back to her. He and the others are no longer children. She is now falling in love with Farley Granger (in an unbecoming mustache.) Back and forth it goes, with short scenes, like theatrical blackouts. And never do we get to care about the people.It is one stereotype after another. Someone comes into a room, for example. A woman is holding a handkerchief to her eyes. "You've been crying, my dear, " he observes.The only character of interest is the evil Selina, played by Jayne Meadows. Even she, though, is two-dimensional. She is Alexis Carrington in period dress.And speaking of dress, somehow this movie makes the lovely Theresa Wright look homely. I wanted to like her character, named Lark. But I didn't believe her.This comes across as an idea that started to go badly and got more and more out of hand. Then, (it seems, though of course this didn't happen) someone dropped the film and it was hastily reassembled into a vaguely coherent whole.Very few A-pictures of its period are such miserable failures as this movie is. And I have no grudge against it. I'd never heard of it till today. There must be a reason that, despite its starry cast and its beautiful cinematography by Gregg Toland, it is relatively little known. I posit that the reason is it's trite and not even believable.I love fugues. But this is about as far from Bach as ever anything could be.

I saw the movie Enchantment in 1948 when I was 11 years old. I was so moved by the story, when I returned home I wrote down the complete story, so I would never forget. I have seen the movie 5 times in the last 50 years and if I owned the movie I would watch it every week.