Let's be realistic.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Blistering performances.

The title song played over the credits is very pretty, and Werner Janssen's score was nominated for Best Music in 1940. However, after the opening credits are done, the movie goes downhill. Eternally Yours belongs to the group of films that tells wives in the audience to support their husbands no matter how mean, selfish, and inattentive they are. If you don't like that message, you won't like this movie.Loretta Young starts the movie engaged to Broderick Crawford, but when she goes with her girlfriends to see David Niven, a famous magician, it's love at first sight. So far so good. But is there a secret twist to their love-was he hypnotizing her or using a magic trick to win her love? No, there's neither imagination nor secret twists in Gene Towne's and C. Graham Baker's script. Countless times I thought the story would turn in a different, clever direction but it never did. Loose ends aren't tied, and inventive plot lines aren't explored. As much as I love David Niven, this isn't one of his good movies.

The first half of the film is generally feel good, with much kissing, hugging and "Darling" talk between stars David Niven and Loretta Young, both of whom come across as charming. They are immediately attracted to each other, and before we know it, they're married and she is serving as his assistant in his magic shows.But, as we begin the second half, things begin to get rocky, generally less interesting, and more contrived. Niven refuses to take seriously Loretta's hints that she is weary of living out of a suitcase. She wants him to slow down and not accept every offer of a global tour. She's also weary of worrying that he will soon die from his solo act where he jumps from 15,000 feet with a parachute, but with his hands behind his back, handcuffed. She reveals that she has financed the building of a charming country house, and strongly hints that she wants to spend some time with him there in the near future. But, he ignores this hint, having recently received an offer for a world tour with his airplane jump stunt. Thus, without consulting Niven, Loretta goes off to Reno with her aunt(Billie Burke)to file for a quickie divorce, complaining that she doesn't feel needed any more. After the divorce, she immediately takes a cruise. Low and behold, her old boyfriend Don(Broderick Crawford)is aboard. Loretta soon convinces him to marry her, and they have the ship captain perform the ceremony. Meanwhile , Niven continues to perform his magic tricks, now with Lola(Virginia Fields) as his assistant.Niven arranges that he keeps bumping into Don and Loretta, so that he can recapture her, if he can talk to her. It's not hard to see that she still loves him as a person. They have a romantic ride on an ice skiff with sail, where they talk things over, and kiss. I'll leave the rather rushed finale for you to see.Unfortunately, the various 'name' secondary players don't add much interest to the film. Billie Burke, of course, played the good witch in "The Wizard of Oz".Loretta and Niven were major characters in several other films: "Four Men and a Prayer", "Three Bind Mice" and, later, "The Bishop's Wife", with Cary Grant.See it at YouTube.

In this crass comedy from his youth, Niven plays an illusionist named Tony or Arturo, the 2nd being, as you have already guessed, his stage name, and this Tony begins taking death defying leaps; his wife is the pretty Anita (--performed by the spicy and cute Loretta Young--). She divorces him once she realizes their views of life don't match very much—she wants to settle, he wants to travel, etc., you know this marriages between a British magician and his assistant coming from an American Episcopalian background. Anita's granddaddy is an American Bishop of the Hollywoodian sort common to most of the righteous movie priests of the Latin rites, either Anglican or Catholic—dignified, wise, calm, unobtrusive and reliable—why, you know those American Bishops. Anita picks a 2nd husband, a youngster fat, ugly and dolt (--and strong as a bull--); she soon realizes that life with this fatty is even worse. She of course refuses to give herself to him; her Tony was slick and a bit funny, her present husband is clumsy, boring and uninspiring. This refused husband is shown, furious, dejected, seeking his pajamas in his voyage bag, a sad scene, fortunately short. Arturo regrets loosing Anita; he wants this babe back.ETERNALLY YOURS is execrably written, and not a very good movie; it wishes to be a comical romance. The characters' deeds say nothing about them, don't express them at all.Loretta Young is 'Anita', Zasu Pitts does a supporting part (--again, strangely appealing--), the very nice Virginia Field plays 'Lola De Vere', Niven's assistant.I guess I never knew anyone who was a Niven fan. His performances are average at best; his mischievous face and nervousness, as of a Rathbone on a severe diet, gave him a distinct profile, usable in comedy format—and not much else. Niven, ironic, dry, witty and essentially melancholy, was a bit of a stock character for British comedies, if you take my meaning. Niven, as you ought to know, was a bi-dimensional actor, very limited, a nice vaudeville type. His characters are cartoons, in a very narrow register; he made his lookalike Guinness seem a regular Welles by comparison. As often with Niven, his character has an essential sadness and gloom; he feigns cheating on his wife, which he doesn't, etc.. Otherwise, the characters are _undelineable. The script is rubbish, there's no story, the lines are dull; so, uninteresting, rudimentary characters in a non—existent script (there are a couple of presumably double _entendres like—'we always did it at the finish of every act …--of every performance', says 'Anita' after she kisses 'Arturo').

I enjoyed this picture a lot. It has the warmth of the classics, yet the characterization and the whole plot fits to today's world. The incredible chemistry between the two leads is (I found) very rare among movies from that age.