Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's always a pleasure to discover a long neglected film, usually found in old bad copies, with the gratifying opportunity to bring attention to a forgotten masterpiece. "Lydia" is such a film, written and directed by Julien Duvivier with some help by Ben Hecht, featuring Merle Oberon at her best with her wooers Joseph Cotten, Alan Marshal and a few others, accompanied by spellbinding music of Miklos Rosza's, and in addition to all this with the last performance of Edna May Oliver with an exit crowning her accomplishments. The question is what is best with this film, which has so many different aspects and sides to it. Is it the great story of an adorable beauty who decides to remain a virgin all her life dedicated solely to helping blind children? Is it the important part of the music, in long eloquent sequences presented by Hans Jaray as the blind pianist, another of her wooers? Is it her fascinating personality so virtuously exposed throughout by mainly the voice of Merle Oberon in her old age? Is it the deeply romantic love affair with its extraordinary passion? Is it the great flow of the film in high tempo and dazzling dialogue all the way with beautiful photography at that? It's all this and much more. This is a great love story of a totally different kind to what we are used to, something totally out of the ordinary, and as such it's a story and film for all times and ages and all generations. This is a film to study and to be learned from, especially for those interested in the enigmatic nature of any woman.

Merle Oberon was wonderful here as the spinster who 40 years later meets with the men in her life and dutifully explains why marriage was out of the question with each of them. Did anyone notice that when she spoke as an older woman, she sounded just like Bette Davis when the latter played older parts as well.In what turned out to be her final film, Edna May Oliver was in perfect form as her cantankerous grandmother, still with a heart of gold only because of her humble beginnings before she married into wealth.Too bad that the film didn't concentrate a little more with Lydia's work with orphaned and blind children. The scenes depicting the children were certainly poignant.

Exotic Anglo-Indian beauty Merle Oberon, best known for her great turn as Cathy in the 1939 film version of 'Wuthering Heights', is at the centre of this pleasant, melodramatic 1941 offering. She plays Lydia MacMillan, an ageing wealthy philanthropist who has never married. Lydia and three of her suitors meet together early in the film, and in an extended flashback they, and the viewer, find out why the lovely, winsome girl never ended up with a ring on her finger.Oberon gives a very good performance here. She is convincing as both the beguiling young Lydia and the mature, somewhat hardened older version of herself. Edna May Oliver, in a role she would have relished, is also fine as Oberon's aunt. Joseph Cotten is in the mix too, in one of his nice-guy roles.It's a very sentimental, shamelessly romantic piece with some poignant moments.6/10

It is almost 20 years ago, I saw this movie at TV.. and it still break my heart now.. Very touching. The ending is so unforgettable.. I could clearly remember the story, and the ENDING.. so sad, Lydia is so lovely.. and she was not the only one who suffer, but also her admirers.. obviously wasting years in reaching out for love!? What is love? Did Lydia sure that she is in love with that guy? She don't even know him.. they just get together for such a short time.. well, it is very romantic.. and that is why I still remember this movie, and want to see that again.. but as I grew older.. it is not romantic to me anymore.. but still she still break my heart, cos I think it is quite hard to find someone who could so insist in love or.. her own belief? What am I talking about?