Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

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

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The Constant Nymph (1943) Joan Fontaine, Charles Boyer, Alexis Smith. O.M.G! When I was a teeny bopper in 1943 when this came to our neighborhood theater, I was entranced. A girl only a bit older than me in love with an older dreamy guy - and he loves her back. O.M.G! But , but! I watched the DVR'd copy last night and I was soooo disappointed. Fontaine is drippy. It is one of Boyers worst films. Smith comes out with her dignity in tact. And, I was underwhelmed by the music. I've longed to see this again all these years, but now wish it was still among the 'lost.' "Be careful what you wish for - you just might get it." 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035751/

In this last and only American version of The Constant Nymph the omnipresent Code had to be dealt with rather delicately in order for this film to get to the big screen. It involves nothing less than a middle aged man falling in love with an underage girl. No wonder the original casting of Errol Flynn was scratched by Jack Warner.In 1943 as Robert Osborne said rather delicately himself, Flynn was having some 'legal problems'. He sure was, he was facing a charge of statutory rape and was fighting for his career. No wonder he was scratched and Charles Boyer substituted as the pianist/composer. Even without the rape charge I don't Flynn would have been suitable casting in that role in any event.But it was Joan Fontaine who got the Oscar recognition with a nomination for Best Actress playing a teenager of barely legal age who has a congenital heart problem and who charms Boyer. In the original novel and the play made from it, Boyer's character actually runs off with the Fontaine character.Some of the same territory was tread on by Billy Wilder in The Major And The Minor, but Ginger Rogers was only pretending to be an adolescent.Boyer meets Fontaine and her siblings Brenda Marshall, Jean Muir, and Joyce Reynolds at the home of their father Montagu Love. When he dies the girls go to their uncle Charles Coburn to live, except Marshall who marries Peter Lorre. That in itself is something, how often does Peter Lorre get the girl? Boyer marries Coburn's daughter Alexis Smith, but Smith senses something wrong and develops a jealousy of Fontaine. Turns out that while Boyer doesn't do anything, she's right to be suspicious.The novel by Margaret Kennedy was turned into a play by Basil Dean and debuted in London with no less than Noel Coward and Edna Best in the leads. It ran 148 performances on Broadway in the 1926-27 season and two film versions across the pond were made, a silent with Ivor Novello and another sound version that starred Brian Aherne who would later marry Joan Fontaine. I'd be curious to see how the whole May/September romance was handled there.Fontaine lost the Oscar that year to newcomer Jennifer Jones who was also playing a juvenile of a different kind in The Song Of Bernadette.The Constant Nymph is a strange yet curiously winning film. One wonders how the story would be done today in a film.

Film preservation is all about saving what survives for today and future generations. Among the lost are London AFTER MIDNIGHT and CONVENTION CITY. 80% of all silent films are lost and 50% of all films made before WWII are gone. Some films are forgotten like original versions when remakes are made. The 1935 version of MAGNIFICENT OBSESSEION launched the career of Robert Taylor but it is rarely shown after it was remade in 1956. Other films can be repressed by the artist who made them, Stanley Kubrick bought up and tried to destroy all the copies of his first film, FEAR AND DESIRE. THE CONSTANT NYMPH (1943) is mostly forgotten because the author's will stated after the original release film it could only be shown at universities or museums. Nymph, definition. A nymph in Greek mythology is a minor nature goddess typically associated with a remote location. Nymphs personify the creative and fostering activities of nature and identify with the life- giving outflow of springs. Nymphs tended to frequent areas distant from humans, but could be encountered by lone travelers outside the village, where their music might be heard, and the traveler could spy on their dancing or bathing. For me, the title THE CONSTANT NYMPH might mean, always innocent or always nurturing. Source & other versions. The book by Margaret Kennedy, THE CONSTANT NYMPH was a runaway bestseller when published in Britain in 1924. One review from The Atlantic magazine said, "It's a novel about ideas... as well as the sort of delicious and merciless emotions that can make people exuberant or desperate." It was also quiet controversial. In 1926, Margaret Kennedy along with Basil Dean adapted THE CONSTANT NYMPH for a three act play for the London stage starring Noel Coward and Edna Best. Playwright Basil Dean jump started his career by turning this novel into a very successful play and backing the first two movie versions first in 1928 and again in 1933. Basil Dean used his profits to form Associated Talking Pictures an important film factory that later became Ealing Studios. Cast, supporting. Among the supporting cast is Peter Lorre who wanted to prove he had more range than playing Mr. Moto or criminal types. Charles Coburn, the white haired heavy set comedy relief who was an overnight discovery at age 61 is best known for THE MORE THE MERRIER and GENTLEMENT PREFER BLONDES, but in tonight's film he has trouble pronouncing the name Roberto and instead says Robert 'Oh. And grand dame, Dame May Witty plays the old socialite that is charmed out of her silver slippers by Charles Boyer. Cast leads. Famed composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, his first movie score was for A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, then CAPTAIN BLOOD and his most famous is THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD. But classical music fans point to this films concluding piece the tone poem, TOMORROW as some of his most beautiful he ever wrote. You know what the biggest complaint about this composer was – he didn't write enough music! The third lead is played by Alexis Smith whose early Hollywood nickname was The Dynamite Girl. Alexis is better remembered for costarring with handsome leading men in costume films, here she gets to really act – and what a delicate tight rope act it is! Charles Boyer became a star in France as the lead in LILIOM which was remade in this country as the musical CAROUSEL. His better American films include GASLIGHT, but he is mostly known for his romantic films like: ALGIERS, LOVE AFFAIR and ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO. He often played lovers or musicians. Director Edmund Goulding specialized in luminescent, star-studded dramas for MGM like the Oscar winning GRAND HOTEL. Well Goulding got permission and the assignment to make this film but Warner bros. studio wanted him to cast Errol Flynn and Joan Leslie in the leads. But he knew he wanted Charles Boyer to play the musician, but who to play the girl, Tessa? Well as these things happen only in Hollywood, one night at Romanoff's Restaurant he spotted his old friend actor Brian Aherne who had starred in the 1933 version of THE CONSTANT NYMPH in the role as the composer. It seems Brian and his then wife who was also a licensed pilot had just flown in from their ranch. Well Goulding asked Aherne who he should cast as Tessa the young girl, she had to be a name and skinny, frail and flat chested? And Joan said, "Why not me?" To which Golding responded, "Who are You?" To which she said, "Joan Fontaine." He was stunned, thought for a minute (REBECCA, SUSPICION) then said, "Right!" and jumped up to call the studio shouting he had found his Tessa! And she wrote in her autobiography she loved the way he ran the set and carefully directed her! Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland, hard to believe she's Japanese, born Oct. 22, 1917 in Tokyo, Japan. She changed her name to that of her actress mother's stage name of Fontaine. She was cast opposite Fred Astaire in A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS and had small parts in GUNGA DIN & THE WOMEN. Then Alfred Hitchcock got her Oscar nominated in REBECCA which she was not only the lead in, but it won the Academy Award for Best Film of the Year. In Hitchcock's next film SUSPICION Joan won the Oscar for Best Actress. When I saw this picture for the first time in 35mm, just 1 month ago, I was quickly taken in by the sincerity of the performances, the beautiful lighting and cinematography – and then Joan came along and everything lit up! I love how she jumps around like an excitable girl, her body language and actions of a child. And, she did it so well, she again was Oscar nominated (the third time in four years!) but lost to Jennifer Jones for THE SONG OF BURNADETTE. Joan's next film was JANE EYRE and later LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN.

Although I was only 13 years old the first time I saw this film, it moved me. That may be because I could relate to the Joan Fontaine character. Sometimes we fall in love with a movie for reasons we cannot recall. In any case, I have been searching for a copy (VHS or DVD)for years and find that it is no longer available. I am disappointed to learn that. My sister and I saw this movie together; we cried, it was so lovely. We have discussed it over the years and have both tried to remember certain scenes and some dialogue, but the background music was the most memorable. In fact, we both forgot that it was Charles Boyer who was in the film; we were mistaken in thinking it was Brian Aherne, and that may be one of the reasons we could not find it!