H.M. Pulham, Esq.

Previous comments referred to the slow pace of the story, in a way I agree, but we're talking about a different time in the cinema. It was a pleasure to see how the characters were formed and could only attest to the direction of King Vidor. Hedy in her role as a career woman, had the full understanding of the character. Her outstanding beauty ( even in a masculine business suit) are not to be denied. Some people have said she was not a great actress, and indeed she wasn't, but certainly a competent one, and she proved here, given the right roles. As for Robert Young, I thought he was also excellent in the main role, as were all the others. Kudos to all of them for an enjoyable two hours.

This muted but affecting version of John P. Marquand's stinging reproach of the turn of the last century's hidebound upper classes, this beautiful MGM production is easily Hedy Lamarr's finest performance. Co-starring the too frequently overlooked Robert Young and the multifaceted Van Heflin (who would win a Best Supporting Oscar that year for Johnny Eager), the film also boasts the usual MGM powerful supporting cast (including Charles Coburn, Ruth Hussy, Bonita Granville and a cameo by the great Anne Revere). Under King Vidor's perceptive direction, this tale of a man's reflection of a life full of stifling tradition becomes a poignant, subtle exploration of lost opportunity. At last given a role of substance, Lamarr is wonderful as an educated working class woman with aspirations, who must watch the man she loves cave in to the expectations of wealth and tradition. A gem of a film; discover it for yourselves.

Though dealing primarily with an upper-class character, this picture involves decisions and emotional conflicts that everyone can relate to. The bittersweet story reminds us that to a greater or lesser extent we all settle for something less than the life we dreamed of. On the surface, the characters here are happy: they say they are, and they mean it. But beneath that surface are disappointment and longing that they keenly feel when the past is recalled. Better not to think about it, and just go on with the life you have.

Hedy Lamarr was a curious choice for this role. It doesn't really suit her, but she handles it better than one might expect.

What a remarkable movie! It contains, as far as I've seen her, Hedy Lamarr's best performance ever...she's luminous here, human, warm, heart-wrenching, not the aloof goddess of other MGM films (which I like too, by the way). She gives a complex, multi-layered performance as a liberal, independent, unprejudiced, modern working woman who falls in love with a lad (grandly impersonated by Robert Young) who comes from an aristocratic, old fashioned, "blue-blood" family from Boston.

They meet while working together in an advertising/publicity company, but their relationship is not an easy one, due to Marvin's (Hedy) unease with his family's morals, mores and ways...

The movie is told in flashback, with Harry Pulham (Robert Young) remembering his childhood and younger days, when he's well into his forties and married to a woman of his same "Social Circle" (Ruth Hussey-what a good actress she was, giving a first-rate performance in a role so different from the one she played the previous year in "The Philadelphia Story").

You can tell this movie was directed by a first rate director like King Vidor, who could handle so well "sociological" issues.

Good performances too by Van Heflin as Young's pal, Bonita Granville as his sister, Charles Coburn as his father et al.

An engrossing film, watch it on TCM, where it's scheduled regularly.

Right from the beginning, one might mistake this film for a comedy. In fact, the artistic opening sequences make H. M. Pulham (Robert Young) out to be a rather eccentric man. But as the film goes on, we learn that his is a complex and likable man with a life relateable to anyone at anytime. He is notified of a Harvard class reunion and for the event, he must write a personal biography. Writing it turns out to be difficult, and we journey through memories in search of the ones to include.

As a young boy, Pulham was brought up in a highly educated and somewhat rigid environment. His mother (Fay Holden), father (Charles Coburn), and sister (Bonita Granville) loved him and accepted his friends willingly, especially Bill King (Van Heflin). They even arranged for a girl to be nearby at all times (Ruth Hussey); he even eventually married her. However, the one aspect of his life that was not planned was his love affair with an advertiser named Marvin (Hedy Lamarr). Thinking about her brings back all of the passion they had for each other, and he begins to wonder why they never ended up together when they were in love.

This movie is sentimental and entertaining. Each of the actors is excellent in his part, especially Lamarr who exercises a new part of her personality. In most of her films, she plays a seductive and somewhat distant woman. Here, she is warm and inviting, much more like an ideal wife and mother. One could easily imagine her sitting by the fire mending socks or cooking over a hot stove and all the while remaining radiantly beautiful.