Embraceable You

The first time I saw Embraceable You, was three years ago, when I was sixteen years old. Consequently, it was also the last time I saw it. For the past three years, I have been searching for it everywhere, with no luck. It's been a mission of mine to find it again because I loved the premise. I thought this movie was a heartbreakingly accurate portrayal of the power of love. Through the trials that pursue the leading characters, there was this powerful emotion that couldn't separate them; that couldn't weaken their desire. I found this movie to not only be a tear-jerker, but one that emanates the powerful message, that love is ever-lasting, and undying.

Eddie Novoc (Dane Clark) is the getaway driver for Sig Ketch who killed someone. He hits pedestrian Marie Willens (Geraldine Brooks). He wants to stop for her but Sig forces him to drive on. He does visit her in the hospital which attracts the attention of Police Lt. Ferria.

I like the setup for the most part. At some point, I start falling out of love for this romance after the hospital. I want Eddie to be a younger innocent who is way over his head. I want him to be even more scared than he is. Maybe it could work if he remained a faceless benefactor loving her from a distance or maybe she gets blinded. As it stands, I grow less in love with this romance in the second half.

An unlikely romance develops between the wheel man of a getaway car and a pedestrian whom he hits. The wheel man is small time crook Dane Clark and the pedestrian is Geraldine Brooks. And the cupid that brings them together is a cop played by Wallace Ford.

Here's where it gets highly ludicrous Ford finds out from Dr. Douglas Kennedy that Brooks is dying of an aneurysm that has developed. He forces Ford to take care of the cynical Brooks who doesn't know that she's dying and is unhappy that there are no deep pockets she can sue because of her accident. She has no family and Clark is blackjacked into caring for her.

But as it turns out he really does start to care for her as romance develops in the strangest circumstances. Ford is hoping that by leaving Clark out there he'll find the other man in the car who is guilty of killing a gambler over a debt.

It's a strange and ludicrous plot, but Clark and Brooks actually make it work. With the strains of the Gershwin classic played at intervals during the film, I recommend Embraceable You for fans of romance films strictly.

Eddie (Dane Clark) is a crook...but, oddly, a surprisingly decent one. When the story begins, he's waiting in the car for one of his hood friends. Suddenly, the friend comes running...he just killed someone! Eddie is so scared the car he's driving loses control and he sideswipes a lady. While his friend doesn't care, Eddie cannot live with himself and soon goes to the hospital to check on her. There he sees that Marie (Geraldine Brooks) looks pretty good despite the accident, though the doctor later confides in him that there is a good chance she won't survive for long. It seems she has some sort of Hollywood film injury and might die at a moment's notice. Eddie decides to hock everything he has to make Marie's final days good ones.

The acting is terrific in this film. Dane Clark, though hardly a household name, is simply terrific as Eddie. Also, on hand to give the film some color is the wonderful character actor, Cuddles Sakall. The writing is also generally good, though contrived. The whole mystery illness (they called it an aneurysm but it clearly wasn't) was a silly gimmick in an otherwise excellent film starring some second-tier actors at Warner Brothers. Well worth seeing...just try not to think about the plot too much.

I saw this film with my mother when I was 7 and haven't seen it since, but I just can't forget it---it is that powerful. Haven't been able to find it anywhere, which means there's a copyright problem! Maybe someday it will be released. Or perhaps remade, but updated for today's environment.