User reviews

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.

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!

Based on a novel by Margaret Kennedy, this film The Constant Nymph, starring Charles Boyer and Joan Fontaine, is a typical 1940's studio retelling of a classic style romance, the story of a fragile young girl's infatuation and adoration for an older, attractive musician.

While I think the production values and the sensuality of Letter From An Unknown Woman are superior to this film, this story also manages to captivate the viewer with its own brooding romanticism, solid performances, and beautiful music by Erich Korngold (Amazon sells CDs of this music in several movie soundtrack anthologies). Thankfully my copy of this film is pristine and that improves one's enjoyment of it.

Striking Alexis Smith as the unloved wife delivers a mighty performance, and almost steals the picture from Joan Fontaine and Charles Boyer. The supporting actors are also very good, including Charles Coburn, Peter Lorre, Brenda Marshall, Dame May Witty, and Jean Muir. I admit I was a bit frustrated by the character of the musician played by Charles Boyer. Men who marry women just because they are attracted to them and not because they love them irk me to no end. That was the situation here and it sets the viewer up for a very frustrating experience by the end of the picture.

The Constant Nympth is a decent romantic melodrama, with a very touching conclusion, but it's not outstanding or unforgettable, like Letter From An Unknown Woman surely is.

After more than half a century of being withdrawn from circulation, this ripe example of romantic film making in the best high style that was so typical of Warner Bros' output in the 1940s, has finally been set free from copyright limbo by the TCM Lawyers, following a financial settlement with the heirs of Margaret Kennedy (author of the novel on which the film is based) and Basil Dean (the film director who co-authored the play with her, another key source for the screenplay).

Finally released for television last month (though only in the USA) it will soon make its long awaited debut on DVD. Was it worth the wait? In my opinion, the answer is a resounding yes.

The story (recounted by others here, so I won't weary you with another resume) inspired cast, director and especially the composer, to a rare degree and while the film retains obvious links to its stage origins and has a stylised, often unrealistic look, this approach suits the material eminently.

While the plot revolves around a curious triangle between a neurotic composer (Boyer) a worldly and wealthy woman (Smith) and a teenage girl (Fontaine) it has a subordinate agenda that most reviewers miss entirely.

Few are aware that Erich Wolfgang Korngold campaigned for this film and became closely involved in its production, even to the extent of influencing script development. Originally, he wanted Lewis Dodd to write a simple love song that would eventually develop into a romantic opera, but that idea was dropped, probably due to cost. It was replaced by a climactic transformation into a symphonic poem for mezzo soprano, wordless women's chorus and large orchestra.

Korngold kept the notion of an evolving musical work and made the battle between romanticism and dissonant modernity a key element that parallels the battle for the composer's soul, fought between the simple heart of the constant nymph with the cold, brittle modern woman played by Alexis Smith.

Korngold felt the battle between atonality and dissonance and more direct romanticism very keenly in his own life and relished the chance to create a score where romanticism triumphed.

The musical sequences are outstanding and when Sanger (Montagu Love) or Lewis Dodd (Boyer) play the piano, that is Korngold himself we hear on the soundtrack.

The elaborate Swiss mountain set incorporating the Sanger home was constructed on Warner's largest sound stage and was subsequently redressed to become the Yorkshire moors for the film DEVOTION, a risible biopic of the Brontes, made shortly afterwards and which was originally intended for Fontaine and her sister Olivia De Havilland. In the event, only De Havilland appeared - Fontaine preferred to make JANE EYRE at Fox instead.

CONSTANT NYMPH is enlivened by some familiar faces in the cast, including Peter Lorre, who is largely wasted, and Charles Coburn as an irascible Uncle - a part better suited to Sydney Greenstreet, who presumably wasn't available.

The finale, presenting Korngold's lush symphonic poem TOMORROW, is nicely done and the mezzo soprano seen on stage is actually Clemence Groves, a local Los Angeles concert singer who is also heard on the soundtrack and was the wife of George Groves, a key sound dept technician at Warners.

Those who are eagle-eyed will spot a poster for Korngold's legendary opera Die tote Stadt on the wall of Sanger's study, that is clearly visible in the scene early in the film between Dodd and Sanger, and placed on the wall by the film's associate producer Henry Blanke as a tribute to his friend Korngold, who didn't even notice it until told of the gesture at the film's premiere.

This is a one-of-a kind film that is unlikely to be remade. It's well worth seeing and has a hypnotic appeal that bears repeated viewing.

I know a lot of folks like this film. I am not saying they're at all wrong...it just didn't work for me. Much of this was because the relationship between Albert and Tessa was just a bit creepy to me...and wasn't always convincing.

When the film begins, Albert (Charles Boyer) is a struggling composer. And, when he goes to visit an old friend and his children, the old man dies...leaving the daughters to stay with their grandfather. But Albert decides to spend more time with them...sort of like a godfather. The problem is that 14 year-old Tessa (Joan Fontaine) is smitten with him and longs to become his lover one day. This is when it got a tad creepy for me. Fortunately, Albert didn't reciprocate. However, after Albert marries, his marriage is a bit rocky...and all the while Tessa is watching him...longingly.

My other problem with this very slickly made film is that I hate the idea of actresses in their mid-20s playing 14 year-olds. This rarely works well and I think an 18, 19 year-old could have pulled it off better. Mind you, Fontaine isn't bad (except when she occasionally stares off into space...something that she did here and in "Rebecca"...and I have no idea why)...in fact she's MUCH more convincing than Ginger Rogers in "The Major and the Minor"...a film than many love but which I think is among Billy Wilder's worst movies because of this.

So, overall you have a very slick love story that many folks love...but I didn't. I didn't hate it...but that's hardly a glowing endorsement. Plus what do I know? The Academy thought Fontaine was just fine....

A somewhat icky soap opera about a young girl (Joan Fontaine) who's in love with a family friend (Charles Boyer) and waits around for him to realize he's in love with her too before she drops dead of one of those mysterious things people dropped dead from in melodramas from the 1940s.

If "The Constant Nymph" isn't super icky, it's only because Fontaine is obviously way too old to be playing the age she does (I could never figure out just how old she's supposed to be, but not out of her teens when the movie starts) and because she does such a bad job of playing that age that her character comes across as more mentally deranged than immature. In the film's first few minutes, there's a brief moment where her character leans over in pain and clutches her side, and from there you know it's only a matter of time before she kicks the bucket. Waiting around for that to happen is a bit of a dull affair, but the film is nice to look at and has Charles Coburn to offer, and he's always a welcome presence. I suppose fans of either Boyer or Fontaine will find more to like about this film than I did, but I've never been crazy about either one of them.

Fontaine received her third and final Oscar nomination for Best Actress for this movie.

Grade: B

This film is one of the hardest to find great films of its day. Joan Fontaine considers it to be one of her two best performances, the other being her work in Letter From An Unknown Woman. Both films share an abundance of similarities. In each, she devotes her life to her love of a musician. Music is as significant and intrinsic to the films as any major character. In addition, the two films both allow Fontaine the dramatic luxury of playing her characters as children. She pulls this off more successfully than any other actress I have seen. In fact, my favorite parts of both films were the early scenes in which she was playing her characters at their most youthful. The Constant Nymph offers some fascinatingly complex characterizations, including Alexis Smith's Florence, whom we hate and feel sorry for at the same time (for stealing away Charles Boyer from Joan Fontaine). This is a very special film with some truly beautiful music. Catch it if you can!

What a disappointment! A great cast miscast. Shades of Lolita! Better the title should be "The Cloying Nymphet". Ordinarily I like Joan Fontaine, but at 26 she was too manufactured as a 14 year old. Certain poses she would strike were appropriate and in keeping with the age of the character but only certain and only a few at that. I don't know the novel so I can't compare. But in the movie, all she needed was a piece of straw dangling from her mouth and she could have been a consumptive flat-chested Jane Russell beckoning Boyer - an easy 20 years older - in the person of a dense lech to come away from his piano and jump in the hay with her. He, too, is a favorite, but there was something repelling about the 2 of them in action with one another. Alexis Smith, as her older (although she was 4 years younger) cousin who is married to Boyer's lech, stole whatever scenes she was in, dupe that she was. Peter Lorre, a floating in and out presence who had nothing to add and added plenty of it. I kept waiting for - and hoping that - Eduardo Ciannelli as a butler (!!!) no less, to pull out a gun and say stick 'em up. Charles Coburn, again another masterful actor, got lost in the scenery. Dame May Witty was the most fun in her great Dame manner. And finally, the Tyrolean background was obviously the Warner Bros. backlot on a bad day. Out of circulation for 70 years, I'd always been curious about it, especially for the assemblage of actors. Curiosity killed this cat.

'The Constant Nymph' tells the story of a delightful young girl (Joan Fontaine) who has a crush on an older man (Charles Boyer), a friend of her father's. Fontaine is fantastic, grabbing us from the start with infectious energy, and truly channeling what it is to be a teenager, despite being 26 years old at the time. Boyer turns in a strong performance as well, playing a headstrong composer of modern symphonies, which are short on melody and jarring. He marries a rich woman (Alexis Smith), and the two soon butt heads over social functions, as well as her jealousy over the special relationship he has with the young girl.

Despite this relationship and all of the dreamy glances Fontaine casts in Boyer's direction, those who liken the film to Lolita are off-base. There is such purity and chasteness here, with Fontaine's character having a sense of honor against doing wrong, and Boyer's having no lascivious interest in her or her sisters at all. They are the polar opposites of Dolores Haze and Humbert Humbert, who between flirtation, predation, statutory rape, and ultimately, humiliation, have us cringing (though perhaps unable to look away). The title word here, 'nymph', should be considered simply as a young maiden, without the sexual connotations it's sometimes associated with. I really liked this innocence, it makes the story tug on the heartstrings all the more, and I also liked the civility and grace by which even the strongest and most personal feelings are expressed.

The plot borders on melodrama but it's the strength of the performances that carry it for me. Fontaine was well worthy of her Oscar nomination, Boyer ranges from troubled artist to affectionate 'uncle', and Alexis Smith simmers visibly as she tries to control her feelings. It wanders dangerously close to cloying, but ultimately is just the right amount of sweet, and rather touching.

And if Nabokov didn't take at least some of his inspiration for Humbert Humbert from Charles Boyer's performance in this dark, creepy drama of sexual yearning and betrayal, you'll wonder whether it didn't at least have some subliminal influence on James Mason and Stanley Kubrick. It's a great story and surprisingly modern in its focus on one bright, sensitive little girl lost in a world of blockheaded adults who have everything but her best interests on their minds. Boyer is well cast as the gorgeous but clueless object of his poor constant nymph's affection, and Joan Fontaine does her usual Jane Eyre/second Mrs. De Winter routine just as effectively as ever. It's a shame that the lusty entrepreneur Jacob Birnbaum was deracinated into the prissy Fritz Bercovy in this film. It would have been fun to see Peter Lorre actually playing an out-and-out Jew for once.

Having heard for years that THE CONSTANT NYMPH was one of Joan Fontaine's favorite performances and knowing that Erich Wolfgang Korngold wrote the score for it, I looked forward to the film with much anticipation when I finally had a chance to see it.

Unfortunately, aside from good performances from Charles Boyer and Alexis Smith, I found Miss Fontaine's Tessa just too cloying and simpering to be realistic. I thought she played the awkwardness of youth much better in LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, a really much more solid and forceful role. Tessa just seems to be a girl inordinately fond of a musician who doesn't realize, until too late, what the girl means to him.

Oddly enough, the scenes between Boyer and Alexis Smith are more developed than any of the quieter scenes between Boyer and Fontaine. Smith makes the wife a sympathetic creature because her jealousy is easy to comprehend.

An altogether disappointing film aside from a glorious score by Korngold that leads to the final concerto where he fully develops the love theme for Boyer and Fontaine.

Unfortunately, most of the sets for the country scenes early in the story look like painted backdrops so that one never gets the feeling that Tessa's environment is a real one. Nor does the story give Joan Fontaine ample opportunity to fully flesh out her character since she is missing from much of the middle portion of the film.

For a great Fontaine performance, I suggest viewing LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN with Joan at her best.

Charles Boyer and Joan Fontaine star in "The Constant Nymph," a 1943 Warner Brothers film directed by Edmund Goulding. The film also features Alexis Smith, Peter Lorre, Charles Coburn, and Brenda Marshall.

Joan Fontaine plays Tessa, a 14-year-old who is part of the Sanger family, who is visited by a friend, composer Lewis Dodd. Dodd is very close to the entire family, and the father (Montagu Love), an old man, asks Lewis to contact his late wife's brother (Charles Coburn) should anything happen to him. He wants his daughters - Toni (Marshall), Paula, and Tessa to be taken care of. Tessa has always been in love with Dodd, but at her age, it seems like a childhood crush.

Sanger dies that night, and in the next scene, we see that Charles has arrived with his gorgeous daughter Florence (Smith) and the smitten Lewis marries her immediately. Toni marries; Tessa and her younger sister ultimately go off to school but run away. The younger girl then joins Toni, but Tessa stays in the house with Lewis and Florence.

Florence is jealous of Tessa's close relationship with Lewis; Tessa understands his music and knows his potential, and they have a long history. Florence's resentment of her becomes more and more obvious.

This is a really wonderful film, so lovely that it's surprising it hasn't gotten more attention, though Joan Fontaine was nominated for an Oscar. She's 26 here, playing fourteen. In the beginning, she's all arms and legs, awkward, lanky, and a ball of energy. Put it this way - I dated this movie as being before Rebecca! So was she convincing? Yes. Despite her Oscar nominations, I still think Fontaine is underrated. One isn't certain how much time has passed during the film, but naturally the character cleans up and wears better clothes. She then seems more mature.

Boyer does a marvelous job as the composer searching for his voice through music; and Alexis Smith is great as she goes from friendly, polite with an edgy, and then just plain awful. The rest of the cast is top-notch, with Lorre as a suitor of Toni's who becomes her husband.

"The Constant Nymph" is a story of unrequited love, a search for self, and the self-expression an artist can have once he's allowed himself to feel.

Don't miss this when it comes around again on TCM as it doesn't look like it's on DVD. Thank goodness for TCM bringing us these forgotten gems once in a while.

I gave "The Constant Nymph" a lower rating than most people did because I felt like the movie dragged a lot. Other than that, I did think that it had a good story. It focuses on a romance between a composer (Charles Boyer) and a girl in the Swiss Alps (Joan Fontaine in an Academy Award-nominated role). However, things start to proliferate from this love affair.

I should note that I haven't read the novel on which this movie is based (and probably never will, given how long it takes me to get through books). Nonetheless, I can say that the entire cast puts their all into the roles. In addition to Boyer and Fontaine, we have Alexis Smith, Brenda Marshall (William Holden's wife), Peter Lorre, May Whitty and Joyce Reynolds (there's also Charles Coburn, but his regressive views make him hard to like). It's not a masterpiece, but worth seeing.

I attempted to watch this movie last night because I've always been a fan of Joan Fontaine, and I have just finished reading her rather strange autobiography.

I struggled through about 20 minutes of it. With an outstanding cast, The Constant Nymph should have been a good movie. Instead I found it one of the most abysmal films I've ever tried to watch. I could barely understand the actors in the first scene as their accents were so thick. The following scenes, supposedly set at a Swiss chalet, looked movie studio fake. Joan Fontaine's performance was grating and ridiculous, the dialogue sounded stilted and the whole effect was that of a high school play written by a student. Andy Hardy's play in Andy Gets Spring Fever was better!

Lastly, it wasn't the subject matter or Boyer's thick accent that bothered me because growing up Gigi was my favorite movie and I had a crush on Louis Jourdan. The Constant Nymph, however, seemed like a really bad play put on film.

TCM recently managed to clear the rights of this film from the literary executors of Basil Dean (who coauthored the play version) and Margaret Kennedy (who authored the novel and play adaptation). The television premiere was on TCM on September 28, 2011. The original 1924 novel has been reprinted in paperback but I have not read it yet.

It seems that the 1943 Hollywood adaptation cleans most of the sex out of the story which was dealt with in the novel. Also the book focuses on the entire Sanger family while the film (and play) focuses on the central triangle of Tessa, Lewis Dodd and Florence. I think that Boyer and Fontaine are somewhat miscast as Tessa and Dodd though both perform excellently. It seems that in the novel the pair become lovers though Tessa is underage and they actually do escape together to Brussels. Also, the sister Toni Sanger already has had a sexual affair with Birnbaum, played in the movie by Peter Lorre as Fritz Bercovy. In the film both affairs remain chaste - at least until Toni Sanger is safely married to the Birnbaum/Bercovy character.

In the film, the pedophilia issue is dodged by having Dodd and Tessa realize and acknowledge they are lovers/soul mates without any form of consummation - even kissing. Their love is idealized and unrealizable on this earth. One love scene that was probably played for real in the book or play is done as a "dream vision" by Tessa while she listen's to Dodd's symphony on the radio.

Fontaine is too old but shows a remarkable lack of vanity - wearing no makeup and using an awkward, hyperactive physicality to suggest an adolescent girl. Boyer comes off as too much the mature European roué - Robert Donat, Errol Flynn and Leslie Howard were all considered for the part. Not enough is made of Lewis' social nonconformity - in the book he is also the son of wealth who repudiates his class and its values. Alexis Smith as Florence, the unhappy excluded wife comes off best in some ways - her character has a genuine conflict going on and is proactive. Smith as another poster mentioned is simultaneously hateful, understandable and pitiful and she fights for a relationship that is essentially doomed. Florence's attraction to bohemian artistic types is in conflict with her basic inability to sympathize with their lifestyles and values. This conflict is truthfully captured by Smith and Goulding.

The studio sets in the Austrian Tyrol scenes look like a mix of Kentucky farm and English moors and are not convincing. There is a genuine sophistication here but without the characters taking that final fatal step into the forbidden, some of the guts of the story is lost. The previous two adaptation of the book - a 1928 silent with Ivor Novello and Mabel Poulton (preserved by the BFI) and an unavailable or lost 1934 remake with Victoria Hopper and Brian Aherne evidently hewed closer to the novel.

After his latest work fails, Belgian composer Lewis Dodd (Charles Boyer) seeks solace from his mentor, Albert Sanger. Albert has four daughter, Kate, Toni (Brenda Marshall), Tessa (Joan Fontaine), and Paula. All of them adore Lewis, especially Tessa. He reconnects with Florence Creighton (Alexis Smith). Theater owner Fritz Bercovy (Peter Lorre) is a friend.

Joan Fontaine got an Oscar nomination. Well, she's mid-20's playing a teenager. That's worth something. Maybe her acting is too melodramatic or maybe she's playing a teenager. It's hard to tell sometimes. Alright, I'm being a bit too snarky. It's a romance. Melodrama comes with the territories. It's good when it's good melodrama.

A great little tale of romance from the 40's. Coming off her triumphant turn as Rebecca, in the film of the same name, Joan Fontaine along w/Charles Boyer star in a story of unrequited love too late realized. In Europe, a popular composer goes on sabbatical to the home of his old friend where his 2 young daughters dote on him holding him in highest of reverence. Complications ensue when one daughter's ardor (Fontaine) knows no bounds & when years later Boyer marries, things become more complicated as the new bride recognizes the girl's feelings & her standing in their marriage is perilous at best. This film is unabashedly romantic, in capital letters if they'd appeared on screen, & doesn't care a whit what the world thinks of it. It feels like a love sonnet come to life & captured on film & the ending is all the more heartbreaking for it.

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.

I watched about 45 minutes of this long lost cult classic more out of curiosity than anything else. I couldn't help think it was the strangest film I ever saw. Nothing seemed to work - at all. I couldn't make head or tail of the characters or the story and all I kept thinking was why there was so much running around by barefoot girls. Finally, when I realized that Joan Fontaine of all people was one of the scampering girls I was really shocked. This was the girl from Rebecca? No way Jose! But yes it was and so I kept watching just to see why in heaven's name Joan Fontaine was cast as a starry-eyed teen who would go all weak in the knees the moment Charles Boyer showed up. Finally, I stopped watching and went to TCM to read the full synopsis of the film and learned everything I needed to know. It was written in 1924 by a woman and apparently became an instant classic women's tear-jerker which was made into films and plays and heaven knows what else. That was enough for me not to go back to the film.

This is one of those films I have been waiting for years to see, having been out of circulation for at least 50 years. It was well worth the wait. Joan Fontaine is the type of actress that just doesn't exist anymore. She plays exquisitely fragile, ethereal, delicate types of women with depth, passion, soul and devotion. This is yet another impeccable performance that rated her an Academy Award nomination and I cannot think of another actress who could have pulled off, entirely successfully, playing a 14 year old girl. She is haunting, beautiful and tragic. Charles Boyer and Alexis Smith are fine in their roles but it is Fontaine who carries the film and Edmund Goulding directs in a luxurious style highlighting the delicate relationship between Fontaine and Boyer. They could never make this type of film anymore and that's alright because they wouldn't know how to deal with the subject matter. Music, poetry, art, disillusion, loss, heartache and romance between a pubescent girl and adult man is something mainstream Hollywood no longer knows how to make interesting to the public and for that matter it seems like the public doesn't really crave this any longer. Joan Fontaine is still alive and she must have been ecstatic to know that this film has garnered so much acclaim and interest. My only disappointment being that since Miss Fontaine is still alive why hasn't she been interviewed? You know she hasn't many years left. She must have amazing stories and insight to share with her public. Would kill to see her interviewed on TCM. I have a feeling Robert Osborne has contacted her since he seems to pay attention to detail and I imagine she has been approached but most likely has declined - please, please be persistent in getting a live interview and with her and her sister as well. They are the last of the greats from Hollywood's golden era.

Saw this film in theatrical release back in the 1940's and remember so well the music by Korngold. Outstanding acting by Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine and the first film appearance of Alexis Smith. Most notable was the final 7/8 minutes of the film which presented a full scale cantata for solo soprano and orch written by Korngold. It was a "first" Something like this had never been done before in a Hollywood film. I have searched for years to obtain a video but without success.

Looking at all of Joan Fontaine movies. You see the dedication she puts into her performances. I believe she was more disciplined in her method of acting. In The Constant Nymph she really gives a top performance of her career. Her and Charles Boyer really give us a exciting time. I was on the edge of my seat with the storyline. Alexis Smith whom I have always admired really turns out a stellar performance. Charles Coburn a season actor in his own right. Gives the movie flavor and excitement. I will miss Joan Fontaine with her dramatic acting and her on point performances. The Constant Nymph is a treasure to admire for many years. I really was so shocked how good this film is and this was Joan's favorite of all time.

I forgot to mention in my review that Kennedy followed this movie with a story about the youngest of the "Sanger's Circus", his son Sebastian. She began with a play "Escape Me Never" which was followed by a film of the same title directed by Peter Godfrey and released in 1947. Although its plot was evidently similar to "The Constant Nymph", it failed to achieve the success of the latter film. By the way, I can tell one of your reviewers where to get the music from the film, though unfortunately not the video, although I did see the video on TV in the '50's so the cellulose nitrate on which it probably was recorded must have lasted that long, anywqy. Unless Turner copied it on acetate, I assume it is gone forever.

Deeply, deeply strange. It must have been a hit of some sort when it first appeared in 1943 since Joan Fontaine was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar but now it's hard to imagine this extremely old-fashioned load of twaddle having an audience of any kind. It was based on a book and then a play and set in some strange studio-based Swtizerland and then in some strange studio-based London where French avant-garde composer Charles Boyer lives with his rich, spoilt wife Alexis Smith while her sickly schoolgirl cousin, (a very overage Fontaine), pines for him.

I think it's meant to be a 'women's picture' or romantic drama of the kind director Edmund Goulding was famous for but it's much too bizarre to be engaging on any level while a supporting cast that includes Peter Lorre, May Whitty and Charles Coburn is totally wasted. It's never revived which is perfectly understandable and is nobody's finest hour though in its favour, it's too terrible to be actually boring.