User reviews

I was actually pretty much impressed by this story -- with its clever prefiguring, scenes of idyllic beauty, happiness, and jarring chills as abrupt as any horror movie, its music and raging against the dying of the light -- right up until it hits the last few scenes, which somehow strike a false note. Perhaps it's because my sympathies have a tendency, whether in sob-stories like this or in fluff as light-hearted as 'An American in Paris', to veer towards those third parties whose own affections serve only as a momentary derailment to the course of True Love. Perhaps it's my own experience of watching such illness play out its rapacious course, and knowledge of the futile health myths of the era. But after the touch of ice that runs through the rest of the film, the grand finale strikes me as a cop-out.

From a medical point of view it does occur to me to wonder how many modern viewers will realise from the start what's supposed to be going on! The dread opening words 'Swiss sanitarium' are no longer a universally-recognised shorthand for the unnamed spectre of tuberculosis, the cancer equivalent for sentimental sagas of the era. But it is, of course, tuberculosis requiring all those chest X-rays, mountain air, and 'stimulating diet'...

The story is skilfully constructed along the lines of a murder-mystery, lulling the viewer into security for long stretches of time, arousing sympathy and indignacy at a regime that can deprive Karen of her music as well as her liberty and her mobility. Celestine's constant light malice on the subject of Dr Tony -- jealousy or realistic view? -- stirs up additional doubt, and her role turns out to have a much greater significance than we were led to believe. Questions of truth or lies run like a twisting theme throughout the greater part of the film, keeping the audience off-balance, and making Karen's ultimate reaction of discovery easier to comprehend. (Again, though, I do wonder if modern viewers will realise that in medicine of the period, deceiving patients for their own good was no misdemeanour but more or less expected!)

By and large, I found this film much more sophisticated than one might expect from a genre piece of this nature. I've already mentioned the elements that verge unexpectedly on horror amid the sweetness, and the innocent establishment beforehand of items that will later prove significant. Celestine is not what she may appear. And Clermont, too, is not the opportunistic cad first appearances might lead us to assume.

My main problem is that it seems to turn a corner into a quite different sort of film in the last few minutes, for no very convincing reason. Given its previous record in this line, I was anticipating some kind of apocalyptic revelation right up until the final shot... and was left still hanging there, waiting, when the film proved merely to have ended. It felt like a simplistic resolution to what had previously proved a complex structure. And, I think, it turns the story into one about the heroine learning her lesson rather than one about her fierce passion for life -- and thus, for me, making her a less appealing character. Despite everything, the cruise might have been the better option...

A truly irresistible piece of high-fashion schmaltz, The Other Love stars Barbara Stanwyck in the sort of 'genteel weepy' role more commonly associated with Norma Shearer or Joan Fontaine. A lady pianist dying of some unspecified lung disease. Whatever her illness may be, it only makes her grow more glamorous the closer she edges towards death.

Of course, dying in so decorous a fashion would take a bite out of anybody's schedule. So our Babs cuts short her international concert tour, and checks into a plush clinic with a panoramic view of the Swiss Alps. There she meets David Niven, a handsome doctor who takes a more-than-professional interest in her case. Frankly, I found his fascination with Babs and her illness to be downright ghoulish - and couldn't help wondering if he was a closet necrophiliac.

Realising, perhaps, that Niven is far too lightweight to make a convincing leading man (at one point, I felt they should switch roles!) La Stanwyck runs away to Monte Carlo. There she starts living the high life with a tough, sexy racing driver (Richard Conte). Given the fact that she has only a few weeks left to live, I thought this was eminently sensible behaviour on her part. Ah, but her heart is calling her back to Niven and his Alpine clinic...

The Other Love is spectacularly well-made by unsung director Andre de Toth, and boasts a luscious Tchaikovsky-esquire score by Miklos Rozsa. But it's success is down to Barbara Stanwyck, who lends a much-needed note of toughness and reality to what would otherwise be a pure camp melodrama. Played by anyone else, our heroine would most likely drown in syrup long before succumbing to a weakness of the lungs.

This pairing of Barbara Stanwyck and David Niven is a strange one – never to be repeated. Stanwyck was a big name, having been in films since 1927 and several famous pre-war films, more recently she had received wide acclaim for playing the femme fatale in "Double Indemnity"(1945); Niven's reputation had been established in the 1930s but "A Matter of Life and Death"(1946) had brought him further fame. Perhaps Hollywood saw a future for him as a heartthrob but Niven was too light an actor for such roles. "The Other Love" revolves around a young concert pianist, Karen Duncan(Barbara Stanwyck) who is being treated for TB in a Swiss sanatorium by Dr. Anthony Stanton(David Niven). Apart from one other patient, Celestine (Joan Lorrine), Karen seems to have no one to talk to and is easily emotionally drawn towards her doctor. One day while out riding she meets Paul Clermont, a racing car driver(Richard Conte). He tries unsuccessfully to date her but Karen is unable to get him off her mind. Realising that she perhaps may not have long to live and tired of life lying in a sanatorium bed she becomes the fickle female and decides on one last fling, so ditches the doctor and seeks Paul out at the proposed meeting place in nearby Monte Carlo, actually a good 200 miles away from Switzerland, how she accomplishes this feat remains unexplained. The eternal triangle has been constructed – QED, as my maths master used to say. But the geometry is non-Euclidean and refuses to obey the normal rules. Anything might happen and does!

Classical pianists and exclusive doctors were common themes in 1940s Hollywood but somehow in this film they don't jell. Academy Award winner (A Double Life), Miklos Rozsa's music score comes across well as a piece of heavy classical piano. Barbara Stanwyck displays a seldom seen ability as a pianist making it look very authentic. Niven by comparison is shown at the keyboard only once in an out of focus long shot and is obviously bluffing his way through. As for his doctor part, it is evident that he never seems happy in it. It is a rôle which Claude Rains had excelled at previously in "Now Voyager", here he could have played it to perfection so lifting the film out of its mediocrity. It's left to Stanwyck to carry the film.

Not one to rush to watch but interesting as a period piece and a chance to see two great stars of their time.

The Other Love (1947)

A torrid but never horrid romantic movie, what was called then a "woman's picture" and is now in the category of "chick flic." Which is what makes it worth watching right there--it's dripping with love and longing and ideals gone astray. It's set in a sanitarium the Swiss Alps and is grand as well as comforting. And it stars Barbara Stanwyck as a world famous pianist, and she pulls every scene up a notch. The men are less compelling: David Niven is necessarily dry and reserved (and no great contribution to the romance), and Richard Conte is supposed to be the Italian love idol but in fact he's dry and reserved, too, unnecessarily.

The plot is based on a short story by the uneven but legendary German writer Erich Maria Remarque (who is neither a woman nor French), whose work is the basis of several movies, notably the pacifist WWI novel, "All Quiet on the Western Front." I say all this because the one clear flaw in this movie is the plot, the Remarque part of it. In a way, the idea of going to a t.b. clinic to get better or die (the two options equally likely back then) and having an arrogant famous woman face her mortality, sounds like a no-brainer. And her back and forth, her rebellion, her falling in love (tepidly) or falling in lust (still rather tepidly) is great stuff not quite exploited. And there is no real turn of events. It plays itself out, beautifully but inexorably.

That is, this is a really warm, gorgeous movie, with photography by Victor Milner, who had just finished two cinematic masterpieces ("It's a Wonderful Life" and Stanwyck's previous film, "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers"). And the music is great (of course), led by Miklos Rozsa, an old world high romantic composer. You want to be there, and you relate to Stanwyck's dilemma. It's a great movie in its bones, but never quite getting off the ground. Yet it is about stuff that matters: acceptance and deception in the face of death, from several sides. And it is, in fact, about true love of some highly idealized, self-sacrificing kind.

Women's films, as they were called in the '40s, seldom offered a star a more glamorous way of leaving this world than THE OTHER LOVE, with BARBARA STANWYCK checking herself into a Swiss sanitarium to be treated for tuberculosis and promptly falling in love with her young doctor, David NIVEN against a background of Alpine beauty.

Stanwyck has got to be the healthiest patient in Hollywood history and she gets even more glamorous as she moves toward impending doom. So does the music by Miklos Rozsa. And as if one leading man isn't enough, the script has her leaving the safety (and boredom) of the clinic to go chasing after a tough motorcyclist (RICHARD CONTE) for one last fling.

It's syrupy romance straight from the pages of a Cosmopolitan magazine story--but no, in this case, straight from the pages of a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, who gave the world ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, but also turkeys like ARCH OF TRIUMPH.

Stanwyck's fans will be too busy admiring her wardrobe to view the plot with any skepticism at all, but others might find it just a little too pat and contrived, even for this genre of pulp romance.

If you ever wished Barbara Stanwyck had starred in Dark Victory, rent The Other Love for your chance at recasting the Hollywood classic. In this romantic drama, Barbara has a serious lung condition and has to abandon her career as a famous concert pianist to heal in a Swiss sanitorium. It's not long before she falls in love with her doctor, David Niven, but is he hiding the seriousness of her illness from her?

Barbara Stanwyck gives an excellent performance in this overlooked film. She usually portrays very strong, independent characters, so whenever she breaks down and cries or begs for help, it's truly heartbreaking. Get ready to be heartbroken more than once during this film. I like Barbara anyway, but I was particularly impressed by her range of emotions: fear, anger, resentment, love, relief, hope, and determination. Ladislas Fodor and Harry Brown's script wasn't the strongest element in the film, and I could imagine another actress would have either been too flat or too melodramatic. Barbara is very real.

In addition to the medical portion of the film, Barbara is also caught in a love triangle, torn between David Niven and Richard Conte. While I love The Niv, Richard Conte is very magnetic. One man knows her past, and the other could be her future; one keeps up a professional front, and the other is overtly passionate. Which will she choose? Find out by renting this romance on a cold, rainy afternoon.

In The Other Love Barbara Stanwyck turns in her standard praiseworthy desperate woman performance while director Andre DeToth's lackluster direction makes it a challenge to get through. Lacking pace and energy the film moves slowly and predictably from one anguished moment to the next with dull results.

Concert pianist Susan Duncan is forced to seek treatment for life threatening TB in a Swiss Sanitarium. There she finds herself falling in love with caregiver Dr. Anthony Stanton (David Niven) as well as be frustrated with her treatment. When she feels Stanton has little interest in her she takes up with Paul Clermont Richard Conti) a race car driver, running down her health as she does. Stanton tries to prevent her from self destruction but also reveals his love for her as well. Will it be enough to save Sue?

As post war melodramas go The Other Love is a little dated in story and style. Niven's Stanton is a little too retiring and poorly cast. The chemistry just doesn't work and their big emotional scenes together are without passion and desire. Conti's race car driver fares better, but it is Gilbert Roland in one scene with Stanwyck that gives the film its most powerful moment as he coldly exploits her in a highly vulnerable situation.

Even with Stanwyck delivering the goods, The Other Love is one dull weeper.

When this was first released in the end David Niven plays the piano and says something like 3 mistakes and Barbara doesn't answer he goes over the her holds her hand and finds she has died. This was cut out after it was released the second time a few years later.

David Niven and Barbara Stanwyck were both actors of quality, but they share absolutely no chemistry together in this sudsy melodrama about a concert pianist with TB. The rugged Richard Conte, a racing driver with a taste for the high life, is a much better fit for Stanwyck's screen presence, but isn't really given enough time to make his mark. Naturally, Stanwyck looks gorgeous throughout, despite her life-threatening illness...

One of the 10 commandments of modern ethics for medical doctors is they must not become involved with their patients--taking advantage of their superior position to fan the flames of romance in the patient.

Stanwyck could have won a big lawsuit in today's feminist world.

That romantic angle out of it, this movie takes a lot of material from Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. From the importance of the thermometers to the patients disappearing at night (dead down the service elevator).

As some other reviewer stated Stanwyck can turn any role into something watchable....this silly movie taxed her talents to the limit.

Is she going to die??? I am not sure that was a given as others stated... but after all the silly iconic fluff of Monte Carlo and race car drivers you really don't care.

Not a memorable performance.

It gets a 5

In The Other Love Barbara Stanwyck steps into territory that was reserved for Margaret Sullavan, Hollywood's all time champion of essaying roles in bittersweet romances. Two films of her's, Three Comrades and The Mortal Storm bare no small resemblance to The Other Love. Especially the former since it also was taken from a Erich Maria Remarque story.

But Three Comrades had Frank Borzage directing it and that was the man for these films. His touch on bittersweet romances is as apparent and obvious as Alfred Hitchcock with suspense. This film would have raised a few notches in ratings had he directed it. And of course Sullavan would have aced the part of the tubercular heroine.

As it is Stanwyck is not bad in the role of a patient of Dr. David Niven at a Swiss sanitarium for tuberculosis. Niven is having a lot of trouble keeping his professional decorum with Stanwyck, but the doctor does win over the potential lover. Stanwyck doesn't realize how sick she is just as Sullavan didn't realize it in Three Comrades. She's a classical concert pianist and the enforced rest is rusting her technique.

The first chance she gets she runs off with racing driver Richard Conte who she doesn't tell how sick she is. But in the end Conte proves to be a stand-up guy.

There is also a very touching performance from Joan Lorring as a singer who is also a patient in the sanitarium. Her death just about pushes Stanwyck over the edge.

Barbara and the cast acquit themselves well, but Frank Borzage could have made The Other Love a classic.

Famed concert pianist Karen Duncan (Barbara Stanwyck) is recuperating in a Swiss sanatorium from a respiratory illness under the supervision of loving Dr. Tony Stanton (David Niven). She befriends fellow patient Celestine Miller (Joan Lorring). Playboy Paul Clermont (Richard Conte) crashes his race car barely avoiding Karen on the road. Her illness is more serious than she suspects. She is shocked by Celestine's unexpected death. Stanton tells her that she must rest but she ignores his advise and runs off to live her life with Clermont. It's a bit slow. With Stanwyck, it holds out a possibility of something more. I was hoping for a good twist or something different. In the end, it doesn't really give more than a straight downward slide into a romantic melodrama.

This movie will remind people of the famous (and, in my opinion, overrated) "Dark Victory", though it's more entertaining, less melodramatic, and you don't get any hokey "death is beautiful" lines.

What you do get is a great performance by Barbara Stanwyck as famous concert pianist Karen Duncan, who knows she's ill, doesn't know how seriously, and becomes restless with inactivity from being confined to a convalescent home, and resentful of the restrictions placed on her by her doctor, Tony Stanton (David Niven). The more determined he becomes the more rebellious she gets, while they both fight their attraction to each other. When her friend and fellow patient Celestine dies, it was the last straw, as Karen takes off for Monte Carlo with racecar driver Paul Clermont (Richard Conte) and ignores the warning signs of her illness). Soon, however, la dolce vita turns bitter.

Unlike the over-the-top final scenes of the earlier movie that obviously inspired this film, here the ending is inconclusive and not without hope.

Worth watching.

The story is by Erich Maria Remarque, it's just a short story, but his name must raise anyone's expectations to some level, while instead the film presents many question marks. Barbara Stanwyck is a concert pianist of some world renown who suffers from tuberculosis and is sent to a sanatorium in Switzerland, where she is subjected to Dr David Niven, who confines her in strict discipline, so that she may not even play any more. Here is the first big question mark. How is it possible for a doctor to decide that practising music for a musician must be harmful to her? On the contrary, nothing could do her more good. That if anything should be the best medicine. As it is, she finds her confined existence intolerable and escapes with a playboy mostly interested in motor car races, and he is used to taking girls away, especially since he is good looking (Richard Conte), and naturally this launches her into a crisis, so Doctor David has to rescue her. It's a kind of Camille story, and it builds up to a tragedy, but somehow the story instead ends up in general disappointment. Barbara Stanwyck as always is excellent, she is always supremely admirable, David Niven makes a rather poor match for her and does not really understand her, Richard Conte takes her from another angle and fails even more, and so the story and the film never reaches any tenable conclusion. It is a beautiful romance with great acting, Barbara's dresses are magnificent and enough reasons for admiring this film in themselves, the music by Miklos Rosza adds plenty of moody atmosphere and intensity in the relationships and intimacies, but it is not a great film, a dwarf compared to Greta Garbo's "Camille", although Barbara Stanwyck makes the film sustained enough anyway - she is always reliable for quality.

There was originally a different ending, which was cut out for its second release a few years after the first, an ending which would have been more plausible. As it is, we are left hanging - is she getting better or is she as dying as she appears to be? In the original version before the cut, she dies while David is awkwardly playing the piano - a nocturne by Chopin, by all means, but nevertheless as awkwardly as ever, but Barbara Stanwyck (Karen Duncan) would not anyway care any more.

In my opinion, Director André de Toth had his finest hour in this 1947 film- To that end, he extracts marvelous performances from Stanwyck (I rate it her career best), Niven (the embodiment of class and elegance), Conte (a race driver with a devil may care attitude who believes you should live life to the fraction of the second), and former great of the silent movies, Gilbert Roland, who plays the part of a calculating croupier on the gamble of life who sees the chance to rape Stanwyck but prefers the material gain he works with daily at the casino.

De Toth is also splendidly assisted by the superb cinematography of Victor Milner, Nathan Juran's notable art direction (the interiors are gorgeous), and Edith Head's affluent wardrobe, which almost distracts you from the action and dialogue. The latter is most engrossing, thanks to Fodor's and Brown's screenplay.

Definitely worth watching, especially if you have a hanky on hand...

The Other Love has a lot of really wonderful elements: the score is really solid and effective, the cinematography is very well done, the sets, costumes, and lighting are all strong and make for a visually beautiful film, all of which I enjoyed considerably. Barbara Stanwyck gives us a really solid performance as well. Unfortunately there are also considerable misfires as well: to start with Stanwyck and David Niven have absolutely no chemistry whatsoever. In general I like Niven but feel he plays this role far too understated, and shows little passion or even emotion toward someone he is supposedly deeply in love with. This lack of conviction of the central love story really mutes the entire production, leaving us with a film that looks good but doesn't satisfy.

The second picture from the ill-fated Enterprise Productions; from a story by Erich Maria Remarque.

Barbara Stanwyck could make the telephone book moving, and despite so obviously not being a natural victim succumbs beautifully - aided by a score by Miklos Rosza - as a concert pianist with a killer wardrobe to one of those diseases that afflict 'A' list female stars which makes her the centre of attention while fate throws her way dashing doctor David Niven, dashing racing driver Richard Conte and priapic casino croupier Gilbert Roland against the backdrop of a sublimely artificial-looking Alpine sanatorium followed by an equally unreal Monte Carlo; while all the while the silly woman continues smoking.

(Stanwyck trained hard enough to be able to tickle the ivories convincingly enough for the film's opening shot, but most of the shots playing the piano thereafter are of the dainty little hands of a teenaged Andre Previn.)

Despite the quality of the cast here, this is really just a rather lacklustre melodrama centring around the poorly pianist "Karen" (Barbara Stanwyck). She is admitted to a sanitorium high in the Swiss Alps after she is diagnosed with a debilitating illness that is going to require her to rest completely, indefinitely! Despite an attraction to her well-meaning doctor "Stanton" (David Niven) she is determined not to just die of boredom, and soon her disobedience leads her to meet with racer "Clermont" (Richard Comte) - a man who is soon keen on her, but oblivious to her health concerns until the doctor realises that his options for her continued survival are limited, and... This is a standard, gentle, love triangle affair with a bit too much dialogue and precious little chemistry between Niven and Stanwyck - all abetted by a real rather downbeat Miklós Rózsa score (peppered with the odd bit of classical piano music that does lift it from time to time). It's also rather slow to get going, and the plot has a rather depressing inevitability to it that doesn't really help engage either. Watchable, but forgettable - sorry.