Adam and Evalyn

Enjoyed this film which I had my doubts about until I viewed the great acting of Jean Simmons, (Evelyn Wallace) and Stewart Granger, (Adam Black). This story is about a young girl Evelyn who lives in an orphanage and receives letters from her father telling her he is going to visit her someday and take her home where he raises horses. However, this is really not her father but a good friend of her father's Adam Black. Evelyn's father passes away and he asks Adam to take care of his daughter and he promises to look after her. There are very funny scenes and some very dramatic moments along with many lies which have been told and have to be explained to poor Evelyn Wallace. In real life, Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger were married and had a child. Great Classic film from 1949, enjoy.

Adam And Evelyn is a strange, but charming film about a man who put his daughter in an orphanage and went off to war. Never having seen his daughter for reasons the script does not make clear, he impersonates a good friend from the army, a gambler with a way with the ladies.

The gambler is Stewart Granger and the girl is Jean Simmons and this strange love story was concocted for the two of them who were in a hot and heavy affair at the time. What didn't work for Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple in That Hagen Girl or for Herbert Marshall and Simone Simon in Girl's Dormitory does work here. I'm guessing the skill of the players or a better script or both. You decide if you watch the movie.

Simmons leaves the orphanage and comes to live with Granger and the two become attracted. Of course at some point Granger has to disabuse of the notion he's really her father. And then when that happens people start talking. He's also been seeing on and off Helen Cherry who was Mrs. Trevor Howard in real life and she's not liking seeing Jean poaching on territory she staked out.

Granger and Simmons went on to get married and make to more films for MGM in America. One of them, Young Bess casts her as young Queen Elizabeth I and Granger as Thomas Seymour the much older admiral who tried to take advantage of then Princess Elizabeth to further his ambitions. He and the whole family came to a sorry end. In a way Young Bess is a dark version of Adam And Evelyn.

Not the best film for either of the stars, but their fans should like it.

Stewart Granger seldom spoke with affection of his movies, but this he spoke glowingly of as "a charming light comedy". Doubtless his mellow recall of this engaging trifle was due to the offscreen rapport he was developing offscreen with his radiant young co-star (they were married the following year), who gracefully matures onscreen from an innocent young waif who inquires "What's a hangover?" to a young woman by losing her beret, having her hair shortened and discovering champagne. And men.

One would think how fresh and unspoilt Simmons was in this; but she never lost the glow with which she was still lighting up the screen twenty years later.

Stewart Granger is "Adam", a rather raffish gambler who, when his wartime friend "Chris" dies, adopts his daughter "Evelyn" (Jean Simmons) who has hitherto been living in an orphanage. Initially he pretends that he is her father, but that is soon exposed by his friends and the two must now treat honestly - or as honestly as he knows how - with each other and the bond begins to mature, much to the chagrin of the rather calculating Helen Cherry... Both stars work well together, and the simple story is a well written and directed tale of deceit, deception and some good old-fashioned love and with Wilfred Hyde-White (another of those actors whose voice has a instantly identifiable silky timbre) adds a little charm to the proceedings, too - and in the end it all comes down to a moustache!

I bought this movie because I love Granger and Simmons so much in 'Young Bess'. The quality of the VHS copy however is disappointing, I wonder if it due to repairing technical problems or lack of budget? Nevertheless, it is still worth the money because every once is a while, there will be a close-up of Granger or Simmons that is clear enough for an audience appreciation.

Granger and Simmons radiate their charms so effortlessly here because the characters they played are practically themselves--English socialites. The overall delightful result may look easy but it is however important that the script did not step into any wrong note.