Goodbye, My Fancy

Goodbye, My Fancy (1951)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Rather bizarre and uneven mix of comedy and drama features congresswoman Agatha Reed (Joan Crawford) going back to her college to receive an honorary degree. Her main reason for wanting to go back is so she can see a former love (Robert Young) who she was expelled from school for sneaking out to see. Once back on campus she ends up caught between him and a photographer (Frank Lovejoy). GOODBYE, MY FANCY has pretty much been forgotten over the years and it's easy to see why because it's really not part of Crawford's high standards, which she started six years earlier with MILDRED PIERCE and followed with some very impressive bits of work. This film here is mildly entertaining on a few levels but overall you've got to consider it a pretty disappointing picture. One of the biggest problems is that it runs 106-minutes and probably could have lost a good sixteen-minutes if not more. I say this because there's just so much going on in this picture and with so much happening the film just seems too long and uneven. The early portion of the film makes you think that we're in for some sort of weird comedy and we're given various silly scenes. Then the film because a rather bland romantic-comedy but things change yet again when we get a rather long political debate about freedom. I think the final twenty-five minutes or so are actually the best part of the film as the Crawford character tries to fight to get a film shown that tells young people some of the horrors that are out there. As for Crawford, she turns in a good performance but there's certainly nothing all that memorable here. This is the type of role should could do without trying but it's always nice seeing her. Young is pretty bland in his role but thankfully Lovejoy adds some energy when he's on screen. Eve Arden is good as the secretary and Janice Rule is also nice as Young's daughter. GOODBYE, MY FANCY really isn't going to appeal to many except for Crawford fans wanting to see everything she did.

This was one of Crawford's last films under her Warner Brothers contract and was probably here first big box-office failure since her MGM days eight years earlier. The film is not too bad, but not as good as "Mildred Pierce," "Possessed" or "Flamingo Road." Crawford plays a congress woman who returns to her alma mater to receive an honorary degree, but finds romance with professor Robert Young.

or even a scene, for that matter. She is a stiff broad in this one, right down to a short, severe stiff hairdo. I am not a huge Joan Crawford fan, although I liked her a lot more in her earlier films, when she was still loose and a bit floppy. Once she became a "star" she changed her whole acting style so she could appear, as her ex-flame says "refeened." It is a shame she couldn't just go with the flow once in a while, instead of playing herself in different occupations.In this one, she is Joan playing a tough congresswoman. But of course she does a classic Joan melt when she sees Robert Young again after all these years...heart on sleeve as always.

She enters the reunion at her old college to the strains of a song being "sung" by by the co-eds, which incorporates her name, yet sounds like a heavenly choir. The girls come forward one by one to hand her a bouquet and each one is a cliché; there is the butch athlete, the drama queen, the good girl, etc and Joan ends up clutching a veritable rose bush as she launches into a speech, gazing off into the bright and shiny future.

Of course Robert Young is now a widower. You'll have to see the movie to see if his marital status changes.

This movie is a fifties movie, in that it is prim, everyone is a cliché of a type, right down to the wise-cracking assistant (Eve Arden)and the women are stuck with the hairdos and clothes of the period, which were never flattering to anyone.

But if you are a Joan fan, she is here, in her glory.

I'm glad to see that TCM has chosen to include this film in its lineup. I have, however, noted an error in the TCM and Wikipedia summaries regarding filming location. Both cite Occidental College in Eagle Rock, Calif. as the site for outdoor scene filming. In fact, most if not all were shot on the University of Redlands campus in Redlands, Calif. I attended the U. of R. for 4 years and graduated in the outdoor Greek Theater that appears in the film. Other scenes show the U. of R.'s distinctive chapel with the San Bernardino Mountains beyond, as well as the school's administration building on Ad Hill, its quadrangle and residence halls. The movie was shot two years before I enrolled there. Perhaps Warner Bros. had originally intended to film Goodbye My Fancy on the Occidental campus (much closer to the studio) and for whatever reason had to switch at the last minute to Redlands, but the planned LA area location remained on the studio's records.

As a devoted fan of old movies which were released when I was a little boy and in those days already an ardent film fan and moviegoer, I was highly surprised to see this film on TCM today because I had never heard of it. But I was certainly glad to have finally caught up with it. As the plot unfolded it became obvious that this must have been originally a finely crafted stage play from the way it led you sympathetically from one character to another and kept you in complete suspense as to different possible denouements for the action. In fact it reminded me of some of Terrence Rattigan's finer plays. But now I see that the play was written by the wife(?) of Garson Kanin. I thoroughly agree with the first review that the romantic side of the plot, though very touching, was by no means all there was to it. Strong statements on wider issues such as academic freedom, ability of big money to call the educational tune, the growing up out of illusions which must be discarded (very Ibsen or George Bernard Shaw) all were pithily and dramatically dealt with and skillfully presented to the audience. The side roles (especially Eve Arden) were all brilliantly executed in that wise-cracking, zany style that made the plays of the 1920s and 30s such favorites. And the main leads (Crawford, Young, etc) were equally outstanding in their emotional portrayals. This film was at least 10-15 years ahead of its time. When the 1960s finally rolled around American youth finally took the blinders off just the way Kanin and the makers of this film advocated. A brilliant and enthralling accomplishment. I wish we could all personally congratulate all the makers of this film of 50 years ago.