Goodbye, My Fancy

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.

A great movie with three of my favorite movie stars: Robert Young, Eve Arden and Joan Crawford. This movie makes no concessions whatsoever to "popular" taste. It doesn't insult one's intelligence. It makes a passionate plea for free speech. Some would surely call it communist propaganda. Joan Crawford was however absurdly miscast as a flaming liberal politician. The real Joan was, I think, conservative. She ended her life as the chair of Pepsi! But somehow she captivates. Her diction is solid, her acting measured, always dignified, and her movies are darn good (she never played the Queen of Sheba, or some other "historic" nonsense). Robert Young is impeccable too, far more impressive, intelligent, than a whole host of bigger stars, but his non-muscular persona confines him to the parlor. I can hardly believe he was an alcoholic.

I thought STORM CENTER (1955) was the first free speech movie. Still, the fact remains, that STORM CENTER is more direct, powerful, dramatic and dashing. Unfortunately, the censors seems to have had the last word about THAT anti-censorship film. STORM CENTER has never been shown on TV (as far as I know) and it is not available on video. Something should be done to bring back this and other forgotten classics.

What plays on the surface as a "romantic triangle" film carries a strong anti-McCarthyism message. Robert Young is the once-idealistic President of an exclusive Women's College who years earlier had trysted with Joan Crawford, a Congresswoman who has made a film depicting aspects of injustice. Crawford wants to reunite with Young and have the film played during Graduation Weekend. The school's trustees don't want the film shown, thinking it too "dangerous" for their students to see. The characters' arguments about democratic values play well with a modern audience, and both the political and the romantic aspects of the plot unfold in an engrossing and entertaining manner.

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.