Invitation

The high rating is due to the cast. Van Johnson is really underrated, as is Ruth Roman. Both of them, especially in later roles, displayed a great deal of talent that was underutilized by Hollywood.

However, the true standout here is the radiant Dorothy McGuire--playing a "plain" girl. Plain? Even with a bag over her head, Miss McGuire could never be plain. In addition to her consummate and versatile acting ability, she can be summed up in four words--THAT FACE, THAT VOICE. She is one of the truly greats who can never be replicated.

The lovely score by Bronislau Kaper adds to the enjoyment of the movie; the title song, "Invitation," has become a standard. (Percy Faith recorded it memorably on one of his many albums.)

It is a comment on Hollywood and the current audiences that this film--essentially a woman's picture--is graced with such literate dialog and fine acting that is not often seen today.

An underrated, somewhat ignored film, Invitation , is much more than a soap opera. The cast, including Van Johnson, Louis Calherne, and Ruth Roman, deliver solid, professional performances. But it's wonderful Dorothy McGuire who raises the film to the fine level it attains. Her performance as a sick woman whose father has bought her a husband so she can have a short time of happiness before her demise , is positively incandescent. Her performance is full of subtlety, nuance, shading and real pathos. Sincere, sympathetic and utterly believable at all times, she makes the film very poignant. Recommended highly!!

I never liked Dorothy McGuire as and actor, but in this film she was spot-on!

Van Johnson never made a bad movie (he's the glue that holds "Battlegound" and "The Caine Mutnity" together). HE never looks like he's acting; has that college boy look (always up to the next girl adventure).

It's a compelling story that is easily plausible and very human. I'm guessing that it was shown back to back with "Til We Meet Again," a similar tragic situation, yet much more intense. So if you liked "Invitation" you had to enjoy this one as well, assuming you liked the actors: George Brent and Merle Oberon.

I do not like spoiling a movie by telling specific about it; reviews should be, in my intractable position, your response to story and actor. Stop telling what happens.

I love these old B/W film. The quality forever surpasses predictable crap made today.

This glossy MGM film bears traces of DARK VICTORY, with Dorothy McGuire suddenly finding out about her impending doom and that her marriage is a sham--a convenience arranged by her loving father and a man who always had a soft spot for her, Van Johnson. To her credit, McGuire plays the role with great simplicity and sincerity, especially moving once she finds out what's really going on around her. Her quiet reaction to what Van Johnson reveals (in a long monologue) is one of the finest aspects of her overall performance. Her face reflects so many shaded nuances of expression as she tries to understand the truth.

But sadly, the script never lives up to its promise. Despite some fine acting by Louis Calhern as her father and Ruth Roman as a vindictive woman who has been cast aside by Johnson, none of it is told in a compelling enough format. It's as though Ladies Home Journal had a hand in selecting the impeccable furniture and set designs. Gottfried Reinhardt's heavy direction seems incapable of infusing the story with a real sense of life.

It's no help that there's little real chemistry between Dorothy McGuire and Van Johnson. He gives a decent performance but it's as though his heart isn't in the role--there's not much he can do with it. Despite his limitations, McGuire commands the screen with an incisive portrayal and has seldom looked lovelier even though she is supposed to have barely a year to live. Ruth Roman is quite convincing as "the other woman" in Van's life.

An asset is the haunting theme, "Invitation," which could have been used more forcefully for the final thirty minutes of exposition.

Always believing she had a happy marriage, a young wife's trust in her husband is shaken when she discovers that her father had paid him to marry her. Van Johnson and Dorothy Maguire made the perfect movie, in that the smoothness of each other was almost perfect, one would not ever know, Van was being paid. The ending was a surprise!I could watch this movie again and again. It was heart-warming.