The Enchanted Cottage (1945) on Netflix
NR19451h 31mDramaFantasyRomance
Laura Pennington, a homely maid, becomes caretaker at a seaside cottage said to be magical. The scarred pilot Oliver Bradford arrives to rent it.
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- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb7.5/103,981 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Set apart by her plain appearance, Laura Pennington takes a caretaker job at a seaside cottage in New England after hearing her late mother's tales about it. There she meets the blind pianist John Hillgrove and his nephew Danny, and Mrs. Abigail Minnett, the widowed owner. Oliver Bradford, an Army Air Forces pilot, had rented the cottage for a honeymoon with his fiancée, Beatrice Alexander, but his call back into service prevents the wedding and she cancels the lease. A year later a telegram says Oliver will rent the cottage indefinitely. He arrives with his face hidden in his trench coat and locks himself in a room. On a stormy night Laura goes in, and he shows her his scars.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer Harriet Parsons acquired the rights for RKO's updated World War II version, but management took the film from her and gave it to producer-writer Dudley Nichols. After columnist Hedda Hopper wrote a newspaper editorial criticizing RKO for gender bias, the outcry won the property back for Parsons.
- Herbert Marshall, who had himself lost a leg in World War I, played his blind character in the film with the help of special contact lenses.
- Dorothy McGuire insisted her character show her plainness with no makeup, ill-fitting clothes and a drab hairstyle. When McGuire was filmed looking appealing to Robert Young, her character had similar costumes that were well tailored.
- Composer Roy Webb wrote a piano concerto for the film, used by Herbert Marshall's blinded veteran as a tone poem. Webb was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1945 and performed the concerto at the Hollywood Bowl later that year.
- The Enchanted Cottage forms the basis of one of the films that Manuel Puig used to compose his novel Kiss of the Spider Woman.
