1945: Enchanted Cottage, The (88th)

What else happened this year? Only a little thing called ‘nuking the shit out of Japan’

What is the plot - in one sentence? An ugly woman and a disfigured man fall in love and through the power of… magic… and love?… in the cottage they stay at, which makes them attractive to each other.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? Seems it’s just a delusion, they’re still ugly. That’s it.

What is the meaning of the title? It takes place in a cottage, which is enchanted, that’s also it.

This is them in their 'ugly' stage. It looks pretty similar to their 'beautiful' times.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? No one gets slapped around! It’s a miracle. I was also impressed by the implied boning that was going on there – the cottage in question is a famous ‘honeymooners’ lodge.

Any thoughts? The story is framed by yet another ‘magical blind guy.’ This time it's a pianist who lives nearby and seems to know about the ‘enchantment of the cottage.’ This enchantment allows the couple to recognise the inner beauty of each other. Seriously, this magical blind person's such a trope in movies, I must have encountered it 7 times in this feature.

There’s a woman that everyone can’t stop talking about how ugly she is. A small kid even wretches when describing her to the blind man. While she’s not great, it’s a bit much, she's not hideous or anything. She’s hired to work in the cottage, because the boss says she won’t be seduced by the horny guests at teh house, because: too ugly. What is notable is that she doesn’t look very different when she becomes 'attractive,' she looks just a little cleaner. 

He’s disfigured in the war, which means that he has one eye slightly more open, and a line on the side of his face. His former fiancee, a hot young thing in a fur coat, is visibly replused by his new appearance, and so he calls off the wedding and goes to mope in the honeymoon cottage, alone.

Anyway, these two meet, enjoy each others company, find that they look much better, and then learn that it’s not true, and marry each other anyway. Jeez.

Would you recommend this? Not really. A piece of puff magic romance stuff doesn’t help anyone. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel this way if it had turned out to be a horror movie, as I for some reason was expecting. As a romantic movie, it’s still a bit grim, they spend ages talking about how they found each other because no one else wanted them.

Final thoughts? These ‘honeymoon cottages’ are pretty gross. Lots of people bustin’ up hymens on the same bed, then scratching their names on windowpanes – gross.

That's enough. We're almost done here, you can see the rest... right here...