Best movie of this year hands down!

Sick Product of a Sick System

Memorable, crazy movie

Best movie of this year hands down!

One of Warner Bros' better 1950s melodramas, "Marjorie Morningstar" stars Natalie Wood as a Marjorie Morgenstern, a young Jew growing up in New York City. Marjorie wishes to be a dancer and artist, but her strict parents desire for her to embark upon a more "safe" and "practical" future. Marry a doctor, they say, get a proper career.Marjorie, of course, does the opposite. On the cusp of womanhood, and bubbling with pent up sexual energy, she travels to a summer camp. Here she meets Noel Airman (Gene Kelly), a dancer and social director whom she falls instantly in love with. Noel adores Marjorie too, but is hesitant to take things further. They're too different - she too young and he a failed artist - and so he insists that their relationship be scuttled. Marjorie attempts to convince him otherwise, but to no avail. She then abides by her parents wishes and hooks up with a "safe", "stable" and "successful" young man.The film doesn't pass judgement on either Noel or Marjorie. Indeed, it pities them both. Noel tries to mould himself into the image of a "successful man" - he gets a job in advertising, capitalism's playpen for wannabe artists – but it's no use. He drops out and heads to Europe and then Mexico. Marjorie, meanwhile, becomes trapped in the very social roles she hoped to avoid."Marjorie Morningstar" was directed by Irving Rapper. The film's too long, features too many Jewish stereotypes and modern audiences will no doubt find it somewhat obvious. Nevertheless, it's a good example of the kinds of ambitious melodramas (Vincente Minnelli, Nicholas Ray etc) which were being produced in the era.Incidentally, this was one of the legendary Gene Kelly's last serious roles. He does well, portraying deep insecurities behind much sexiness and raw physicality. This was also one of Natalie Wood's earliest adult roles. She's as beautiful as ever - and Rapper knows it, first revealing her in a state of semi-undress - and enlivens what is otherwise a typical "Jewish princess" role. Wood would herself star in a number of films which were unconsciously about a then brewing sexual revolution. "Marjorie Morningstar's" plot, for example, echoes the plot of Wood's "Splendour in the Grass", which sees Wood playing a young girl in small town Kansas who struggles to reconcile promiscuity and conservative, social mores. "Love With The Proper Stranger", meanwhile, saw Wood playing a woman who struggles with sex out of wedlock, "This Property is Condemned" finds her playing a young woman who is essentially used as a prostitute by her mother, and Wood's "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice" sees her playing a upper class woman who embraces sexual orgies and the free love, hippie ethos.8/10 – Worth one viewing.

Herman Wouk's "Marjorie Morningstar", a book published in 1955, became an immediate bestseller. The book about a newly rich Jewish family from the Bronx, now living comfortably on Central Park West, was the kind of novel that was popular at the time. Its appeal was chiefly about the sexual awakening of a young woman who at first rebels against the choices made for her by her ambitious mother, but ultimately ends up married to a prosperous man from Westchester, leaving her dreams and ambitions behind. The movie version changes the ending, as Marjorie had finally come to her senses about her infatuation with Noel Airman and she is seen boarding the bus where a patient Wally Wronkin, the man who really loved her is also riding.The film version by Everett Freeman took some liberties, perhaps to make it more appealing to a younger movie going public. The end result seems to this humble commentator a cop out when all is said and done. What comes out on the big screen seems false from beginning to end. Perhaps reading the novel would be more satisfying because the original story is left to one's imagination.Part of the problem with the film was the casting of Gene Kelly, who was 46 at the time, against a radiant and youthful Natalie Wood. Miss Wood, who was starting to appear in films as a young woman. Ms Wood had grown up in the eyes of viewers of films of the late 40s and early fifties where she was seen playing small girls' roles. She appears not as confident for a role that perhaps demanded a more convincing actress. It didn't help either that she and Mr. Kelly show almost no chemistry in their scenes together.Of course, "Marjorie Morningstar" had its following at the time it came out. Unfortunately, this film hasn't aged well. It feels false at times and at its most dramatic, it feels empty. The supporting cast was good, especially Claire Trevor, Everett Sloane and Ed Wynn, who are seen as the parents and uncle of the young heroine. Martin Milner, Martin Balsam and especially Carolyn Jones make a good impression.Irving Rapper, who had done better in previous movies, directed without breaking new ground. Perhaps the ultimate culprit lays in the screen treatment the film received.

I used to see this movie on television in the "old" days but since it hasn't been on for a long time, and since I'm a Natalie Wood fan, I recently bought the VHS. I was not disappointed! There are so many good actors in it! What kills me the most about this movie (I have read the book, but we're discussing the movie now) is that Noel keeps telling Marjorie about how he might never want to marry her, AS IF she's the one saying she wants to get married - yet we never hear this come out of her mouth! She would have been just as "unconventional" as he was if he'd said something about becoming partners in some kind of acting situation, or songwriting, or singing. I mean, he was in his 30s, she was only 18. So let's see, he loved her so much that he didn't want to collaborate with her? What DID HE want her to do, just wash his clothes? Anyway, I still loved this movie. And every time Ed Wynn came on screen, I said "He's so SWEET!" I remember when Windsor/Detroit movie host extraordinaire Bill Kennedy (Moonchildren! Natalie born 7/17 and Bill 6/27) would show this movie, he would explain it all to us... he was the one we were watching when we found out Natalie was gone. Bless 'em all for the good old days.

I find Marjorie Morningstar curiously affecting but I'm not exactly sure why. I must have seen the movie twenty times from its original release in 1958 to 2004. When I first saw it it seemed a coming-of-age movie of a very beautiful New York Jewish girl. It also seemed prissy and prudish. The best thing about the movie was Ed Wynn as Uncle Samson. I felt at the time he gave an Academy Award perfor mance. I still do! When I saw the movie in the 1960s I thought it was the dumbest, squarest most ridiculous movie I'd ever seen. Natalie Wood camping around in clothes her Grand Mother would have been embarrassed to wear. Gene Kelly, [who I used to idolize} looking fat and pale with an obvious rug on. And talk about lack of chemistry! Kelly and Wood acted like they hated each other. Marty Milner was just absurd. Would anyone want to marry this nerd? Within the last five years I've probably seen it ten times and even made a a trip to Schroon Lake, N.Y. where it was filmed and stood on the beach where Kelly and Wood went swimming. I now see the movie in two ways. First, it's about values and once again Ed Wynn seems sensational because he believes in what he is saying. I doubt if any of the other Hollywood cynics believed a word of it.Second, and this has a lot to do with the haunting song, "A Very Special Love" which Kelly keeps singing.It speaks to me of my youth and my Summer loves with a wistfulness that calls me back to a gentler time. I'm sure I'll see this movie again.