Eileen Goudge

The Enchanted Cottage

One of the best gifts of this past birthday was a DVD of a favorite old movie of mine, The Enchanted Cottage. Okay, so it’s not Gone With the Wind or Citizen Kane. It’s a minor classic at best and the quality of the film not the greatest. But to me it’s buried treasure. It hasn’t been available in any format until just recently and it was almost as hard to find on old movie channels like AMC or TCM. No more! My resident film junkie (aka husband Sandy) scored a copy from Amazon.com. And this past weekend we sat down to watch what I recalled, from the one time I saw it, at least two decades ago, to be a jewel of a love story.

In it, Dorothy Maguire plays a homely woman in a New England village who’s given a job looking after a “honeymoon” cottage that’s rumored to be enchanted. She never imagines she could ever have a husband and fantasizes about the happy unions of the couples whose names are etched on the leaded panes of a window in the cottage, some dating back more than a century.

Enter Robert Young, who plays a war veteran left scarred when his plane went down. He is an embittered, broken man who finds friendship with the plain and humble Laura. Together, they find something—call it enchantment—they never dreamed could exist for either of them.

I won’t spoil the ending, in case you should feel inclined to watch the movie. Suffice it to say, it mirrors one of my closely held beliefs: The eyes of love is the truest sight. When you look at a loved one, you don’t see the imperfections, or wrinkles and sags, you see the person underneath it all. In the case of my husband, I see the man with whom I found happiness (against all odds!) after having bombed out with three prior marriages. When he looks at me, he sees the glowing bride I will always be in his eyes. He still gives me a wolf whistle when I get all dressed up to go out, and wherever we go, to him I’m always the most beautiful woman in the room.

Mildred Natwick, in the film, says it best when she urges the young couple to let their passion burn and ignore all the rest. Its light will guide the way through darkness and illuminate the beauty that’s sometimes hidden. Words to live by.

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