There’s no love like doomed love. We all know it’s true. Happily-ever-after is fine for lesser souls. The rest of us can’t look away from “Casablanca,” “The Age of Innocence,” or “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.” The one that got away hangs heaviest on the heart.
If impediments fan the flames of desire, then death must be the greatest impediment of all. This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of bittersweet wish-fulfillment, as starred-crossed lovers connect beyond the mortal plane.
Modern-day playwright Christopher Reeve is captivated by a portrait of early 20th century actress Jane Seymour, in “Somewhere in Time” (1980). He wills himself, through self-suggestion, back through the decades, and the two fall in love. It doesn’t end particularly well, though a tear-jerking denouement is contrived wherein the couple is ultimately reunited. Critics were not impressed, but “Somewhere in Time” is still ardently embraced by its admirers.
The hopelessly romantic score is by John Barry. Barry wrote the music shortly after he lost both his parents, which he credited, in part, for its strong emotional content. He scored the film as a favor to Seymour, a friend. The film’s modest budget prohibited the possibility of hiring Barry at his usual fee. There are strong echoes of this music in Barry’s Oscar-winning score for “Out of Africa,” composed a few years later.
Interestingly, Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay, basing it on one of his own novels. A prolific “Twilight Zone” scribe, Matheson was also responsible for “The Incredible Shrinking Man,” “I am Legend,” and “Hell House.” Remember when William Shatner discovered a gremlin on the wing of his plane? Matheson wrote that, too. ‘Nuff said.
In “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” (1947), widow Gene Tierney takes up residence in a seaside cottage in turn-of the century England and engages in philosophical jousts with the ghost of a salty sea captain, played by Rex Harrison. For a time, the tone is divertingly whimsical, but then the film transforms into a poignant love story. The music is by the great Bernard Herrmann.
It had long been an ambition of Steven Spielberg to remake the Spencer Tracy film, “A Guy Named Joe.” In the original, Tracy’s character is killed while flying a mission during World War II. Then he returns from the Beyond to help his grieving girlfriend, a civilian pilot, played by Irene Dunne, and allow her to begin a new life with another man, played by Van Johnson.
Spielberg’s “Always” (1989) updates the setting, with Richard Dreyfuss and John Goodman playing aerial firefighters, and Holly Hunter an air traffic controller, in the Pacific Northwest. The film follows the same basic plot line – the spirit of a dead pilot mentoring his replacement, while struggling to accept that his grieving lover needs to move on with her life. The film was not well received, but the music was by Spielberg’s house composer, John Williams.
Finally, “Wuthering Heights” (1939) is one of the all-time classic screen romances. Laurence Olivier plays the Byronic Heathcliff, whose intensity destroys the lives of everyone around him as he is consumed by animal passion for the wayward Cathy, played by Merle Oberon. Alfred Newman wrote the music, one of his best-loved scores. The film takes a lot of liberties with Emily Bronte’s original novel, and the conclusion is pure Hollywood, but we’ll take it.
Hopeless romantics care not for the limitations of mortality. That’s “Love Eternal,” on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
