This is one movie where after the boy meets girl then loses her, you want her to stay lost, and get found by someone better!
Natalie Wood gives a good performance as Marjorie Morgenstern, a young Jewish woman in 1950's New York City, who wants something more than the conventional life her parents have planned for her (like a show business career) yet at the same time, part of her longs for a white picket fence and her religious roots are deeper than she thought.
Gene Kelly's Noel Airman is not a likeable person. Like Marjorie, he wants something different out of life, only he disdains whereas she questions. He changed his last name from Ehrman, too Jewish sounding, just like he gives Marjorie the surname "Morningstar". She finds him fascinating, turns down several more worthy suitors in his favor, and envies his seemingly sophisticated nonconformism. However, she soon sees things a bit more clearly. As she matures, he stays the same. She's willing to compromise, he's my-way-or-the-highway. She grows in character, he has none. She has a heart with room for love, his has only room for himself. Not exactly a good mix for a wedding cake. (Perhaps the right ingredient was unknowingly there all along?)
There are familiar TV faces here: George Tobias, Martin Milner, Carolyn Jones, Martin Balsam, Jesse White, and veteran actor Ed Wynn does a great job as Marjorie's beloved Uncle Samson.
An entertaining movie, of a young woman finding out who she is, where she fits in, and what she really wants.
Natalie Wood gives a good performance as Marjorie Morgenstern, a young Jewish woman in 1950's New York City, who wants something more than the conventional life her parents have planned for her (like a show business career) yet at the same time, part of her longs for a white picket fence and her religious roots are deeper than she thought.
Gene Kelly's Noel Airman is not a likeable person. Like Marjorie, he wants something different out of life, only he disdains whereas she questions. He changed his last name from Ehrman, too Jewish sounding, just like he gives Marjorie the surname "Morningstar". She finds him fascinating, turns down several more worthy suitors in his favor, and envies his seemingly sophisticated nonconformism. However, she soon sees things a bit more clearly. As she matures, he stays the same. She's willing to compromise, he's my-way-or-the-highway. She grows in character, he has none. She has a heart with room for love, his has only room for himself. Not exactly a good mix for a wedding cake. (Perhaps the right ingredient was unknowingly there all along?)
There are familiar TV faces here: George Tobias, Martin Milner, Carolyn Jones, Martin Balsam, Jesse White, and veteran actor Ed Wynn does a great job as Marjorie's beloved Uncle Samson.
An entertaining movie, of a young woman finding out who she is, where she fits in, and what she really wants.