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| Green Dolphin Street | 
 enlarge | Buy New: $16.65
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $16.65
Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 16 reviews)
Sales Rank: 3825
Category: Video
Actors: Lana Turner, Van Heflin, Donna Reed, Richard Hart, Frank Morgan
Director: Victor Saville
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Studio: MGM (Warner)
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Label: MGM (Warner)
Format: Black & White, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Running Time: 141 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6301969561
UPC: 027616072733
EAN: 9786301969567
ASIN: 6301969561
Release Date: March 7, 1994
Theatrical Release Date: November 5, 1947
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Marguerite, Marianne, and the Maori March 12, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
"Green Dolphin Street" is one of those cheesefests of Hollywood's Golden Age that has slipped into obscurity. At least "Black Narcissus",the camp classic,has its own Criterion Edition. Why NOT the love triangle set in New Zealand, with its needlessly complicated plot and Lana Turner in her fantastical outfits?
"Green Dolphin Street" is all about two sisters who live on the Channel Islands between England and France. There's the good girl, Marguerite (Donna Reed), and the bad grrrrl Marianne (Lana Turner). They're both enamored of the dull William (Richard Hart) William sets off to China as a trader. After a drunken night, he dashes off a letter to his intended... but he writes "Marianne" instead of "Marguerite." Friends don't let friends drink and write. William realizes his mistake too late. Marianne is brash, bossy, and constantly demeaning William for being a wimp. In the meantime, the heartbroken Marguerite decides to enter the convent. There's an action sequence involving the tide that challenges her faith. Meanwhile, William and Marianne settle down in New Zealand. They deal with the Maori. Marianne also gets an action sequence- she gives birth during an earthquake. The earthquake goes on and on and on and on and on. There's "death by tiki" for a hapless Maori. The action constantly shifts between Marguerite in her French convent and Marianne in the New Zealand wilderness. It's trippin',and it was 1947,not the '60s! It's cheesiness lies in the fact it's based on a novel that won an MGM contest. There's even Frank Morgan (the wizard from the 1939 classic),and MGM regular Van Heflin as the heavy.
"Green Dolphin Street" lags at several points. However,it compensates through its tackiness. Ironically, Green Dolphin Street's legacy has been musical rather than cinematic. Miles Davis turned the movie's theme into a jazz standard.
 Love the One You're With July 31, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is certainly a different sort of movie and, for that, I am willing to look more on the positive side. The most unique aspect of this film is the New Zealand location and the insight to the early days of its' European colonization. The relationship between settlers and Maoris is nicely developed along with the apparent geological issues that New Zeraland faces. I learned a few things in those categories. For one thing, I had always thought of the Maoris as a sea-faring culture and I didn't realize that New Zealand was as impacted by earthquakes as it apparently is (was?). There is a major scene in the movie that shows a major earthquake and it looks like it was probably ahead of its' time, technologically speaking.
The story itself has to do with loving your second choice. There are two generations that demonstrate the love that materializes in the wake of true love that was intercepted. The first example is almost mentioned in passing until a death bed confession brings the whole movie into focus. It is the second example that plays out over the course of the movie and, all in all, is rather well presented. Believe it or not (and I had a hard time believing it) a young man sends for the WRONG sister to come from the Channel Islands to join him in New Zealand for the purpose of marriage. In those days you couldn't just say "oops" and book a return flight. As we follow the sister who won the groom, we also find out what happens to the one left behind. There is a feeling of "all's well that ends well" to "Green Dolphin Street" that gives us a positive feeling. However, there were a few odds and ends that kept this from being a great movie. Frankly, for example, I thought the earthquake was a bit too much and, in hindsight, it added nothing to the story. There seemed to be a lack of purpose for some of the characters; Frank Morgan and Van Heflin come to mind. Morgan wasn't given enough of a chance to demonstrate that he was once a secret love or that his downfall was the result of of that same denied love. He merely looks like a sort of retired vaudvillian with a tag-along bumpkin of a son (where did the son come from-or did I miss something early in the movie). Van Heflin plays the movie's heavy and does a credible job in the role. Other than doing the right thing at the right time on a couple of occassions, he just seems to be another member of the troupe.
With such a unique array of settings and circumstances, I found the movie compelling to a degree that offset the occassional disappointments. It's a bit long; probably due to an interesting but unnecessary earthquake.
Lana and Donna... May 5, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
...make great sisters. The opening scenes with them together are exciting. The way the camera moves adds excitement to an amazing film. The only real shame is that it wasn't filmed in color because the two breathtaking beauties in color would've been something to see. Still the b&w suits them fine too. The acting, the action, and the special effects make it a quiet classic. Watch it if you can, highly recommended.
 "It Was Something Far Greater Than Us" March 7, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This wildly entertaining film set in the days of the great clipper ships has Donna Reed and Lana Turner as sisters in love with the same man for different reasons. Turner is fantastic as the brash sister, Marianne, who is as sharp as her father when it comes to business matters. Donna Reed holds her own, however, as the pretty but more reserved Marguerite.
Elizabeth Goudge's sprawling novel won an MGM contest, and judging by the fabulous results, it was a fine choice. Sam Raphaelson wrote the screenplay and the film was given a lush look by photographer George Folsey and art director Cedric Gibbons. A beautiful score from Bronislau Kaper and a great supporting cast gave director Victor Saville all the ingredients he needed to fashion this fun to watch and lovely to look at epic.
Marianne and Marguerite discover that the new young man they are interested in, William (Richard Hart), even though he is below their station, has, through his father, ties to their own mother. Happily married to their sweet but easy to get around dad, Octavius (Edmund Gwenn), she was once filled with love for William's father, portrayed by Frank Morgan. It was a doomed love that has become only a sweet memory to her now.
Marianne is in love with the man she sees William becoming one day, and though it inspires him to join the Navy in an effort to become a gentleman, it is Marguerite's love of who he is now that wins his heart. Marguerite lives in her dreams the years he is at sea, waiting to be with William when she can. But when he is labeled a deserter after he misses his ship, he joins Van Heflin on board the Green Dolphin and the two find wealth in a far land with timber.
A note written at sea when William was drunk in which he accidentally wrote Marianne rather than his beloved Margueritte brings Marianne across the sea while breaking Margueritte's heart. William has neither the strength or cruelty, as his business partner Heflin points out, to shame her, so marries the wrong sister. Both sisters love each other very much, and it is one of the more refreshing aspects to the story.
While Marianne helps William and Heflin with their business ventures, Marguerite finds the love her sister knows is missing in her life with William. Her love will be for God, however, and she is on the verge of giving her life to Him when William and Margueritte return. Marianne has found William's original note proclaiming his love for her sister, and knows she must tell her. But does William love Marianne now, and does Margueritte's remembrance of her great love mean more to her than God?
This is a stunning production wrapped around an involving story which is long but never boring. Exotic lands and native uprisings, floods, earthquakes and a tidal wave all hold the viewer's interest. A young Turner and lovely Reed would be enough alone to do so. This is a plush and romantic film of the first order. All who love this type of film will be enthralled by it. It is the very definition of entertainment.
Sweeping Large Scale Melodrama With First Class Visuals March 19, 2005
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
"Green Dolphin Street", one of MGM's biggest film efforts during the late 1940's had a curious beginning in that it was the result of a story submitted in an MGM writing contest where the first prize would be the filming of the winning entry. That winner was the story "Green Dolphin Street", submitted by Elizabeth Goudge and involved the story of the painfully intertwined romantic lives of two sisters over many years and was a tale filled with unrequited love, passion, adventure, and struggle for survival in faraway places. The story was a natural for filming by that studio of studios MGM who made it one of their biggest productions for 1947 giving it a superb cast headed by Lana Turner and Donna Reed as the two sisters and with many excellent and quite ground breaking visual effects throughout the story that included massive earthquakes and tidal waves. The result was a big hit for MGM that really led the studio, despite its growing internal and financial concerns, into their next super production which was to be the massive epic "Quo Vadis". "Green Dolphin Street", combines uniformily fine acting along with first rate visuals that were rewarded with 4 justly deserved Academy Award nominations and quite rightly "Green Dolphin Street", took home the Best Special Effects Oscar for 1947.
The story centres around two sisters Marianne (Lana Turner), and Marguerite (Donna Reed), Patourel daughters of wealthy merchant Octavious Patourel (Edmund Gwenn). The sisters are like night and day as Marianne is the businesslike, ambitious daughter while Marguerite is the more retiring of the two. Both girls become attracted to their new neighbour William Ozanne (Richard Hart), the handsome and not totally upright son of the local doctor Edmund Ozanne (Frank Morgan). William is instantly attracted to the gentle qualities of Marguerite however it is Marianne in her usual take charge way who takes William on and after the death of his father pursuades him to seek a career in the Navy. However all does not go well for William and after missing his boat in the Orient he is accused of desertion and flees to the new colonies in New Zealand to hopefully start a new life. There he makes the reacquaintance of Timothy Haslam who knew him back at his home in Green Dolphin Street. The men set up a lumber business and Timothy who had a real infatuation for Marianne makes William write back home asking for Marguerite's hand in marriage. However William's hard drinking ways cause him still more trouble when he accidently asks for Marianne's hand instead and soon she is making preparations to travel to New Zealand believing the man she loves has finally developed feelings for her. The shock of seeing Marianne arriving on the ship instead of Marguerite however can't be undone and Willian dutifully marries Marianne without her knowing of his mistake. The years pass and the couple have a child and with Marianne's influence the lumber business prospers. Meanwhile Marguerite having lost both parents begins to search for a reason to life and is drawn to the serentity and purpose she finds among the nuns of St. Pierre Convent. William and Timothy find their business threatened by the natural elements in New Zealand and a terrible earthquake, tidal wave and then a Maori uprising force them to firstly move into sheep farming and later to return to Marianne's home in Green Dolphin Street in time to share with Marguerite the special occasion of her joining the convent as a novice. On the eve of the ceremony however Marianne discovers the truth about William's "request", for her to supposedly join him in New Zealand when he meant to ask was Marguerite. It is only after a now serenely happy Marguerite intervenes and tells Marianne of their own mother's consuming love for Wiliam's father before marrying their own father that she sees the lasting value of the hard earned love that William now feels for her.
"Green Dolphin Street", boasts a first rate cast with Lana Turner and Donna Reed as the two sisters making inspired choices. Long regarded as just a glamour girl Lana Turner has one of her better roles here as the quick witted daughter who doesn't see being a woman as an obstacle to being a success in business. Fresh from her triumph in the classic "The Postman Always Rings Twice", Turner here has a very different type of follow up role and she handles it perfectly from the refined setting of her parents comfortable life in England to carving out an existence in the wilds of New Zealand. She even puts aside her famed glamour image for the exciting scenes when her family is threatened by the Maori uprising. Donna Reed seemed to be forever typed playing sweet characters in her movie heyday and her Marguerite in "Green Dolphin Street", is a continuation of that trend however her many touching scenes in the convent with veteran character actress Dame May Whitty as the Mother Superior are truly beautiful and illustrate the depth of talent that this great actress possessed. Richard Hart as William had a short career before his early death but here showed great promise and a young Van Heflin already displays the great dramatic skills he became renowned for later in his career as the rough neck who has a life long passion for the independant Marianne. Character actors Dame May Whitty, Frank Morgan, Gladys Cooper and of course Edmund Gwenn make perfect casting in their various roles and lent their considerable talents to often small but important parts in the overall story. Gladys Cooper's death bed scene where she talks about the gradual development of her love for her husband over many years is one of the emotional highlights of the story and wont leave a dry eye in the house. Of course "Green Dolphin Street", is perhaps still best known for its stunning Oscar winning visual effects and the scenes depicting the earthquake and tidal wave in New Zealand are unmatched for a film from the 1940's and have a frightening quality to them even after all these years.
Old style melodrama of the first order, "Green Dolphin Street", with its wealth of talent both in front of and behind the cameras makes me lament the state of most Hollywood product nowadays. The production has a rich integrity about it that was typical of the major MGM efforts at this time and despite its great length the film never seems to drag in my belief moving as it does from the tranquil environment of St. Pierre Convent through to the rugged frontier in New Zealand with ease. Try and catch the MGM movie making machine at its refined best in director Victor Saville's "Green Dolphin Street", soon.
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