GREEN DOLPHIN STREET

 There's enough plot in "Green Dolphin Street" for a dozen movies and here the central plot is pretty ridiculous and while the film has no artistic merit it remains a great guilty pleasure. Based on Elizabeth Goudge's best-seller and set both in Europe and New Zealand but filmed on the MGM lot in Hollywood it's hugely entertaining as newcomer Richard Hart finds he's the object of affection of two sisters, Lana Turner (surprisingly good) and Donna Reed. He's in love with Reed and she with him but in a state of intoxication sends his marriage proposal half way across the world to Turner who then ups sticks and travels to New Zealand.

Being a man of honor he marries her while all the while it's his partner, Van Heflin, who really loves her, (I hope you're following this and I haven't even mentioned how the sisters' mother, (Gladys Cooper, naturally) was once in love with Hart's father, (Frank Morgan, looking like a refugee from Oz). Indeed the supporting cast ham it up very nicely, treating the material with a good deal more respect than it deserves. Throw in a lot of cardboard sets, some revolting natives and an Oscar-winning earthquake and what's not to love? If the dialogue is pure Mills and Boon, the style is classic Hollywood and no-one can fault director Victor Saville for holding it all together. It will never make any list of great films but as camp classics go it's at the top of the pile.