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• Our unique memories...

  • RedRain
  • 2/27/13

  Nearing the end of my sixth decade, I can honestly understand Lydia more than most. We do indeed tend to recall our younger years in a light focused on what was impressionable to us at the time rather than what was probably the reality. This is more than borne out in this film and it is wonderfully acted by the beautiful Merle Oberon. As she recalls her beaux from her younger years, I am reminded of "We get too soon old and too late smart." She is wise at the end but a real ditz in her youth! The one thing that bothers me here is that, one more time, Joseph Cotton is left without the girl. I wonder if that bothered him in his acting years, as he never got the girl! He was always the best friend who loved the wife or the lover who never gets the girl. It's a theme throughout his career and it must have rankled him no end!

• Great Film

  • tharold
  • 2/27/13

  Not only is Merle Oberon gorgeous in appearance and beautiful in all the period costumes, she is perfection as Lydia and at her acting peak. A charming, absorbing story from beginning to end with a wonderful cast. Best scenes are those at the seaside lodge and any involving the superlative Edna May Oliver, as well as John Halliday.

• How women and men view the world

  • Aunt Charlotte Vale
  • 2/19/13

  My sister told me about this movie 27 years ago. I first saw Lydia on TNT after taping it late one night. It has stayed with me ever since. I was shocked the first time I saw the ending, wondering how could Captain Richard Mason not remember Lydia! But the older I got, the more I realized that some encounters mean everything to one person and nothing to another person. Great movie, women who enjoy "Womens Pictures" will really like this. For 1941, it's pretty frank about subjects such as proverty, premartial sex, class distinction. Edna Mae Oliver is superb and Granny, and Alan Marshall is charming as the rogue/playboy, player who lives in the moment without thought of the future or what his selfish actions might do to someone else. I was never sure how old these characters were in 1897 but the age they portrayed after forty years seem a bit too old. But the main theme of, how we remember the past, and the reality of what the past really was is always interesting. Great film. I highly recommend it!!!!!!

• Lydia (1941)

  • Mr. Blandings
  • 1/27/13

  Interesting idea for a film, but I'd have to say it didn't quite come off as well as could be expected. George Reeves and Edna May Oliver turn in memorable and lively performances, but Merle Oberon is channelling a bit too much Scarlet O'Hara for my tastes (in the flashbacks to her youth). At other times she's just plain boring. I do like the way different people remember the past in different (sometimes humorously divergent) ways. **

• Great movies

  • Dania B.
  • 10/18/12

  Wow...one of my all time favorite movies.. It should be shown more than it is! I've been looking for this movie for years to come out for sale to the public Merl Oberon show just what a wonderful actress she was...from that of a young woman to an elderly woman...Difficult role to portray but I think she pulled it off beautifully...don't think any other actress could have done a better job.

• Strange Movie

  • 4dogmama
  • 1/9/12

  This was a strange movie but fascinating to watch. I really liked the two perspectives of that first ball and wonder if the reality was a mix of both.

• Lydia

  • Tom
  • 5/16/11

  I didn't like this film

• Lydia

  • Perfectasdusk
  • 5/15/11

  I just viewed this today (5-15-2011) for the first time. This is a wonderful and amazing film in the vein of Mrs. Skeffington. Lovely, lush and sad. Edna Mae Oliver is FANTASTIC

• Lydia

  • LadyDiver
  • 4/9/10

  This is a great movie and it has NOT been on TV for decades. It is not available on DVD in the US. I can only find Region 2 and 4 DVD's which are not compatible in the US. PLEASE put this Merle Oberon movie on your schudule.

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