The Constant Nymph (1928)

[Ann Harding]

The Constant Nymph (1928, Adrian Brunel) with Ivor Novello, Mabel Poulton, Elsa Lanchester and Benita Hume

Lewis Dodd (I. Novello), a bohemian composer visits his friend Sanger and his large family in Switzerland. Sanger dies leaving behind him his daughters penniless ...

Margaret Kennedy's novel was adapted several times for the screen. The first time being this charming British silent feature directed by Adrian Brunel. I was in London over the WE where I caught a rare screening at the National Film Theater. I was already familiar with the 1943 version directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Joan Fontaine. I have to say that this silent version is certainly superior in many aspects. First, the casting is ideal with a young Mabel Poulton who looks like a teenager effortlessly compared with the (often brilliant) composition of Joan Fontaine. As for Ivor Novello who was the heartthrob of British screens in the 20s, he is far younger and more believable than the older Charles Boyer. Secondly, the film benefits also from its shooting on locations in the Alps that gives it a freedom that is sadly lacking in the claustrophobic studio production of 1943. And lastly, British cinema in the 20s had more freedom to deal with the love-story between a teenager and an adult than Hollywood in the 40s. If you are familiar with the story line, it's about a bohemian composer, Lewis Dodd who marries a socialite from London. He realises quickly they are too different to get on. One comic scene says it all. She organises a posh party with her friends to introduce her husband. He ends up in the kitchen with a few guests who can't stand it either. In the middle of the crowd, one can recognise a young Elsa Lanchester who plays an eccentric and funny snob. Lewis has always been fond of little Tessa Sanger, his friend's daughter. He then realises he had always loved her. They decides to elope together. Alas, Tessa dies during the travel, due to her weak heart. The elopement has been eliminated from the Hollywood version, of course. The film is divided in two distinct part from lighthearted comedy in the Sanger household to the tragedy of Tessa's death in Lewis' arms. Adrian Brunel is not a very imaginative director but the whole film stands its own. Mabel Poulton absolutely shines as Tessa; she was rightly proud of her performance. The film was accompanied by the talented pianist John Sweeney who gave the film an equal measure of comedy and pathos. Overall, it's a very worthy British silent.

[drednm]

I've seen the Joan Fontaine/Charles Boyer version of this one. I liked it. I wasn't sure the silent version existed...

[moira finnie]

Great to see this account of this earliest version of the Margaret Kennedy book, Christine. Did you see this film at the BFI? Do you know if the 1933 version of The Constant Nymph with Brian Aherne and Victoria Hopper is still in existence? Though critics generally seemed to prefer the silent version credited to Adrian Brunel (with, according to some sources, Basil Dean supervising the film), the NYTimes gave the '33 version a qualified thumbs up (and I bet a young Aherne might have been very easy to take as Lewis Dodd). I suppose all three of the versions are prevented from broadcast and very limited distribution due to the dictates set down by Kennedy's estate? Thanks to Fernando, I have been able to enjoy the Joan Fontaine-Charles Boyer version...and you are so right about the cardboard Alps hampering the movie, though the film has its power thanks to Boyer's appeal, (even when playing a self-absorbed character), Fontaine's intensity and the soaring Korngold music, as well as Alexis Smith's surprisingly effective wife. I've always wished that more could have been seen of Peter Lorre's Fritz Bercovy character in the '43 version.

The Constant Nymph (1933) with (l-r) Jane Baxter and Peggy Blythe as the Sanger sisters with Victoria Hopper as Tessa on the right.

Even Victoria Hopper (who may have lived her own version of the story during her marriage to the decades older Basil Dean), fell under the spell of the silent version of The Constant Nymph, writing years later that "I was nothing more than a school girl when I came across Margaret Kennedy's book," she said. "A friend and I had seen the silent version of 'The Constant Nymph' with Mabel Poulton at the cinema and were thrilled to the marrow. We thought of Mabel as the loveliest person in the world, for all intents and purpose she was Tessa."

Mabel Poulton

There's a beautifully written appreciation of Mabel Poulton by Kevin Brownlow here published at the time of her death in 1994. What a shame her cockney accent doomed her career in talkies! Her gamine appearance reminds me a bit of Nova Pilbeam, one of my early British talkie faves.

I wonder if Ivor Novello's silent and sound films might be worthy of rediscovery and appreciated again here in the U.S.? One of the few films that is quite well known and still shown here is the Hitchcock The Lodger (1927), though it would be fun to see his other movies.

[charliechaplinfan]

Christine it sounds absolutely wonderful. I love the sound version but alas the copy in circulation isn't a good one. I'm so glad you've shared it with us

[feaito]

Christine, "The Constant Nymph" (1943) is on my top five list of favorite films, so I deeply appreciate your post about the 1928 Silent version. It would be fantastic to be able to see it.

[Ann Harding]

Moira, I don't know the whereabouts of the 1933 version. I saw the film at the BFI indeed (the NFT offers three screens). The film was fully booked; they even had to transfer us to a bigger room. The 1928 version only survives as a 16 mm print (amber tinted), but of very good quality. The 1928 version doesn't seem to suffer from screening restrictions like the 1943 version. Perhaps the Kennedy Estate approved of the Brunel film as it's more faithful to the book?
There is a short clip of the film in K. Brownlow's Cinema Europe in the episode about British cinema. Here are a few screen caps:


At the beginning of the film, Tessa awaits Lewis' arrival. Lewis reading on board the train while Trigorin smokes his cigare.


Tessa's death in cheap boarding house in Brussels. A lovely close-up of Mabel Poulton's Tessa.

To be absolutely complete about the subject, in 1934, French playwright Jean Giraudoux adapted the book for the stage. Under the title Tessa, la Nymphe au Coeur Fidèle, it starred the great French actor Louis Jouvet as Lewis Dodd and Madeleine Ozeray as Tessa. (It was another case of art imitating life as Jouvet was at that time living with the much younger Ozeray.)

[moira finnie]

Thanks for posting those screen caps, Christine. The scene of Tessa on the mountainside reminds me of the passage in the book describing the mountain aerie where the Sangers lived in slightly genteel but bohemian poverty. Of course, the adultery treatment in the '43 version was more circumspect, though it did convey an overwhelming feeling of tragedy, thanks to the cast, director and score.

It is my understanding that Kennedy's will stated that all films of The Constant Nymph could be shown only in relatively small-scale audiences in non-profit venues such as archives and libraries or universities, which BFI certainly is--though I may be wrong. It would be terrific to see all three features, but I am being greedy.

[drednm]

Wikipedia says:

The will of Margaret Kennedy stated that the film could be shown only at universities and museums after its original theatrical run ended. Edmund Goulding's biographer Matthew Kennedy wrote that Joan Fontaine spoke "rapturously" of The Constant Nymph. "She was nominated for a best actress Oscar for it," he stated, "and it remains a personal favorite of hers."[citation needed]

The above explanation differs significantly from that presented at the Internet Movie Database, which states that the film is no longer available because the script of the 1943 screen version derived from both the novel by Margaret Kennedy and the play by Margaret Kennedy and Basil Dean, which are legally separate, and expensive legal intervention would be needed to resolve the contractual situation.