Enchanted Cottage, The

After a crash disfigures his face and maims his body, pilot Oliver Bradford (Robert Young) hides from family and friends in a seaside cottage. There he befriends homely, gentle Laura Pennington (Dorothy McGuire). The two marry for companionship -- until some rare magic within the cottage transforms them into ardent and beautiful lovers. Director John Cromwell's delicate, achingly romantic film is based on Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's play, written in a post-World War I era of broken men returning to families who could not recognize them. When history sadly repeated itself, World War II film audiences likewise embraced a story of the transcendent power of love. The film so moved Young that he named his own California home The Enchanted Cottage.

• drama
• romance