The Man of Property

You may have heard of The Forsyte Saga a series of books by British author John Galsworthy. Set near the end of the Victorian era, it's the sort of material that would be perfect for studio-era Hollywood to make a picture out of. Indeed, MGM had the rights, and in the late 1940s made a movie adaptation of the first book, a movie called That Forsyte Woman.

The movie opens with Irene Forsyte (Greer Garson) running into a hospital looking for a man to whom she is not related. So the man at the desk isn't so sure to let him in, but Irene is so distraught that they let her in. She's followed by two more people named Forsyte, cousins (not hers) Soames (Errol Flynn) and Jolyon (Walter Pidgeon). Irene doesn't want to see Soames, so Jolyon, a widower, takes her back to his house, where his adult daughter June (Janet Leigh) is none too pleased to see that her father has brought this woman home with him. Flash back to how everything wound up this way....

Soames is a "man of property", the latest in a long line of Forsytes involved in some sort of proper business. He's met Irene, a music teacher who is on her way to becoming a spinster, and seems to love her, which is a bit of a minor scandal because Forsytes always marry the right person. The rest of the family wonders whether she's a gold-digger, but Soames says he's been pursuing her for a year without her saying yes. Needless to say, she does eventually say yes, but the marriage doesn't quite go to plan, which is how we wind up with that opening scene.

Jolyon is the black sheep of the Forsyte family. He married and the wife died suddenly, with the rest of the Forsytes taking custody of daughter June. Jolyon is a struggling artist who went off to Paris but, as the flashback opens, is back in London where some of his works are part of an exhibition. Soames goes there looking for something good, while Irene falls in love with one of Jolyon's paintings. You get the feeling that Irene and Jolyon might make a better couple than Irene and Soames, but Soames is a jealous man who, once he gets a possession, isn't about to let it go. And Irene is going to become one of his possessions.

You'd also be right about Irene and Jolyon being better matched. But these are the Forsytes, and the thought of divorce is so horrifying to them that they'd never permit it. And Soames wouldn't permit it anyway. So things are going to have to reach that ending some other way. Enter Philip Bosinney (Robert Young). He's an architect, and of the sort who is exactly everything that Forsytes don't care for, being interested in new styles and materials while the Forsytes are decidedly old school.

But Bosinney and June Forsyte have met, and fallen in love. This being the late Victorian era, Bosinney feels he can't marry June until he's got an independent stake of his own, which means some sort of commission that's going to get his business off the ground. Irene, who has become friends with June since they're both different from the stodgy side of the Forsyte family, obliges by introducing the couple to the rest of the Forsytes as well as getting Bosinney hired to design the country house Soames wants to build for her. But Irene finds herself falling in love with Bosinney, too....

That Forsyte Woman is the sort of material that MGM could make really well, and in this case, it's definitely another quality production. It might not be so well remembered, something I think is down to the unorthodox casting. Errol Flynn wanted to stop the typecasting of the swashbuckling action star, so he decidedly wanted to take on the part of Soames when you might think Jolyon was more to his perceived character. Walter Pidgeon is also the person you think would be more suited to Soames. Flynn shows that he really was a good actor, while Pidgeon, well, not quite so much. Not that he's bad; it's just that he doesn't really overcome his typecasting the way Flynn does.

That Forsyte Woman is absolutely worth watching as another example of the quality MGM could bring to its period productions.