On Green Dolphin Street (1947)

"On Green Dolphin Street" is a very dark film (especially for 1947) about a love triangle that ends up changing the lives of everybody involved indefinitely and for the most part without remorse or forgiving. The film follows four characters, three of which are involved in the love triangle (William, Marianne, and Marguerite who are sisters). William ends up falling in love with Marguerite but can't be with her because he is involved with the navy and is traveling with a trading vessel called The Green Dolphin. He ends up settling in New Zealand and running a lumber mill with a friend he met, Haslam. One night while in a drunken stupor, he writes a letter to send for his love Marguerite to marry her, but makes a mistake in his intoxicated state and accidentally writes Marianne's name instead of Marguerite's. A long while later he realizes his mistake when Marianne shows up in New Zealand rather than his love, Marguerite. He ends up marrying Marianne even though he doesn't love her and they live "happily" for awhile until a series of plot changing events (an earthquake and a war) force William and Marianne back to England. When they return to England they find that Marianne's and Marguerite's parents have died and without anybody else in the world, Marguerite has taken to the nunnery as a servant of God. Marianne ends up finding out that William had planned to marry Marguerite until he found out that she had become a nun which leads to the revealing of the truth about their relationship. However it all ends up happy in the end and William and Marianne truly fall in love.
The reason why this movie was so dark was because of a few major things. The characters were very easy to become attached to, the worst possible things happen to the characters, and the music was very well composed and suited for the sections in which life/plot changing events happened. The wailing of the string orchestra when Marianne's and Marguerite's parents die is a textbook example of this. It rouses an incredibly emotional disturbance and sorrow for the Marguerite who now has nothing.
The only problem with this movie was that it was really, really long (2 hours and 21 minutes). I felt that it could have been cut down a lot and it seemed to drag on and on forever. Despite that "On Green Dolphin Street" was relatively good movie and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It gets 4/5