The daughter (Joan Fontaine) of a musical mentor (Montagu Love) is hopelessly in love with her cousin's husband (Charles Boyer), a handsome composer.The daughter (Joan Fontaine) of a musical mentor (Montagu Love) is hopelessly in love with her cousin's husband (Charles Boyer), a handsome composer.The daughter (Joan Fontaine) of a musical mentor (Montagu Love) is hopelessly in love with her cousin's husband (Charles Boyer), a handsome composer.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 win & 1 nomination total
- Lady Longborough
- (as Dame May Whitty)
- Roberto
- (as Edward Ciannelli)
- Dr. Renee
- (as Andre Charlot)
- Kiril Trigorin
- (as Richard Ryan)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJoan Fontaine got the lead role of Tessa by a lucky chance. One day, she was having lunch at Romanoff's in Hollywood, with her husband, actor Brian Aherne. The two had just flown in by airplane from their grape ranch in Indio, California, and Fontaine was in a leather flight suit with her hair done in pigtails. Director Edmund Goulding walked into the restaurant, and stopped by their table to say hello to his good friend Aherne. Goulding complained that he was having trouble casting a lead actress for his next movie, "The Constant Nymph." Although he had considered Joan Leslie, she was wrong for the part. And, Goulding explained, "Jack Warner wants a star in the lead, but she has to be consumptive, flat-chested, anemic, and fourteen!" "How about me?" said Fontaine. "Who are you?" asked Goulding, not recognizing the freckled girl in pigtails sitting next to him. "Joan Fontaine," said the actress. Goulding looked startled. "You're perfect!" Fontaine was signed for the part the next day, and later called it "the happiest motion-picture assignment of my career."
- Quotes
Florence Creighton: You flung yourself at my husband in this house and you succeeded!
Tessa Sanger: I can't help it if I love Lewis! I did long before you came to Switzerland and it's not a happy thing. It's brought nothing but sadness into my life, and yet it's so overwhelming I wouldn't want it to be different.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Between Two Worlds: Erich Wolfgang Korngold (2005)
- SoundtracksTomorrow
(uncredited)
Words by Margaret Kennedy
by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Sung by Joan Fontaine (dubbed by Sally Sweetland) with chamber group
If "The Constant Nymph" isn't super icky, it's only because Fontaine is obviously way too old to be playing the age she does (I could never figure out just how old she's supposed to be, but not out of her teens when the movie starts) and because she does such a bad job of playing that age that her character comes across as more mentally deranged than immature. In the film's first few minutes, there's a brief moment where her character leans over in pain and clutches her side, and from there you know it's only a matter of time before she kicks the bucket. Waiting around for that to happen is a bit of a dull affair, but the film is nice to look at and has Charles Coburn to offer, and he's always a welcome presence. I suppose fans of either Boyer or Fontaine will find more to like about this film than I did, but I've never been crazy about either one of them.
Fontaine received her third and final Oscar nomination for Best Actress for this movie.
Grade: B
- evanston_dad
- Oct 29, 2019
- How long is The Constant Nymph?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 52 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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![Joan Fontaine, Charles Boyer, and Alexis Smith in The Constant Nymph (1943)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMGQ5NWEzNDYtMGZmNi00ZGU1LTk0M2ItNzQ4OGY2NmE4ZjkzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDI2NDg0NQ@@._V1_QL75_UX90_CR0,2,90,133_.jpg)