Goodbye, My Fancy * (1951, Joan Crawford, Robert Young, Frank Lovejoy) – Classic Movie Review 9609

Director Vincent Sherman’s 1951 Goodbye, My Fancy stars Joan Crawford, who is miscast in Madeleine Carroll’s stage role in Fay Kanin’s play, as Agatha Reed, a US Congress woman in a love tussle with old flame and college head Doctor James Merrill (Robert Young) and cynical reporter Matt Cole (Frank Lovejoy) when she goes to pick up a degree at her old college, which had dumped her years ago.

Joan overacts in her best melodramatic style and swamps a fragile tale and her co-stars. Goodbye, My Fancy is a  misfire. It doesn’t really work as comedy, romance or drama, and it is not very clear which of these it is aiming at.

Also in the cast are Eve Arden, Janice Rule, Lurene Tuttle, Howard St John, Viola Roache, Ellen Corby, Morgan Farley, Virginia Gibson, John Qualen, Mary Carver, Ann Robin, Creighton Hale, Frank Hyer and John Alvin (scenes deleted).

The screenplay is by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts.

Crawford was said to have resented and behaved badly to the young and attractive debuting actress Janice Rule, who plays Virginia Merrill. But years later Crawford wrote her a letter of apology.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9609

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Robert Young in Goodbye, My Fancy (1951).