Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

George Wright This production of Anne of Green Gables Is a Hollywood take on a much loved story about a fictional Canadian girl whose story has made her beautiful home province a popular tourist destination. The quality of the film I saw on TCM is excellent. I expected a grainy-looking movie with background static. The production, like many 1930's movies, seems like a theatrical play transferred to the screen with excellent acting and perfect diction. Anne Shirley (name taken from the main character), Helen Westley as Marilla, O.P. Heggie as Matthew and Tom Brown as Gilbert are excellent as the main characters. One notable omission I noticed is that the ride by horse wagon through the "Avenue" is ignored in the script, amid the lovely scenery. In the book, Anne enthuses about it. The sets are prettified with perfect houses and English country gardens, unlike the reality of rural Prince Edward Island in the early 20th century. Hairdos are the style of the 1930's celebrity set and are totally out of place for the setting. Anne Shirley plays her role like an older version of Shirley Temple and the ending does come on very abruptly with significant parts left out of the story. Still, for all its flaws, the movie played a role in establishing this iconic Canadian character and the best selling book on which the story is based has become a Canadian classic.

wes-connors Because they are getting older, practical Helen Westley (as Marilla Cuthbert) and her quiet brother O.P. Heggie (as Matthew Cuthbert) decide to adopt a boy from an orphanage in Canada. They expect the lad will help work on their farm "Green Gables". Instead of a boy, Mr. Heggie is presented with spirited 14-year-old Dawn O'Day (as Anne Shirley), a precocious red-haired girl. Determined and fast-talking, she endears herself to Heggie and even thaws Ms. Westley's cool exterior. In school, O'Day meets handsome young Tom Brown (as Gilbert Blythe) and a romance begins. Although she does talk too much, O'Day is endearing. The young actress professionally changed her name to "Anne Shirley" with the release of this film. The popular 1908 novel, by Lucy Maud Montgomery, became a successful "silent" feature film in 1919, starring Mary Miles Minter and directed by William Desmond Taylor. That version appears to be lost, unfortunately, but this one captures the bygone setting beautifully.******** Anne of Green Gables (11/23/34) George Nicholls Jr. ~ Anne Shirley, Tom Brown, Helen Westley, O.P. Heggie

bkoganbing Similar to Pollyanna in its central character Anne Of Green Gables written in the Edwardian era by Canadian novelist Lucy Maud Montgomery has attained an enduring popularity the world over. It certainly has given Canada's smallest province Prince Edward Island its most famous identity.In this adaption of the story young Anne Shirley played by Anne Shirley is sent by an orphanage to a sister and brother, Helen Westley and O.P. Heggie instead of a boy. It's a boy they want to help with the farm work as they're not spring chickens. But the orphanage sends a girl instead and Shirley has an innocence and bewitching charm and one lively imagination that captivates Heggie from the start. The crusty Westley takes a bit longer, but she grows to love her like a birth daughter though she takes great pains not to show it too much.The novel has been adapted many times for the big and small screen and even for a mini-series. We get only the bare bones of a plot, but the skill of the players makes up for a lot of it. Tom Brown is in this too as Anne's boyfriend although their courtship is a bit rocky. They start with Anne busting her school slate on his noggin.This is a good adaption that has held up well even for today. We'll no doubt see Anne Of Green Gables made many times over still, but this story is timeless as is this film.

Unwanted_Birdtamer I wasn't expecting much, and I wasn't expecting this film to be completely true to the book it was based on; but I guess I was expecting at least more than a passing resemblance to the book. People have mentioned that it mostly sticks to the book....I wonder which book they read. Although the first half hour of the film is pretty close to the novel, the rest of the film is made up almost completely out of thin air. *SPOILERS*The biggest change which I really hated, was that in the film, Matthew was supposed to have married Gilbert Blythe's mother (in the book, it was Marilla who was supposed to have married Gilbert Blythe's father). Because Gilbert's mother ran off with someone else and left Matthew, Marilla has an inexplicable hatred of Gilbert. Yea, that makes a lot of sense. She dislikes him so much, that when she finds out Anne and Gilbert are romantically involved, she schemes and lies to separate them--by telling Anne that she owes Marilla and Matthew too much to disobey them like this, and lies to Gilbert by telling him Anne doesn't love him. What in the world happened to the lovable Marilla and Matthew of the book? Although Marilla did have pain at seeing Gilbert in the novel, thinking he could have been her son, she certainly would have never schemed and lied to keep Anne and Gilbert separated. And she certainly wouldn't have tried to manipulate Anne into doing what she wanted by reminding her of what she "owed" to the Cuthberts because they took her in. As for the rest of the film, the actors who played Matthew and Gilbert aren't bad--although if I closed my eyes, I would have sworn Gilbert was being played by Mickey Rooney. Anne Shirley plays Anne even more hyper and obnoxious than I would have thought possible in the first half of the film; and then she suddenly morphs into a completely different character as she becomes a teenager and becomes a completely boring typical 1930s female.