Viña Delmar (1903-90)

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LITERATURE ART FICTION FILM MUSIC TELEVISION HISTORY LANGUAGE POETRY STORES TOOLS

on this page, just a lengthening, currently stalled, draft. Begins with Cynthia, but there’s more to consider.

Viña Delmar (1903-90) was born Alvina Croter, the daughter of a couple active in vaudeville. She did not attend high school, but worked: as an usher and a typist. She published her first novel Bad Girl in April 1928. The success of her fiction, and a snappy writing style, earned her what would in effect be a one-way ticket to Hollywood, where she worked on some screenplays but also managed to continue writing fiction. Indeed, after The Awful Truth, she and her partner-in-crime husband got out of the scenario business entirely. Her Becker Scandal (1968) is autobiographical; her first novel is probably autobiographical, as well.

Several films were based on Delmar stories (and a novel, in the case of Bad Girl). Delmar also wrote the screenplay for Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth (1937), starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, and Leo McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), which evidently impressed screenwriter Kogo Noda, who with Yasujiro Ozu wrote the script of Ozu’s Tokyo Monogatari that developed a story along similar lines (1953).

Viña Delmar (1905-90) —
Cynthia. Director: Robert Leonard. Released July 1947. Based on —
The Rich, Full Life. Samuel French, 1946. Based on —
Time of Her Life, in Woman’s Home Companion (September 1944), pp22-23.

The film Cynthia originated from a play and earlier story, both by Viña Delmar, something of an it girl author in the late 1920s and early 1930s, who would write several novels (in two or even three chapters in her own life), some screenplays, and numerous stories. My focus here is on Cynthia and its sources: the film depicts a hardware store, the play refers to it, the story has none. But this stumbling into Viña Delmar's work has occasioned my reading several of her novels too. I will discuss the trajectory of (some of that work), as well as the reception of her fiction, as well.

There’s more about the hardware store in the film than in the play, yet what’s in the play is wittier. A good summary of the film is found in the American Film Institute Catalog (Feature Films, 1941-1950), which can be found here (the AFI Catalog is an excellent resource, by the way).

Below are discussions of film and play, as well as something about the work and life of Viña Delmar.

the film —

Louise and Larry are students at Wyandott College, ca 1928. Louise plays the piano well, Larry excels at baseball. Louise manages to attract his attention, and they go out for a romantic evening row on the lake. Louise tells Larry of her dream to continue her studies at the Vienna Conservatory; Larry responds with his own plan to do post-graduate work in medicine there. They’ll have all summer to think of each other. Louise returns to Michigan, Larry to his hometown Napoleon, Illinois, where he works at J. M. Dingle’s hardware store. They return to school in the Fall, and get married. In the winter (skiing on mountains), Louise tells Larry she’s scared: he gets it, she’s pregnant. He promises that a child won’t get in the way of their dreams. The young couple move to Napoleon, where Larry resumes his job at the hardware store.

(A fictional Wyandotte (— with an e) College appears in several Kurt Vonnegut stories; see Susan Elizabeth Farrell, Critical Companion to Kurt Vonnegut (Infobase, 2008).)

A daughter Cynthia is born frail. Medical bills mount, and it becomes clear to Louise and Larry that earlier dreams must be put aside.

Fifteen years pass. Cynthia (played by Elizabeth Taylor) is still frail, under constant medical supervision of her uncle Fred, involving shots and medications and advice about what not to eat — no fruit, and especially apples. She misses school a lot, and every kind of social activity. She has a good singing voice, and Professor Rosenkrantz, who once taught her mother, encourages her to try out for a school operetta. (He speaks a lot about his life in Vienna and, indeed, Vienna becomes code for the dreams of youth in the film.) Illness prevents Cynthia from participating in the performance, but her singing has attracted the attention of Ricky Latham, a popular student (and Navy veteran, who has come back to complete his high school education).

Meanwhile, we’ve learned that the owner of the house Larry and Louise rent will be selling; they need to decide what to do. Larry asks Dingle for a raise, doesn’t get it.

Ricky Latham is a very nice — and oddly young (and uncoarsened!), for a veteran — fellow. Lots of subterfuges are launched by Cynthia’s cousin Fredonia, to prevent their getting together, but Larry invites Cynthia to the prom. Her mother allows Cynthia to go, even makes a dress; she deceives Larry about it. There’s a terrible storm out, that night, and she has to work hard to get Larry out of the house (to a meeting), so that Cynthia can be picked up and taken to the prom, despite the storm.

Larry finds out, reacts angrily and chastizes his wife, exclaiming that she hates him for the sacrifices/compromises he’s had to make. (He has been embittered by the course of his life.) He is late rising the next day. He arrives at the store to learn that Dingle is back from a trip to Florida, and is furious about Larry’s tardiness. Reaching a boiling point, he kicks opens Dingle’s office door, launches into a tirade, and quits. He arrives home where Louise has just made a downpayment on the house (with her own savings). A comedy of errors ensues. Louise is delighted by Larry’s show of anger (and life); he says to begin packing, so they can go to Chicago. Cynthia refuses to leave, however, because she’s going steady now. All is resolved when Mr. Dingle is spied outside, hurring to the house with hat in hand, to beg Larry to return to the store. The end.