Friday, May 4, 2012

Stolen Hours (1963)

United Artists
Directed by Daniel Petrie
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM Limited Edition Collection)

Susan Hayward is diagnosed with a brain tumor and undergoes surgery by a friendly doctor. Although the symptoms are cured by the operation, she is only expected to live another year before it returns. She falls in love with the doctor, they get married and move to the English seaside. He carries on with his private practice while she substitutes a local boy for the son they will never have themselves. It sounds morose but is done with enough sensitivity such that the end result is a hopeful, if sobering, experience. Susan Hayward is quite good in a role made famous by Bette Davis in 1939's Dark Victory. Ironically, Hayward died of brain cancer in real life just a dozen years after this film.

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