Aedonerre I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

tieman64 One of Warner Bros' better 1950s melodramas, "Marjorie Morningstar" stars Natalie Wood as a Marjorie Morgenstern, a young Jew growing up in New York City. Marjorie wishes to be a dancer and artist, but her strict parents desire for her to embark upon a more "safe" and "practical" future. Marry a doctor, they say, get a proper career.Marjorie, of course, does the opposite. On the cusp of womanhood, and bubbling with pent up sexual energy, she travels to a summer camp. Here she meets Noel Airman (Gene Kelly), a dancer and social director whom she falls instantly in love with. Noel adores Marjorie too, but is hesitant to take things further. They're too different - she too young and he a failed artist - and so he insists that their relationship be scuttled. Marjorie attempts to convince him otherwise, but to no avail. She then abides by her parents wishes and hooks up with a "safe", "stable" and "successful" young man.The film doesn't pass judgement on either Noel or Marjorie. Indeed, it pities them both. Noel tries to mould himself into the image of a "successful man" - he gets a job in advertising, capitalism's playpen for wannabe artists – but it's no use. He drops out and heads to Europe and then Mexico. Marjorie, meanwhile, becomes trapped in the very social roles she hoped to avoid."Marjorie Morningstar" was directed by Irving Rapper. The film's too long, features too many Jewish stereotypes and modern audiences will no doubt find it somewhat obvious. Nevertheless, it's a good example of the kinds of ambitious melodramas (Vincente Minnelli, Nicholas Ray etc) which were being produced in the era.Incidentally, this was one of the legendary Gene Kelly's last serious roles. He does well, portraying deep insecurities behind much sexiness and raw physicality. This was also one of Natalie Wood's earliest adult roles. She's as beautiful as ever - and Rapper knows it, first revealing her in a state of semi-undress - and enlivens what is otherwise a typical "Jewish princess" role. Wood would herself star in a number of films which were unconsciously about a then brewing sexual revolution. "Marjorie Morningstar's" plot, for example, echoes the plot of Wood's "Splendour in the Grass", which sees Wood playing a young girl in small town Kansas who struggles to reconcile promiscuity and conservative, social mores. "Love With The Proper Stranger", meanwhile, saw Wood playing a woman who struggles with sex out of wedlock, "This Property is Condemned" finds her playing a young woman who is essentially used as a prostitute by her mother, and Wood's "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice" sees her playing a upper class woman who embraces sexual orgies and the free love, hippie ethos.8/10 – Worth one viewing.

didi-5 This film teams an ageing Gene Kelly with the young Natalie Wood, in a tale that begins and ends at summer camp, where nice Jewish girl Marjorie Morningstern falls for the vain Noel Airman, a song and dance man stick in a rut.It is a good film, with a supporting cast which includes Ed Wynn, Carolyn Jones, and Martin Balsam. The musical theme throughout, A Very Precious Love, grounds it as a first love fairytale, but I think sympathies will still be split between the rather shallow but naive Marjorie and the immature Noel.A true period piece which brings both laughter and tears, this film showcases Natalie Wood's talents just as Inside Daisy Clover did. Gene Kelly, although good, is too old and a bit miscast - a younger actor might have brought the right nuances of the character, although I doubt they would have done it with such charm.

dencar_1 This is one of those movies to see over and over for certain memorable scenes, the hauntingly beautiful piece, A VERY SPECIAL LOVE, and for the novelty of watching Gene Kelly in a strictly dramatic role. But as for the treatment the film gives to the Herman Wouk novel, MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR experiences the usual celluloid plastic surgery and comes out an approximation of the 1950's best seller. For central to Wouk's fiction is the New York Jewish community and its effect on a young woman struggling with her own sexual identity. In short, what we get in the film is Natalie Wood, nascent and alluring, but resembling more a Beverly Hills rich girl than a Jewish American Princess. MORNINGSTAR is undoubtedly Natalie Wood's maiden flight as a leading lady. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE may have brought her to the public's attention, but MORNINGSTAR was the movie that launched her as a star and sent her career skyrocketing. The obvious parallel between the coming of age of Marjorie in the film and Natalie Wood as a leading lady cannot be ignored. Noel Airman (Gene Kelly) is a shiftless romantic forever working on his musical PRINCESS JONES. He's more or less a drifter and supports himself in summertime by working as a dramatic director at a Jewish summertime resort in the Adirondacks where young girls are drawn to him like moths. It is there that he meets a very young and impressionable Marjorie. Her obsession with him begins immediately and the more irresponsible Airman behaves, the more deeply she is drawn into him. The Marjorie--Noel relationship is the movie's centerpiece as Marjorie simply refuses to see Airman as a deadbeat and supports his pipe dreams about a Broadway production. She even influences her best friend (Carolyn Jones) to get her boyfriend, well-connected Jesse White, to put financial backing together to produce Airman's play. The production flops, of course, because it's so romantically saccharine and Kelly finally realizes he's going nowhere. Taking to drink, he escapes to Europe and heartbroken Marjorie goes off after him. Natalie Wood's performance as Marjorie Morningstar is superior and is performed with the same passion characteristic of almost every role she ever tackled. However, Kelly's performance as Noel Airman is, for the most part, superficial. It wasn't his first dramatic role by a long shot, for Kelly was always a fine actor in his own right and showed his talents in many of his musicals such as COVER GIRL and AN American IN Paris, but MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR was his first non-dancing dramatic effort. Most of the others in the cast, with the exception of Carolyn Jones, Marjorie's common-sense best friend, come off as stereotypes. Ed Wynn hovers around Wood as the wise Uncle Sampson sprinkling common sense over Marjorie's romantic dizziness. Claire Trevor and Everette Sloan are Marjorie's uppity, bigoted Jewish parents who will tolerate nothing less than a wealthy husband for their daughter. Marty Balsam is a complete figurine playing Marjorie's wimpy suitor. But the most obtuse character in the film is Wally (Mary Milner), the struggling playwright who's been in love with Marjorie forever. Milner is portrayed as a Marjorie's shoulder to lean on lurking behind the scenes for years. Then in the bat of an eye, he's suddenly transformed into a successful Broadway playwright! The transition is laughable.In the end, Marjorie matures and finally seees Noel as a self-destructive dreamer. She visits the old summer camp on the Adirondacks for one last time and looks on as Noel draws impressionable young girls into his web all over again. The sequence itself is very effective; however, the movie's very last scene in which Marjorie boards a bus and discovers a smiling Wally behind her in the rear view mirror now ready to step into her life big time is a bit much.MORNINGSTAR works if you don't want to hold the script up to the light and just enjoy Wood and Kelly in a film. The theme song, A VERY SPECIAL LOVE, casts the appropriate mood over the summer camp atmosphere and, if nothing else, strikes a cord in all of us who ever had a nostalgic vacation romance.Dennis Caracciolo

Curly-27 I recently saw this movie after adoring Gene Kelly's musicals since I was a kid. It is quite a departure of what I'm used to seeing him in, but still wonderful. This is pretty standard fare for Natalie Wood, but it is a rare treat to see Gene Kelly in a dramatic role. After reading his biography, it is a sad irony that his character somewhat mirrored what was happening in Gene Kelly's personal life, in that his days of glory were something of the past. This is not the Gene Kelly you know, but if you want to see him in something different, take the phone off the hook, grab a box of Kleenex and sit down with Marjorie Morningstar. It will stay with you.