The main thing that one will notice about "The Country Girl" is the unusual roles given to Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. His Frank is a depressed alcoholic, her Georgie is the unglamorous wife (well, unglamorous by Grace Kelly's standards). And then there's William Holden's Bernie. He's the director of a musical production, convinced that Georgie is the reason for Frank's alcoholism, and intent on making her life a living hell.It was rare for a movie back then to focus on misogyny. I found the scenes in which Bernie berates Georgie to be the most effective in the movie. They were certainly intense. The musical scenes were corny, but the rest of the movie made up for those. As to the question of whether Grace Kelly's performance merited an Oscar win over Judy Garland's performance in "A Star Is Born", I actually found this to be the more important movie; it focuses on a more serious issue.So, it's not the greatest movie ever made but I still recommend it. Just remember that Crosby's and Kelly's roles are not like what we're used to.

It's good enough when a movie can impress me with an excellent performance delivered from an actor whom I didn't think had the chops to do so, now multiply that by three and you've got The Country Girl.I had only previously seen Bing Crosby in several musicals and comedies. He's never struck me as an enigmatic screen presence but serviceable none the less. Thus surprise performance # 1 in The Country Girl. Why didn't Crosby do more dramatic roles in his career? This is one of most powerful performances I've ever seen as a washed up alcoholic performer who has hit rock bottom. Like Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend and Jack Lemon in Days of Wine and Roses, Crosby's performance has helped convince me never to start drinking (or at least that would be the case since I've never had any intention of starting). Yet I would still say he's outdone by William Holden, surprise performance #2. I've found Holden to be very hit or miss as an actor, possibly relying on great directors to get a good performance out of him otherwise he comes off to me as forgettable. The jury is still out on his abilities as an actor but never less after watching The Country Girl again I can say this is my favourite performance I've seen him deliver giving so much raw energy as a driven stage producer.Finally in the triangle of surprise is Grace Kelly. Prior to watching The Country Girl I was becoming increasingly anti-Grace Kelly, questioning if she was even a very good actress. Here in this dowdy, playing against type role, my opinion of her changed. I have a rule when it comes to reviewing not to talk about Oscars as I see complaining about awards to be futile and cliché. Yet this is one exception in which I'm forced to break it due to the controversy surrounding her win. Judy Garland's role in A Star Is Born is one of my favourite film performances of all time and should have won her the Oscar that year however if The Country Girl had been released most other years I would have been more than happy to see Grace Kelly get the Oscar. Without delving into a mindless praise fest I really was left flabbergasted by this trio of performers aided with the help of the film's unforgettable sense of atmosphere as Grace Kelly puts best herself: "There's nothing quite so mysterious and silent as a dark theatre, a night without a star."

Well, it won Grace Kelly an Academy Award and it's easy to see why. She was delicious in a couple of earlier movies and positively supernal in "Rear Window." Here, too, she's playing against type -- not the glamorous, elegant blond but the beaten-down mousy wife in glasses, holding up her enfeebled alcoholic husband, Bing Crosby. But was she really actress enough for such a melodramatic role? Yes and no. She does okay, slumping her drab way through the role, radiating exhaustion. But when it comes to angry shouting she seems uncomfortable, as if in violation of the rules of the convent school in which she'd been educated.I don't know if that can be held against her. This is from a play by Clifford Odets and so all of the lines sound as if they were written for the stage. Nobody else sound especially natural either. Her worst moment is her most intense -- when the director, William Holden, who's trying to resurrect Crosby's career chews her out, blaming her for all of Crosby's weaknesses. She turns and slaps Holden hard across the face, then says with what intensity she can gather, "Did I forget to tell you I was proud?" That's pretty pompous stuff.With regard to that scene, it's a good illustration of the mediocre and middle-brow talent of the film's director, George Seaton. The pauses after the slap and after the devastating line are long. Very long. The camera lingers on the two figures in medium shot, waiting, one supposes, for the gasps to die down in the audience. You know, a good, efficient director of Grade B movies, which this is, at heart, would have given the audience credit enough to understand this is an important incident and would have edited his way quickly through it. Sam Fuller, nobody's idea of a self-important artist, would have introduced somehow a touch of irony.But director Seaton more or less stumbles through this stagy plot and exercises no discernible imagination in his staging. He's also responsible for the screenplay, which turns far too much time over to Bing Crosby singing vapid songs and cuts out what was one of the most important events in the play -- the scene in which the Holden character provokes the Crosby character into improvising a stunning angry speech in front of the producers. The power of that improvisation leaves the producers speechless and secures the job for Crosby.I remember that scene because many years ago I played Larry the Stage Manager in a college production of "The Country Girl." I was a far better Larry the Stage Manager than Gene Reynolds, who plays Larry the Stage Manager in the movie. I can prove I was better. I even got a fan letter. True, the letter was written by my girl friend, and, true, I had to threaten to pull her hair to get her to write it. But I'm morally certain when she thought about it later, she realized her accolade was justified. It's not a terrible movie, but it's not what it might have been. Holden is constantly on the edge of exploding. Crosby's performance belongs in a movie with Dorothy Lamour. And Kelly's exhaustion is exhausting. Most of the flaws I attribute to the director.

Musical stage star Bing Crosby (as Frank Elgin) is all washed-up in the theater; after the accidental death of his son, he seeks solace in alcohol. Mr. Crosby's dowdy wife of ten years, Grace Kelly (as Georgie Elgin), is both domineering and co-dependent. Ex-hat check boy, and Cosby fan, William Holden (as Bernie Dodd) becomes overly involved with the pair, while steering Cosby's boozy comeback. Mr. Holden is as dependable as always. Ms. Kelly is good, but sometimes too obvious in showing frumpiness. Surprisingly, Cosby, the least heralded dramatic actor of the threesome, outperforms his illustrious co-stars; he really crawls beneath the surface of his character, and manages to make an almost tuneless, lackluster story much more interesting.******* The Country Girl (12/15/54) George Seaton ~ Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, William Holden, Anthony Ross