Elizabeth Taylor in the title role plays an overprotected 15-year-old who has lengthy bouts of illnesses seemingly due to a compromised immune system. She yearns to do normal teenage activities, but keeps having these setbacks related to her illness that constantly worry her parents (played by George Murphy and Mary Astor) and her doctor uncle (played by Gene Lockhart). Their strategy to prevent the illnesses from happening is to isolate her from her friends at school, have her come straight home, and forbid her from participating in school activities. Of course Cynthia is not going to be a wallflower forever, because this is a young Elizabeth Taylor here and the one thing she does not suffer from, even at 15, is awkward teenager syndrome compared to most. Noticing this right away is Ricky Latham (played by Jimmy Lydon, who was not the Zac Efron of the 40's, but somehow managed to play Taylor's love interest in "Life with Father" as well), who looks past the sicknesses and sees a beautiful, smart, charismatic young girl that just needs to get out of the house. Noticing this as well with jealousy is her cousin Fredonia (played by Carol Brannan), who has eyes on Ricky also, despite the fact she has a boyfriend of her own. Eventually, Cynthia's mother realizes that babying her will never teach her to overcome her problems, and hatches a plan with her daughter to get her to the Prom without Dad and Uncle knowing. Elizabeth Taylor shows her acting is beyond the capabilities of most other teenage actors of her day, but still displays the girlish charm of someone coming into her own. The movie has a fair amount of fretting and whining, but it does come out of it with some fine comedic scenes throughout the film and underrated performances from the supporting cast.
Review of Cynthia
