The Voice of the Turtle (1947)
The 1947 romantic comedy follows Sally Middleton, a young New York actress who has become wary of love after a painful breakup. During a wartime weekend in New York, her friend’s date, soldier Bill Page, is stranded, and Sally agrees to let him stay with her. As the two spend time together, they begin to fall for each other despite Sally’s resolve to avoid serious romance. The film was adapted from John Van Druten’s stage play and is also known as One for the Book.
Narrative Score
Full Plot & Ending Explained
Intro
The story begins in December 1944 in New York City, where Sally Middleton, a young actress, has just been dumped by her married lover, Kenneth Bartlett, who says he cannot let her ruin his marriage by falling too deeply in love.
Turning Point 1
Sally, hurt and cautious, resolves not to take love seriously again, while her friend Olive Lashbrooke continues to treat romance as a game and quickly juggles multiple men.
Turning Point 2
Olive arranges to meet Army sergeant Bill Page, who is on weekend leave in New York, at Sally’s apartment, but Olive suddenly gets a better offer from another man and leaves Bill standing there.
Turning Point 3
Bill arrives expecting Olive, is brushed off by her excuse, and then discovers there is no hotel room available; after calling around and failing to find anyone else, he asks Sally to let him stay with her for the weekend.
Turning Point 4
Sally agrees on a strictly proper arrangement, and although Bill sleeps separately, the shared apartment creates mounting embarrassment and emotional tension as Sally begins to enjoy his company and realize he is very different from the careless men who hurt her before.
Turning Point 5
Olive, who does not want to lose Bill completely, keeps phoning Sally’s apartment, lies and improvises to cover her own behavior, and later grows jealous when she senses that Sally and Bill are spending the weekend together.
Turning Point 6
The situation becomes even more awkward when Olive turns up unexpectedly and tries to reclaim Bill, but by then Bill has already fallen for Sally and sees through Olive’s flirtation and self-serving behavior.
Ending
Bill convinces Sally to trust her feelings, abandon her fear of commitment, and begin a real romance with him, ending the weekend with a mutual decision to be together.
Cross-checked against Wikipedia and other public film references. View on Letterboxd ↗ The Narrative Score above is an experimental 5-axis rating, not a critic score.