Patricia Neal was *not* miscast!

I just watched this and Patricia Neal literally took my breath away. I cannot believe this was her film debut! She was so poised, so graceful, so confident and strong, so self-assured. I loved her in this film. When she cried and got upset over John, it felt believable to me. And as John's lies began to build and build (and build), she really let him have it and her angry scenes with him were on point. I literally think Patricia shone in this role.

True, she was not some doe-eyed ingenue and perhaps that's what the writers were originally going for, especially if Jane Wyman had been originally cast as Mary. But I thought Patricia really took the role and made it her own. She did seem older than Mary probably should have been but keep in mind that Patricia was only 22 years old when this movie was filmed. It's hard to believe because she carries herself as someone who is so much more mature than someone in their early 20's but it seemed to be Patricia's personality.

I disagree with the reviewers who claimed she had no chemistry with Ronald Reagan or her parents. I couldn't wait for the truth to come out at the end of the movie and for her and John to finally get back together and be married. I thought she and the mother had a typical mother/daughter dynamic and I also thought her chemistry with the father was good, he as the overprotective, doting dad and she as the emotional daughter who felt like her father just couldn't understand her at times.

Just wanted to give my $.02 as it seems like the prevailing wisdom on this page is that Patricia was miscast and I've even seem some posts claiming that she was awful in the film and I couldn't disagree more!