In 1945, hot on the heels of Paramount Pictures
For Whom The Bells Toll, Warner Brothers issued an epic romance from a best seller by Edna Ferber, starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman fresh from their pairing in the Hemingway opus. For Ferber, the author of such works as
Show Boat, which was made into a musical Broadway show and later two films
; Cimarron, made into an Oscar winning film in 1932 by RKO and later
Giant, which would become James Dean's final film before his untimely death at age 24,
Saratoga Trunk, published in 1941, was another bonafide crowd pleaser. Warners had originally purchased the book and set top scenarist Casey Robinson to whip it into shape for their supreme screen team of Errol Flynn and Olivia deHavilland {or possibly Bette Davis, but she despised working with Flynn feeling he was a no-talent pretty boy, a judgement she would later reverse }, but by the time filming began in 1943 deHavilland was about to sue Warners for extending her contract for another six months due to her time spent on suspension, tacking it on like a late fee charge. So with Livy out, the brothers Warner decided to look elsewhere for the part of the Creole Clio Dulaine, the illegitimate, selfish, adventuress who has come home to New Orleans after spending her wonder years growing up in France. Ingrid Bergman, always up for an acting challenge, let it be known she was interested in the role and Warners wasted no time in signing her up. For the male lead of Texan Clint Maroon, Gary Cooper was tabbed for the part. For Coop it would be the closest he would come to playing a Rhett Butler-type.
Trunk, released in 1945 but lensed in 1943, was held back for two years, which could be attributed to the pairing of Coop and Bergman,
Trunk being released too close to
Bells Toll or it could be because of rumors that Cooper and Bergman, both married {but not to each other} with children had a torrid love affair while filming
Bells Toll in California's Sierra mountains {and supposedly continued on the
Trunk set}. It was also true that Warners had a backlog of films during the war years. Some, like 1946's
The Big Sleep,
Devotion about the Bronte girls, and others were first shown to servicemen overseas and held back from release before they were fit for consumption in the good ol' U.S. of A. Finally released in New York City on November 21, 1945, it appears that
Saratoga Trunk fits somewhere in this release pattern.
Made by Sam Wood {
Goodbye, Mr Chips; For Whom The Bells Toll; The Pride Of The Yankees} on a budget of $1.75 million, it would return an estimated $4.2 million back in rentals {rentals being the money collected and returned to the studio after theater owners get their cut. A film's gross, therefore, is always bigger than rentals, usually the gross is approximately double the rental} but has been unjustly regarded as a failure, probably in light of the fact that the previous Cooper/Bergman pairing not only made bushel baskets full of green, it also was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, Actor {Cooper}, Actress {Bergman}, but only won a single award for Katina Paxinou's over-the-top perf as 'Pilar'. The only noms greeted
Trunk was Flora Robson's flamboyant {and no doubt offensive to contemporary eyes, Robson being a white, British-born actress} portrayal of Angelique, Clio's mulatto servant.
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| Ingrid as Clio Dulaine, visiting her childhood home after years away in France. Saratoga Trunk, 1945 |
Saratoga Trunk gets a pretty bad bashing in today's film world, however it has an impeccable quality in it's sets {production design by Carl Jules Weyl}, Ernest Haller's {
Gone With The Wind;
Mildred Pierce;
Deception;
Hunoresque, to name just a few} wonderfully atmospheric sheen of B&W photography, Leah Rhodes' crazy, inventive costume design and Max Steiner's lush, sweeping and romantic score are all first rate. Did anyone compose more memorable film music than Max {
GWTW;
The Letter;
The Informer;
Now, Voyager;
Casablanca;
The Searchers;
A Summer Place - the list is endless} Steiner? The acting honors go to the ever-brave Miss Bergman who, positively radiant in period gowns, takes Clio Dulaine, black wig an all, and runs with it. In a role that could have certainly drawn fits of giggles, Miss B is highly seductive, clever, ambitious, money-mad, wicked and horny as hell for Coop from the instant she see's him. It's Ingrid's film all the way, she steals it right from under Coop's nose, though most critics would call it petty larceny. Bergman would go on to bigger, better projects from here, in fact just around the corner would be her first Oscar winning role in George Cukor's
Gaslight opposite the suavely, slimy Charles Boyer; Leo LcCarey's
Going My Way remake, I mean sequel,
The Bells of St. Mary's and a couple for The Master, Alfred Hitchcock: 1945's
Spellbound and that masterpiece of romance and intrigue, 1946's
Notorious with the best leading man she ever had, Cary Grant. Bergman would shine in all of these pictures and become one of the greatest stars of the 1940's, landing in the Top Ten Box Offices Stars in 1946, 1947 and 1948, before some bad career and personal choices that would topple her from public favor for a time. Coop is Coop. Shy, hesitant, unsteady on his lanky legs, director Wood does give him a memorable intro to the picture, though. While trying a plate of jambalaya, Bergman looks to her right, as she does the camera pans from where she is standing to the left, and we and Bergman spot Cooper's Clint Maroon leaning back causally in the bar, his entire body captured in Haller's full frame, watching her eat and carry on about the wonderful quality of the food. Intrigued, Ingrid looks again, this time the camera starts at Coop's feet, which is to say his boots, then tilts upwards. Bergman, realizing she is being watched by Coop, instantly looks away. Then Bergman take's a slow look again and see's Cooper now in medium shot, looking squarely at her; both have nothing but sex on their dirty minds. Not a word has been spoken between the two leads, yet the sexual attraction is palpable. When they do speak, Cooper compares Bergman's beauty to a thoroughbred; she calls him beautiful. And they are, both of them.
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| Ingrid. Proud and defiant on the studio streets of Warner Bros. filling in for 19th century New Orleans. Saratoga Trunk, 1945. |
Saratoga Trunk should be viewed by anyone interested in how Hollywood could photograph, edit, perform and capture a seduction without the leads touching each other or saying a word. It's a text book example and a lost art. The first 30 minutes or so are packed with such moments, however the film, clocking in at 135 minutes, tends to drag and sag in the last half as the plot takes over, when I would have been just fine watching Coop and Ingrid shoot cupid's arrows into each others eyes.
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| With them, who needs words? |
Sources : Wikipedia page on Saratoga Trunk
Internet Movie Data Base on Saratoga Trunk
Turner Classic Movie page on Saratoga Trunk
Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies-Ingrid Bergman by Curtis F. Brown
Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies-Gary Cooper by Rene Jordan
And the movie Saratoga Trunk
