Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)

Along with a few other videos I found in my garage last week, I found Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939). I'd heard lots about this film while reading biographies of Ingrid Bergman and the like so I thought I should certainly give it a go! And at only 70 minutes, what could be the harm? Just to clear up any possible confusion, apparently this film has been renamed Escape To Happiness (?). This is a review of that, but I like the original title :-)

Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939) Directed By Gregory Ratoff

To clarify... The studio artist who made this poster had evidently only seen Ingrid Bergman in Black and White before, because what colour is that hair?!?!?!

Cast:

• Leslie Howard as Holger Brandt
• Ingrid Bergman as Anita Hoffman
• Edna Best as Margit Brandt
• John Halliday as Thomas Stenborg
• Cecil Kellaway as Charles Moler, The Impressario
• Ann E. Todd as Ann Marie Brandt

Plot:

Accomplished concert violinist, Holger Brandt is going home to his wife and two children after a long world tour. Ecstatic to see him, they are desperate to start life again as normal with the whole family. Just like anybody else. But it is obvious that when he does get back, it's as if his family don't know him well and vice versa. Their dog growls at him and his eldest child (his son) has a distant kind of relationship with him. Even when he asks his wife if he can go away and have a second honeymoon (although expressed quite selfishly) she says no and goes on to tell her that her duties belong with home and keeping it in order.

This applies to everyone except his 6 year old daughter Ann Marie. She and her father become very close and bond over music. She accompanies him with her basic piano she is learning from her new piano teacher, Anita Hoffman.

Anita is studying to be a concert pianist with Thomas Stenborg and teaches the piano in her spare time. Ann Marie asks her parents if it is ok to invite Anita to her birthday party and her parents say yes. At the birthday party, Holger and Ann Marie do a duet on piano and violin of a song called "Intermezzo". Once they have finished, Thomas Stenborg - who has been touring with Holger - calls Anita up to play for everyone. When he starts to listen, Holger is enraptured by her playing and starts to accompany her on the violin. They meet again at a concert and they walk to get "a glass of wine" afterwards when it suddenly occurs to Holger that his problems finding an accompanist are over! Anita can be his accompanist! Anita refuses but that night the two realise that they are in love with each other.

They start an affair and naturally Holger's wife Margit finds out and asks Holger for a divorce, just after Anita has said to Holger that she can't live with the guilt any more and leaves him to go to Denmark "to visit relatives".

Holger catches her at the train station and tells her that he is a free man. She says "How could you do that to them..." but never the less the run off together and she accompanies him at his concerts.

Then while on holiday together, she gets a letter telling her that she has been accepted for a scholarship in Paris but feels obligated to stay with Holger.

A visit from Thomas and the ever-growing guilt she feels for breaking up a marriage, makes her leave Holger in search of her own career. He decides to be alone for a while and then go back home, with disastrous results...

The Verdict:


I have to admit that I was disappointed with this film over all. It felt really contrived to me. I knew everything that was going to happen. And I found it good that it was only 70 minutes long because although I enjoyed it up to a point, the painful nastiness of the main plot made it a very awkward watch towards the end.

Right. I'll say it now and get it off my chest. I don't like Leslie Howard!!! I find him a bit irritating and one dimensional. I wanted to like him, and convinced myself that I did but then I thought about all the performances I've seen from him and realised I didn't like any of them. The main character of this film  really got to me as a "I really want to kill this character off. He's seriously on my nerves.... GAH GET OFF THE SCREEN!" character. By the by, is it just me, or do other people think this kind of thing whilst watching films??? Holger comes across as a nasty, selfish, one dimensional, stereotypical idiot when he could have been portrayed with more feeling even though his motives are genuinely selfish.

There is one big exception to this rule of Intermezzo, Ingrid Bergman. I was extremely intrigued to find out what her first venture into American cinema would be like and I was so not disappointed! Even though her accent was a bit more Swedish, her Anita was just as word perfect a performance as any of her other ones. Had she not been so sincere and genuine, the whole film would have fallen to pieces. It would have turned into, "This selfish idiot of a man is leaving his wife and two lovely children for a beautiful piano teacher. The end. OH MY GOD THIS IS BEYOND CRUEL!!!" But because Ingrid Bergman is so nice (for lack of a better word) and she shows her guilt and unsure naivety in the way she does, you feel for her instead of disapproving of her.

Just as a last note, Gregory Ratoff directed this?!?!?!?! He is actually the completely fantastic Russian producer in All About Eve! Great! He can direct super well too and while we were watching it my mum said, "Who directed this?", so I said "Gregory Ratoff. The awesome guy in All About Eve who produces the play." And she just went "Oh my goodness! REALY? HE CAN DIRECT TOO?!?!" And she is quite right.

Oh yeah! And the soundtrack and music is awesomesauce too :-D

~Bette

You Gotta Friend In Me...

In the book I got for my birthday, "Notorious: The Life Of Ingrid Bergman" by Donald Spoto (which, yes, I will have to post about one day instead of just mentioning it) there were some great photos of Alfred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman together, sometimes with Gregory Peck and Cary Grant as well, but I really liked them, so I scanned them for the blog! Ingrid Bergman, Hitchcock and Cary Grant were best friends basically for life so these photos are so lovely!

In their later years

Helping with her knitting on the set of Under Capricorn

Hitch evidently has some ideas for the script...

Too much amazing all sat in one room on straw chairs...

Perfect

It looks like Gregory Peck has some sort of strangely shaped camera... I am intrigued...

This could also count as a very belated birthday post for the late, great master of suspense. His birthday came around and I was just like, "Oh! It's Hitchcock's birthday... *_* Oops." and I had nothing ready! So this is it :-)

~Bette

A Midsummer Night's Dream (As Cast By Me)

{Also known as the post where Bette gets to ramble on and on about Shakespeare in relation to classic movies :-D}

My english teacher set me a great task the other day. We are studying "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare in class and she told us all to cast the play with actors we wanted and then write a letter to one of the key actors asking them to be in your adaptation. Now, this seemed to me like a great blog post to do, and it will give me the chance to write a letter involving random behind the scenes movie knowledge that might scare the rest of my classmates.

After mi amigo (who braved The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie with me the other day *shudder*, see the P.S. at the bottom of the post) asked the teacher if the actors could be dead, I set about my work. I knew that I didn't want the cast to be the same as previous movie adaptations. And after a little conversation with my mother (serious craziness went on during this conversation!) this was my final main cast list:

• Queen Titania: Ingrid Bergman
• King Oberon: Cary Grant
• Hermia: Elizabeth Taylor
• Lysander: Tony Curtis
• Helena: Katharine Hepburn
• Demetrius: James Stewart
• Puck: Henry Travers (Clarence the angel in It's A Wonderful Life)
• Nick Bottom: Steve Martin
• King Egeus: Lawrence Olivier (older years)

As you can see, there is one outlier in the cast, but Steve Martin cracks me up so much :-)

Here is the letter I wrote to Elizabeth Taylor asking her to play the part of Hermia. Just to tell you, this version is slightly more full of classic movie references than the one I handed in at school, but this is how I would have liked it.

Dear Elizabeth Taylor, 

I am writing to you to ask you to play the part of Hermia in my upcoming screen adaptation of "A Midsummer Nights Dream". My casting director and I think you are perfect for the role. Your way of portraying such heartbreak in so many of your films (in a good way) leads us to beleive that you would be more than capable of acting Hermia. Of course, as the director I will have to look into the character with you and help you really empathise with her. 

You may know me more as a supporting player in major motion pictures than as a director, in fact, this will be my debut in the directorial department. You may also have seen me in family portraits in fan magazines as I come from a long line of actors. The two movies you will know me best for are probably "The Women" and "Citizen Kane" in which I played a yoga instructor and Orson Welles's third cousin respectively. Although I am deeply proud of these achievements, I feel I will be more satisfied when behind the camera. 

Your fellow cast includes such big names as Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Ingrid Bergman. I had wanted to cast Richard Burton opposite you as Lysander, but knowing that relations between the two of you have not been brilliant over the past few months, I thought it best to cast someone else. I have decided to cast Tony Curtis as Lysander instead. This role should hopefully give him a great start in "serious movies". 

There should be no problem getting the others in the intended cast to play their roles. Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman have already agreed to play their characters and Jimmy Stewart is also in on the picture. I have tried to contact Kate Hepburn, but she is holidaying with Spencer Tracy on some unknown island and goodness knows when she will be back. But if she fails us, we will always have Rosalind Russel to call on. 

Just in case you where wondering, the picture is to be filmed in black and white. I had hoped for Technicoclour, but the the budget the studio has given me does not have enough left to cover that. As you can see, the cast will set the studio back a little... 

Please think seriously about this film, we are going to stick to all of Shakespeare's dialogue, and the period. The sets will consist of intricate palace backdrops and beautiful on-location scenes in moonlit forests. 

Sincerely, 

Bette Barrymore of Warner Brother's Studios

I hope you liked it!

~Bette

P.S. I did watch The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie with my friend the other day... It was rated a 12 so we both thought it would be fine to watch as we are both over twelve. Maggie Smith was great in it and it was overall a good film, but both my friend and I will have a phobia of art teachers forever after watching this film.

Pawsome Pet Pictures - Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman and her little duckies

You Hold Your Knife And Fork Just Like A Little Boy Does...

Woah, my life is C-R-A-Z-Y at the moment! So much is going on! Here is a list of stuff.

1. I have my grade 5 piano exam in early December wich is a big deal 
2. We are putting on a Christmas show in the drama department and I have been given one of many mini-monologues that all fit together to make a big piece. I have to learn lines which is always daunting.
3. I am thinking of taking a speech and drama exam in the spring and on top of all of that...
4. I have to chose my GCSE options in February/March, and I have to start thinking about favourite subjects and stuff. At the moment my favourites are History, Drama and Science but it could all change and it is all so confusing!

Anyway, today I was practicing piano when I heard my dog, Snoopy, howling. I get freaked out easily when I'm home alone and usually put about 10 different locks on the door.

"I'm frightened Auntie Em, I'm frightened!"

I went in and put on Friends the TV show for him and gave him a hug for a bit. Friends THE TV show put him to sleep :-0 eye carrumba! He is after all my key film-watcher buddy and I am sure that under all of his black and white fur, there lives an inner Greer Garson lover. He also looks a bit like Greer Garson. If she was a dog. I guess.

I take it back.

Indiscreet (1958):

Cast:

• Ingrid Bergman as Anna Kalman

• Cary Grant as Philip Adams

Plot:
Acomplished actress Anna Kalman is happy and indipendent, but getting into her later years she wants to find a man to share her achievments with. Along comes Philip Adams. The suave and chaming man who seems utterly perfect for Anna. They fall in love and have a great time together and after the first day or two they have great plans for the future. At least, Anna does. Plillip tells her that he is married but his wife doesn't understand him and they have been estranged for years. Being my darling Ingrid, she says that she doesn't mind and that they will work something out. She is told by her sister's husband who works with Phillip, that he is not really married.

Ingrid Rage here, Ingrid Rage.

He says it so he doesn't get tied down to anyone. She has a great idea and after a frosty dinner party at some embassy, she makes it look like she has been having dinner with someone else. This involves her butler dressing in a dressing gown and popping in and out of her bedroom doors.


The Review:
All this film is missing is Thelma Ritter as the maid. That's not too much to ask, is it? But anyway, Stanley Donan (Singing In The Rain) does a great job at the directorial side of things and Ingrid and Cary are just perfect. The title quote comes from a line from Ingrid Bergman's play in the film. "You hold your knife and frok just like a little boy does... you do Arthur!"

I am very exited as I ordered Rebecca the novel yesterday, and loving the film so much I can't wait to see what it is like! Yee haw Daphne du Maurier!!!!

~Bette

My Top 5 On Screen Couples

Here is a list of my all time top 6 on screen couples, in reverse order.
6. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy:
One of the most tragic off screen romances as well as one of the most heartwarming on screen ones. tracy was married to a strict catholic, and a catholic himself, she refused to divorce his wife even though it was well known by the public and his wife that he and Katharine were involved in an affair for most of his marraige.

Favourite On Screen Pairing: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967)

5. Bette Davis and George Brent:
Dispite brent's not-quite-amazing performances in all of the films that he and Bette starred in (11), the chemistry between them is very good. Perhaps that was helped by the Hollywood legend that they were always in a constant on-off relationship. The chemistry between Bette and a man is only equaled perhaps by Paul Henried (Now, Voyager, Deception), and Gary Merril (All About Eve, Another Man's Poison, and some other English movie I can never remember the name of).

Favourite On Screen Pairing: Dark Victory (1939)

4. Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant:
Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman were only paired together in two films, Notorious and Indiscreet. A big mistake in my opinion. They have some strange on screen relationship that is caused by her laid back beauty and his akward charm that you can't force.

Favourite On Screen Pairing: Notorious (1946)

3. Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon:
My only fear with the pairings of these two is that they will be soooo cute that I will be forced to go into a coma and never come out. How can you get sweeter? Greer's lovely warmth and Walter's soft lovely speaking voice, create a couple that will have you in tears in minutes, provided that that is what the film is attempting.

Favourite On Screen Pairing: Mrs. Miniver (1942)

2. Judy Garland and Fred Astaire:
I have only seen one film with them in it (Easter Parade, is that all?), and they are so good together that it made me want to cry! Judy crying over the fact that she thinks Ann Miller has run away with Fred Astaire singing "Better Luck Next Time" is soooooo moving.

Favourite On Screen Pairing: Easter Parade (1948)

1. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton:
The first film that I saw with them was Cleopatra, and was so entranced by them (and Richard Burton :D) that me and my mum got my dad "The Taylor And Burton Collection" as a sort of "Thank you in advance for letting us watch these" present, and I have been hooked ever since. When I watch The VIPs and see Richard Burton so upset and Elizabeth trying to show that she is not upset but is really devastated it the saddest thing i've ever seen! They are just romantic beyond words, and their charisma is so wonderful. Definately my tope couple EVAH!

Favourite On Screen Pairing: The VIPs (1963) and The Sandpiper (1965)

Well, that was a hard descision, but in my mind no one beats Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. Here is a funny "Lets prove Joan Crawford wrong" thing that I discovered on Tumblr.

On the set of “Baby Jane” Joan was asked about the differences between herself and Bette Davis, Joan stated: “Bette likes to rant and rave. I just sit and knit. She yelled and I knitted a scarf from Hollywood to Malibu.”

 I rest my case.

~Bette

Some Cute Photos To Brighten Your Day

Ingrid Bergman in a very red dress

Jimmy Stewart and his kids

Liza Minnelli and Judy Garland singing together

Bette Davis and her dog on the set of The Letter

Hope you liked them!
~Bette

My Brand New Discovery!

Well, this is embarrassing! I have to say, until yesterday I have never actually searched Tumblr for photos. And yesterday evening I went kind of demented on it, downloading every cool Bette Davis, James Stewart, Ingrid Bergman, and Audrey Hepburn photo I could find! So here are a few of my favourites.

Bette Davis after accepting her Academy Award for Jezebel

Ingrid Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock on the set for Spellbound

Audrey Hepburn being... Audrey Hepburn!

Joan Blondell and Bette Davis

James Stewart reading LIFE

Bette Davis eating ice cream

Bette Davis serving at the Hollywood Canteen

I have loads more (including a picture of Bette and her 4th husband Gary Merrill playing scrabble in a car looking very bitter) but I can't put them all here! I am thinking of sorting out some place for them somewhere on my blog, but that may take quite a while. I also found a video of Bette Davis singing "They're Either Too Young Or Too Old" which is now my favourite music video. Be warned, it has some pretty bad rhymes like "there isn't any gravy, the gravy's in the navy," and "I simply can't compel it to, with no marines to tell it to." But it is Bette Davis singing, so you have to make allowances. Yesterday I was thinking about what old movie treasures I could ask for for Christmas (which my family absolutely obsesses over, once my mum put Frank Sinatra's Christmas album on in September), and all I could think of, other than movies, was The Lonely Life by Bette Davis. I told my Mum this morning, and her reaction was "Can you even get it?" I replied "Umm, I'm sure I saw it on amazon once..." so good luck with that Mum!

~Bette (Wow, so many Bettes in this post!)

Happy Would-have-been Birthday, Ingrid!

Today would have been Ingrid Bergman's birthday! So I thought I would post one of her quotes here:

"You must train your intuition - you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.”

That quote just sounds just so... Ingridy!!!!

I always forget the birthdays of famous actors, actresses, directors and whatnot, so here is a list to remind me and you of some of them.

1. Bette Davis (5th of April)
2. James Stewart (20th May)
3. Audrey Hepburn (4th May)
4. Cary Grant (18th January)
5. Marilyn Monroe (1st June)
6. Gregory Peck (5th April)
7. Barbra Streisand (24th April)
8. Laurence Olivier (22nd May)
9. Judy Garland (10th June)
10. Jack Lemmon (8th February)

Here is yet another gorgeous picture of Ingrid Bergman.

~Bette

Happy Birthday Ingrid Bergman (1915 - 1982)

Happy Birthday to the legendary Ingrid Bergman. Her many classic films include Casablanca, Notorious, Gaslight, The Bells Of St. Mary, Anastasia, and Joan Of Arc. She is survived by her 4 children including actress Isabella Rossellini.

Spellbound

Yesterday I watched Spellbound, and found it very interesting. I loved the Salvador Dali dream sequence. can anyone tell me where Hitchcock is in this film? because I thought he was the masked man in the dream? Well I don't know. He is usually in a phonebox or something.

Spellbound


Cast:

• Ingrid Bergman as Dr. Constance Peterson
• Gregory Peck as Dr. Anthony Edwardes / John Ballantyne
• Michael Chekhov as Dr. Alexander 'Alex' Brulov, a teacher of Dr. Peterson
• Alfred Hitchcock Directs the film

Plot:
Dr. Peterson has been branded by her fellow psychoanalysts as beutiful but cold, and many of the male doctors have tried to make her more "emotionally aware".  When the head of their mental home is forced into retirement after a long leave of absence due to over working, he is replaced by the young Dr. Edwards. Dr. Edwards is immediately drawn to Dr. Peterson, and her to him. Whilst getting to know him better Dr. Peterson notices that he has a strange phobia of black parallel lines on a white background. In a moment of panic, he confesses to her that he is not the real Dr. Edwards, and she tries to find out what happened to Dr. Edwards as well as trying to cure his imposter.


The Review:
I watched this with my little sister who is 8, and she would probably have different views on this than I do, as it really freaked her out! As always, Gregory and Ingrid are absolutely fantabulous as the unlikely couple. In some parts the film was quite hard to keep up with, but that is often a problem with stolen identity stories. There is an amazing dream sequence that was designed by Salvador Dali, with lots of amazing curtains and props. And as for Alfred Hitchcock's directing, to quote Eve Harrington "Everything clever and witty has long since been said," he just never ceases to amaze me.

Awards:
It received an academy award for best scoring of a dramatic or comedy picture Academy Award. It was also nominated for 5 others.


Poster:

~Bette

The Wind Has Blown My Depressed-ness Away!

After yesterday's heavy downpour, today has brought with it a fresh feel, a strong wind, and the viewing of what I may go far enough to call a life changing film. I am, as you may have noticed, going through a bit of an Ingrid Bergman phase. I won't do a full review of The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness but I will tell you a bit about how I felt about it.

I loved the Inn Of The Sixth Happiness. It really was a feel-good film even though it is pretty heavy duty stuff. It is set just before the second world war, and it is about a servant that wants to be a missionary in China (Ingrid Bergman), but when she is refused at the missionary organisation in London she tries to earn enough money to get to China herself. When she has earned the money she starts her long journey by train to Northern China. When she arrives she finds it hard to get to grips with the Chinese customs, but soon earns love and respect from everyone around her. Then when the Japanese start to invade Northern China, she is influential in taking 100 children accross the mountains to a safer place.

This film is not an easy watch by any means, but it does make a real impact on you. It shows you that it really pays to look out for other people and be completely fearless, no matter what religion you may be. I also wanted to ask the question, can anyone cry like Ingrid (comment if you know of anyone)? Sorry Bette! So here is my top 10 cryers list!

1. Ingrid Bergman
2. Margrette O'Brien
3. Bette Davis
4. Judy Garland
5. Elizabeth Taylor
6. James Stewart
7. Humphrey Bogart
8. Janis Wilson (She plays Tina or "Teenah" in Now voyager but is uncredited.)
9. Barbra Striesand
10. Doris Day

~Bette
P.S. I can not beleive that I have 9 Followers!