The darkness at the end of the stairs
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The darkness at the end of the stairs |
| Original title | The dark at the top of the stairs |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1960 |
| length | 123 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Delbert man |
| script |
Harriet Frank Jr. Irving Ravetch |
| production | Michael Garrison |
| music | Max Steiner |
| camera | Harry Stradling Sr. |
| cut | Folmar Blangsted |
| occupation | |
| |
Darkness at the End of the Stairs is a 1960 American drama film directed by Delbert Mann, starring Robert Preston and Dorothy McGuire as a married couple who turn gray. The story is based on the play The Dark at the Top of the Stars (1957) by William Inge .
action
The game time and place of action is the US province at the time of Prohibition , in the 1920s. The aging traveling salesman Rubin Flood lives from the sale of saddle harnesses and horse saddles. He has been married for 17 years with his wife Cora, a nagging, honest woman of the "gray mouse" type, who lives in constant expectation. Both have a teenage daughter of almost full age, Reenie, and a younger son named Sonny. Their home is all that small-town nowhere in Oklahoma . When Rubin goes on a business trip again, the owner of his company tells him that he will soon no longer be able to keep his shop alive due to increasing motorization and that he is on the verge of bankruptcy. He will probably have to fire Flood soon. Rubin does not dare to convey this bad news to his always demanding wife and therefore first stops at the local pharmacy to have "prescription" alcohol in a back room. There he meets Harry Ralston, whose daughter is good friends with Reenie. Rubin doesn't particularly like the nouveau riche Ralston, who once shot himself in the foot to cash in on the sum insured with which he eventually invested in oil drilling and thus appropriated his current fortune.
While Rubin is considering how he can entertain his family in the future, Cora has gone to town with Reenie to buy the girl a pretty dress for an upcoming birthday party that is to take place in the elite country club. Reenie has low self-esteem and sees herself as a wallflower. The dress is expensive, and in view of the financial hardship that prevails from now on, the two married couples quarrel. Immediately Cora begins to nag again that her husband is not earning enough and that she has to reckon with every cent to make ends meet. Her Rubin has not even confessed that he will soon be unemployed. Sonny, who has a notorious fear of the dark, is also in trouble: his classmates are constantly harassing him. When Rubin hears about it, he makes it clear to Sonny that he should fight back and teaches him to box. When he almost knocked out Sonny once, Cora was there immediately and began to rant again. The measure is full for Rubin when Cora accuses him of having started a relationship with the buxom and flirtatious Mavis Pruitt, a young widow who runs a beauty salon on site. Rubin slaps Cora and drives away angrily. Reenie overhears her parents' violent argument and walks out into the street like a frightened chicken. A motorized young man has to avoid her and brushes against a tree. The driver named Sammy Golden remains unharmed. Reenie gets to know the young man who is attending a military school better, and the two quickly fall in love. Reenie learns from Sammy that his mother, a film actress, has de facto left him on his own.
Meanwhile, Cora complains to her older sister Lottie over the phone about the suffering she has with her husband beating her. He in turn drives to Mavis' salon to be comforted and pityed by the single woman. In a drunk state, he shocks two prudish maids named Harper, who are also notorious as gossips. Rubin tells Mavis that he needs her, but at the same time he is a family man and - so far - he has never been unfaithful to Cora. Rubin is too drunk to seduce Mavis at least now, and so he falls asleep on her sofa without having achieved anything. Four days later, on the night of the country club party, Cora's sister Lottie and husband Morris arrive from Oklahoma City for dinner. Cora is broken up and tells Lottie that she doesn't know where Rubin is. She asks her sister if she and the children can move in with her. Rubin returns during dinner and apologizes to Cora for hitting her. Before she can answer, Cora receives a call from one of the Harper sisters, who describes Rubin's “scandalous” appearance in the salon in detail. Now the two married couples get into a tangible row, in which Rubin also accuses Cora of not letting him "get close to her". Cora replies bitterly that she doesn't feel like having sex at night if she has to worry about the dear money all day.
As if the internal family arguments weren't bad enough, the bigoted Lottie now interferes. Meanwhile, Reenie's friend Flirt Conroy shows up with her date at the birthday party and also brings Sammy with her as a “blind date” for Reenie. She is very happy, it couldn't have gone better for her. Sammy and Reenie as well as Flirt and their loved one finally set off to celebrate. Reenie and Sammy have a lot of fun at the birthday party, but are "caught" by the host Harry Ralston and his wife when they kiss innocently. Mrs. Ralston accuses Reenie of wanting to abuse her daughter's party for "lewd fiddling". When it also emerges that Sammy Golden is a Jew and, as is not uncommon in the USA in those prewar years, this elite club does not tolerate Jews in its four walls, Mrs. Ralston Reenie accuses Reenie of having brought her into a very embarrassing situation have. Although Ralston tries to smooth things over and claims that his wife doesn't know what she's saying, Sammy says she is just the mouthpiece of the crowd, or as he puts it: "the voice of the world". Sammy and Reenie leave the locality, and as he drives them home, Sammy tells Reenie that they can never be friends because he will always be the one who can only look at each other's world from the outside. Reenie asks him to stay with her, but Sammy tells her he wants to drive around alone for a while.
The next morning, Flirt brings the news that Sammy tried to kill himself and is in the hospital. Reenie tells the seriously injured Sammy that she will continue to stand by him and that she wants him to become part of her family. She promises him that no one will refuse him there. Cora has meanwhile made a decision: She makes it clear to the constantly anxious Sonny that she has pampered him too much and that he must finally learn to stand on his own two feet. When Reenie returns home, her mother reports that she learned from the hospital that Sammy died shortly after Reenie left. Cora then visits Mavis and pretends to be a customer. When she reveals that she is Rubin's wife, Mavis tells her that she has been in love with Rubin for years, but that their relationship never "came to the extreme". It is also Mavis who confesses to the completely surprised Cora that Rubin has lost his job. She also advises Cora not to refuse her husband's sexual urges any longer. Rubin himself has not remained idle in the meantime and has had a successful interview with a company that specializes in the sale of oil drilling rigs. The head of the company is clearly impressed with Rubin's experience and sales skills and wants to give him a chance. When Rubin returned to Cora, he heard her apologize for the first time. Rubin also learns of the death of young Sammy. His sweetheart, Reenie, sent Cora to Lottie first so that she could gain some distance. Cora also confesses to Rubin that she is visiting Mavis and realizes that she was wrong about him and her. Rubin, in turn, declares that from now on he will do everything to make his family happy and that he loves and needs Cora. Both return home. They are amazed to find Sonny there. He seems to have made up and befriended one of his previous tormentors. Cora and her husband go to their upstairs bedroom.
Production notes
The shooting of The Dark at the End of the Stairs began on January 26, 1960 and ended after about a month. The film premiered in New York on September 22, 1960. In Germany the film was not shown in cinemas, but was shown for the first time on October 1, 1977 on ZDF .
Leo Kuter designed the film structures, George James Hopkins provided the equipment. The costumes are made by Marjorie Best.
Shirley Knight received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Reviews
The September 18, 1960 issue of Film Bulletin read: “Thanks to the superb script by Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch, viewers will find plenty to relate to and entertain in all situations. (...) Eve Arden, Angela Lansbury and the newcomers Shirley Knight and Lee Kinsolving are competent supporting actors. (…) Preston delivers dynamic waves of masculinity and vitality for his role, although a little more humility and tenderness would have made him a more understandable and appealing person. Miss McGuire is excellent as a nagging wife who can't make love to him at night after fighting for money all day. Delbert Mann staged the family complications with a sure hand and kept the audience interested for 123 minutes… ”.
"Incorrect adaptation of the original play."
Halliwell's Film Guide said it was an "archetypal family drama" and summed up: "The perfect essence of this stage play, with highs and lows, various trivialities, but a real feeling for the people and the location."
For the Movie & Video Guide, this film was a “simple, eloquent drama” and praised the “poignant script”.
"Well staffed and presented convincingly."
The Lexicon of International Films found: "Carefully, broadly and richly staged drama against the backdrop of the 1920s."
In Kay Weniger's Das Großes Personenlexikon des Films , Robert Preston's biography reads: “The actor proved that he could also assert himself in the dramatic subject in the 1960 film adaptation of“ The Dark at the End of the Stairs ”, in which he played a embodied traveling salesmen caught in a loveless marriage. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ The title, which is neither explained in the film nor evident from the plot, is a metaphor for life itself, which one does not know where it leads to and whose uncertain destination, the darkness of the stairs, should not be feared.
- ^ Film Bulletin of September 18, 1960, p. 18
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 249
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 297
- ↑ The darkness at the end of the stairs. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 29, 2020 .
- ^ The large personal dictionary of films, Volume 6, p. 335. Berlin 2001
Web links
- The Dark at the Top of the stairs in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Dark at the Top of the Stairs in the American Film Institute catalog