The Decision (1945)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The decision |
| Original title | The Valley of Decision |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1945 |
| length | 119 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Tay Garnett |
| script |
Sonya Levien , John Meehan |
| production | Edwin H. Knopf |
| music | Herbert Stothart |
| camera | Joseph Ruttenberg |
| cut | Blanche Sewell |
| occupation | |
| |
The decision , also known as The Valley of Decision (original title: The Valley of Decision ), is an American film drama with Greer Garson and Gregory Peck in the year 1945. When presenting the eponymous novel by served Marcia Davenport .
action
Mary Rafferty lives in the working-class neighborhood of Pittsburgh in 1873 . She is the daughter of Irish immigrant Pat Rafferty, who has been in a wheelchair since an accident at industrialist William Scott's steel mill. Since her family is poor and Mary wants to earn some extra money, she takes a job as a maid at William Scott's house. Her father is extremely upset about the decision out of grudge against Scott. Mary cannot be changed, however. She then falls in love with Paul Scott, the eldest son of the house, who has just returned from London and wants to modernize the factory. When a romance develops between Mary and Paul, this leads to tension with Louise Kane, who also has her eyes on the wealthy son of the steel manufacturer.
A year later, Mary and Paul are still close. He even wants to marry her. However, Mary refuses his application because she is only a maid and it is not appropriate to marry the employer's son. When Paul's sister Constance marries an English earl, she announces to her mother, Clarissa, that she will move to England with him and that Mary will be her maid. After Clarissa has given her consent, Mary travels to England with Constance without saying goodbye to Paul.
After two more years, when Paul's father learns of his son's love for Mary, he orders Mary back to Pittsburgh and gives his blessing to the wedding. Paul and Mary's luck is soon tarnished when Mary's father leads a strike against William Scott's steel mill. While William sends scabs to the scene, Mary tries to mediate between the fronts. The entrepreneur eventually hires his son Ted to send the scabs home again. But Ted gets drunk and is now unable to inform the strike breakers. This leads to bloody arguments between the warring parties. William Scott and Pat Rafferty are killed. The grief for the dead fathers causes Mary not to marry Paul.
Ten years go by in which Paul Louise Kane married and fathered a son. When his mother Clarissa becomes seriously ill, she demands to see Mary. She wants to bequeath her share of the steel mill to Mary, as she is convinced that she will take care of the maintenance of the factory. When Clarissa dies, their children Ted, William Jr. and Constance want to sell the factory, while Paul wants to keep the factory in the family. Mary supports him in this, and together they can also get Constance on their side and thus preserve the family property. When Paul realizes that his wife Louise is only interested in his money, he leaves her and returns to Mary.
background
The film is based on the novel The Valley of Decision by Marcia Davenport. After MGM's studio boss Louis B. Mayer bought the film rights for $ 76,000, writers Sonya Levien and John Meehan set about writing a suitable script. Since in the novel Paul and Mary do not find each other in the end, but Mayer demanded a happy ending, the ending had to be changed. Due to the censorship, however, it was only possible to indicate that Paul would walk in front of the altar with Mary after his divorce from Louise.
With a budget of $ 2,165,000, the shooting stretched over four months. When the film was first shown to the press, journalists criticized Lionel Barrymore's exaggerated performance in the role of Greer Garson's bitter father. Fearing bad reviews and financial failure, MGM had a number of scenes with Barrymore cut and partly re-shot, which drove up production costs even further.
reception
publication
The world premiere of The Decision took place on May 3, 1945 at New York's Radio City Music Hall . The drama then grossed $ 8,096,000, making it one of the most successful films of the year in the United States. Gregory Peck went on to star with the film, while Greer Garson received her sixth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress . At the same time, it should be the last big hit of her career. After trying to escape her image of the noble woman with films like Man Without a Heart (1945) and Desire Me (1947), which both flopped at the box office, she was unable to build on her old successes. The decision was released in Germany in October 1948.
Reviews
"Well-kept, well-cast novel adaptation," said the lexicon of international film . For Cinema , the decision was a "[successful] social analysis" and a "[p] precise historical society portrait".
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times pointed out at the time that the makers of the film "took a lot of liberties" to change the novel. But “the general cinema audience” will still “like” this screen adaptation, since the film is “in many ways dramatically very attractive”. Variety said that "the story of the unrequited love between the maid and the young Paul Scott [...] is movingly told". The cast is "consistently excellent, led by Greer Garson". Only at the beginning of the film did Garson "not quite fit into the role of the young Irish girl", in the further course, "as soon as the characters and the plot develop", she met "all demands". Gregory Peck, who is by her side in the role of Paul Scott, is "excellent".
Awards
The film was nominated for two Academy Awards at the 1946 Academy Awards. In the Best Actress category , in which Greer Garson was nominated, Joan Crawford emerged victorious in As long as a heart beats . Even composer Herbert Stothart was unable to prevail in the Best Film Music category against Miklós Rózsa and his music for Alfred Hitchcock's Ich kampf zu dich .
German version
The German dubbed version was created in 1948 by the Tempelhof Berlin film studio. Georg Rothkegel was responsible for the dialogue script and the dubbing .
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Mary Rafferty | Greer Garson | Lu Neatly |
| Paul Scott | Gregory Peck | Curt Ackermann |
| Jim Brennan | Preston Foster | Franz Nicklisch |
| William Scott Jr. | Dan Duryea | Clemens Hasse |
| William Scott | Donald Crisp | Wolf Trutz |
literature
- Marcia Davenport: The Valley Of Decision . University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989, ISBN 0-822-95805-8 , 640 pp. (English edition).
Web links
- The decision in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The decision on Turner Classic Movies (English)
- Pictures of the film on cinema.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Troyan: A Rose for Mrs. Miniver. The Life of Greer Garson . The University Press of Kentucky, 1999, p. 178.
- ↑ a b Michael Troyan: A Rose for Mrs. Miniver. The Life of Greer Garson . The University Press of Kentucky, 1999, pp. 186-188.
- ↑ The decision. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 25, 2019 .
- ↑ cf. cinema.de
- ↑ “A great many liberties have been taken which alter the conceptions of the book. But the general movie audience should find the screen version to its taste, for this picture […] has many elements of dramatic appeal. " Bosley Crowther : 'The Valley of Decision,' With Greer Carson and Gregory Peck, Makes Its Appearance at the Radio City Music Hall . In: The New York Times , May 4, 1945.
- ↑ “The tale of unfulfilled love between the servant girl and young Paul Scott […] is movingly dealt with. Casting is of uniform excellence, topped by Greer Garson. It is only in the initial scenes that Garson doesn't quite fit the picture of the young Irish girl, but as characters and the story mature she rises to every demand. Gregory Peck, playing opposite as Paul Scott, is standout. " See The Valley of Decision . In: Variety , 1945.
- ↑ cf. synchrondatenbank.de