The woman in the golden Cadillac

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Movie
German title The woman in the golden Cadillac
Original title The Solid Gold Cadillac
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1956
length 99 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Richard Quine
script Abe Burrows
production Fred Kohlmar for
Columbia Pictures
music Cyril J. Mockridge
camera Charles Lang
cut Charles Nelson
occupation
synchronization

The Woman in the Golden Cadillac (original title The Solid Gold Cadillac ) is an American comedy film directed by Richard Quine from 1956. The film is based on the play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Howard Teichman that premiered on Broadway had become a hit on the stage in 1953.

action

A shareholder meeting of the multi-billion dollar company International Projects takes place in New York . Edward McKeever, the founder and longtime president, is leaving the company as a government advisor in Washington at the request of the US presidents . His successor will be his deputy Blessington, who, along with the other board members Snell, Gillie and Metcalfe, is happy to finally have the honest businessman McKeever out of the way and to be able to dispose of the company freely. However, the joy of the board members at the meeting is disturbed by the presence of the small shareholder Laura Partridge. The unsuccessful actress owns only ten shares and actually has little idea about business, but asks countless questions at the meeting and is critical of the high salaries of the board of directors.

Since Laura Partridge appears again and again at subsequent company meetings and asks curious questions, Blessington finally offers her a position as manager for the company's relationship with shareholders. Laura is supposed to be distracted with this sham position, especially since her secretary Amelia Shotgraven has secret instructions to monitor all of Laura's steps. Laura gets bored and starts writing to the retail investors personally, gaining the affection of many stockholders. Little by little, she also wins Amelia's friendship by helping the shy secretary to establish a love affair with the office manager she has long loved, Mark Jenkins. Since Amelia no longer fulfills her actual task as a spy, she is fired by the treasurer Snell. Laura finds out, however, that company manager Harry Harkness - the stupid brother-in-law of Blessington who hired him in a case of nepotism - bankrupted one of his own companies because he thought they were competitors. Knowing this, Laura leads the company's board of directors to reinstate Amelia and expand their shareholder relations department.

The company board tries to get rid of Laura by sending her on a long business trip. Laura should ask McKeever in Washington to get the International Projects some deals with the government. The blonde, however, now sees through the deceit of the board of directors and opens McKeever's eyes to the corrupt activities of his old board colleagues. McKeever, who has gradually come to appreciate Laura and feels uncomfortable in the official quarrel in Washington, then wants to get back into his company. However, before joining the government, he sold all of his company shares and is therefore powerless in the company. McKeever takes the board of directors to court on charges that they sent Laura to Washington as an unregistered and illegal lobbyist . When Laura admitted under oath in court that she loved McKeever and that was why she went to Washington, the charges collapse. After the trial, McKeever also confesses his love for her and proposes marriage to Laura.

That same afternoon, there is a shareholders' meeting at which Laura suddenly offers herself one last chance to undermine the corrupt board of directors. Through her friendly relationships with many small investors, she convinced them at the meeting to vote against the board. However, the members of the board of directors still hold more shares. Finally McKeever comes into the room with a wheelbarrow full of telegrams and letters in which retail investors give Laura the right to vote for her share of the shareholders. The board was eventually outvoted and fired. McKeever and Laura get married and become president and vice president of the company, respectively. In the final scene, Laura receives a golden Cadillac from McKeever and the small investors .

Production notes

The play The Solid Gold Cadillac by prominent comedy writer George S. Kaufman , which he wrote together with his younger and lesser-known colleague Howard Teichman (1916-1987), was a success after its premiere on November 5, 1955. It ran regularly on Broadway until February 1955 and had 526 performances. The main character of Laura Partridge was designed as an eccentric elderly lady, who was played in the original production by the over 70-year-old Josephine Hull - known for her roles in arsenic and lace bonnet as well as my friend Harvey . There was no romance between old Mrs. Partridge and McKeever in The Solid Gold Cadillac . In order for Judy Holliday to play the role, the character was transformed into a younger, thoroughly attractive actress.

The two main actors Judy Holliday and Paul Douglas had previously been on stage from 1946 in the play Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin . This play ran for years on Broadway and became one of the most successful comedies in Broadway history. In the play Holliday played as in The Woman with the Golden Cadillac an inexperienced, but kind-hearted blonde who gets behind the corrupt activities of her rich fiancé and puts an end to the trade. Thematically, Born Yesterday and The Solid Gold Cadillac are similar , even though Paul Douglas, unlike Born Yesterday, does not play a corrupt businessman, but rather supports Holliday's character here. Holliday played her Broadway role in Born Yesterday in George Cukor's 1950 film Die is not from yesterday again and won an Oscar for it , while Paul Douglas was replaced by Broderick Crawford . Thus, the woman in the golden Cadillac belatedly offered the cinema viewers the chance to experience the chemistry between Holliday and Douglas.

The Woman in the Golden Cadillac was created between October 24th and December 10th, 1955 and premiered in October 1956. The New York premiere was on October 26, 1956, the German premiere on January 3, 1958.

It is worth mentioning that the actual black and white film becomes a color film in the last, one-minute scene : the viewer sees the golden Cadillac in all its splendor. In the original version, George Burns acted as narrator, for whom this task became the first film work since the comedy South Seas Nights (Honolulu) in 1939. Lionel Newman conducted the music.

synchronization

Conrad von Molo was responsible for the dialogue script and dialogue direction . The dubbed version was created for the German cinema premiere at Via-Film Synchron GmbH in Berlin.

role actor Voice actor
Laura Partridge Judy Holliday Gisela Trowe
Edward L. McKeever Paul Douglas Carl Raddatz
Clifford Snell, Treasurer Fred Clark Klaus W. Krause
John T. Blessington, chairman of the board John Williams Siegfried Schürenberg
Amelia Shotgraven Neva Patterson Elisabeth Ried
Harry Harkness, new board member Hiram Sherman Werner Peters
Alfred Metcalfe, board member Ray Collins Wolfgang Eichberger
Warren Gillie, board member Ralph Dumke Robert Klupp
Mark Jenkins Arthur O'Connell Heinz Welzel
McKeever's secretary Richard Deacon Franz-Otto Kruger

Awards

Jean Louis won at the Academy Awards in 1957 for The woman in golden Cadillac the Oscar for Best Costume Design of a black and white film. Were also nominated Ross Bellah , William Kiernan and Louis Diage for the best Filmbauten a black and white film.

At the Golden Globe Awards in 1957 , The Woman in the Golden Cadillac was nominated for the Golden Globe Award in the categories of Best Film - Comedy or Musical and Best Actress - Comedy or Musical (for Judy Holliday). The film was also nominated for Best Screenplay in a Comedy at the Writers Guild of America Awards .

Reviews

The critic Clyde Gilmour stated in 1956 that the main character had been changed compared to the stage play, but that it was "tailor-made" for Judy Holliday and that it was "amusing". Abe Burrows succeeded in adapting the play "with wit". The film service recommends the film from the age of 14 and writes that it is a "predominantly amusing, well-acted satirical comedy."

The All Movie Guide praises Judy Holliday's performance, who knows how to fill a typical role with humor and warmth. She could even make some of the script's more unbelievable twists and turns appear "less manipulative and mechanical". Richard Quine's directing is "okay - unobtrusive, but also not particularly extraordinary". Quines direction trusts the acting performances, which are actually convincing. As a grumpy businessman with a good heart, Paul Douglas is an "excellent counterpart" to Holliday, while Fred Clark and John Williams offer reliable services as corrupt board members.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Woman in the Golden Cadillac at the Internet Broadway Database
  2. ↑ Axel Nissen: Mothers, Mammies and Old Maids: Twenty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood . McFarland, 2014, ISBN 978-0-7864-9045-5 ( google.de [accessed February 10, 2020]).
  3. ↑ EmanuelLevy: Born Yesterday (1950): Cukor Coledy, starring Judy Holliday in her Oscar-winning performance | Emanuel Levy. Retrieved February 10, 2020 (American English).
  4. ↑ The woman in the golden Cadillac in the German synchronous file
  5. ^ The Solid Gold Cadillac (Awards). Retrieved February 9, 2020 .
  6. ↑ CLYDE GILMOUR: Maclean's Movies | Maclean's | SEPTEMBER 15, 1956. Retrieved February 10, 2020 (American English).
  7. ↑ The Woman in the Golden Cadillac (Film Service). Retrieved February 8, 2020 .
  8. ↑ The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956) - Richard Quine | Review. Retrieved February 10, 2020 (American English).