The crown of life
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The crown of life |
| Original title | Beloved Infidel |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1959 |
| length | 117 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Henry King |
| script | Sy Bartlett |
| production | Jerry Wald / Twentieth Century Fox |
| music | Franz Waxman |
| camera | Leon Shamroy |
| cut | William H. Reynolds |
| occupation | |
| |
The Crown of Life (original title: Beloved Infidel ) is an American feature film by Henry King from 1959. The "fearless memoir" by Sheilah Graham served as a literary model , which she wrote together with Gerold Frank under the title F. Scott Fitzgerald - My great love ( Beloved Infidel ) had published. Graham had been in a relationship with the writer in the last years of his life from 1937 to 1940.
action
The film begins with Sheilah's crossing from London to America, where she then works in Hollywood as a society reporter . At a company run by the producer Robert Carter, she met the famous novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald.
They arrange to meet the next evening and Scott visits her at her apartment. And soon she learns his life story: Scott, who became famous as a novelist, now has to write little stories and scripts in order to make money. His wife is in a sanatorium and his daughter is supposed to enjoy a good upbringing. The burden was too great for the sensitive man, so he became a drinker.
When he gets a permanent job as a screenwriter, he invites Sheila on a weekend trip to Mexico, and they spend days of unadulterated happiness.
On the way home, Sheilah Scott confesses that she has never read a book by him. When he wants to buy one for her in the next store, you don't keep your books. When they want to attend an announced play by him, they learn that it is only students who try their hand at his text. But they think the author is dead.
One afternoon at the beach, Sheilah had to admit to his questions that she had lied so far. She does not come from a noble house, was born in poverty and raised in an orphanage. Scott assures her that he still loves her.
There are also gaps in her education, but under Scott's guidance she enriches her knowledge.
Sheilah's first radio show turns into a disaster: Your nerves fail. But she gets a second chance.
Scott is less fortunate now, has lost his job and is starting to drink again. Now it is Sheilah who is helping him. She rents a house on the coast so that he can calmly write novels there again. When she wants to visit him there one day, she finds him drunk again. When she blames him, he threatens her with a gun. He only comes to when a shot is fired. Sheilah leaves him.
When he has a severe heart attack some time later, she comes back to him at his urging. She still loves him. This time he doesn't drink anymore. He's working hard on his novel and they're making plans for the future.
But shortly afterwards Scott suddenly collapses. The doctor can only determine death.
background
The film, shot in color and in Cinemascope , was not a great box office success. Gregory Peck didn't think much of him either and only made it because the contract stipulated that he still had to shoot a film for Twentieth Century Fox.
Most of all, Sheilah Graham was disappointed with this film. She complained that Deborah Kerr was really too fine and posh to play the role. Graham was a cockney girl who longed to have a better place in society, which she eventually did as a gossip columnist in Hollywood.
Peck was also wrong for the role in her opinion. Richard Basehard would have been better suited as a guy. But the studio did not consider the actor's name to be attractive enough for what was apparently intended to be a splendid soap opera.
criticism
"An oily, elegant romance in which Fitzgerald's tragic and rebellious personality, which failed not least because of the inhumanity of the dream factory [...], is illusory transfigured and sentimentally kitsched."
literature
- Sheilah Graham, Gerold Frank: F. Scott Fitzgerald - my great love. Fearless Memoir (Original Title: Beloved Infidel ). German by Marguerite Schlueter. Unabridged edition. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin 1992, 333 pages, ISBN 3-548-22856-9 .
- Tony Thomas : Gregory Peck, his films - his life . Heyne Film Library 11
- The new film program, Mannheim
Web links
- The Crown of Life in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Crown of Life. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .