A spoiled beast
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | A spoiled beast |
| Original title | The Girl Who Had Everything |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1953 |
| length | 69 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Thorpe |
| script | Kind of Cohn |
| production |
Armand Deutsch for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| music | André Previn |
| camera | Paul Vogel |
| cut | Ben Lewis |
| occupation | |
| |
A Pampered Beast is an American romantic drama directed by Richard Thorpe from 1953. The film, an adaptation of the 1927 novel A Free Soul by Adela Rogers St. Johns , was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is a remake of the MGM- Films Courage to Happiness (1931).
action
The place of the action is initially Lexington , Kentucky, the time the present. Jean, the daughter of lawyer Steve Latimer, is a beautiful and unconventional young woman. She has a boyfriend, Vance Court, who she would also like to marry, but falls in love with the handsome Victor Raimondi. Raimondi is the boss of a large gambling syndicate and, because he is being investigated, a client of Steve Latimer's law firm partner Ashmond. When her father takes him on as a client, Jean has the opportunity to get closer to Raimondi, who soon returns her interest. Warnings Steve and Vance shower them with are blown to the wind. Jean travels to New York with Raimondi to marry him there.
There, Raimondi learns that Steve wants to resign and testify against him. When Steve follows him, Jean has to watch as Raimondi attacks and threatens her father. She then breaks up with him. Raimondi is shot.
Production and reception
The film is based on Adela Rogers St. Johns' novel A Free Soul (1927), which Willard Mack adapted as a play that same year. The stage version ran successfully on Broadway from January to April 1928 ; the leading roles were played by Kay Johnson , Lester Lonergan and Melvyn Douglas . Becky Gardiner adapted the play soon afterwards as a script for a film version ( Der Mut zum Glück , 1931), directed by Clarence Brown ; the main roles were Norma Shearer , Lionel Barrymore and Clark Gable . The film was hugely successful both commercially and critically, garnering Barrymore an Oscar , and providing MGM with enough inspiration for a remake.
Director Thorpe was a MGM veteran who, in addition to several Tarzan films, had also directed a film from the extremely successful thin man series (The Thin Man Goes Home, 1945). He had already directed the films Eddy Um Judy (1948) and Ivanhoe - The Black Knight (1952) with Elizabeth Taylor . Their screen partner Fernando Lamas has been employed at MGM since 1951, primarily as a Latin lover .
The shooting for the film, which was produced in black and white and 35 mm, lasted from July 16 to August 6, 1952. The film was released on March 27, 1953 in US cinemas.
Reviews
Cinema gave the film an average rating and wrote: "Good mimes, weak script". Allmovie was of a similar opinion, saying that more could have been expected from a film with such a talented cast. Actors like Elizabeth Taylor and William Powell would do their best under the circumstances, but Art Cohn's script was too clichéd and Richard Thorpe's direction was just routine work.
Web links
- A spoiled beast in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- A spoiled beast in the online film database
- A spoiled beast at Turner Classic Movies (English)
- A Free Soul (stage version) in the Internet Broadway Database
Individual evidence
- ↑ CINEMA online: Cinema at CINEMA: program, films, DVDs, stars, trailers and more | cinema.de. Retrieved June 16, 2018 .
- ^ The Girl Who Had Everything (1953) - Richard Thorpe | Review | AllMovie. Retrieved June 16, 2018 .