Esther Costello

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Movie
German title Esther Costello
Original title The Story of Esther Costello
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1957
length 127 minutes
Rod
Director David Miller
script Charles Kaufman
production Jack Clayton ,
David Miller for Columbia Pictures
music Georges Auric
camera Robert Krasker
cut Ralph Kemplen
occupation

Esther Costello (OT: The Story of Esther Costello ) is an American film with Joan Crawford and Heather Sears from 1957 and is based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Monsarrat . The film ended Joan Crawford's fourth career phase, who has released at least one film every year since 1925.

action

The action begins with a flashback. Young Esther Costello causes her mother to die in an accident. The shock leaves the girl blind and deaf. Five years later, the wealthy philanthropist Margaret Landi meets Esther, who is vegetating like an animal. She is touched by the sad fate and since she has no children herself, Margaret Esthers takes care of herself. After a few initial difficulties, a deep emotional bond developed between the two women. Both travel back to Boston, where Margaret takes great care of her protégé. Esther learns quickly and is able to open herself to the world using sign language and Braille . A young reporter falls in love with the girl and writes several articles about her fate. Soon Esther will be a celebrity performing across the country trying to raise public awareness of those with such handicaps.

Everything seems to be developing in a positive direction when suddenly Carlo, Margaret's manipulative husband who left her five years ago for a younger woman, gets in touch again. He runs an art gallery badly and believes that he can make big money by marketing Esther. He seduces Margaret and persuades her to set up an Esther Costello Foundation to raise money for charitable purposes. In reality, the fortune goes to Carlo alone. Margaret makes the mistake of leaving Esther in Carlo's care. In the first night he raped the defenseless girl. The shock lets Esther find her speech and eyesight again. She confesses the events to Margaret. At the same time Margaret uncovered Carlo's machinations. She regulates Esther's future and finally drives her car into an abyss with Carlo in the passenger seat.

background

Joan Crawford's career began in 1925 as an extra. From 1932 to 1936 she was regularly on the list of the top ten box office stars. For her performance in Mildred Pierce won Joan Crawford on the Oscar ceremony in 1946 the Oscar for Best Actress and was also ten years later with marriage shackles celebrate still commercial successes. Her former competitors were either temporarily unemployed - Bette Davis -, specialized in portraying old, cranky maids like Katharine Hepburn , or starred in B-movies and cheap westerns like Barbara Stanwyck . Norma Shearer , Irene Dunne and Greta Garbo had said goodbye to the big screen. In contrast, Crawford only played in A-productions in roles that showed her as a sexually desirable woman at the side of male partners, some of whom were significantly younger than herself. At this point in her career, she was still able to charge a fee of $ 200,000 per film, significantly more than, for example, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Fontaine , Bette Davis or Claudette Colbert , who were paid a maximum of $ 75,000. After the actress married the manager Alfred Steele, who sat on the board of directors of Pepsi , in 1955, she increasingly focused her energy on advertising for the beverage company. Crawford found the film business increasingly a burden and after the completion of Esther Costello , she voluntarily ended the first phase of her film career despite numerous other offers.

Nicholas Monsarrat's extensive book was initially to be brought to the screen under the title The Golden Virgin and directed by Samuel Fuller . Susan Strasberg , Joan Collins and Natalie Wood were scheduled to be Esther, one after the other . In the end, David Miller took over the implementation and Heather Sears got the role of Esther Costello. The film only had a marginal role ready for Crawford, but it offered considerable acting potential and gave her the opportunity for numerous costume changes. Years later, she spoke to Roy Newquist looking back about the film and the further course of her career:

"That was my last real top film and to be honest, if I deserved an Oscar for" As long as a heart beats ", then I would have deserved two Oscars for" Esther Costello ". It was a hell of a demanding role and David Miller was an excellent director. But I basically played the part on my own terms and should do well with it. The complexity of the role was enormous. I have nothing but good memories of the film, but also the probing question: Why weren't there more of these films? Why was I caught in freak shows like that later? "

Joan Crawford traveled amidst great media hype with 37 trunk trunks to London in August 1956, where the film was shot for cost reasons. Pepsi rented a suite at the luxurious The Dorchester at corporate expense and provided her with a white limousine and her own trailer on the set. Every weekend the actress gave glamorous receptions and parties at the hotel, to which she hosted Marlene Dietrich , Noël Coward , Laurence Olivier , Vivien Leigh and other celebrities. Costume designer Jean Louis had a budget of $ 50,000 for her wardrobe alone. Crawford, who acted as co-producer, insisted on certain compromises due to cost reasons. So she did without real ermine fur as trimmings for a dress and opted for the cheaper alternative of a velvet border. Crawford was introduced to Elizabeth II on October 29, 1956 during the Royal Film Performance .

Theatrical release

The film grossed only $ 1,075,000 in the United States. Esther Costello proved to be much more popular in Great Britain, where he ended up at number 11 of the most successful films of the year.

Reviews

William K. Zinsser vividly described in the New York Herald Tribune the basic pattern of a Joan Crawford film from the 1950s:

“No Joan Crawford film without a lot of emotional upheaval - that is the iron law of the film industry. Here, too, her fans will have a good time - smiling through tears, breathless with tension and alternating between emotions. As you can imagine, the film Miss Crawford allows you to experience the full range of emotions: from loneliness to motherly love, from pride to the girl to the passion for her husband and, in the end, the ardent vengeance that leads her to be with you Revolver in hand to seek the final confrontation. Somehow Crawford manages to keep things going. It may not be your type of film, but it is exactly the kind of film that many women prefer and Joan Crawford is the queen of the art form. "

The Handbuch 6000 Films was much less impressed:

"Unlike in the underlying novel, no sharp satirical attack on American advertising degeneracy, but primarily a mildly muted private tragedy on an average level of entertainment."

Awards

The film received numerous awards.

British Film Academy Awards :

  • Award for Heather Sears for Best British Actress
  • Nomination: Best Screenplay for Charles Kaufmann.

Golden Globe Awards :

  • Heather Sears was nominated for Best Supporting Actress

Venice Film Festival

  • David Miller was nominated for a Golden Lion.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Emily Carman, "Women rule Hollywood: Aging and Freelance Stardom in the studio System", p. 23 in "Female Celebrity and Aging: Back in the Spotlight", Edited by Deborah Jermyn, Taylor & Francis Group Ltd 2 Park Square , Milton Park, Abingdon Oxford, OX14 4RN, UK. There is also referred to Crawford's male contemporaries Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper and Humphrey Bogart , who are named in 1955 with fee claims of $ 250,000.
  2. ↑ This was my last really top picture, and frankly, if I think I deserved an Oscar for "Mildred Pierce" I deserved two for "Esther Costello." It was one hell of a demanding role, and David Miller directed it superbly, but I played it in my own pitch, the way I thought it should be played, and I was right. The complexities of the part were staggering. Nothing but very fond memories plus the usual nagging question: Why the hell didn't more pictures like this come along? Why did I get stuck in freak shows?
  3. ↑ Top Grosses of 1957 ". Variety: January 30, 1958
  4. ↑ Anderson, Lindsay; Dent, David (January 8, 1958). "Time For New Ideas". Times (London, England), p. 9
  5. ↑ It wouldn't be a Joan Crawford picture without plenty of anguish - so goes a rigid law of the film industry. And her fans will have their usual good time ... smiling through their tears, biting their nails, and otherwise purging the emotions .... As you can imagine, this plot enables Miss Crawford to run a full-course dinner of dramatic moods , from loneliness to mother love, from pride in the girl to passion with her husband, and finally to smouldering rage when she takes a derringer out of her desk and goes to meet him for the last time. Somehow she pulls it off. This may not be your kind of movie but it is many women's kind of movie and our Joan is queen of the art form.
  6. ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 104