Love in Shackles (1947)

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Movie
German title Love in chains
Original title Cass Timberlane
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1947
length 119 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director George Sidney
script Donald Ogden Stewart ,
Sonya Levien
production Arthur Hornblow junior
for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
music Roy Webb
camera Robert H. Planck
cut John D. Dunning
occupation

Love in fetters (alternative title: fetters of love , original title: Cass Timberlane , alternatively Sinclair Lewis 'Cass Timberlane ) is an American love film by George Sidney from 1947. The screenplay was written by Donald Ogden Stewart and Sonya Levien based on Sinclair Lewis ' novel Cass Timberlane: A Novel of Husbands and Wives , first published in New York in 1945. Spencer Tracy , Lana Turner and Zachary Scott star in this story of an elderly judge marrying an unsuitable young woman .

action

The film is set in an American provincial town in the 1940s. In the courtroom, young Jinny Marshland and the sedate senior judge Cass Timberlane meet. He is so enchanted by the girl's beauty that he follows her to the poor district. There they meet again. It doesn't take long for Timberlane to take his conquest to the altar, much to the chagrin of his relatives and friends. The only one who understands Timberlane's behavior is his much younger friend Bradd Criley, a successful lawyer. The marriage soon got into crisis, because the young woman had to fight against the narrow-minded traditions and the prejudices of the “better” society to which she now belongs. After a while, Jinny falls into an affair with Bradd. A child that the married couple might have been able to reunite dies shortly after birth.

Cass is relieved when his friend is transferred to New York. But when the judge has to keep an appointment in this city, his wife visits Bradd in his apartment. The fear of having to return to the confines of her home grows in Jinny. More and more often there is a quarrel between the spouses. Jinny can no longer take it with her husband; she moves to Bradd. But her initial euphoria is soon destroyed when she realizes that Bradd was just looking for an adventure with her and is unwilling to marry her. Jinny's attempt at suicide fails. When Cass learns that his wife is badly injured, he visits her at the hospital, takes her home and nurses her back to health. In doing so, both of them realize that they are meant for each other despite all the opposites. Together they dare a new beginning.

prehistory

In April 1945, the film industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter read that MGM had paid $ 150,000 for the film rights to Lewis' novel. According to MGM, the writer John O'Hara studied the novel from August 20, 1945 to January 15, 1946 and designed character studies for a film. Further records of the studio indicate that the playwright Sidney Kingsley was busy with a script draft in April / May 1946. It is not known how much influence both of them had on the finished film. In some cases, changes that have been made again and again can be traced back to the Hays Code , which must be observed in America . But Turner also asked for script changes. The actress, who had just finished the drama Typhoon , where a British accent was required, was now bound to play a very American character. She had to completely readjust herself ad hoc in the language, make-up, hair and costumes, which brought some difficulties. In addition, this period was also personal problems burdened by their relationship to the still with the French actress Annabella married Tyrone Power , said she was aware that her career would sensitive to damage so that they do when they became pregnant, an abortion decided.

In August 1945, the magazine reported that MGM had considered Spencer Tracy or Walter Pidgeon for the title role. The latter appeared in a brief cameo in the finished film . David O. Selznick was to be won for the production and Jennifer Jones for the female lead. After Tracy was entrusted with the title role, the studio negotiated with Vivien Leigh for the role at Tracy's side, according to the Hollywood Reporter . Tracy wasn't too happy with the studio choice for George Sidney, hoping for George Cukor or Vincente Minnelli to direct. Virginia Gray was under discussion for a key role that the film would be shot in Minnesota . The majority of the recordings, which were shot between March 29 and July 22, 1947, were ultimately shot in and around Los Angeles .

In April 1945, Sonya Hendry's mother, Fay Hendry, received nearly $ 30,000 in compensation , according to the Hollywood Reporter , for injuring the girl who was supposed to star in the film from a falling reflector.

publication

In advertising at the time, the film was advertised as TNT, Tracy 'n' Turner. It wasn't the first time they played together. Lana Turner had played Doctor and Demon Tracy's fiancée in the drama six years earlier . However, it wasn't the first time the TNT slogan was used. Turner's pairing with Robert Taylor in 1941 in the gangster melodrama The Dead Lives was also announced.

The world premiere of the film was hosted as a charity event for the John Tracy Clinic for Deaf Children, founded by Spencer Tracy's wife Louise in 1942 and named after their own deaf child. In the US, the film was first seen on the New York screen on November 6, 1947. In the following year it started up in the USA. It was also published in Sweden and Portugal in 1948, in Finland in 1949 and in France and Denmark in 1950 and in Austria. It was first seen in the Federal Republic of Germany on September 19, 1950.

It has also been published in Brazil, Spain, Greece, Italy, Mexico and Venezuela.

Lewis' novel appeared as a sequel in Hearst’s International Cosmopolitan magazine from May to October 1948 .

criticism

The film critics at the time particularly praised Lana Turner's performance in Cass Timberlane , which was rarely the case in the past. Spencer Tracy also paid tribute to Turner by confirming that she was a "good actress". A rarity in this respect was that several critics were of the opinion that the film was better than the book by Sinclair Lewis.

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times found that MGM had done the Lewis story well and that Spencer Tracy was well cast as the aging but still romantic judge. No one, except perhaps Walter Pidgeon, would have been better suited for the role. It is also noteworthy that Mr. Pidgeon appears in a cocktail scene. However, for security reasons, the studio omitted many of the snappy details of social stagnation and frustration in the provincial town in the Midwest that were in Lewis' book.

The industry journal Variety particularly praised the performance of Lana Turner, who delivered a "top performance" in a role that offered her a wide range, whereas Spencer Tracy's portrayal seemed almost wooden in comparison. Director George Sidney is also unable to keep the pace of the film for more than two hours.

The lexicon of international film drew the following conclusion: "Well-played film adaptation of a weaker novel by Sinclair Lewis."

Cinema found that Sinclair Lewis was a "sensitive chronicler of the US provinces" and was of the opinion that this film adaptation of his book 'Novel about husbands and wives' was "a little fluffed up", "thanks to the great actors" but "an event" . Conclusion: "Nice star cinema from Hollywood."

On the ARD .de page it was said: "Fesseln der Liebe is an exciting and thematically complex film adaptation of a Sinclair Lewis novel with an excellent Spencer Tracy and a brilliant Lana Turner."

source

  • Love in Fetters Program for the film: Illustrierte Film-Bühne, Number 615 (Cover picture: Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cass Timberlane Original Print Info at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English). Retrieved December 26, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Cass Timberlane Notes at TCM (English). Retrieved December 26, 2018.
  3. ↑ a b c d Cass Timberlane Articles at TCM (English). Retrieved December 26, 2018.
  4. ↑ Shackles of Love. In: prisma.de . Retrieved December 26, 2018 .
  5. ^ Bosley Crowther : 'Cass Timberlane', with Lana Turner and Spencer Tracy, arrives at the Music Hall In: The New York Times, November 7, 1947 (English). Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  6. ↑ Review: 'Cass Timberlane' at Variety (English). Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  7. ↑ Lexicon of international films, rororo-Taschenbuch No. 6322 from 1988, p. 996
  8. ↑ Love in chains. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 25, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  9. ↑ Shackles of love at cinema.de (with 11 film images)
  10. ↑ Shackles of love adS programm.ard.de