Oh, Susanne!
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Oh, Susanne! |
| Original title | The Affairs of Susan |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1945 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | William A. Seiter |
| script |
Thomas Monroe Laszlo Gorog Richard Flournoy |
| production | Hal B. Wallis |
| music | Friedrich Hollaender |
| camera | David Abel |
| cut | Eda Warren |
| occupation | |
| |
Oh, Susanne! is a 1944 American film directed by William A. Seiter with Joan Fontaine in the title role. The four men courting them are played by George Brent , Dennis O'Keefe , Walter Abel and Don DeFore .
action
The New York theater actress Susanne (in the original: Susan) Darell has just returned from a troop support tour. Hardly back home when she received a marriage proposal from the businessman Richard Aikens, although she had only known him for a few weeks. In her apartment, Richard discovers that his queen of hearts already had three lovers before him, whose pictures he makes out in her living room. When Richard wonders about Susan's past, he begins to imagine that the pictures are talking to him and warning him that he will be the next one who will find himself in the "gallery" of the alumni by photo.
Later, at a party, Richard meets exactly those three men in the pictures and listens carefully as everyone tells their story of how they got to know and love Susanne. The first story of his experience tells Roger Berton, a Broadway producer who remembers the day he first saw Susan: When the sly actress Mona Kent screwed up his Rhode Island vacation, Roger escaped from this intriguer from his vacation home and sought protection on a nearby island. There he meets Susanne, who he immediately believes that she, too, must be a snake, who ultimately just hopes to get great roles from him, the stage producer.
However, Roger soon realizes that he was wrong about her and that Susanne is a sincere, young woman who also has natural acting talent. He falls in love with her and decides to entrust her with the title role in his next performance of "The Holy Johanna". Back at home in New York, however, Roger realizes that Susanne is too naive for him, and the lightning marriage ends in just such a lightning divorce. Next up to tell his Susanne story is Mike Ward, who has become a millionaire in Montana with large-scale logging. He once met Susanne when she had just finished her divorce and instantly fell in love with her. At the time, Mike was negotiating with Roger to make an investment in his next theater project. After her first marriage, Susan is no longer as naive as before, but has become very cosmopolitan, with a strong tendency to lie. She also does not want to commit herself for the time being, and so she deliberately scares off the new applicant for her favor.
After Mike returned to Montana, Susanne met the next man, the writer Bill Anthony. He's the last to tell his story with Susanne: Shortly after meeting the well-read Bill in a park, Susan experiences a new transformation, this time into an intellectual. Their romance ends in front of the altar. But before the marriage alliance comes about, the drunk Susanne decides not to marry Bill after all. Despite her previous romantic entanglements with the capricious and inconsistent Susanne, each of the three men comes to the conclusion that she is still the one they once fell in love with. Susanne carefully considers every affection of all men who have gathered here in order to then want to return to Roger.
Production notes
Oh, Susanne! was made from October 26, 1944. Filming was completed at the end of December 1944 and the film premiered on March 28, 1945 in New York. The German premiere took place in February 1948.
The film received an Oscar nomination for best original story ( Thomas Monroe and Laszlo Gorog , actually László Görög). Edith Head designed the costumes, Hans Dreier the film structures executed by Franz Bachelin . Wally Westmore was responsible for the makeup and the masks, while the special photography was in the hands of Farciot Edouart .
Reviews
Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times : "" The Affairs of Susan, as this romantic joke is called, is the sometimes funny - and more often not so funny - story of a naive little girl from New England who finds herself in a cunning twat transformed, or rather: into four different types of clever twinkles, depending on the temperament of the gentlemen she is romantically involved with. (...) Producer Hal Wallis could have reduced the whole story to about an hour and not stretch it to the two hours that the film needs for everything. It is said that this is Miss Fontaine's first comedy in five years, so it may be that the lady has not quite finished her relaxation exercises - in any case, her portrayal is highly uneven. Messrs. Brent, Abel and O'Keefe are capable as always, and so is Mr. DeFore, a newcomer with the charisma of a peasant boob. In short, "The Affairs of Susan" would probably have been more fun if Mr. Wallis hadn't been so scared as to cut the script first. "
In the lexicon of international film it says: "This comedy, which is only occasionally funny, gives Joan Fontaine the opportunity to demonstrate her versatility."
"Passionately entertaining comedy by the actress Fontaine, who does more acting for her Beaus than on stage."
Halliwell's Film Guide found the film to be an "occasionally hilarious comedy designed as a champagne vehicle for its star."
Individual evidence
- ^ Review in: The New York Times of March 29, 1945
- ↑ Oh, Susanne! In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 23, 2019 .
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 14
Web links
- Oh, Susanne! on Turner Classic Movies
- Oh, Susanne! in the Internet Movie Database (English)