Rivals (1958)

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Movie
German title Rivals
Original title Kings Go Forth
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1958
length 109 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Delmer Daves
script Merle Miller
Assist: Joe David Brown
production Frank Ross
Richard Ross
music Elmer Bernstein
camera Daniel L. Fapp
cut William B. Murphy
occupation

Rivals (Original Title: Kings Go Forth ) is an American melodrama from 1958 directed by Delmer Daves . The leading roles are cast with Frank Sinatra , Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood .

The plot of the film is based on Joe David Brown's novel Kings Go Forth , first published in New York in 1956 .

action

In 1944, the year of the war, Allied troops were busy fighting against German troops holed up in the mountains of southern France. To the war-weary 7th Army of the United States and the platoon of 1st Lt. The daring young radio operator Britt Harris, who comes from a wealthy family, has been seconded to Sam Loggins. The relationship between Loggins and Harris is difficult from the start. Harris likes to be the center of attention and draws attention to himself through a variety of actions. Since Loggins and his people have already had a long time of privation, they are granted a weekend on the Côte d'Azur, which they want to embellish with all imaginable amenities, also in admiration for the American liberator. There Sam meets the beautiful Monique Blair. The young woman was born and raised in France, but her family comes from America. In Madame Brieux's cozy restaurant, they both start talking. Sam tells Monique about his past and she speaks with love of the wisdom and goodness of her deceased father. Sam would like to see the young woman again, but is disappointed when she makes it clear to him that she is not interested in a love affair.

Back on duty, Loggins overcomes his envy of Harris's wealth and good looks after he risked his life to secure a strategic bunker for his platoon. At the weekend Loggins visits Mme Brieux's restaurant again, where he meets Monique's mother, who invites him to dinner in her villa. In a conversation he learns from Monique that her father, who had died two years earlier, took in orphans and refugees into his house during the worst days of the German occupation. That evening Monique also allows Sam to kiss her. From then on, the soldier spends all free weekends with the Blairs. On one of these evenings he then confesses his love to the young woman. However, Monique replies that she only wanted his friendship and that she feared that he would shrink back because her father was black. "I think nigger is one of the first words you learn in America, doesn't it?" She asks fearfully and bursts into tears when Sam doesn't answer her. Monique's mother intervenes and tells Sam about her husband and that they moved to France to protect their mixed-race daughter. In the following week Sam struggled with himself, he knew about the difficulties of such a connection, as he himself lived near Harlem as a child . His feeling for Monique prevails and together they go to a jazz club in Nice. To Sam's amazement, Britt plays a trumpet solo with the jazz band there. Discouraged, he notices the admiring looks Monique is giving the young man. When he talks to her about her feelings, she frankly admits that she fell in love with Britt. She asks Sam to tell him everything about her father. When he does that, Britt just says casually, "well something". In the weeks that followed, Sam had to realize that Monique and Britt harmonize really well and above all, Monique loves him. Sam isn't so sure about Britt, he's never sure what makes him tick. When they stay with the Blairs, Sam learns that Britt has spent the night with Monique. When he asked him about it, he said casually that he and Monique would get married. He will arrange everything. Sam still doesn't really trust Britt. When he wanted to talk to Monique, she beamed and told him that Britt had said: “Sam told me about your father. I'm sure you're very proud of him. ”She's adored Britt ever since.

By the way, Sam learns that Britt is playing the wrong game and has no intention of marrying Monique. At the Blair home, he forces Britt to confess. When Mrs. Blair shows him out of the house, he has the audacity to tell her that all the girls he has been engaged to have been representative and that all but their daughter have had white fathers. And then he adds by turning to Sam, who looks at him in disbelief that he surely understands that, that was something new. Then Monique rushes out of the room and Sam hits Britt with a punch. At the last second you can save the young woman who tried to drown herself.

Although their relationship to one another is severely disturbed, the two men have to pass another test together. On the way, Sam Britt swears that he will kill him. In order to locate the center of the heavy German artillery , Sam and Britt go to a nearby bell tower in order to be able to look behind the enemy lines. During a break in the fighting, Britt tries to justify himself to Sam and admits that he has everything but no character. When he wants something, he just asks himself what he has to say to get it and then he just says it. Shortly after this conversation, Britt is so badly injured by a shot by a German soldier that he dies in Sam's arms. The Germans are withdrawing and trying to destroy as much as possible, while setting the city on fire. Sam is seriously injured in the process and, after being found, is transferred to a Paris hospital for seven months. He lost his right arm. During this time Monique writes to him twice, so Sam also learns that Monique knows about Britt's death. But she doesn't go into that with a single word. In turn, Sam learns that her mother has died. After his release from the hospital, Sam decides to go back to his home in Los Angeles . On the way home he visits Monique. The Blair's mansion has been converted into a school for war orphans. Monique has decided to carry her burden with dignity. When the children start singing, she gives her old friend a brave smile.

Production notes and background

The filming took place from the end of August to mid-September 1957 in France and from the beginning of November to mid-December 1957 in the Paramount Studios Sunset . The production company was Frank Ross-Eton Productions, distribution company United Artists Corp. Some of the film's exterior shots were made in Nice and on the Côte d'Azur in France . Villa Blair was an estate from the estate of film comedian Harold Lloyd , which belonged to the Harold Lloyd Southern California Estate. Some fight scenes were filmed near Carmel , California , according to the New York Times . Curtis was busy with another film at the time of making the film, Wood was just on his honeymoon, so only Sinatra was available for the outdoor shoots in Nice, Villefranche and Antibes . The reverse shots with Curtis and Wood were then shot in Monterey , California. Daves was the first American director to use the Arriflex camera. Leah Rhodes was responsible for the film costumes .

Producer Frank Ross, aware that the film would generate a lot of interest among the black population, admitted that he was not in favor of racism. He therefore cast the role of the half-black Monique with the actress Natalie Wood. Although Ross and distribution company United Artists claimed they weren't trying to promote the racially prejudiced love story in the film, some ads exploited the subject. The film had its world premiere on June 14, 1958 in Monte Carlo . The film premiered in New York on July 3, 1958. In the Federal Republic of Germany, Rivalen was released in cinemas on October 31, 1958, in Austria it was also released in October 1958.

The pick-up band in the scenes in the bistro was portrayed by several well-known jazz musicians. Sinatra was courted by them to make music with them in the film. The singer and actor sang on the soundtrack album for the film, but not in the film itself. Merle Miller, who wrote the screenplay for the film, wrote a biography of Harry S. Truman in the 1970s that became a bestseller. Miller's script is based on a novel by Joe David Brown, the author who created the story behind the film Paper Moon .

Sinatra (1915–1998) was 42 when filming, Curtis (1925–2010) 32 and Wood (1938–1981) 19. Leora Dana (1923–1983), who played Monique's mother, had only been on the set for 34 years. While the men play young soldiers, Dana is cast in the role of a middle-aged woman.

DVD

The film was first released on April 19, 2004 and again on March 19, 2007 by Twentieth Century Fox on DVD.

criticism

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times couldn't get much out of the film and spoke of a film adaptation marked by "sultriness" and directed by Delmer Daves. Only Mr. Sinatra occasionally appears "halfway real". Mr. Curtis is "puffed up and boorish", Miss Wood usually looks "mannered" and Leora Dana plays the mother, "as if he came out of a grave". A few soldiers are "funny", the landscape on the Riviera is "beautiful". But all in all, the film seems "like a mockery of the atmosphere of war".

When timeout was to read: "Well done, but not compelling blend of war film and melodramatic plot with Sinatra and Curtis as GIs in France in 1944." On the role of Natalie Wood was said to play an American girl who is beautiful, but turns out to be “not entirely white”. The director Daves is attested to a penchant for a soap opera. The best sequence in the film is a short interlude in a jazz bar when Curtis, showing the best performance in the film, grabbed the trumpet to play with the band.

Dennis Schwartz also spoke of an “unconvincing story” during the Second World War, which was mixed with a “soap opera romance”. The statement about racism was made “at the right time”, but the melodrama itself was “rather mediocre food”.

Variety insisted that the revelation that the young woman played by Natalie Wood had a white mother and a black father provided the "key to the romantic entanglements" in the film. The war is shown strangely in the film. During the week the men would fight in the mountains and some would die, but on the weekends they would have time to enjoy themselves on the Riviera. Sinatra creates sympathy in his role as a “brittle and tough soldier” by “playing down” the role. Wood "looks nice", but "that's all". Curtis has "experience in portraying a villain" and repeats himself. He is best when he can let "his charm" play.

David Sterritt was of the opinion that Natalie Wood play her character with the necessary "sensitivity and restraint". After Elia Kazan's literary adaptation Pinky and Mark Robson's film drama Home of the Brave (both 1949), Kings Go Forth put questions about racism at the center of a film plot almost a decade later. Sterritt also referred to films such as Stanley Kramer's drama Escape in Chains with Curtis and Sidney Poitier and Douglas Sirk's drama As long as there are people , both of which also included the subject of racism in the USA . In Kings Go Forth to have taken different breeds regarding the occupation of Monique Although consideration of the prevailing code, no sex or romance between members, but deserve the film recognition that he thematizing issues of racism in a calm and responsible manner. Sterritt drew the conclusion that King Go Forth was a “quiet, informative film”, even if it was “not particularly exciting and captivating”.

The lexicon of international films considered the film to be a "[u] nrealistic and non-binding war, love and racial drama with a lot of action, sentimentality and good actors".

Award

The film won the 1958 Los Angeles Urban League Award for advocating better racial relations and understanding.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kings Go Forth script info at TCM (English)
  2. ↑ Kings Go Forth Original Print Infos at TCM (English)
  3. ↑ a b c Kings Go Forth Notes at TCM (English)
  4. ↑ a b Rivalen ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. DVD - the-main-event.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.the-main-event.de
  5. ↑ a b Kings Go Forth Articles at TCM (English)
  6. ↑ Bosley Crowther: Kings Go Forth 'Has Debut at Capitol Sinatra and Curtis Woo Natalie Wood In: The New York Times, July 4, 1958 (English). Retrieved August 8, 2015.
  7. ↑ GA: Kings Go Forth timeout.com (English). Retrieved August 8, 2015.
  8. ↑ Dennis Schwartz: 'Unconvincing World War II tale that mixes war and a soap opera war romance.' Ozus World Movie Reviews (English)
  9. ↑ Variety Staff: Review: 'Kings Go Forth' In: Variety, December 31, 1957 (English). Retrieved August 8, 2015.
  10. ↑ rivals. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 31, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used