Forever, Darling
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Forever, Darling (1956) is a American romantic comedy film with fantasy overtones, starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and James Mason, and directed by Alexander Hall. The original screenplay by Helen Deutsch focuses on a married couple whose troubled marriage is saved with the help of a guardian angel.
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[edit] Plot
After five years of marriage, chemical engineer Lorenzo Xavier Vega (Arnaz) tends to neglect his wife Susan (Ball) in favor of his work. When she wishes aloud that she had a more attentive spouse, her Guardian Angel -- coincidentally the mirror image of her favorite movie star (Mason) -- appears. He advises her to take a greater interest in Lorenzo's career, so she agrees to accompany him on a camping trip to test the revolutionary new insecticide he's developed. (Lorenzo's boss declares it will "make DDT look like talcum powder", a line with ironic meaning to modern audiences.) Susan's dream of a second honeymoon turns into a nightmare when everything that possibly could go wrong does.
[edit] Production Notes
The script originally was entitled Guardian Angel and had been written by Deutsch as a vehicle for Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, and William Powell a dozen years earlier [1].
The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release partially was filmed on location in Yosemite National Park. Interiors were shot at the Desilu Studios in Culver City, California. It was the first time Desilu was involved in feature film production.
Forever, Darling was the second film made by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz during hiatus from their weekly CBS television sitcom I Love Lucy, following The Long, Long Trailer in 1954. The couple's marriage was showing signs of severe strain, and Lucy optimistically hoped the project would bring them closer together [2]. They promoted the film via a cross-country train tour aboard a special car provided by the Santa Fe Railroad, with stops in Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City, and Ball's hometown of Jamestown, New York [3].
I Love Lucy writers Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. were called in to help salvage what Arnaz felt was a weak script. Their uncredited contribution was a lengthy slapstick camping sequence that had little to do with the plot that preceded it [4].
The film was considered "sub-standard" by programmers at Radio City Music Hall, where Trailer had premiered, and it opened instead at the Loew's State Theatre, where the newlywed couple had performed their first vaudeville act in 1941. It was a critical and commercial flop that barely recouped its $1.4 million cost. As a result, MGM opted out of its agreement for a two-picture deal with Desilu, and Arnaz decided to forgo plans to create a feature-film division at his studio [5].
The title song, with lyrics by Sammy Cahn and music by Bronislau Kaper, was recorded by both Arnaz and the Ames Brothers, who performed it over the opening credits and ultimately had the bigger hit. The tune became an Arnaz family tradition, sung by Desi at special events, including his daughter Lucie's marriage to actor Laurence Luckinbill [6].
[edit] Principal cast
- Lucille Ball ..... Susan Vega
- Desi Arnaz ..... Lorenzo Xavier Vega
- James Mason ..... The Guardian Angel
- Louis Calhern ..... Charles Y. Bewell
- John Emery ..... Dr. Edward R. Winter
- John Hoyt ..... Bill Finlay
- Natalie Schafer ..... Millie Opdyke
- Mabel Albertson ..... Society Reporter
- Nancy Kulp ..... Amy
[edit] Principal production credits
- Producers ..... Desi Arnaz, Jerry Thorpe
- Original Music ..... Bronislau Kaper
- Cinematography ..... Harold Lipstein
- Art Direction ..... Ralph Berger, Albert M. Pyke
- Costume Design ..... Elois Jenssen
[edit] Critical reception
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times described it as a "thin, overdrawn, weak caper" [7] and Time Out London calls it a "fitfully amusing offering." [8]
[edit] References
- ^ Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz by Coyne Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert, William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1993, pg. 102 (ISBN 0-688-11217-X)
- ^ Ball of Fire by Stefan Kanfer, Alfred A. Knopf, 2003, pg. 180 (ISBN 0-375-41315-4)
- ^ Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, pg. 119
- ^ Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, pg. 103
- ^ Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, pp. 103-104
- ^ Forever, Darling at Turner Classic Movies
- ^ Ball of Fire by Stefan Kanfer, pg. 180
- ^ Time Out London review
[edit] External link
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