BBB
(out of 5)
Satisfying though strange melodrama from Vincente Minnelli is one of his least remembered films. Richard Widmark plays a psychiatrist whose devotion to his patients at his clinic outweighs that towards his wife (Gloria Grahame) and children. Lauren Bacall plays a woman with a ‘marked past’ who works at the clinic and finds a kindred spirit in Widmark, while John Kerr is one of the troubled patients who can’t get over his fear of women. Like other movies from the fifties about clinical psychology, the film’s treatment of these issues is dated, but as a drama it works well enough. The central issue of the film is the selection of the clinic’s library drapes, and the power struggle that is created in the effort to choose the decorations creates all manner of dramatic conflict.
USA, 1955
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
Screenplay by John Paxton, additional dialogue by William Gibson, based on his novel
Cinematography by George J. Folsey
Produced by John Houseman
Music by Leonard Rosenman
Production Design by E. Preston Ames, Cedric Gibbons
Costume Design by Helen Rose
Film Editing by Harold F. Kress
Cast Tags: Adele Jergens, Bert Freed, Charles Boyer, Edgar Stehli, Eve McVeagh,Fay Wray, Gloria Grahame, James Westerfield, Jan Arvan, Jarma Lewis, John Kerr, Lauren Bacall, Lillian Gish, Mabel Albertson,Marjorie Bennett, Myra Marsh, Olive Carey, Oliver Blake, Oscar Levant, Paul Stewart,Richard Widmark, Ruth Clifford, Sandy Descher, Stuart Holmes, Susan Strasberg, Tommy Rettig, Virginia Christine
