1h 27min | Drama, Musical, Romance | 2 March 1951 | Color
Director: Don Hartman
Stars: Lana Turner, Ezio Pinza, Marjorie Main, Barry Sullivan, Cedric Hardwicke, Debbie Reynolds.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043822/
Watched on Amazon Prime, also on a megapack.
2nd of 4 films for EP; he was the original star on B'way in South Pacific ('49), winning a Tony (but did not repeat the part in the '58 film).
4 songs in the Soundtrack; a solo for each and the duo sang twice; LT was dubbed. (Recall that LT started in musicals, and can dance; no real dancing here.)
Pleasant little oft-told tale of commoner/royalty romance. (NB: Grace Kelly didn't marry until '56.) Their romance is interrupted for a dozen years by his duties. BS is her film producer and new love interest. Which will she choose? I love the ambiguous ending.
MM & DR play relations who run a bed & breakfast in Palm Springs, where LT has retreated before, and cleverly arranges to have the adjoining room available to EP for their reunion 12 years later. The implications, especially when they both unbolt their own side of the door, and later show him casually walking into her room while she's on the phone, is rather scandalous, and probably wouldn't have passed the censors a decade ago.
Some of the pleasure here is the footage of the Italian Riviera, where LT/EP meet. Also memorable: their donkey-cart ride.
MGM, dir. Hartman; 6+
