2h 8min | Drama, Romance | 24 April 1958 | Color, fs
Director: Irving Rapper
Stars: Gene Kelly, Natalie Wood, Claire Trevor, Everett Sloane, Martin Milner, Carolyn Jones, Jesse White, Ed Wynn.
Jack Baker ... dances and musical numbers staged by
I liked this poster's image better. The title translates from French as The Furor of Love.
GK dances just a smidgeon early in the film, and NW does a a stage dance to rock-arranged Spanish(?, I've forgotten) music. Her left ankle goes wonkier than it should.
This is pure soap: coming of age for NW, with GK playing 13 years younger than he is. She does a good job portraying her attraction/obsession to him (and he to her), and the final scene is well done. His character almost feels like another side of Pal Joey, this one more pathetic than cynical, which fits an unproduced writer better.
Reviewers complain that this is a far cry from the Herman Wouk book, but apparently it covered a lot of time, and had to be condensed. Then again, reviewers of the book aren't all enthusiastic about _it_ either. I remember the 1st edition cover as one we had at home. I never read it.
Beachwold Prod., distr. Warner, dir. Rapper; 7
