Saratoga Trunk (1945)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

People are voting emotionally.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Producer: Hal B. Wallis. Copyright 30 March 1946 by Warner Bros Pictures Inc. A Warner Bros-First National picture. A Hal B. Wallis Production. New York opening at the Hollywood: 21 November 1945. U.S. release: 30 March 1946. U.K. release: 8 April 1946. Australian release: 16 May 1946. 12,409 feet. 137½ minutes. SYNOPSIS: Beautiful fortune-hunter Clio Dulaine arrives back in her native New Orleans, after a long absence, with her bizarre body servant, the mulatto Angelique, and the dwarf Cupidon. In the French market, Clio meets Clint Maroon, a cowboy from Texas, and an immediate and intense mutual love is ignited, despite Angelique's protests. All of New Orleans buzzes over this romance, which reminds them all of the old Dulaine family scandal involving Clio's dead parents. NOTES: With gross domestic rentals of $4.3 million, number 7 at U.S./Canadian ticket windows for 1945. Despite both Cooper's and Bergman's enormous popularity in Australia, the film came in at number 27 of the year's box-office successes. The reason was simple. Quite a few cinemas did not screen Warner Bros movies. Miss Robson lost out on Hollywood's annual award for Best Supporting Actress to Anne Baxter in The Razor's Edge. COMMENT: Commences most promisingly with the return of Miss Bergman to the old family mansion to avenge her mother (shades of King's Row). Unfortunately, this story is wound up with astonishing expedition and the film degenerates into an extended dialogue between its two attractive stars, superlatively photographed in rich black and white against tasteful sets. Finally, the author introduces an entirely different setting which erupts in a brief episode of action before the predictable fade-out.The film is realised with taste, elegance and craftsmanship - indeed it is one of Wood's most stylish films, and it has a marvellous Steiner score - but it seems a long 135 minutes.

After "Gaslight", Ingrid Bergman was all over the cinema, and in 1945, topped herself with "The Bells of St. Mary's" and "Spellbound". She also appeared in this version of a possibly unfilmable novel, strange both on film and on stage later on as a lavish musical flop. This version of the Edna Ferber novel is an artistic misfire, stunning to look at but rather avant- garde and difficult to get through without finding something to laugh at. There's a lot to admire in this high budgeted potboiler, melodramatic and often over acted and pretentious in its ambitions. Ingrid Bergman takes the dark lady image of fellow Swede Greta Garbo to the max, outrageously absurd in parts and sincere and feminine in others. She's the scourge of a well to do New Orleans family, returning to bury her notorious mother in the family plot. Hooking up with a notorious Texan (Gary Cooper), she longs to break into society and ends up in Saratoga Springs where, thanks to an outrageously Bohemian blackmailer (an absolutely delightful Florence Bates) seems to do just that. Bergman's constant companions are spooky looking servant Flora Robson (twice as bizarre as she was in "Caesar and Cleopatra") and excitable dwarf Jerry Austin. The lavish Max Steiner score is as important a character as the settings are, but at times, this seems to be striving for camp, not necessarily a good idea. Ripe for parody, I would not be surprised to find that this was spoofed on the Carol Burnett show with Burnett as Bergman, Lyle Wagner as Cooper, Vicki Lawrence as Robson, Tim Conway as Austin and Harvey Korman as Bates.

"Saratoga Trunk" is a 1945 film starring Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper. It's based on a 1941 book by the great Edna Ferber. Subconsciously she may have had Gone with the Wind on the brain; parts of the story reminded me of GWTW.Set in the 1890s, Clio Dulaine is an illegitimate child who returns from New Orleans from France with a mulatto servant (Flora Robson) and a dwarf servant, Cupidon (Jerry Austin). She has given herself a Countess title and claims to be a widow. Her mother killed her father by accident, and his family shunned her. Clio takes over the old homestead with the idea of embarrassing her half-sister and the wife of her father, which she does by calling great attention to herself. Her plan is to marry someone very wealthy who can give her the security and respectability she craves. Then she spots Clint Maroon (Cooper), a Texas gambler, and falls for him. The two have a volatile relationship - and he doesn't have any money, so she can't marry him - so he leaves for Saratoga Springs. Eventually the Dulaine family has enough, and their attorney gives her $10,000 to get out of town. She does. She goes to Saratoga Springs and goes after the owner of the railroad, Bart von Steed. But Clint is always around.Bergman is beautiful in dark hair and wearing the period costumes, and Cooper is drop-dead gorgeous with that incredible 300-watt smile of his. How she could resist him is beyond me. And the love scenes - whoa, what chemistry! The supporting cast is excellent, Robson and Cupidon creating interesting characters, and Florence Bates giving an excellent performance as a socially prominent woman who takes Clio under her wing, knowing she's a big fake.The film runs a little long, and some of the acting may seem old-fashioned today, but it's an absorbing story filled with atmosphere and vivid performances. The ending won't come as any surprise. It's a fun journey, though.

For sheer boredom, I can't think of another movie of this period that disappoints me at every turn. Both stars are badly miscast (with Swedish Bergman in a black wig), Flora Robson donning dark make-up that makes her almost unrecognizable, and a storyline that drags at an interminable pace.The only bright spots are Florence Bates in a juicy supporting role and a melodic Max Steiner romantic score out of which came a warm melody called 'As Long As I Live'. Well, as long as I live, I can't see why anyone can work up much interest or enthusiasm for this Edna Ferber tale that hardly ranks with her best work. Steiner, fortunately, was able to find inspiration even when the film itself was no more than ordinary. The chemistry between Cooper and Bergman is hardly noticeable here.Trivia: Jack Warner was considering Olivia de Havilland for the role Bergman plays. De Havilland was having contract troubles with the studio at that time and mercifully she managed to let this one escape after complaining of being overworked.