Deborah Kerr

  • Henry King – Beloved Infidel (1959)

    1951-1960DramaHenry KingUSA

    Quote:
    Most actors, especially established stars, yearn for roles that allow them to stretch their performance muscles and play against type. Most big stars who attained their status in the heyday of the studio system often found themselves stifled by typecasting, especially if they enjoyed overwhelming success in any given role. Studio executives weren’t about to risk placing an established property in something unexpected, and if the paying public had shown their approval by lining up at the box office for, say, Tyrone Power as a swashbuckling hero, then Tyrone Power as a swashbuckling hero is exactly what the public would be offered. Read More »

  • Compton Bennett & Andrew Marton – King Solomon’s Mines (1950)

    Andrew Marton1941-1950ActionAdventureCompton BennettUSA

    Allan Quartermain leads an expedition into uncharted African territory in an effort to locate Elizabeth Curtis’ husband Henry, who was searching for King Solomon’s legendary treasure. Along the way they encounter a variety of wild animals including snakes, a leopard and a rhino. Quartermain isn’t keen on having a woman on the expedition and he and Elizabeth quarrel regularly. Elizabeth and her husband were not very fond of one another and her expedition is driven by her own guilt. She and Quatermain fall in love but survival becomes their goal when they meet dangerous tribesmen.Read More »

  • Charles Vidor – Thunder in the East (1952)

    1951-1960Charles VidorClassicsDramaUSA

    During India’s first years of independence from Britain, Steve Gibbs lands his armaments loaded plane in Ghandahar province hoping to get rich. Pacifist Prime Minister Singh hopes to reach an agreement with guerilla leader Khan, the maharajah is a fool, and the British residents are living in the past. Steve’s love interest is Joan Willoughby, the blind daughter of a parson.Read More »

  • Mervyn LeRoy & Anthony Mann – Quo Vadis (1951)

    1951-1960Anthony MannDramaEpicMervyn LeRoyUSA

    America’s mid-20th century love affair with the Biblical epic began with Mervyn LeRoy’s Quo Vadis (1951). And a new Blu-ray by Warner Home Video goes a long way to proving why that’s the case. The saturated colors and epic setpieces that dominate the film’s mise-en-scène are reason enough to sit back and enjoy the spectacle. But Peter Ustinov’s scenery-chewing performance as the last Roman Caesar, Nero, is another great justification. This film was the template for future movies of its ilk, and should be seen for that if for no other reason. Like The Robe (1953), or Ben-Hur (1959), Quo Vadis is based on a historical novel that examines the nascent religion of Christianity through the eyes of an outsider. Here it is loyal Roman commander Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor), who falls in love with a Christian slave, the beautiful Lygia (Deborah Kerr), while struggling to remain loyal to the increasingly mad Emperor Nero. Lygia’s entreaties for Vinicius to join her in following Christ’s teachings are initially dismissed.Read More »

  • Delbert Mann – Separate Tables (1958)

    1951-1960Delbert MannDramaRomanceUSA

    Synopsis:
    It’s the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life at the Beauregard is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock is not what he appears to be. The news is particularly shocking for her frail daughter, Sibyl, who is secretly in love with the Major.Read More »

  • Elia Kazan – The Arrangement (1969)

    1961-1970DramaElia KazanUSA

    The Arrangement tells the story of a seemingly-successful Los Angeles-area advertising executive of Greek-American extraction, “Eddie Anderson” (birth name Evangelos Arness, portrayed by Kirk Douglas) who is miserable in both his job and his marriage to his WASPy wife, Florence (Deborah Kerr) and is having a torrid affair with a co-worker, Gwen (Faye Dunaway). “Anderson” is forced to re-evaluate his life and its priorities after an automobile accident which occurs after he can no longer face what his life has become.Read More »

  • Walter Lang – The King and I (1956)

    1951-1960ClassicsMusicalUSAWalter Lang

    Synopsis:
    Mrs. Anna Leonowens and her son Louis arrive in Bangkok, where she has been contracted to teach English to the children of the royal household. She threatens to leave when the house she had been promised is not available, but falls in love with the children. A new slave, a gift of a vassal king, translates “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” into a Siamese ballet. After expressing her unhappiness at being with the King, the slave decides to make an attempt to escape with her lover. Anna and the King start to fall in love, but her headstrong upbringing inhibits her from joining his harem. She is just about to leave Siam but something important she finds out makes her think about changing her mind.Read More »

  • George Cukor – Edward, My Son (1949)

    1941-1950DramaGeorge CukorUSA

    Quote:
    What will a father do to give his son everything?

    Obsessed with the desire to give his only son the best of everything, a man destroys his whole world in this riveting drama starring Spencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr (in an Academy Award-nominated performance*). When the boy is five, his father (Tracy) commits arson to pay for a vital operation. This fateful step launches a rocketlike career of business success. In the process he ruins his partner, destroys his wife’s love for him and then her will to live, and finally faces jail himself for what turns out to have been an empty dream. Based on the play by Robert Morley and Noel Langley. *1949: Best Actress.

    — WAC case synopsisRead More »

  • Otto Preminger – Bonjour tristesse (1958)

    1951-1960DramaOtto PremingerUSA

    Synopsis:
    Cecile, decadent young girl who lives with her rich playboy father Raymond. When Anne, Raymond’s old love interest, comes to Raymond’s villa, Cecile is afraid for her way of life.Read More »

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