Athena | |
---|---|
Directed by | Richard Thorpe |
Written by | William Ludwig Leonard Spigelgass |
Produced by | Joe Pasternak |
Starring | Jane Powell Edmund Purdom Debbie Reynolds Vic Damone Louis Calhern Linda Christian Evelyn Varden Ray Collins |
Cinematography | Robert H. Planck |
Edited by | Gene Ruggiero |
Music by | Hugh Martin Ralph Blane |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1,443,000 [1] |
Box office | $1,880,000 [1] |
Athena is a 1954 American romantic musical comedy film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Jane Powell, Edmund Purdom, Debbie Reynolds, Vic Damone, Louis Calhern, Steve Reeves, and Evelyn Varden. It was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The film tells the story of an old-fashioned conservative lawyer who falls in love with a daughter from a family of fitness fanatics.
Conservative lawyer Adam Calhorn Shaw (Edmund Purdom) hopes to be elected to office, like his father, and his father's father. He is engaged to a sophisticated society lady, Beth Hallson (Linda Christian).
Arriving at a nursery to complain about the peach trees he had purchased, Adam meets the energetic and eccentric Athena Mulvain (Jane Powell), the oldest of seven sisters in a family of anti-smoking, vegetarian, teetotallers who follow astrology and numerology.
Athena offers to give him advice on how to mulch the peach trees, however, Adam is uneasy, and leaves. Later, at a party, Athena arrives, mulches Adam's peach trees, kisses him, and announces her intention to marry him. She also decides, after a numerological calculation, that Adam's friend Johnny Nyle (Vic Damone) would be perfect for her sister, Minerva (Debbie Reynolds).
Athena returns to Adam's house the next morning, to the shock of Adam's fiancée. Adam promises to tell Athena that he has no romantic interest in her, but finds she has left. He asks his legal secretary Miss Seely to search for her but to no avail. Eventually Johnny returns and tells Adam that Athena's family owns a health food store, and that he can find her there.
That night when Adam goes to the house, he meets the meditating Grandma Salome, Minerva and Athena's 5 other beautiful, singing and dancing sisters: Niobe, Aphrodite, Calliope, Medea and Ceres. He also meets the bodybuilders that the girls' grandfather (Louis Calhern) has been training for the Mr. Universe competition, Ed Perkins (Reeves) and Bill Nichols (Richard DuBois).
Despite the bizarre ways of the family, and although Adam initially tries to resist Athena, he eventually succumbs to her charms, and breaks up with Beth. Just when all is looking rosy, Grandma foresees difficult times ahead. Athena's sisters advise Athena to break up with Adam, however Athena chooses to push ahead with the relationship, knowing that "love can change the stars".
The sisters visit Adam's house while he is out and perform a makeover, removing rugs and screens and installing large urns and fresh flowers. Adam's influential family friend, Mr. Grenville, Adam's law firm partner, Mr. Griswalde, and Adam's campaign manager for election to the United States Congress, Mr. Tremaine, phone Adam's house and reach Athena on the phone. Curious, they visit Adam's house only to find Grandma there in place of the girls.
Adam invites Athena to a formal reception at Mr. Grenville's home. Athena at first charms the party with her pleasant nature and an off-the-cuff rendition of an aria from a Donizetti opera. However she loses her temper when Beth presents Athena with a buffet dinner where all of the vegetables are stuffed with meat.
More difficulties arise when Adam humiliates Ed Perkins and Grandpa on television at the "Mr. Universe" final. Grandpa had hoped that Ed would marry Athena to produce perfect children. Adam verbally attacks Grandpa over the hypocrisy of many of his beliefs. Ed threatens Adam by putting him in a hold that Adam gets out of by throwing Ed in a jiu jitsu throw with both events appearing on nationwide television. Adam is told by his minders that his political career is over because he embarrassed the belief system of Athena's people, alienating voters with those sympathies, whilst those opposed to their beliefs would associate Adam with holding their beliefs by merely being with them.
Despite requisite further conflict, harmony is restored and all of the main players gather around for a Mulvain-style feast.
The film features several songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane including [2]
The film was an original story. It was originally meant to star Elizabeth Taylor rather than Jane Powell. Esther Williams then became attached. [3] In 1953 Williams left for maternity leave. Before her departure, she had assumed she would appear in Athena when she returned, as she claimed that she had helped create the premise with writers Leo Pogostin and Charles Walters. [4] [5]
MGM initially announced that Williams' appearance in Athena would be postponed to enable her to make another musical Bermuda for Joe Pasternak. [6] However, the studio decided to cast Williams in Jupiter's Darling and replaced her with Jane Powell, who was taken off Love Me or Leave Me . [7] They changed the main character from a swimmer to a singer, to accommodate Powell. Janet Leigh and Vera-Ellen were also cast in the film, but dropped out. [8]
The male lead was given to Edmund Purdom who had become a leading man in The Student Prince (1954). MGM head of production Dore Schary was keen to build up Purdom as a star. [9] Filming was pushed back so Purdom could replace Marlon Brando in The Egyptian. [10]
Chiquita and Johnson from the Moulin Rouge were meant to appear in the film. [11]
Director Dick Thorpe was less than enthusiastic about the picture. After a scene was finished, he would toss the pages of the script over his shoulder and walk away. In her autobiography, Jane Powell said that it really discouraged the cast. Powell also said that the film would have been better received had it been made twenty years later. [12]
Edmund Purdom and Linda Christian had an affair during filming and later married.
According to MGM records the film made $1,222,000 in the US and Canada and $658,000 elsewhere resulting in a loss of $511,000. [1]
Steve Reeves' appearance in the film led to his casting in Hercules (1958). The 13-year-old daughter of that film's director, Pietro Francisci, saw Reeves in Athena and recommended him to her father. [13] This was one of two films where Reeve's actual voice was heard; Jail Bait (1954) is the other. His European films were all dubbed by voice actors.
Carl Henry Vogt, known professionally as Louis Calhern, was an American stage and screen actor. Well known to fans of film noir for his role as attorney Alonzo Emmerich, the pivotal villain in The Asphalt Jungle (1950), he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying Oliver Wendell Holmes in the film The Magnificent Yankee later that year.
Jane Powell was an American actress, singer, and dancer who appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door image, Powell appeared in films, television and on the stage, performing in the musicals A Date with Judy (1948), Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Hit the Deck (1955).
Anna Maria Pierangeli, known internationally by the stage name Pier Angeli, was an Italian actress, model and singer. She won the Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress for her debut role in the 1950 film Tomorrow Is Too Late, and subsequently won a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress for her performance in the American film Teresa (1951).
Richard Thorpe was an American film director best known for his long career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
That's Entertainment! is a 1974 American compilation film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate the studio's 50th anniversary. The success of the retrospective prompted a 1976 sequel, the related 1985 film That's Dancing!, and a third installment in 1994.
Hugh Martin was an American musical theater and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He was best known for his score for the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis, in which Judy Garland sang three Martin songs, "The Boy Next Door", "The Trolley Song", and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". The last of these has become a Christmas season standard in the United States and around the English-speaking world. Martin became a close friend of Garland and was her accompanist at many of her concert performances in the 1950s, including her appearances at the Palace Theater.
Joseph Herman Pasternak was a Hungarian-American film producer in Hollywood. Pasternak spent the Hollywood "Golden Age" of musicals at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, producing many successful musicals with female singing stars like Deanna Durbin, Kathryn Grayson and Jane Powell, as well as swimmer/bathing beauty Esther Williams' films. He produced Judy Garland's final MGM film, Summer Stock, which was released in 1950, and some of Gene Kelly’s early breakthrough roles. Pasternak worked in the film industry for 45 years, from the later silent era until shortly past the end of the classical Hollywood cinema in the early 1960s.
Edmund Anthony Cutlar Purdom was an English actor, voice artist, and director. He worked first on stage in Britain, performing various works by Shakespeare, then in America on Broadway and in Hollywood, and eventually in Italy. He is perhaps best known for his starring role in 1954's historical epic The Egyptian.
That's Entertainment, Part II is a 1976 American compilation film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and a sequel to That's Entertainment! (1974). Like the previous film, That's Entertainment, Part II was a retrospective of famous films released by MGM from the 1930s to the 1950s. Some posters for the film use Part 2 rather than Part II in the title.
The Student Prince is a 1954 American musical film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, John Ericson, Louis Calhern, Edmund Gwenn, S. Z. Sakall and Betta St. John. The film is an adaptation of the 1924 operetta of the same name composed by Sigmund Romberg with lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. The film's screenplay was written by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig.
The Prodigal is a 1955 Eastmancolor biblical epic CinemaScope film made by MGM starring Lana Turner and Edmund Purdom. It was based on the New Testament parable about a selfish son who leaves his family to pursue a life of pleasure. The film also features James Mitchell, Louis Calhern, Joseph Wiseman, Cecil Kellaway, Audrey Dalton, and Walter Hampden. Dancer Taina Elg made her film debut in The Prodigal.
The 8th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film for 1950 films, were held on February 28, 1951, in the Ciro's nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip.
We're Not Married! is a 1952 American anthology romantic comedy film directed by Edmund Goulding. It was released by 20th Century Fox.
Jupiter's Darling is a 1955 American Eastman Color musical romance film released by MGM and directed by George Sidney filmed in CinemaScope. It starred Esther Williams as the Roman woman Amytis, Howard Keel as Hannibal, the Carthaginian military commander and George Sanders as Fabius Maximus, Amytis's fiancé. In the film, Amytis helps Hannibal swim the Tiber River to take a closer look at Rome's fortifications.
Hit the Deck is a 1955 American musical film directed by Roy Rowland and starring Jane Powell, Tony Martin, Debbie Reynolds, Walter Pidgeon, Vic Damone, Gene Raymond, Ann Miller, and Russ Tamblyn. It is based on the 1927 stage musical of the same name – which was itself based on the hit 1922 play Shore Leave by Hubert Osborne – and was shot in CinemaScope. Although the film featured some songs from the stage musical, the plot was different. Standards featured in the film include "Sometimes I'm Happy", "I Know that You Know", and "Hallelujah".
Dangerous When Wet is a 1953 American live-action/animated musical comedy film starring Esther Williams, Fernando Lamas and Jack Carson, directed by Charles Walters and featuring an animated swimming sequence starring Williams with the cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry.
The Road to Singapore is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring William Powell and Doris Kenyon, who play two thirds of a romantic triangle, along with Louis Calhern. It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The film's sets were designed by the art director Anton Grot. This film is preserved by the Library of Congress.
Two Weeks with Love is a 1950 romantic musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Roy Rowland and based on a story by John Larkin, who co-wrote the screenplay with Dorothy Kingsley.
The King's Thief is a 1955 swashbuckling CinemaScope adventure film directed by Robert Z. Leonard, who replaced Hugo Fregonese during filming. Released on August 5, 1955, the film takes place in London at the time of Charles II and stars Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, David Niven, George Sanders and Roger Moore.
Skirts Ahoy! is a 1952 musical film directed by Sidney Lanfield, and starring Esther Williams, Vivian Blaine and Joan Evans. Shot in Technicolor, the film follows several women who join the WAVES with sequences filmed on location at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. It also features the film debut of Billy Eckstine.