Eternally Yours (film)

Last updated
Eternally Yours
Eternally-Yours-1939.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Tay Garnett
Charles Kerr (assistant)
Written by C. Graham Baker
Gene Towne
Produced byTay Garnett
Walter Wanger (uncredited executive producer)
Starring Loretta Young
David Niven
Cinematography Merritt B. Gerstad
Music by Werner Janssen
Production
company
Walter Wanger Productions
Distributed by United Artists
Release date
  • October 7, 1939 (1939-10-07)(United States)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$790,878 [1]
Box office$683,131 [1]
L-R: Broderick Crawford, David Niven, and Loretta Young Broderick Crawford David Niven Loretta Young Eternally Yours.jpg
David Niven and Loretta Young Eternally Yours still.jpg
David Niven and Loretta Young

Eternally Yours (aka Whose Wife) is a 1939 American comedy drama film produced and directed by Tay Garnett with Walter Wanger as executive producer, from a screenplay by C. Graham Baker and Gene Towne. The film stars Loretta Young and David Niven, and also features a strong supporting cast including Broderick Crawford, Billie Burke, Eve Arden, ZaSu Pitts, and C. Aubrey Smith. Composer Werner Janssen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Music. [2]

Contents

Plot

Anita Halstead (Loretta Young) goes to see a magic act performed by Tony (David Niven), the "Great Arturo", after her bridal shower for her wedding to Don Burns (Broderick Crawford). Anita and Tony are immediately attracted to each other and get married. She becomes his assistant in the act.

One night, Tony becomes drunk in the company of a woman reporter and boasts he will jump out of an aircraft at 15,000 feet (4,600 m) with his hands handcuffed behind his back. When she prints his claim, he first tries to get out of it with a fake cast on his arm, but when he sees the thousands of fans, he goes through with it, freeing himself in mid-air and parachuting safely to the ground. He promises Anita that he will not attempt the dangerous stunt again, but soon breaks his word and performs it repeatedly all over the world.

Anita becomes weary of the constant travel and longs to settle down and start a family. Secretly, she sells her jewelry and has a house built in the Connecticut countryside. When it is completed, she shows Tony a picture of it, but his uninterested reaction stops her from telling him it is theirs. When he signs up for a two-year, round-the-world tour rather than take the vacation he had promised, she finally gives up. She leaves him and gets a divorce in Reno. Anita's grandfather, Bishop Peabody (C. Aubrey Smith), breaks the news to the distraught Tony.

On a sea cruise with her Aunt Abby (Billie Burke), Anita is surprised to run into her old fiancé Don. She gets the ship's captain to marry them. However, she spends their honeymoon night with her grandfather. The next night, Don insists on introducing her to his boss, Harley Bingham (Raymond Walburn), at a nightclub. The entertainment is none other than the Great Arturo, with his old assistant, Lola De Vere (Virginia Field). He soon persuades Bingham to let him perform at Bingham's company retreat at a resort, much to Anita's discomfort.

Mrs. Bingham (ZaSu Pitts) has a dilemma, though. They have not booked enough rooms to provide separate bedrooms for the unmarried Tony and Lola. Tony suggests he and Don share one room, while Anita and Lola take the other. During his stay, Tony tries unsuccessfully to persuade Anita to take him back. Meanwhile, the hapless Don becomes sick, and the doctor prescribes no physical activity of any sort for a month.

Bishop Peabody is told by his lawyer that Anita's divorce is not legal. Later, he informs his granddaughter that Tony will be doing his parachute stunt that day. She attends. Tony tells his valet and friend Benton (Hugh Herbert) that he hid a lockpick in the wrong airplane, but goes ahead with the trick anyway. He frees himself dangerously close to the ground. After he is pulled unconscious out of the water, Anita rushes to his side. When he regains consciousness, they are reconciled. In the final scene, they enter their Connecticut home.

Cast

Production

Originally, producer Walter Wanger had planned to film Sacha Guitry's 1917 play L'Illusionniste  [ fr ] (based on the illusionists Émile Isola and Vincent Isola), but the Production Code Administration deemed it too risqué for filming. Screenwriters Gene Towne and G. Graham Baker made so many changes that Wanger eventually billed the film as an original screenplay. Wanger and director Tay Garnett used footage of their around the world trip that they shot for Trade Winds (1938), their previous collaboration. Eternally Yours also featured footage from the 1939 New York World's Fair. [3]

Paul LePaul, the magician who was a technical adviser to Eternally Yours has a cameo doing card tricks with Hugh Herbert. Tay Garnett also has a bit part in the film. [4] [N 1]

Paul Mantz performed aerial stuntwork and photography for the film. [5] Two aircraft in Eternally Yours were:

Reception

Frank S. Nugent in his review for The New York Times , said: "....the love affair between Loretta Young and David Niven in "Eternally Yours" (at the Roxy) is certain to provoke its fair share of local interest and comment. To begin with, it is a gratifyingly high-toned affair in which chinchilla coats, de luxe world tours, champagne hangovers and lodges in the Adirondacks are tossed about as freely and familiarly as the average person tosses off a blue-plate lunch. But its real novelty is Mr. Niven as a magician and Miss Young as the lady he first carelessly causes to disappear, and then pursues to the four corners of the earth." [7]

Variety magazine was more succinct, noting, the film, "... will have to depend on name power to get it by." [2] Overall, Eternally Yours recorded a loss of $107,747. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

David Niven British actor and novelist (1910–1983)

James David Graham Niven was a British actor, memoirist, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollock in Separate Tables (1958). Niven's other roles included Squadron Leader Peter Carter in A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Sir Charles Lytton in The Pink Panther (1963), and James Bond in Casino Royale (1967).

Charles Boyer French-American actor (1899–1978)

Charles Boyer was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American films during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised, in romantic dramas such as The Garden of Allah (1936), Algiers (1938), and Love Affair (1939), as well as the mystery-thriller Gaslight (1944). He received four Oscar nominations for Best Actor. He also appeared as himself on the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy.

Broderick Crawford American actor (1911–1986)

William Broderick Crawford was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning portrayal of Willie Stark in All the King's Men (1949) and for his starring role as Dan Mathews in the television series Highway Patrol (1955–1959).

Joan Bennett American actress (1910–1990)

Joan Geraldine Bennett was an American stage, film, and television actress. She came from a show-business family, one of three acting sisters. Beginning her career on the stage, Bennett appeared in more than 70 films from the era of silent films, well into the sound era. She is best remembered for her film noir femme fatale roles in director Fritz Lang's films—including Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944) and Scarlet Street (1945)—and for her television role as matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard in the gothic 1960s soap opera Dark Shadows, for which she received an Emmy nomination in 1968.

Tay Garnett American film director and writer (1894–1977)

William Taylor "Tay" Garnett was an American film director and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Wanger</span> American film producer (1894–1968)

Walter Wanger was an American film producer active from the 1910s, his career concluding with the turbulent production of Cleopatra, his last film, in 1963. He began at Paramount Pictures in the 1920s and eventually worked at virtually every major studio as either a contract producer or an independent. He also served as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1939 to October 1941 and from December 1941 to 1945. Strongly influenced by European films, Wanger developed a reputation as an intellectual and a socially conscious movie executive who produced provocative message movies and glittering romantic melodramas. He achieved notoriety when, in 1951, he shot and wounded the agent of his wife, Joan Bennett, because he suspected they were having an affair. He was convicted of the crime and served a four-month sentence, then returned to making movies.

Raymond Walburn American actor

Raymond Walburn was an American character actor of stage and screen who appeared in dozens of Hollywood movie comedies and an occasional dramatic role during the 1930s and 1940s.

<i>Dont Just Lie There, Say Something!</i> 1974 British film

Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! is a 1974 British political themed-comedy film based on the popular "Whitehall Farce" written by Michael Pertwee, who also wrote the screenplay.

Dorothy Spencer American film editor (1909–2002)

Dorothy ("Dot") Spencer was an American film editor with 75 feature film credits from a career that spanned more than 50 years. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing on four occasions, she is remembered for editing three of director John Ford's best known movies, including Stagecoach (1939) and My Darling Clementine (1946), which film critic Roger Ebert called "Ford's greatest Western".

<i>The House Across the Bay</i> 1940 American film

The House Across the Bay is a 1940 film directed by Archie Mayo, starring George Raft and Joan Bennett, produced by Walter Wanger, written by Myles Connolly and Kathryn Scola, and released by United Artists. The supporting cast features Lloyd Nolan, Walter Pidgeon and Gladys George.

<i>She Couldnt Take It</i> 1935 film by Tay Garnett

She Couldn't Take It is a 1935 screwball comedy film made at Columbia Pictures, directed by Tay Garnett, written by C. Graham Baker, Gene Towne and Oliver H.P. Garrett, and starring George Raft and Joan Bennett. It was one of the few comedies Raft made in his career.

<i>The Prisoner of Zenda</i> (1937 film) 1937 film by John Cromwell

The Prisoner of Zenda is a 1937 American black-and-white adventure film based on Anthony Hope's 1894 novel of the same name and the 1896 play. A lookalike has to step in when his royal distant relative is kidnapped to prevent his coronation. This version is widely considered the best of the many film adaptations of the novel and play.

<i>Seven Sinners</i> (1940 film) 1940 film

Seven Sinners is a 1940 American drama romance film directed by Tay Garnett starring Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne in the first of three films they made together. The film was produced by Universal Pictures in black and white.

<i>Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back</i> (1934 film) 1934 film by Roy Del Ruth

Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back is a 1934 American comedy-mystery-adventure film directed by Roy Del Ruth. The film stars Ronald Colman and Loretta Young. It was a loose sequel to the 1929 film Bulldog Drummond which had also starred Colman.

<i>Four Men and a Prayer</i> 1938 film

Four Men and a Prayer is a 1938 American adventure film directed by John Ford and starring Loretta Young, Richard Greene and George Sanders.

<i>Trade Winds</i> (film) 1938 film by Tay Garnett

Trade Winds is a 1938 American comedy murder mystery film directed by Tay Garnett written by Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell, and Frank R. Adams, based on story by Tay Garnett. The film stars Fredric March and Joan Bennett, with a supporting cast featuring Thomas Mitchell, Ralph Bellamy and Ann Sothern. Distributed by United Artists, Trade Winds was released on December 28, 1938.

<i>Third Finger, Left Hand</i> (film) 1940 American film

Third Finger, Left Hand is a 1940 American romantic comedy film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas. The screenplay concerns a woman who pretends to be married to fend off would-be suitors and jealous wives, then regrets her deception when she meets an artist.

<i>Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence</i> 1939 film by Ricardo Cortez

Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence is a 1939 drama film written by Dalton Trumbo, directed by Ricardo Cortez, and starring Jean Rogers, Raymond Walburn, Marjorie Rambeau and Glenn Ford. This was the first major screen role for both Ford and Richard Conte, and Ford was billed fourth.

<i>Love Is News</i> 1937 film by Tay Garnett

Love Is News is a 1937 romantic comedy film starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, and Don Ameche. The movie was directed by Tay Garnett and was the first film for which Power had top billing. The picture was remade in 1947 as That Wonderful Urge, with Power again and Gene Tierney.

<i>Golden Girl</i> (film) 1951 film by Lloyd Bacon

Golden Girl is a 1951 American Musical Western film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Mitzi Gaynor, Dale Robertson, Dennis Day and James Barton.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Eternally Yours was Loretta Young's first film after losing her contract at 20th Century Fox. She had previously starred in Wanger's Shanghai (1935). [3]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Bernstein 2000, p. 440.
  2. 1 2 Halliwell 1989, p. 322.
  3. 1 2 Miller, Frank. "Articles: 'Eternally Yours'." TCM, 2019. Retrieved: August 30, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Miscellaneous notes: 'Eternally Yours'." TCM, 2019. Retrieved: August 30, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Western Aerospace". Western Aviation Magazine, Volume 19, 1939.
  6. ↑ Santoir, Christian. "Review: 'Eternally Yours'." Aeromovies, August 5, 2011. Retrieved: August 30, 2019.
  7. ↑ Nugent, Frank S. "The Screen." The New York Times, October 7, 1939.

Bibliography

  • Bernstein, Matthew. Walter Wagner: Hollywood Independent. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000. ISBN   978-0-52008-127-7.
  • Halliwell, Leslie. Leslie Halliwell's Film Guide. New York: Harper & Roe, 1989. ISBN   978-0-06016-322-8.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.