Goodbye, My Fancy was the third and final cinematic collaboration between Sherman and Crawford following Harriet Craig and The Damned Don't Cry, both released in 1950.[3]
Plot
Powerful congresswoman Agatha Reed returns to her alma mater to receive an honorary degree. However, the college's board of trustees does not know that Agatha was expelled from the school years earlier for participating in an all-night date with young professor Dr. James Merrill, who is now the university's president. The romantic fires are rekindled when they meet again. Matt Cole, a photographer from Life magazine, had been involved with Agatha overseas in World War II, but she abruptly ended the relationship. Cole believes that her feelings for Merrill are simply an unresolved holdover from her girlhood, and he follows her to the school.
Agatha becomes embroiled in a debate regarding progressive teaching methods with Dr. Pitt, board trustee Claude Griswold and his wife Ellen. A film that Agatha had commissioned about the dangers of restricting intellectual freedom is to be shown on campus to celebrate her legacy, but Griswold forces Merrill to cancel the event. Merrill will not fight Griswold, and although Merrill consents to show the film if Agatha's expulsion is not revealed, he lies to his daughter about the reason. After a series of misunderstandings, Agatha realizes that she belongs with Cole and should forget her feelings for Merrill.
Director Vincent Sherman's production ran past its allotted timeframe and budget. He received a blistering memo from studio head Jack L. Warner reading: "After talking to you on the telephone last night, Friday, I am depending on you to finish the picture by next Saturday, November 18th [1950]. As I told you, other companies are making the same type of picture in 21-28-36 days with important casts. As you know, MGM made Father's Little Dividend, with Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Bennett in 21 days and I am sure the Director had the same problems you have had. You will just have to do this. Otherwise, we cannot stand off this type of cost and delay in making a picture. Those days are gone and no one is going to stay on the team unless they can carry the ball. Get in there and finish the picture by next Saturday or before and stop trying for perfection. No one is interested but yourself and I am sure you are not going to pay to see the picture."[3]
Large portions of the film were shot at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
Filling the figurative footwear Madeleine Carroll so neatly occupied in Fay Kanin's play, ''Goodbye, My Fancy," Joan Crawford is working extra hard to make romance and liberalism attractive in the Warner's film version oi that play ... And when Miss Crawford makes a mighty effort to do what she obviously regards as a significant piece of performing, the atmosphere is electrically charged. At least, it is loaded with tension—or a reasonable facsimile thereof—when Miss Crawford herself is posing or parading within the camera's range. For the lady is famous1y given to striking aggressive attitudes and to carrying herself in a manner that is both formidable and cold, That is the principal misfortune of "Goodbye, My Fancy" on the screen. Miss Crawford's errant Congresswoman is as aloof and imposing as the Capitol's dome. As a liberal-minded alumna who returns to her alma mater's halls to enjoy some sentimental indulgence and runs into a nest of reaction instead, she is adamantine and frigid where she should be pliant and warm, humorless and acrimonious where she should be good-natured and sweetly riled. And that is a serious misfortune, for Mrs. Kanin's play, adapted by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, is not a notably sober or solemn work. Indeed, in its slickly stage-wise jumble of glib sophistication and romance, of sentiment and capsuled propaganda, it is just this side of farce. And all of the characters in it—with the exception of the heroine, perhaps—are nimble and limpid creations that might easily be taken for caricatures.[4]
Variety wrote: "Performances are very slick, under Vincent Sherman's direction. Miss Crawford ... sustains the romantic, middle-aged congresswoman with a light touch that is excellent."[5]
According to Warner Bros. records, the film cost $1,312,000[1] and earned $1,130,000 in the U.S. and $228,000 in other markets[1] for a gross revenue of $1,358,000[1][2] and slim profit of $46,000.
Goodbye, My Fancy was released as a Region 1 DVD on March 23, 2009 by Warner Bros.
References
12345Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1–31 p 31 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
12"The Top Box Office Hits of 1951". Variety. 185 (4). 1952-01-02.
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