Never Let Me Go (1953 film)

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Never Let Me Go
Neverletmego.jpeg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Delmer Daves
Screenplay by George Froeschel
Ronald Millar
Based on Came the Dawn
1949 novel
by Roger Bax
Produced by Clarence Brown
Starring Clark Gable
Gene Tierney
Bernard Miles
Cinematography Robert Krasker
Edited by Frank Clarke
Music by Hans May
Production
company
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
  • 18 March 1953 (1953-03-18)(UK)
  • 1 May 1953 (1953-05-01)(U.S.)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.58 million [1]
Box office$2.4 million [1]

Never Let Me Go is a 1953 British adventure romance film [2] [3] starring Clark Gable and Gene Tierney. The picture, directed by Delmer Daves and produced by Clarence Brown, was from a screenplay by George Froeschel and Ronald Millar, based on the 1949 novel Came the Dawn by Roger Bax.

Contents

The supporting cast includes Bernard Miles, Richard Haydn, Belita, Kenneth More, Karel Štěpánek, and Theodore Bikel. The movie was shot at MGM's British Elstree Studios and on location in Cornwall. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alfred Junge.

Plot

Shortly after World War II, Moscow-based American newspaper reporter Philip Sutherland marries Russian ballerina Marya Lamarkina of the Bolshoi Ballet. They plan to settle in San Francisco eventually, though they realize that an exit visa for Marya will be difficult to obtain.

The Sutherlands honeymoon in Tallinn, where they encounter Marya's friend Svetlana who is there with her English husband, Christopher Wellington St. John Denny. For taking pictures of his wife at the seaside, Denny is accused of spying by the NKVD, the Russian secret police. He is sent home to England without his wife and banished from Russia.

Philip writes an article that annoys the government and he can no longer be in Russia. He too is sent home and separated from his Russian wife.

Because of the Cold War, the only way for each couple to communicate is through letters smuggled by Philip's friend Steve Quillan, an English radio broadcaster who still works in Moscow.

While visiting Christopher Denny in Cornwall, Philip decides to smuggle the wives out of Russia. He buys an old Dutch sailing boat and enlists the aid of experienced sailor Joe Brooks. Marya will be in Tallinn with the Bolshoi in mid-August, and arrangements for the rendezvous are made via Steve Quillan.

Philip, Christopher and Joe sail to the Gulf of Finland. Svetlana swims out from Tallinn and they pick her up, but the Bolshoi schedule has changed at the last minute and Marya is still in Tallinn, dancing the lead in Swan Lake.

Philip swims ashore, where he is inconspicuous in the throng of beachgoers. From a cabana he steals an army officer's uniform and goes to the ballet. When Marya is taking her bows she sees Philip in the audience and faints. Because he happened to steal the uniform of a medical officer, he is escorted backstage to tend to the stricken ballerina. Continuing to improvise, he insists on taking her to the hospital, and a car is provided. As they drive away, dancer Valentina Alexandrovna recognizes Philip and alerts the authorities.

A car chase ends with Philip deliberately driving off a pier into the Baltic Sea. Philip and Marya escape the car and swim to the boat and freedom.

Cast

Production

Kenneth More says he got drunk the night before auditioning so he would not seem too young to play Gable's best friend. [4]

Reception

According to MGM records the film earned $1,482,000 in the US and Canada and $936,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $86,000. [1]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ↑ Variety film review; 25 March 1953, page 6.
  3. ↑ Harrison's Reports film review; 28 March 1953, page 51.
  4. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (16 April 2023). "Surviving Cold Streaks: Kenneth More". Filmink.
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