Never Say Goodbye | |
---|---|
Directed by | James V. Kern |
Written by | I.A.L. Diamond James V. Kern Lewis R. Foster |
Story by | Ben Barzman Norma Barzman |
Produced by | William Jacobs |
Starring | Errol Flynn Eleanor Parker Lucile Watson |
Cinematography | Arthur Edeson |
Edited by | Folmar Blangsted |
Music by | Friedrich Hollaender |
Color process | Black and white |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1,011,000 [1] |
Box office | $2,603,000 [1] |
Never Say Goodbye is a 1946 American romantic comedy film directed by James V. Kern and starring Errol Flynn, Eleanor Parker, and Lucile Watson. Produced and distributed by Warner Brothers, it is about a divorced couple and the daughter who works to bring them back together. It was Errol Flynn's first purely comedic role since Footsteps in the Dark .
Divorced New York couple Phil and Ellen Gayley each buy a winter coat for their seven-year-old daughter Phillippa, known as "Flip". Flip has spent the last six months with her father, but is about to move in with her mother.
Phil asks Ellen to dinner to attempt a reconciliation. While there, model Nancy Graham sees Phil and assumes he is there to see her. Phil tries to juggle both women, but Ellen finds out and leaves.
On Christmas Eve, Phil dresses up as Santa Claus in order to sneak into Ellen's apartment and see his daughter. Ellen assumes he is her divorce lawyer, Rex De Vallon, who earlier agreed to play Santa. When Rex arrives, Phil locks him in the bathroom and a fight ensues. Ellen then insists Phil stay away from Flip for the next six months.
Phil manages to persuade Ellen and Flip to go away together to a rural cabin in Connecticut that is owned by his friend, Jack Gordon. However, Jack turns up with his girlfriend Nancy, ruining the trip.
Meanwhile, Flip has been writing letters to Fenwick Lonkowski, a Marine, pretending to be older than she is, and sending him a picture of Ellen instead of one of herself. Fenwick arrives to have lunch with Flip and assumes Ellen is her; Ellen decides to flirt with him in order to get revenge on Phil.
Eventually Phil tells Fenwick that Flip wrote the letters. When Fenwick learns how much Flip wants her parents to reunite, he decides to help her. Fenwick takes Flip to Luigi's, and she refuses to return unless her parents make up. Ellen finally agrees to take Phil back, and Fenwick consoles himself with Luigi's hatcheck girl.
The film was originally known as Don't Ever Leave Me and was based on an original story by Norma and Ben Barzman. The idea was Norma Barzman's and she worked on it with her husband Ben. It was purchased by Warner Bros. in June 1944 as a vehicle for Claire Foley, who had appeared in the play Janie , which had just been acquired by Warners for filming. Jesse L. Lasky was assigned to produce. [2] [3] Then in September, it was announced William Jacobs would produce instead. [4] According to Norma Barzman, Warner Bros insisted Ben Barzman work on the script with S.K. Lauren rather than her. [5]
The project remained in development until June 1945, when it was announced that Errol Flynn would star. Flynn had been set to star in two action films, The Adventures of Don Juan and The Frontiersman, but both had been postponed. (Don Juan was shot some years later; The Frontiersman - postponed because "of the wartime travel problem, many location sequences being necessary for the story" [6] - was never made.) The article mentioned that the plot of Don't Ever Leave Me was about a young girl who sends a photo of her widowed mother to a servicemen, which was also the plot of another film going to be made at Columbia around this time, Dear Mr Private. [7] James Kern was assigned to direct. [8]
Eleanor Parker was allocated the female lead opposite Flynn. Newcomer Patti Brady was given the role of their daughter. [9] Forrest Tucker was borrowed from Columbia to play his role. [10] He later signed a long term contract with Warners. [11]
In July 1945 the title was changed to Never Say Goodbye. [12]
Filming took place in August 1945.
For the scene in which Phil puts on a "tough guy" front to intimidate Fenwick, Humphrey Bogart (uncredited) overdubbed Flynn's dialogue. [13] [14]
According to Variety by January 1948 the film earned $1,770,000 in rentals in North America. [15] It had admissions of 1,180,998 in France [16] and earned £116,821 in England. [17]
According to Warner Bros ledgers, the film earned $1,817,000 domestically and $786,000 overseas. [1]
The Los Angeles Times criticized the lack of originality in the comic set pieces: "director James V. Kern has had to borrow just about every situation in the book just to keep going" but said "Flynn goes through the motions with more good nature than you might expect" and that Parker was "lovely, unaffected". [18]
The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that "considering the interference provided him by the script, he [Errol Flynn] is handling the novel assignment in a moderately entertaining style... it is a silly little fable... Mr. Flynn's unaccustomed performance is not likely to win him a palm as Hollywood's most accomplished farceur, but it does have amusing points—especially when he endeavors to pose as a tough guy with Humphrey Bogart's voice, and Eleanor Parker is remarkably attractive and encouraging as his obviously reluctant ex-wife. S. Z. Sakall, too, is amusing as a friendly restaurateur, but deliver us, please, from Patti Brady, a lisping youngster who plays the tottling child." [19]
Filmink magazine later wrote that "No one much talks about this movie these days, but it’s fun and charming with the star in terrific form, playing a father for the first time in his career." [20]
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia de Havilland, and reputation for his womanising and hedonistic personal life. His most notable roles include Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), which was later named by the American Film Institute as the 18th-greatest hero in American film history, the lead role in Captain Blood (1935), Major Geoffrey Vickers in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and the hero in a number of Westerns such as Dodge City (1939), Santa Fe Trail, Virginia City and San Antonio (1945).
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Thank Your Lucky Stars is a 1943 American musical comedy film made by Warner Brothers as a World War II fundraiser, with a slim plot involving theater producers. The stars donated their salaries to the Hollywood Canteen, which was founded by John Garfield and Bette Davis, who appear in this film. It was directed by David Butler and stars Eddie Cantor, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Edward Everett Horton and S.Z. Sakall.
Too Much, Too Soon is a 1958 American biographical film about Diana Barrymore produced by Warner Bros. It was directed by Art Napoleon and produced by Henry Blanke from a screenplay by Art Napoleon and Jo Napoleon, based on the autobiography by Diana Barrymore and Gerold Frank. The music score was by Ernest Gold and the cinematography by both Nicholas Musuraca and Carl E. Guthrie. Diana died in 1960, two years after the release of the film.
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Adventures of Don Juan is a 1948 American Technicolor swashbuckling adventure romance film directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Errol Flynn and Viveca Lindfors, with Robert Douglas, Alan Hale, Ann Rutherford, and Robert Warwick. Also in the cast are Barbara Bates, Raymond Burr, and Mary Stuart. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. and produced by Jerry Wald. The screenplay by George Oppenheimer and Harry Kurnitz, based on a story by Herbert Dalmas, has uncredited contributions by William Faulkner and Robert Florey.
San Antonio is a 1945 American Western film starring Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith. The film was written by W. R. Burnett and Alan Le May and directed in Technicolor by David Butler as well as uncredited Robert Florey and Raoul Walsh.
Never Say Goodbye may refer to:
Ben Barzman was a Canadian journalist, screenwriter, and novelist, blacklisted during the McCarthy Era and known best for his screenplays for the movies Back to Bataan (1945), El Cid (1961), and The Blue Max (1966).
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