The Constant Nymph | |
---|---|
Directed by | Edmund Goulding |
Screenplay by | Kathryn Scola |
Based on | The Constant Nymph (novel) (1924 novel) by Margaret Kennedy 1926 play (Basil Dean) |
Produced by | Henry Blanke Hal B. Wallis |
Starring | Joan Fontaine Charles Boyer Alexis Smith |
Cinematography | Tony Gaudio |
Edited by | David Weisbart |
Music by | Erich Wolfgang Korngold |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 112 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.9 million (US rentals) [1] or $1,123,000 [2] |
Box office | $3,452,000 [2] |
The Constant Nymph is a 1943 romantic drama film starring Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith, Brenda Marshall, Charles Coburn, May Whitty, and Peter Lorre with a famous score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. [3] It was adapted by Kathryn Scola from the 1924 novel of the same name by Margaret Kennedy and the 1926 play by Kennedy and Basil Dean and directed by Edmund Goulding.
Belgian composer Lewis Dodd's latest symphony has flopped. Seeking new inspiration, he travels to a Swiss chalet to visit his mentor, Albert Sanger, and his family. Sanger's four young daughters –Kate, Toni, Tessa and Paula –have a crush on Dodd. Tessa, particularly, believes that someday, when she is old enough, he will recognize the depth of her affection for him. Lewis brings out his newest work, a symphonic poem called “Tomorrow,” which he has composed for the Sanger girls to play. Albert himself is far more pleased with this “trifle” than with Lewis’s noisy modernist symphony. However, shortly afterwards, the elderly, hard-drinking Sanger dies while orchestrating Lewis’s “little tune", a task which Dodd now vows to complete himself.
While remaining with the Sangers to help the family cope with their loss, Lewis renews an acquaintance with the beautiful, sophisticated Florence Creighton. Later, Lewis asks her to marry him. Tessa collapses at the news. Only her closest sister, Paula, understands why. Six months later, Florence and Lewis are in London, living in her father‘s large townhouse. They are taking care of Tessa and Paula, who now attend a boarding school. Both girls find the experience unbearable. After they run away, a worried Lewis notifies Scotland Yard. But the elusive Tessa and Paula arrive at the townhouse, just in time to witness Lewis's private performance of "Tomorrow." Much to everyone's disappointment, Lewis has taken the beautiful melody and buried it under a modernist “bangety bang” racket. As a result, even Lewis himself is convinced that more changes are needed before the scheduled concert of the piece is to take place. He thus asks Tessa to stay and help him remember the more Romanticist conception of "Tomorrow" as originally envisioned by Sanger.
A few weeks later, it is the day of the concert. While dressing for the occasion, Tessa, who has a history of cardiac problems, suffers a fainting spell. Florence, who has become jealous of Tessa's close collaborative relationship with Lewis, convinces her she cannot attend. She might have palpitations and cause a scene. So Tessa remains in the townhouse's study, where she listens to a radio broadcast of the new version of "Tomorrow" as it is performed before an audience. Before the composition's end, however, she collapses to the floor and dies. At the concert hall, the presentation is met with a long ovation. Lewis rushes home to tell Tessa of their success but instead witnesses the sight of Tessa's body lying on the study floor. Lewis calls her name and embraces her, his face wet with tears. The film's score climaxes as a log in the fireplace seems to spark, then flame, and then dissolve into a brilliant sky.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold composed the music for The Constant Nymph. The symphonic poem Tomorrow, which was given a complete performance in the film, became Opus 33 in the roster of his works. It first was performed in concert in 1944.
Fontaine was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. [4]
According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $1,833,000 in the U.S. and $1,619,000 in other markets. [2]
The will of Margaret Kennedy stated that the film could be shown only at universities and museums after its original theatrical run ended. As a result, the film was unavailable for exhibition for nearly 70 years. The film received its first authorized public screening in decades as part of the 2011 Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival. [5] [6]
Edmund Goulding's biographer Matthew Kennedy wrote that Joan Fontaine spoke "rapturously" of The Constant Nymph: "She was nominated for a best actress Oscar for it, and it remains a personal favorite of hers." [7]
The film was released on DVD under the Warner Archive Collection label on 22 November 2011. [8]
The Constant Nymph was presented on Hollywood Players December 17, 1946. Fontaine reprised her role from the film. [9]
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland, known professionally as Joan Fontaine, was an English-American actress who is best known for her starring roles in Hollywood films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Fontaine appeared in more than 45 films in a career that spanned five decades. She was the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland. Their rivalry was well-documented in the media at the height of Fontaine's career.
The Constant Nymph is a 1924 novel by Margaret Kennedy. It tells how a teenage girl, Tessa Sanger, falls in love with a family friend, who eventually marries her cousin. It explores the protagonists' complex family histories, focusing on class, education and creativity.
Margaret Alexis Smith was a Canadian-born American actress, pin-up girl and singer. She appeared in several major Hollywood films in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Award in 1972 for the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical Follies.
Joan Leslie was an American actress and vaudevillian, who during the Hollywood Golden Age, appeared in such films as High Sierra (1941), Sergeant York (1941), and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).
Edmund Goulding was a British screenwriter and film director. As an actor early in his career he was one of the 'Ghosts' in the 1922 silent film Three Live Ghosts alongside Norman Kerry and Cyril Chadwick. Also in the early 1920s he wrote several screenplays for star Mae Murray for films directed by her then husband Robert Z. Leonard. Goulding is best remembered for directing cultured dramas such as Love (1927), Grand Hotel (1932) with Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford, Dark Victory (1939) with Bette Davis, The Constant Nymph (1943) with Joan Fontaine, and The Razor's Edge (1946) with Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power. He also directed the classic film noir Nightmare Alley (1947) with Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell, and the action drama The Dawn Patrol. He was also a successful songwriter, composer, and producer.
The Stud is a 1978 British drama film directed by Quentin Masters and starring Joan Collins and Oliver Tobias. It is based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Collins's younger sister Jackie Collins.
Richard Ryen was a Hungarian-born actor who was expelled from Germany by the Nazis prior to World War II.
Forsaking All Others is a 1934 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by W.S. Van Dyke, and starring Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford and Clark Gable. The screenplay was written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, which was based upon a 1933 play by Edward Barry Roberts and Frank Morgan Cavett starring Tallulah Bankhead.
Margaret Kennedy was an English novelist and playwright. Her most successful work, as a novel and as a play, was The Constant Nymph. She was a productive writer and several of her works were filmed. Three of her novels were reprinted in 2011.
I Met My Love Again is a 1938 American romantic drama film distributed by United Artists, directed by Joshua Logan, Arthur Ripley and George Cukor. The screenplay was written by David Hertz, based on the novel Summer Lightning by Allene Corliss. The film stars Joan Bennett and Henry Fonda.
The Constant Nymph is a 1928 British silent film drama, directed by Adrian Brunel and starring Ivor Novello and Mabel Poulton. This was the first film adaptation of the 1924 best-selling and controversial novel The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy and the 1926 stage play version written by Kennedy and Basil Dean. The theme of adolescent sexuality reportedly discomfited the British film censors, until they were reassured that lead actress Poulton was in fact in her 20s.
September Affair is a 1950 American romantic drama film directed by William Dieterle and starring Joan Fontaine, Joseph Cotten, and Jessica Tandy. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis.
I Love My Wife, stylized as I Love My...Wife, is a 1970 American comedy film directed by Mel Stuart. It stars Elliott Gould and Brenda Vaccaro.
The Constant Nymph may refer to:
The Constant Nymph is a 1933 British drama film directed by Basil Dean and starring Victoria Hopper, Brian Aherne and Leonora Corbett. It is an adaptation of the 1924 novel The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy and the 1926 stage play adaptation written by Kennedy and Dean. Dean tried to persuade Novello to reprise his appearance from the 1928 silent version The Constant Nymph but was turned down and cast Aherne in the part instead. The film is set in Tyrol, western Austria. Previously filmed in 1928, the sentimental Margaret Kennedy novel The Constant Nymph was sumptuously remade by Gaumont-British Picture Corporation in 1933.
Escape Me Never is a 1947 American melodrama film directed by Peter Godfrey, and starring Errol Flynn, Ida Lupino, Eleanor Parker, and Gig Young.
Escape Me Never is a 1935 British drama film directed by Paul Czinner, produced by Herbert Wilcox, and starring Elisabeth Bergner, Hugh Sinclair and Griffith Jones. The score is by William Walton with orchestration by Hyam Greenbaum. Bergner was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance, but lost to Bette Davis. British readers of Film Weekly magazine voted the 1935 Best Performance in a British Movie to her. The film is an adaptation of the play Escape Me Never by Margaret Kennedy, which was based upon her 1930 novel The Fool of the Family. That book was a sequel to The Constant Nymph, which was also about the Sanger family of musical geniuses, but there is a disjunct among the books and the films: the Sanger brothers are never mentioned in the 1943 film version of The Constant Nymph. Another film adaptation of Escape Me Never was made in 1947 by Warner Bros.
Sally Sweetland was an American soprano singer and teacher. She was active in the film and recording industry during the 1940s and 50s, before moving into teaching.
One More Tomorrow is a 1946 American drama film directed by Peter Godfrey and written by Charles Hoffman and Catherine Turney from the play The Animal Kingdom by Philip Barry. The film, starring Ann Sheridan, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Alexis Smith, Jane Wyman and Reginald Gardiner. It was released by Warner Bros. on June 1, 1946. A pre-code 1932 film, The Animal Kingdom, is also based on the play.
The Constant Nymph is a play based on the 1924 novel of the same name by Margaret Kennedy. The stage version, adapted by Kennedy and the director Basil Dean, was first performed in London in 1926, starring Noël Coward, Edna Best and Cathleen Nesbitt. It portrays the love of two women for a young composer, and the conflicts that arise. The tragic ending has the younger of the two – a teenager – die of heart failure.