The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Richard Fleischer |
Written by | Walter Reisch Charles Brackett |
Produced by | Charles Brackett |
Starring | Ray Milland Joan Collins Farley Granger |
Cinematography | Milton R. Krasner |
Edited by | William Mace |
Music by | Leigh Harline |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 109 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.7 million [1] |
Box office | $1.3 million (US) [2] |
The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing is a 1955 American film directed by Richard Fleischer from a screenplay by Walter Reisch and Charles Brackett, and starring Joan Collins, Ray Milland, and Farley Granger. The CinemaScope film was released by Twentieth Century-Fox, which had originally planned to put Marilyn Monroe in the title role, and then suspended her when she refused to do the film. [3]
The film relates the fictionalized story of Evelyn Nesbit. Nesbit was a model and actress who became embroiled in the scandal surrounding the June 1906 murder of her paramour, architect Stanford White, by her husband, rail and coal tycoon Harry Kendall Thaw.
Writer Walter Reisch claims the film was his idea; he says 20th Century Fox were enthusiastic in part because producer Charlie Brackett knew Stanford White as a boy. Reisch estimates the film was 70% fact and 30% fictionalised. They tracked down Nesbit to get permission to make the film. Nesbit agreed in exchange for money although she was reluctant to do publicity for the film. [4]
Dame Joan Henrietta Collins is an English actress, author and columnist. With a career spanning nearly 8 decades, Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She is one of the last surviving actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. In 1983, Collins was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has been recognised for her philanthropy, particularly her advocacy towards causes relating to children, which has earned her many honours. In 2015, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her charitable services, presented to her by the then Prince of Wales, Charles III.
Ragtime is a 1981 American drama film directed by Miloš Forman, based on the 1975 historical novel Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow. It is set in and around turn-of-the-century New York City, New Rochelle, and Atlantic City, and includes fictionalized references to actual people and events of the time. The film stars James Cagney, Mary Steenburgen, Howard Rollins, Brad Dourif, James Olson and Elizabeth McGovern.
Stanford White was an American architect and a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms at the turn of the 20th century. White designed many houses for the wealthy, in addition to numerous civic, institutional and religious buildings. His temporary Washington Square Arch was so popular that he was commissioned to design a permanent one. White's design principles embodied the "American Renaissance".
Harry Kendall Thaw was the son of American coal and railroad baron William Thaw Sr. Heir to a multimillion-dollar fortune, he is most notable for murdering the renowned architect Stanford White in front of hundreds of witnesses at the rooftop theatre of New York City's Madison Square Garden on June 25, 1906.
Evelyn Nesbit was an American artists' model, chorus girl, and actress. She is best known for her career in New York City, as well as the obsessive and abusive fixation of her husband, railroad scion Harry Kendall Thaw on both Nesbit and architect Stanford White, which resulted in White's murder by Thaw in 1906.
Mam'zelle Champagne was a musical revue set in Paris with book by Edgar Allan Woolf, music by Cassius Freeborn, produced by Henry Pincus, which opened June 25, 1906. On opening night at the outdoor Madison Square Garden Roof Theatre, millionaire playboy Harry K. Thaw shot and killed architect Stanford White: the otherwise undistinguished musical's run continued for some 60 performances largely on the publicity from this incident.
Russell William Thaw was an American airplane pilot and former childhood actor. While working as the chief pilot for the Guggenheim family, he was sponsored for air races and excursions. He served during World War II in the United States Army Air Force, and later became a test pilot for the Douglas Aircraft Company in California. In 1948 he was the first person to fly the Douglas XF3D-1.
Farley Earle Granger Jr. was an American actor.
Island in the Sun is a 1957 drama film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Robert Rossen. It features an ensemble cast including James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Rennie, Stephen Boyd, Patricia Owens, John Justin, Diana Wynyard, John Williams, and Basil Sydney. The film is about race relations and interracial romance set in the fictitious island of Santa Marta. Barbados and Grenada were selected as the sites for the movie based on the 1955 novel by Alec Waugh. The film was controversial at the time of its release for its on-screen portrayal of interracial romance.
Thaw or THAW may refer to:
Niagara is a 1953 American film-noir thriller film directed by Henry Hathaway, produced by Charles Brackett, and written by Brackett, Richard L. Breen and Walter Reisch. The film stars Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, and Max Showalter. It was one of 20th Century Fox's biggest box-office hits that year.
William Thaw Sr. was an American businessman who made his fortune in transportation and banking.
Mary Sibbet CopleyThaw was an American philanthropist and charity worker.
James Fitzgerald was an American jurist and politician from New York. He held various roles including member of the New York State Assembly in 1878; member of the New York State Senate in 1882 and 1883; Assistant District Attorney of New York County (1884–1888); judge of the New York City Court of General Sessions (1890–1898); and justice of the New York Supreme Court (1901–1912).
Craig Wharton Wadsworth was a diplomat, steeplechase rider, and member of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders.
Redemption is a lost 1917 American silent drama film starring Evelyn Nesbit. It was co-directed by Joseph A. Golden and Julius Steiger. The story depicted in the film has strong similarities to Nesbit's own scandalous public life. Nesbit's young son Russell Thaw co-stars with her.
The Woman Who Gave is a lost 1918 American silent melodrama film directed by Kenean Buel and starring Evelyn Nesbit, a former Gibson Girl, "It girl" model and showgirl involved in a 1906 "trial of the century" that involved a killing and an allegation of rape – whose films often exploited the fame of her life story. The film was produced and distributed by the Fox Film Corporation. The film went into release the day before fighting in World War I ended.
The Unwritten Law: A Thrilling Drama Based on the Thaw-White Case is a 1907 film produced by the Lubin Manufacturing Company in the true crime genre, about Harry Kendall Thaw's killing of Stanford White over his involvement with model and actress Evelyn Nesbit. Produced and released concurrently with Thaw's trial, its depiction of a recent sexual scandal led to widespread controversy, becoming "the first film in the United States to be widely construed as 'scandalous'".
Mazie Follette was an American dancer, actress, vaudeville performer, and Florodora girl. She also wrote poetry, and was a witness in the murder trial of Harry Kendall Thaw.
Sob sister was an American term in the early 20th century for reporters who specialized in newspaper articles with emphasis on the human interest angle using language of sentimentality. The derogatory label was coined in 1907 during coverage of a scandalous murder trial that became known at the time as the "Trial of the Century".