The Sainted Sisters

Last updated
The Sainted Sisters
The Sainted Sisters - 1948 Poster.jpg
1948 Theatrical Poster
Directed by William D. Russell
Written by Harry Clork
N. Richard Nash
Based onAdaptation by Mindred Lord, story The Sainted Sisters of Sandy Creek by Elisa Bialk, and play adaptation by Bialk and Alden Nash
Produced by Richard Maibaum
Starring Veronica Lake
Joan Caulfield
Barry Fitzgerald
George Reeves
Cinematography Lionel Lindon
Edited by Everett Douglas
Music by Van Cleave
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
  • April 30, 1948 (1948-04-30)(U.S.)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Sainted Sisters is a 1948 American comedy film starring Veronica Lake and co-starring Joan Caulfield, Barry Fitzgerald, George Reeves, William Demarest and Beulah Bondi. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and is notable for being the last film Veronica Lake made under her contract with the studio.

Contents

Plot

After escaping New York City with the loot from a successful scam they pulled, sisters Letty and Jane Stanton decide to hide out in a small town in Maine close to the Canada–US border. Robbie McCleary takes them in, only to discover the large surplus of money mysteriously appearing.

The girls reluctantly get involved in a charity program and unwittingly become the local celebrities of the town, something that causes a problem when their fame attracts attention outside the small town and the people affected by their previous scams begin to catch up with them.

Cast

Production

Elisa Bialk wrote a short story, The Sainted Sisters of Sandy Creek. It was adapted into a play by Bialk and Alden Nash, which was to be produced by the Theatre Guild in 1944 as a possible vehicle for Tallulah Bankhead. However the play was never produced. [1]

Film rights were bought by Paramount in July 1946. They originally announced Betty Hutton would star from a Mindred Lord script, co-starring Diana Lynn (sister), John Lund (minister) and Sterling Hayden (cop), with Val Lewton to produce and Mitchell Leisen to direct in early 1947. [2]

However Hutton and Leisen wound up instead working on Dream Girl and the project was postponed. It was re-activated later in 1947 with Hutton still down as star; George Marshall was to direct and Richard Maibaum was to produce from a R Richard Nash and Mary McCall script. William Demarest, Sterling Hayden, Barry Fitzgerald and Joan Caulfield were to support Hutton. [3]

Hutton dropped out to go on maternity leave and was replaced by Veronica Lake; George Marshall was replaced as director by William Russell. Sterling Hayden refused to play his role and was put on suspension. His role was taken by George Reeves, who had already been cast in the film but in a smaller role. Filming started in October 1947. [4]

This was the last film Veronica Lake made under her contract with Paramount. She had previously been one of their top stars throughout the early 1940s.

The Sainted Sisters also proved to be one of the last films George Reeves starred in before being offered the coveted part of Superman in the popular television show Adventures of Superman .

Reception

Diabolique said "maybe this would’ve worked if Betty Hutton had been able to play the lead, as originally intended. Instead Paramount went with Lake who is disastrously miscast, lacking sparkle and verve in a part that needs, well, Hutton – or even Diana Lynn. Joan Caulfield has some game as her sister but is mostly just pretty. Mind you, neither have much of a character to play." [5]

Related Research Articles

Sonny Tufts American actor (1911–1970)

Bowen Charlton "Sonny" Tufts III was an American stage, film, and television actor. He is best known for the films he made as a contract star at Paramount in the 1940s, including So Proudly We Hail!. He also starred in the cult classic Cat-Women of the Moon.

Veronica Lake American actress (1922–1973)

Constance Frances Marie Ockelman, known professionally as Veronica Lake, was an American film, stage, and television actress. Lake was best known for her femme fatale roles in film noirs with Alan Ladd during the 1940s, her peek-a-boo hairstyle, and films such as Sullivan's Travels (1941) and I Married a Witch (1942). By the late 1940s, Lake's career began to decline, due in part to her alcoholism. She made only one film in the 1950s, but made several guest appearances on television. She returned to the big screen in 1966 in the film Footsteps in the Snow (1966), but the role failed to revitalize her career.

Sterling Hayden American actor (1916–1986)

Sterling Walter Hayden was an American actor, author, sailor and decorated Marine Corps officer and an Office of Strategic Services' agent during World War II. A leading man for most of his career, he specialized in westerns and film noir throughout the 1950s, in films such as John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954), and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). He became noted for supporting roles in the 1960s, perhaps most memorably as General Jack D. Ripper in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).

Richard Maibaum was an American film producer, playwright and screenwriter in the United States best known for his screenplay adaptations of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels.

<i>So Proudly We Hail!</i> 1943 film by Mark Sandrich

So Proudly We Hail! is a 1943 American war film directed and produced by Mark Sandrich and starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard – who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance – and Veronica Lake. Also featuring George Reeves, it was produced and released by Paramount Pictures.

AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars is the American Film Institute's list ranking the top 25 male and 25 female greatest screen legends of American film history and is the second list of the AFI 100 Years... series.

Joan Caulfield American actress

Beatrice Joan Caulfield was an American actress and model. After being discovered by Broadway producers, she began a stage career in 1943 that eventually led to signing as an actress with Paramount Pictures. In the opinion of Ephraim Katz in The Film Encyclopedia, published in 1979, "For several years she was among Paramount's top stars, radiating delicate femininity and demure beauty but rarely much else."

<i>Variety Girl</i> 1947 film by George Marshall

Variety Girl is a 1947 American musical comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Mary Hatcher, Olga San Juan, DeForest Kelley, Frank Ferguson, Glenn Tryon, Nella Walker, Torben Meyer, Jack Norton, and William Demarest. It was produced by Paramount Pictures. Numerous Paramount contract players and directors make cameos or perform songs, with particularly large amounts of screen time featuring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Among many others, the studio contract players include Gary Cooper, Alan Ladd, Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, William Holden, Burt Lancaster, Robert Preston, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Barbara Stanwyck and Paula Raymond.

<i>Star Spangled Rhythm</i> 1942 all-star cast musical film

Star Spangled Rhythm is a 1942 American all-star cast musical film made by Paramount Pictures during World War II as a morale booster. Many of the Hollywood studios produced such films during the war, generally musicals, frequently with flimsy storylines, and with the specific intent of entertaining the troops overseas and civilians back home and to encourage fundraising – as well as to show the studios' patriotism. This film was also the first released by Paramount to be shown for 8 weeks.

<i>Buckskin</i> (film) 1968 film by Michael D. Moore

Buckskin (1968) is a Western film, released by Paramount Pictures, released on a low budget and starring an all-star cast. The main stars were Barry Sullivan and Joan Caulfield. Lon Chaney Jr. plays the role of Sheriff Tangley and Richard Arlen plays a townsman. The other stars were Barbara Hale, John Russell, Wendell Corey, Bill Williams, Leo Gordon, George Chandler, Aki Aleong and Barton MacLane. The film was also known as The Frontiersman. It was the last of the series of A.C. Lyles Westerns for Paramount. The screenwriter Michael Fisher was the son of the series screenwriter Stephen Gould Fisher.

O.S.S. is a 1946 American war film starring Alan Ladd and Geraldine Fitzgerald about the Office of Strategic Services. It was directed by Irving Pichel, who would later be blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and written by Richard Maibaum, a World War II veteran who would later write twelve of the first 15 James Bond films. Maibaum, a former Broadway actor, also narrates the film.

<i>The Perils of Pauline</i> (1947 film) 1947 film

The Perils of Pauline is a 1947 American Technicolor film directed by George Marshall and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is a fictionalized Hollywood account of silent film star Pearl White's rise to fame, starring Betty Hutton as White.

<i>Saigon</i> (1948 film) 1948 film by Leslie Fenton

Saigon is a 1948 American film noir crime film directed by Leslie Fenton starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. in their fourth and final film together. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures and was one of the last films Veronica Lake made under her contract with the studio. Ladd and Lake made four films together; This Gun for Hire and The Glass Key, both in 1942, The Blue Dahlia in 1946 and Saigon. While the earlier films all proved to be big box office successes, Saigon did not do as well financially. Ladd continued to remain one of Paramount's top male stars, while Lake's career was in decline. By the end of 1948 her contract with Paramount had expired and the studio chose not to renew it.

<i>Red, Hot and Blue</i> (film) 1949 film by John Farrow

Red, Hot and Blue is a 1949 musical comedy film starring Betty Hutton as an actress who gets mixed up with gangsters and murder. Frank Loesser wrote the songs and also acted in the film.

<i>Miss Susie Slagles</i> 1946 film by John Berry

Miss Susie Slagle's is a 1946 American drama film directed by John Berry. It was based on the popular novel by Augusta Tucker. The film was Berry's directorial debut and first starring role for Joan Caulfield.

Hold That Blonde is a 1945 American comedy film directed by George Marshall. It stars Eddie Bracken and Veronica Lake.

<i>Welcome Stranger</i> (1947 film) 1947 film by Elliott Nugent

Welcome Stranger is a 1947 film directed by Elliott Nugent and starring Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, and Joan Caulfield. It was filmed in Hollywood with location shots at Munz Lakes during March to May 1946. Elliott Nugent appeared in one scene as a doctor sent to examine Barry Fitzgerald and that scene was directed by Billy Wilder.

Lionel Lindon, ASC was an American film cameraman and cinematographer who spent much of his career working for Paramount.

<i>Duffys Tavern</i> (film) 1945 film by Hal Walker

Duffy's Tavern is a 1945 American comedy film directed by Hal Walker and written by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama. The film stars Ed Gardner, Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Paulette Goddard, Alan Ladd, Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken and Brian Donlevy. The film was released on September 28, 1945, by Paramount Pictures.

P. J. Wolfson American writer, film producer and screenwriter

Pincus Jacob Wolfson was an American pharmacist, novelist, screenwriter, film producer, and film director.

References

  1. Zolotow, Sam (24 October 1945). "Joe E Brown Signs for Harvey". New York Times. p. 26.
  2. Brady, Thomas (24 January 1947). "Fox to Make Film of Chicago Women". New York Times. p. 18.
  3. Brady, Thomas (27 Aug 1947). "Paramount Role to Betty Hutton". New York Times. p. 19.
  4. Brady, Thomas (10 October 1947). "Van Heflin to Star". New York Times. p. 32.
  5. Vagg, Stephen (11 February 2020). "The Cinema of Veronica Lake". Diabolique Magazine.