Hold Back the Dawn

Last updated
Hold Back the Dawn
Hold Back The Dawn - 1941 - poster.png
1941 Theatrical poster
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Written by Charles Brackett
Billy Wilder
Richard Maibaum
Manuel Reachi
Based onHold Back the Dawn
1940 novel
by Ketti Frings
Produced by Arthur Hornblow Jr.
Starring Charles Boyer
Olivia de Havilland
Paulette Goddard
Narrated byCharles Boyer
Cinematography Leo Tover
Edited by Doane Harrison
Music by Victor Young
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • September 26, 1941 (1941-09-26)
Running time
116 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Hold Back the Dawn is a 1941 American romantic drama film in which a Romanian gigolo marries an American woman in Mexico in order to gain entry to the United States, but winds up falling in love with her. It stars Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland, Paulette Goddard, Victor Francen, Walter Abel, Curt Bois, Rosemary DeCamp, and an uncredited Veronica Lake.

Contents

The movie was adapted by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder from the 1940 novel by Ketti Frings. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Olivia de Havilland), Best Writing, Screenplay, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture. [1]

Plot

The story opens with Georges Iscovescu recounting his story to a Hollywood film director at Paramount in an effort to earn some quick cash. Georges is a Romanian-born gigolo who has arrived in a Mexican border town seeking entry to the US. He has to endure a waiting period of up to eight years in order to obtain a quota number, living with other hopeful immigrants in the Esperanza Hotel. After six months he is broke and unhappy. When he runs into his former dancing partner, Anita Dixon, she explains how she quickly obtained US citizenship by marrying an American, who she then, just as quickly, divorced.

Georges resolves on the same plan. He soon targets visiting school teacher Miss Emmy Brown who is in Mexico on a day trip with her class of about fifteen young boys. Georges manages to extend the time necessary to repair her broken-down automobile. Emmy and her pupils sleep in the lobby of the full-up Esperanza Hotel. This provides Georges the opportunity to quickly and intensively woo Emmy in the early morning hours; she awakens to him sitting nearby and gazing at her lovingly. By claiming she is the exact image of the lost love of his life, his seemingly intense ardor toward a stranger is plausible, and they marry later that same day. However, Georges must wait some weeks before entering the US, and Emmy returns home with the boys.

A few days later, Emmy unexpectedly returns, complicating Georges' plans. Immigration inspector Hammock also appears, hunting for con artists such as Georges, and necessitating Georges' and an unwitting Emmy's departure. He drives all night, arriving at dawn in a small village. They participate in a festival of traditional blessings for newlyweds, an event that Emmy assumes has been Georges' destination all along. Georges had not planned on consummating the marriage, believing that he could return her to her small town essentially unchanged by the marriage, and fakes a shoulder injury. However, as the trip continues, he is surprised and increasingly enchanted by Emmy. When they stop at the seaside, Emmy bathes in the cool green water and Georges is unable to resist making love to her.

However, this jeopardizes Anita's plan for her and Georges to meet in New York and work together, to which he had agreed. Anita has long been in love with Georges, and on their return, brutally informs Emmy of the entire scheme reciting the inscription on Emmy's wedding ring, which Georges' said was his mother's. Hammock then asks Emmy to verify the legitimacy of her marriage; she does not turn him in, partially blaming her own naiveté, but nevertheless leaves him. Returning to the US, she drives distractedly, in anguish at Georges' betrayal. When a black lace veil Georges had bought her is blown into her face, she is seriously injured in a car accident.

When Georges learns of this, he immediately crosses the border, jeopardizing his visa to go to her. On hearing his voice, she awakens; seeing him, her misery is relieved and her breathing and heartbeat normalize as he sits with her for hours. However, Hammock is still on his tail, and, when Georges sees police arriving, he takes off. He heads to Paramount to try to sell his story to director Dwight Saxon, in order to get the money for Emmy's care. Hammock catches up with him and returns him to Mexico.

Some weeks later, Hammock returns to the border town. Anita has a new sugar daddy. Georges has unsurprisingly not heard from Emmy, and believes the worst, sitting dejectedly on a bench writing notes in the sand. Hammock joins him, and tells Georges that he didn't report the illegal entry – Georges' visa has been approved. Georges looks up to see Emmy, in a beautiful hat, happily waving to him in the sun from across the border. He crosses, and they depart.

Cast

Adaptations to other media

Hold Back the Dawn was adapted as a radio play on the November 10, 1941 episode of Lux Radio Theater with Charles Boyer, Paulette Goddard and Susan Hayward, again on the February 8, 1943 episode of The Screen Guild Theater with Charles Boyer and Susan Hayward, the July 31, 1946 episode of Academy Award Theater starring Olivia de Havilland and Jean Pierre Aumont, the May 31, 1948 episode of Screen Guild Theater with Charles Boyer and Ida Lupino, the May 14, 1949 episode of Screen Director's Playhouse with Boyer and Vanessa Brown, the May 4, 1950 episode of Screen Guild Theater with de Havilland and Boyer and the June 15, 1952 Screen Guild Theater with Barbara Stanwyck and Jean Pierre Aumont.

It was presented on Broadway Playhouse January 14, 1953, with Joseph Cotten starring. [2]

Release

Hold Back the Dawn was released on Blu-ray disc in the United Kingdom through Arrow Films. [3]

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100 percent based on 7 critics, with an average rating of 8.40 out of 10. [4]

Variety commented that "While Hold Back the Dawn is basically another European refugee yarn, scenarists Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder exercised some ingenuity and imagination and Ketti Frings' original emerges as fine celluloidia". [5]

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote "You will enjoy it as a straight-away romance, crowded with most engaging characters and smoking with Mr. Boyer's charm". [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Anthony Adverse</i> 1936 film directed by Mervyn LeRoy

Anthony Adverse is a 1936 American epic historical drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Fredric March and Olivia de Havilland. The screenplay by Sheridan Gibney draws elements of its plot from eight of the nine books in Hervey Allen's 1933 historical novel, Anthony Adverse. Abandoned at a convent as an infant, Anthony comes of age in the tumultuous turn of the 18th to the 19th century, the age of Napoleon. The audience is privy to many truths in Anthony's life, including the tragic story of his origins and the fact that the wealthy merchant who adopts him is his grandfather. Most important of all, Anthony believes that his beloved Angela abandoned him without a word, when in fact she left a note telling him that the theatrical troupe was going to Rome. The gust of wind that blows the note away is one of many fateful and fatal events in Anthony's story.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivia de Havilland</span> British and American actress (1916–2020)

Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland was a British-American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. At the time of her death in 2020 at age 104, she was the oldest living and earliest surviving Academy Award winner and was widely considered as being the last surviving major star from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Her younger sister was Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Boyer</span> French-American actor (1899–1978)

Charles Boyer was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American films during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised, in romantic dramas such as The Garden of Allah (1936), Algiers (1938), and Love Affair (1939), as well as the mystery-thriller Gaslight (1944). He received four Oscar nominations for Best Actor. He also appeared as himself on the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Fontaine</span> British actress (1917–2013)

Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland, known professionally as Joan Fontaine, was a British actress who is best known for her starring roles in Hollywood films during the "Golden Age". 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.

<i>To Each His Own</i> (1946 film) 1946 film by Mitchell Leisen

To Each His Own is a 1946 American romantic drama film directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Olivia de Havilland, Mary Anderson and Roland Culver. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Charles Brackett and Jacques Théry. A young woman bears a child out of wedlock and has to give him up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paulette Goddard</span> American actress

Paulette Goddard was an American actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macdonald Carey</span> American actor

Edward Macdonald Carey was an American actor, best known for his role as the patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera Days of Our Lives. For almost three decades, he was the show's central cast member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivia Colman</span> English actress (born 1974)

Sarah Caroline Sinclair, known professionally as Olivia Colman, is an English actress. Known for her work in film and television, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Emmy Awards, three British Academy Television Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitchell Leisen</span> American film director

James Mitchell Leisen was an American director, art director, and costume designer.

<i>An Ideal Husband</i> (1947 film) 1947 British film

An Ideal Husband, also known as Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, is a 1947 British comedy film adaptation of the 1895 play by Oscar Wilde. It was made by London Film Productions and distributed by British Lion Films (UK) and Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (USA). It was produced and directed by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Lajos Bíró from Wilde's play. The music score was by Arthur Benjamin, the cinematography by Georges Périnal, the editing by Oswald Hafenrichter and the costume design by Cecil Beaton. This was Korda's last completed film as a director, although he continued producing films into the next decade.

"Flashes Before Your Eyes" is the 8th episode of the third season of the American drama television series Lost, and the show's 57th episode overall. The episode was written by the series co-creator, show runner and executive producer Damon Lindelof and supervising producer Drew Goddard, and directed by Jack Bender. It first aired in the United States on February 14, 2007, on the American Broadcasting Company. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics. Lindelof and Goddard were nominated for the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for Best Episodic Drama at the February 2008 ceremony for writing the episode.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ketti Frings</span> American dramatist and screenwriter

Ketti Frings was an American writer, playwright, and screenwriter who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1958.

<i>Practically Yours</i> 1944 film by Mitchell Leisen

Practically Yours is a 1944 comedic film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Mitchell Leisen, written by Norman Krasna and starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.

<i>On Our Merry Way</i> 1948 film by King Vidor, Leslie Fenton

On Our Merry Way is a 1948 American comedy film produced by Benedict Bogeaus and Burgess Meredith and released by United Artists. At the time of its release, King Vidor and Leslie Fenton were credited with its direction, although the DVD lists John Huston and George Stevens, who assisted with one of the segments, as well. The screenplay by Laurence Stallings and Lou Breslow, based on an original story by Arch Oboler, is similar in style to that of Tales of Manhattan (1942), another anthology film made up of several vignettes linked by a single theme. The picture stars Paulette Goddard, Burgess Meredith, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Harry James, Dorothy Lamour, Victor Moore and Fred MacMurray. It marks the first joint movie appearance of Stewart and Fonda, who play a pair of musicians in their section of the film.

<i>Kitty</i> (1945 film) 1945 film by Mitchell Leisen

Kitty is a 1945 film, a costume drama set in London during the 1780s, directed by Mitchell Leisen, based on the novel of the same name by Rosamond Marshall, with a screenplay by Karl Tunberg. It stars Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, Constance Collier, Patric Knowles, Reginald Owen, and Cecil Kellaway as the English painter Thomas Gainsborough. In a broad interpretation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, the film tells the rags-to-riches story of a beautiful young cockney guttersnipe who is given a complete makeover by an impoverished aristocrat (Milland) and his aunt (Collier) in hopes of arranging her marriage to a peer, thereby repairing their fortunes and their social status.

<i>Devotion</i> (1946 film) 1946 film directed by Curtis Bernhardt

Devotion is a 1946 American biographical film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, Olivia de Havilland, and Sydney Greenstreet. Based on a story by Theodore Reeves, the film is a highly fictionalized account of the lives of the Brontë sisters. The movie features Montagu Love's last role; he died almost three years before the film's delayed release.

A gigolo is a male escort or social companion who is supported by a person in a continuing relationship, often living in her residence or having to be present at her beck and call.

<i>The Screaming Woman</i> American TV series or program

The Screaming Woman is a 1972 American made-for-television horror-thriller film starring Olivia de Havilland and directed by Jack Smight. It is loosely based on a short story by Ray Bradbury with a script written by Merwin Gerard. The film was produced by Universal Television and originally aired as an ABC Movie of the Week on January 29, 1972. It features John Williams's last score for a TV movie.

<i>Bride of Vengeance</i> 1949 film

Bride of Vengeance is a 1949 American historical drama film directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Paulette Goddard, John Lund and Macdonald Carey. Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is set in the Italian Renaissance era. Ray Milland was originally cast in the film but refused the assignment, leading the studio to suspend him for ten weeks.

<i>The Scarlett OHara War</i> 1980 television film by John Erman

The Scarlett O'Hara War is a 1980 American made-for-television drama film directed by John Erman. It is based on the 1979 novel Moviola by Garson Kanin. Set in late 1930s Hollywood, it is about the search for the actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in the much anticipated film adaptation of Gone with the Wind (1939). This film premiered as the finale of a three-night TV miniseries on NBC called Moviola: A Hollywood Saga.

References

  1. "NY Times: Hold Back the Dawn". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on October 17, 2012. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
  2. Kirby, Walter (January 11, 1953). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review . p. 42 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  3. "Hold Back the Dawn". Arrow Films . Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  4. "Hold Back the Dawn". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  5. "Hold Back the Dawn". Variety . December 31, 1940.
  6. Crowther, Bosley (October 2, 1941). "'Hold Back the Dawn', a Poignant Romance, at the Paramount -- 'Harmon of Michigan' at Criterion". The New York Times .

Streaming audio