The Truth About Spring

Last updated

The Truth About Spring
The Truth About Spring poster.jpg
Theatrical poster
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Written by James Lee Barrett
Based onSatan: A Romance of the Bahamas (1921) by Henry De Vere Stacpoole
Produced by Alan Brown
Starring
Cinematography Edward Scaife
Edited by Thomas Stanford
Music by Robert Farnon
Production
company
Quota Rentals
Distributed by
Release date
  • 31 March 1965 (1965-03-31)
Running time
102 minutes
Countries
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,500,000 [1]

The Truth about Spring (also known as The Pirates of Spring Cove or Miss Jude) [2] is a 1965 American-British Technicolor adventure film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Hayley Mills, John Mills and James MacArthur. [3] It is a romantic comedy adventure. It was released by Universal. [4] According to Filmink "it tried to be a Disney-style adventure-romance, complete with another Disney alumni as lead (James MacArthur) and location filming (Spain), but did not work." [5]

Contents

Plot

Spring lives with her father, Tommy Tyler, aboard a run-down sailboat in the Florida Keys. She has lived a simple, carefree, and isolated life. She has never felt desire or love until William Ashton joins them for a zany adventure involving buried treasure. Ashton, who is from a wealthy Philadelphia family and graduated from Harvard Law School, comes aboard the Sarah Tyler for some fishing. Instead, he becomes involved in a modern-day pirate adventure. He falls in love with Spring and envies her simple and honest lifestyle. Spring initially dislikes Ashton – a variation of Pride and Prejudice where boy meets girl and girl hates boy. By the end of the film, no treasure is found but Spring realizes she loves Ashton. Against all sense of propriety, he asks her to marry him. Spring initially resists, concerned over how her father would manage without her, but Tommy insists she go with him, telling her he wants grandchildren.

Cast

Production

The film was based on the 1921 novel Satan by Henry de Vere Stacpoole. [6] The book was filmed in 1925 as Satan's Sister .

The film was announced in September 1963 as Miss Jude with both Mills attached from the beginning. [7] Producer Alan Brown had been associate producer to Samuel Bronston and this would be his first film as production. [8] It was the third film John and Hayley Mills had made together after Tiger Bay and The Chalk Garden. John Mills said he wanted to use the title Close to the Wind but it was held by another studio. [9]

Location shooting took place in S'Agaró on the Costa Brava in southern Spain and started 22 April 1964. [10] The MGM-British Studios at Elstree were also used for some shooting. The film's sets were designed by the art director Gil Parrondo.

David Tomlinson later called it "a truly dreadful film but with my new-found Hollywood cachet I was billed as making a 'Guest Appearance' in nice big capital letters". [11]

John Mills later wrote "if the picture had turned out to be half as good as the food, the wine, the time and the laughs we had on that location it would have been a sensation - unfortunately it wasn't." [12]

Further reading

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Mills</span> English actor (1908–2005)

Sir John Mills was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portrayed guileless, wounded war heroes. In 1971, he received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Ryan's Daughter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Tomlinson</span> English actor (1917–2000)

David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson was an English stage, film, and television actor, singer and comedian. Having been described as both a leading man and a character actor, he is primarily remembered for his roles as authority figure George Banks in Mary Poppins, fraudulent magician Professor Emelius Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and as hapless antagonist Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug. Tomlinson was posthumously inducted as a Disney Legend in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tommy Kirk</span> American actor (1941–2021)

Thomas Lee Kirk was an American actor, best known for his performances in films made by Walt Disney Studios such as Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, Swiss Family Robinson, The Absent-Minded Professor, and The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, as well as the beach-party films of the mid-1960s. He frequently appeared as a love interest for Annette Funicello or as part of a family with Kevin Corcoran as his younger brother and Fred MacMurray as his father.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hayley Mills</span> British actress (born 1946)

Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills is a British actress. The daughter of Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell and younger sister of actress Juliet Mills, she began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in the British crime drama film Tiger Bay (1959), the Academy Juvenile Award for Disney's Pollyanna (1960) and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Thorpe</span> American actor and film director

Richard Thorpe was an American film director best known for his long career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

<i>That Darn Cat!</i> 1965 American thriller comedy film by Robert Stevenson

That Darn Cat! is a 1965 American thriller comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Hayley Mills and Dean Jones in a story about bank robbers, a kidnapping and a mischievous cat. Produced by Walt Disney Productions, the film was based on the 1963 novel Undercover Cat by Gordon and Mildred Gordon. The title song was written by the Sherman Brothers and sung by Bobby Darin.

<i>The Monkeys Uncle</i> 1965 American comedy film by Robert Stevenson

The Monkey's Uncle is a 1965 American comedy film starring Tommy Kirk as genius college student Merlin Jones and Annette Funicello as his girlfriend, Jennifer. The title plays on the idiom "monkey's uncle" and refers to a chimpanzee named Stanley, Merlin's legal "nephew" who otherwise has little relevance to the plot. Jones invents a man-powered airplane and a sleep-learning system. The film is a sequel to 1964's The Misadventures of Merlin Jones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry De Vere Stacpoole</span> British writer

Henry de Vere Stacpoole was an Irish author. His 1908 romance novel The Blue Lagoon has been adapted into multiple films. He published using his own name and sometimes the pseudonym Tyler de Saix.

<i>The Blue Lagoon</i> (novel) 1908 coming-of-age novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole

The Blue Lagoon is a coming-of-age romance novel written by Henry De Vere Stacpoole, first published by T. Fisher Unwin in 1908. The Blue Lagoon explores themes of love, childhood innocence, and the conflict between civilisation and the natural world.

<i>The Trouble with Angels</i> (film) 1966 film by Ida Lupino

The Trouble with Angels is a 1966 American comedy film about the adventures of two girls in an all-girls Catholic school run by nuns. The film was the final theatrical feature to be directed by Ida Lupino and stars Hayley Mills, Rosalind Russell, and June Harding.

<i>The Greengage Summer</i> 1961 film by Lewis Gilbert

The Greengage Summer is a 1961 British drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Kenneth More and Susannah York. It was based on the novel The Greengage Summer (1958) by Rumer Godden. Set in Épernay, in the Champagne region of France, it is the story of the transition of a teenage girl into womanhood.

<i>The Family Way</i> 1966 British film by Roy Boulting

The Family Way is a 1966 British comedy-drama film produced and directed by John and Roy Boulting, respectively, and starring father and daughter John Mills and Hayley Mills. Based on Bill Naughton's play All in Good Time (1963), with screenplay by Naughton, the film began life in 1961 as the television play Honeymoon Postponed. It is about the marital difficulties of a young newlywed couple living in a crowded house with the husband's family.

Adventure Tales is an irregularly published magazine that reprints classic stories from pulp magazines of the early 20th century. It is edited by science fiction writer John Gregory Betancourt and published by Wildside Press. In 2011 it was published biannually. Each issue has a theme or a featured author related to pulp magazines. Its headquarters is in Rockville, Maryland.


<i>Pretty Polly</i> (film) 1967 British film

Pretty Polly is a 1967 British comedy film directed by Guy Green and based on the short story Pretty Polly Barlow by Noël Coward. It stars Hayley Mills, Shashi Kapoor, Trevor Howard and Brenda De Banzie. The film is largely set in Singapore.

<i>In Search of the Castaways</i> (film) 1962 film by Robert Stevenson

In Search of the Castaways is a 1962 American adventure film starring Maurice Chevalier and Hayley Mills in a tale about a worldwide search for a shipwrecked sea captain. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions and directed by Robert Stevenson from a screenplay by Lowell S. Hawley, based upon Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children.

<i>Where the Spies Are</i> 1965 British film by Val Guest

Where the Spies Are is a 1965 British comedy adventure film directed by Val Guest and starring David Niven, Françoise Dorléac, John Le Mesurier, Cyril Cusack and Richard Marner. It was based on the 1964 James Leasor book Passport to Oblivion, which was also the working title of the film. MGM intended to make a Jason Love film series, but the idea was shelved.

<i>Made in Paris</i> 1966 film by Boris Sagal

Made in Paris is a 1966 American romantic-comedy film starring Ann-Margret, Louis Jourdan, Richard Crenna, Edie Adams, and Chad Everett. The film was written by Stanley Roberts and directed by Boris Sagal.

<i>What Changed Charley Farthing?</i> 1974 film by Sidney Hayers

What Changed Charley Farthing?, is a 1975 comedy film directed by Sidney Hayers, starring Doug McClure, Lionel Jeffries, and Hayley Mills. It is based on the 1965 novel of the same title by John Harris.

<i>The Chalk Garden</i> (film) 1964 film by Ronald Neame

The Chalk Garden is a 1964 British-American film directed by Ronald Neame. It stars Deborah Kerr and Hayley Mills and is an adaptation of the 1955 play of the same name by Enid Bagnold.

Satan's Sister is a 1925 British silent adventure film directed by George Pearson and starring Betty Balfour, Guy Phillips and Philip Stevens. It is an adaptation of the 1921 novel Satan: A Romance of the Bahamas by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The novel was later adapted again as the 1965 film The Truth About Spring.

References

  1. Anticipated rentals accruing distributors in North America. See "Top Grossers of 1965", Variety, 5 January 1966 p 36
  2. "The Pirates of Spring Cove". Sky movies. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  3. Howard Thompson (17 June 1965). "NY Times review". New York Times. Retrieved 15 November 2008.
  4. TRUTH ABOUT SPRING, The Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 32, Iss. 372, (Jan 1, 1965): 96.
  5. Vagg, Stephen (19 March 2022). "Movie Star Cold Streaks: Hayley Mills". Filmink.
  6. Stacpoole's "Satan" New York Times 8 May 1921: 49
  7. Looking at Hollywood: 'Miss Jude' Will Star Hayley and Her Dad Hopper, Hedda. Chicago Tribune 30 Sep 1963: b7.
  8. Stage 'Albatross to Be MGM Comedy: Actor Pledges Clean Films; Hayley's Father Finally Is Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times 6 July 1964: C19.
  9. BY WAY OF REPORT By A.H. WEILER. New York Times 8 Mar 1964: X9.
  10. Surprise Nazi Ruse Told in '36 Hours': 'Ship's' Company First Class; MacArthur Son With Hayley Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times 21 Apr 1964: C9
  11. Tomlinson, David (1990). Luckier than most : an autobiography . Hodder and Stoughton. p.  151.
  12. Mills, John (1981). Up in the clouds, gentlemen please . Penguin. p.  368.