Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Historic Asolo Theatre, HTTP://WWW - ringling.org/HistoricAsoloTheater - Aspx, Is The
The Historic Asolo Theatre, HTTP://WWW - ringling.org/HistoricAsoloTheater - Aspx, Is The
aspx,
is the only recreated 18th century theatre in the United States. It’s yet another of
the wonderful, many faceted aspects of The John and Mable Ringling Museum,
http://www.ringling.org/ which sits at the end of University Parkway in Sarasota.
The current cinema program is “We Could Make Beautiful Music Together: Six
Decades of Academy Award Winning Film Scores”:
The Heiress
This is a movie about which I knew NOTHING. Hadn’t seen it on tv
late on a Saturday night. Hadn’t heard anyone talk about it. Didn’t
know who was in it, or why it was so good.
It’s a pretty simple story: boy meets girl. However, boy may be after
girl solely for her money. The boy is dashingly handsome, and
seemingly smitten. The girl is plain, a nervous conversationalist, and
can never live up to her father’s idolization of her dead mother.
Costume Drama
I probably never heard of this movie, or I ignored it if I had heard
about it because it’s a costume drama. You know this kind of movie:
everyone speaks properly and practices good social graces. It’s set in
19th century New York City, and is based on the play The Heiress,
which is itself based on the Henry James novel Washington Square.
Yawn, right?
Wrong.
It’s in black and white and it’s gorgeous. Its set design, costumes,
music (of course), and cast work in perfect harmony. Its theme of
love – innocent, optimistic, pure – taken advantage of (possibly) is
timeless, universal. Like Sunset Boulevard, this film’s emotional
intensity remains undiluted, even after all these years.
Olivia de Havilland is the most beautiful “plain” woman I’ve ever seen.
Montgomery Clift is the PERFECT handsome-dude-come-a-calling-to-
seduce. And Ralph Richardson is the stern Dad who knows better
and yet wants to see his daughter married.
I so wanted Clift’s love for de Havilland to be true. I did NOT want her
heart to be broken. I wanted her Dad to be wrong.
Rent the movie and find out. Or better yet, see it on the big screen.
And bring a hanky. I didn’t cry, and I’ve no idea if anyone in the
audience cried, but they were vocal in their hope, their skepticism,
and their hurt.
Biographies
Wikipedia is the source for the following biographies
She won Best Actress Academy Awards for To Each His Own (1946)
and The Heiress (1949), and was also widely praised for her
Academy Award–nominated performance in The Snake Pit (1948).
This was one of the earliest films to attempt a realistic portrayal of
mental illness, and de Havilland was lauded for her willingness to play
a role that was completely devoid of glamor and that confronted such
controversial subject matter. She won the New York Film Critics
Award for both The Snake Pit and The Heiress.
John Meehan (June 13, 1902 – May 15, 1963) was an American art
director and production designer.
Harry Horner (July 24, 1910 - December 5, 1994) was an Austrian art
director who made a successful career in Hollywood. He was born in
the town of Holitz, which now belongs to the Czech Republic, to
parents of the German-speaking minority in Austria-Hungary’s crown
land Bohemia.
He won an Oscar in 1949 for his work on William Wyler's The Heiress
and another in 1961 for Robert Rossen's drama The Hustler.
One of his first notable successes was George Cukor's A Double Life
(1947) and he soon found himself up on the Oscar podium in 1949 for
his work on William Wyler's The Heiress. He worked with Cukor again
in 1950 on Born Yesterday and then tried his hand at directing on
several TV series, including Gunsmoke. He was nominated for a third
time in 1969 for Sydney Pollack's 30s drama They Shoot Horses,
Don't They?.
Horner directed a few films beginning with Red Planet Mars and
Beware, My Lovely both in 1952.
[edit] Selected filmography: Kuri won two Academy Awards for Best
Art Direction and was nominated for six more:
Won
* 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
* The Heiress (1949)
Nominated
* Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
* Mary Poppins (1964)
* The Absent-Minded Professor (1961)
* Executive Suite (1954)
* Carrie (1952)
* Silver Queen (1942)
Won: Best Costume Design, Black and White
- Edith Head, and Gile Steele
Edith Head (October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American
costume designer who had a long career in Hollywood that garnered
eight Academy Awards—more than any other woman in history.
During her long career she was nominated for 35 Academy Awards,
including every year from 1948 through 1966, and won eight times –
more Oscars than any other woman. She was responsible for some of
the best-known Hollywood fashion images of her day, with her
costumes being worn by the most glamorous and famous actresses in
films. Head's influence on world fashion was far reaching, especially
in the 1950s when she began appearing on Art Linkletter's television
program and writing books on fashion.