(4/5)
Acording to TCM host Robert Osborne, they’ve been trying to get the rights to show this film on TCM since the network started some eighteen years ago. It’s taken them this long to sort out the legal intricacies binding up the rights, but now they finally have, allowing this screening and eventual airings on TCM as well. At the time Warner made the movie, they had only secured the rights to the original novel (which was also made into a play, which I think played into the issues as well, it sounded pretty complicated) for five years, which didn’t seem like a problem at a time when most films were released and forgotten. They neglected to renew the rights when they expired in 1948, there was a whole deal where the film was accidentally and illegally included in a bunch sold to TV (but not really aired), so it’s hardly been seen except in a few bootleg copies since its original release in 1943. Gotta admit, I kinda felt special being among the first 500 people to see it in a theatre since then.
Joan Fontaine got an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Tessa Sanger, a rather fascinating role that fit her breathless naïveté quite well. Tessa and her sisters are daughters of an aging musician living in Switzerland, delighted by the periodic visits of Lewis Dodd, a modernist composer played by Charles Boyer who has been friends with the family since the girls were little. Tessa’s love for Lewis clearly goes beyond mere childhood affection for a kind friend, though Lewis is totally oblivious to it. When Sanger pere dies, the girls’ relatives in England take them in, introducing Lewis to their cousin Florence (Alexis Smith), with whom he’s immediately infatuated. The rest of the film explores this love triangle, and not always in the ways you’d expect.
Donald Trump had a new tower going up in New York and while they prepared for construction, the corporation wanted to use the empty lot for some sort of art project. Stan arrived with his proposal and offered to work for free. He needed to have his work seen and what better place than Manhattan’s Upper West Side where the buildings are tall enough that one doesn’t have to fly a plane over the work to see it. With his house mortgaged and his entire career staked on this one project, Stan moved himself to New York to begin on his multi-acre project that would take months to complete.
