Cinema Wedding Gowns: The Quiet Man (1952)

Today's wedding gown is one that will be recognizable to many. It is from John Ford's The Quiet Man (1952). Worn by Maureen O'Hara, this iconic lace gown was designed by Adele Palmer, the Wardrobe Supervisor and Costume Designer at Republic Pictures for over two decades. She also designed the costumes for other John Wayne films such as Rio Grande and Angel and the Badman.

Unlike most movie wedding gowns, this one is seen for several scenes and from all angles. We see it at the wedding reception and again when the newlyweds go home and have their first married fight.

The first look at the wedding gown is a full length shot as John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara's characters pose for a wedding portrait.

 

The demure gown features delicate crocheted lace (probably Irish) with a floral pattern. It has a high scalloped neck and long sleeves and forms a "v" pattern down the fitted bodice all the way to the waist.  

The gathered skirt has a lace insert that also forms a "v" pattern. It stops just above the floor.

 

(notice the pearl-drop necklace)

The veil is gathered around the crown of the head and falls to the back of the knee.

 

This picture appears to have a different bouquet then the small one in the film. Notice the Duke's boutonniere.

A look at where the lace sleeves meet the bodice.

TCM announced this week the auction of Maureen O'Hara's estate. You can find it by clicking here. Be sure to click on the pdf catalog instead of just scrolling through the website, as it has an introduction by Robert Osborne and photos of Maureen O'Hara wearing some of the items being auctioned! If only I was a billionaire...

The Great Imaginary Film Blogathon: The Original "Conspiracy Theory" (1947)

Did you know that Conspiracy Theory (1997) starring Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts is actually a remake of a 1947 film of the same name starring John Garfield and Maureen O'Hara? It follows the same story line very closely, with only a few minor differences.

Released by Warner Brothers and directed by Elia Kazan (Gentleman's Agreement), the film tackles the conspiracies about Communism floating around Hollywood at the time. Jerry Fletcher (Garfield - in Gibson's role) is a New York cab driver who sees conspiracies of all kinds everywhere. He prints them in a newsletter that has a subscription of five people. When one of his conspiracies turns out to be true, he finds himself hunted by "them."

(The Postman Only Rings Twice)

Alice Sutton (O'Hara in Robert's role) is a Justice Department Attorney that Jerry is obsessed with. He visits her at her office whenever he has a really big conspiracy. Alice tolerates him because he saved her from being mugged once. One day Jerry comes to her with a conspiracy that members of the Communist Party are slowly infiltrating the Federal Loyalty Security Program, which had been newly formed by President Truman. This program "gave loyalty review boards the power to fire federal employees when 'reasonable grounds' existed for belief that they were disloyal. Evidence of disloyalty included not only treasonous activities, but 'sympathetic association' with a long list of organizations deemed by the Attorney General to be 'Communist, fascist, or totalitarian'." Alice listens to him and tells her she will take care of it. In a conversation with her boss though, we find out that she is really only concerned with finding out who her father's killer was.

(The Fallen Sparrow)

After Jerry leaves Alice's office, he spots some suspicious characters and follows them to a government building. A little while later he is abducted and brought to an abandoned wing of a mental hospital where he is tortured and injected with "gravy for the brain." Tied to a wheelchair, he manages to bite his captors nose and escape by sending the wheelchair down some stairs causing it to fall apart.

(Body and Soul)

Jerry makes his way back to Alice's building, holding up the guards at gunpoint. In a dramatic and emotional scene, Alice gets him to put down the gun and listens as he tries to tell her what happened to him under the influence of the injection. All he remembers is that he bit a man's nose off. Jerry is then brought to the hospital, as he has an injury in his side. Alice goes to visit him and he begs her to switch the his chart with that of the other man in the room, who is suffering from a knife wound. Alice tells him she can't do that. The next morning she comes back to find that the other man is dead. Jerry thanks her but she insists she didn't switch the charts.

(The Postman Only Rings Twice)

When the hospital discovers that the body is not that of Jerry Fletcher, as it says on the chart, the CIA and FBI come in and ask Alice some questions. Alice is thrown off guard when the CIA psychiatrist Dr. Jonas (Humphrey Bogart in Patrick Stewart's role), the man in charge, shows up with a huge bandage covering his nose. He tells her it is a dog bite, but now Alice isn't so sure that Jerry's story is so crazy after all. She also meets Agent Lowry (John Payne in Cylk Cozart's role).

(Miracle on 34th Street)

Jerry manages to escape the hospital, with Alice's help, and hides in her car. They swing by Jerry's apartment to try to figure out which of his conspiracies must be correct. Jerry gives Alice a list of his subscribers. The next day Alice calls all of the people on the list, only to discover that all but one have died. She follows the trail and ends up in Jonas's office. He tells her that Jerry was part of a government sanctioned program that brainwashed it's test subjects and turned them into assassins. He also tells her that it was Jerry who killed her father.

(Dark Passage)

Bogart's dramatic face bandage was reduced in the final film to just cover his nose.

Even though Alice knows Jonas is an evil man, she wants to get her father's killer, so she works with him to trap Jerry. When Jerry sends her a note to meet him on the bus, she goes. Jerry manages to lose Jonas and his men who are following and drives to Alice's father's stables in Connecticut. Alice calls Jonas at a fueling station to let him know her location.

At the stables, Jerry finally remembers what happened the night of her father's death. He was the one sent to kill him but found he couldn't go through with it. He tells her another assassin was sent to finish the job.

(The Fallen Sparrow)

Suddenly they are surrounded and Jerry is taken again. Alice tracks him down to the abandoned hospital wing. She hears him though a vent and manages to find him. As she unties him Jonas shows up. A fight ensues. Jerry drowns Jonas but is shot in the process. Agent Lowry shows up and Jerry is whisked away to a hospital. Alice is not allowed to go with him and later is told he is dead.

(We Were Strangers)

Able to move past her father's death now, Alice takes up horse riding again. One day, after visiting Jerry's grave, she finds a note in her house that had been slipped under the door. It's from Jerry. Alice realizes that he is still alive. When the communists have been cleared from the government program, he will be able to come out of hiding.

The moment Alice realizes Jerry is still alive.

(gif from Miracle on 34th Street)

Trivia:

Ann Sheridan was considered for the role of Alice.

Garfield and O'Hara had starred in The Fallen Sparrow together in 1943. It centered on Nazi conspiracies.

It's ironic that the conspiracy involved the Red Scare as Garfield was included in a FBI report as a Communist Party Member in 1949. This lead to his name being added to the Hollywood Blacklist and eventually his death from heart failure in 1952.

The film was not very well received at the time because the topic hit a little too close to home, which is why it remains such an obscure film, even today.

(Humoresque)

This post is part of The Great Imaginary Film Blogathon hosted by Silver Scenes. Be sure to read about all of the other movies that weren't actually made! ;)

The Swan (1956)

Last year Virginie of The Wonderful World of Cinema hosted the 1st Wonderful Grace Kelly Blogathon in honor of her Serene Highness's birthday. This year she is back with the 2nd Wonderful Grace Kelly Blogathon. For last years event I wrote about the fashion marriage of Grace Kelly with the renowned costume designer Edith Head. This year I am writing about The Swan (1956), Grace Kelly's last film to be made (High Society was her final film to be released).

CAST:

Grace Kelly.....................Princess Alexandra

Alec Guinness..........................Prince Albert

Louis Jourdan......................Dr. Nicholas Agi

Jessie Royce Landis...............Princess Beatrix

Agnes Moorehead.........Queen Maria Dominika

Brian Aherne.................Father Carl Hyacinth

Estelle Winwood.........................Symphorosa

The film tells the story of Princess Alexandra (Kelly) meeting her distant cousin, Crown Prince Albert (Guinness), that she, and her mother, are hoping will propose marriage so that they can regain the throne that was taken from them by Napoleon Bonaparte. When the Prince (Guinness) appears to show no interest in Alexandra, she tries to make him jealous by pretending to be love with her brother's tutor, Nicholas (Jourdan). Nicholas has been secretly in love with Alexandra which, like the constellation mentioned several times, creates a love triangle.

The star Vega that Nicholas points out to Alexandra, is part of the Summer Triangle, a constellation made from three other constellations: Aquila (the Eagle), Lyra (the Harp), and Cygnus (the Swan).

The three constellations have another metaphor (aside from one of them being names "The Swan"). According to Kelly's biography by Donald Spoto, "Beatrice and her household represent an old and now inadequate way of life. Albert and his mother stand for a kind of royalty that can still be relevant in a modern world - a working family mindful of the need for a new social order. And Nicholas and Alexandra (a noteworthy choice of names in light of the couple still reining in Russia) represent the unlikely lover."

Spoto goes on to say:

The film sparkles with delicate humor that leavens the gravity with which it explores the nature of romantic love in a rapidly changing world dominated by class struggles. In this regard, Alexandra is not simple a foolish, inexperienced young woman. She is a sympathetic soul who, in the course of the story, moves through the stages of moral education, comporting herself at first with charming awkwardness, then relying on her idea of what it is to be a love-struck maiden, and finally accepting that her ambitions and her vocation require sacrifices she has not yet considered.

Under the pretense of being a romantic film, it is actually "high comedy, puncturing social pretenses and exaggerated expectations of life gently and without bombast or cruelty. The Swan is also a remarkably earnest depiction of the shallow, fading monarchical pretensions of minor European royalty."

Symphorosa

Princess Beatrix (Landis) feigning illness so that she doesn't have to deal with Queen Maria.

One of the things I noticed about this film was the use of Cinemascope to emphasize emotional distance. There are several shots where Alexandra and Nicholas or Alexandra and Prince Albert are on opposite sides of the screen. There are also shots when the Prince is shown literally standing between Alexandra and Nicholas, as he is the one preventing their love to be realized.

Spoto on Kelly and Jourdan:

Louis Jourdan, as the lovesick, mistreated academic, knew how to play a young man at the mercy of his emotions. His love scenes with Grace in the carriage by moonlight and on the terrace are lessons in the fine art of making such moments both credible and affecting.

For much of her time onscreen, Grace remains silent, or speaks but a few words. But we see her listening, we watch her subtle reactions and confusions, and her muted passion in the cyclorama against which everyone must play. The performance is like a pantomime in a silent movie: she communicates every emotion with only the slightest changes in facial expression.

One scene worth mentioning is when Alexandra comes to invite Nicholas to the ball. We just see her feet as she walks into the room, hesitates, turns to go, and then comes into full frame when Nicholas notices her. It's a brilliantly filmed scene:

Another thing that must be mentioned is the location. The exteriors were filmed at Biltmore House in the mountains of North Carolina. I especially liked the scenes where the house is being readied for the arrival of the Prince. I wonder if they used extras or just filmed the actual staff cleaning?

The interiors for the film are also spectacular, as seen in these shots:

Great care was taken in the set dressing, as seen in this set table:

Also worth mentioning is the costumes in the film. Designed by Helen Rose, who also designed Kelly's wedding gown, the gowns designed for Princess Alexandra "were an enchanting look." Kelly "was trilled when [she] saw Helen's sketches and some of the exquisite fabrics she had selected."

Helen Rose said "I never saw a star as thrilled as Grace the day we fitted the white chiffon ball gown. She stood before the mirror, gently touching the embroidered camellias and saying, 'How simply marvelous, Helen - what talented people you have here at MGM!' For weeks, several skilled women had sat at embroidery frames, carefully working by hand each petal of every flower. The ball gown was indeed fit for a princess." You will notice that almost all of Kelly's gowns are white, another reference to the title of the movie.

Trivia:

The role of Prince Albert was offered first to Rex Harrison and Joseph Cotten. While I personally would have preferred either of them, Alexandra's sacrifice at the end wouldn't seem that bad (especially with Cotten).

One of the reasons this film is special is that, unknown to the public, Grace Kelly really was about to marry a prince, Prince Rainier of Monaco. Unlike the film, however, Grace was marrying for love.

The film premiered on April 18, 1956 to coincide with Grace Kelly's wedding day.

Kelly named her son Albert, which is the name of Guinness's character in the film.

Shots I didn't include above:

Favorite Shots:

Behind-the-Scenes:

 

With costume designer Helen Rose

Kelly's birthday on the set

 

Sources:

     High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly. Donald Spoto. Harmony Books. 2009