The truly unfortunate thing about this play is that it wasn't filmed with the Lunts. Having been to Ten Chimneys three times (the Lunts' estate in Central Wisconsin) and seen the jacket Lunt wore onstage hanging on a clothes line, which he did to weather it, I wish this had been filmed for television the way their Great Sebastians was. The only film we have of them are: the film version of The Guardsman, which should be put on dvd; their short appearance in Stage Door Canteen; a TV production of The Old Lady Shows Her Medals, The Great Sebastians, Fontanne narrating the Mary Martin Peter Pan and the Dick Cavett interview with Noel Coward and the Lunts.
While I enjoy the movie for what it is, Ingrid Bergman is having a ball in this role and enjoying herself; Quinn had become a commodity by this time and had no choice but to accept any and every role that came his way to support his entourage. The main thing about this is that when Fontanne played Clair, she underplayed it. This movie and a college theater production I saw several years ago, featured a woman who was over the top! Subtlety would be better.
Fortunately, we have the divine Valentina Cortese in this film, giving a lovely, understated performance. At the 1974 Oscars when Bergman won for Murder on the Orient Express, she apologized to Cortese for winning, because Cortese was so marvelous in Truffaut's Day for Night. That shows so much class!
Overall, the movie is entertaining, but as stated above, we have been denied Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt in their last performance. It played on 46th Street in a theatre that has been named for the Lunts.
By the way, of all the theatres on Broadway, only the Lunt-Fontanne, Helen Hayes, Vivian Beaumont and Ethel Barrymore are named for women. There are 15 + theatres named for men! Why not rename some of them for women?
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