The Private Affairs of Bel Ami
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami | |
---|---|
File:The Private Affairs of Bel Ami poster.jpg | |
Directed by | Albert Lewin |
Produced by | David L. Loew |
Written by | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
|
Starring | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> |
Music by | Darius Milhaud |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates
|
<templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
|
Running time
|
112 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami is a 1947 American drama film which stars George Sanders as a ruthless cad who uses women to rise in Parisian society. It was based on the Guy de Maupassant novel Bel Ami. The film had a 1946 premiere in Paris, Texas.[1] The score is by Darius Milhaud.[2]
Production
The film was the swan song of the actor Warren William due to his health continuing to deteriorate. He was unable to work for most of 1947, the year the filming of The Private Affairs of Bel Ami finished.[3] This was the first role of Susan Douglas Rubes who had to sign a seven-year contact or else she could not act in any more films. Signing actors and actresses for seven years was a common thing for studios to do at the time.[4] Due to restrictions imposed by the Motion Picture Production Code, certain scenes needed to be censored. The 1945 painting The Temptation of St. Anthony by Max Ernst was shown on-screen,[2] having been the winner of a contest between invited artists; Ivan Albright, Eugene Berman, Leonora Carrington, Salvador Dalí, Paul Delvaux, Dorothea Tanning, Leonor Fini, Louis Guglielmi, Horace Pippin, Abraham Rattner, Stanley Spencer and Ernst to create a work on the theme. Fini did not produce a painting, but the others were paid $500 for their submissions, with an additional $2,500 prize for the winner.[5]
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami was released on VHS in 1991. Steve Daly wrote in a 1991 Entertainment Weekly article that "the video release of this film is happy news for fans of George Sanders' particular brand of cinematic spleen."[6]
Cast
- George Sanders - Georges Duroy
- Angela Lansbury - Clotilde de Marelle
- Ann Dvorak - Madeleine Forestier
- John Carradine - Charles Forestier
- Susan Douglas Rubes - Suzanne Walter (as Susan Douglas)
- Hugo Haas - Monsieur Walter
- Warren William - Laroche-Mathieu
- Frances Dee - Marie de Varenne
- Albert Bassermann - Jacques Rival
- Marie Wilson - Rachel Michot
- Katherine Emery - Madame Walter
- Richard Fraser - Philippe de Cantel
- John Good - Paul de Cazolles
- David Bond - Norbert de Varenne
- Leonard Mudie - Potin
- Karolyn Grimes - Laurine de Marelle
Reception
A 1946 Variety review stated, "Confronted with the old problem of cleaning up a classic novel to conform to strict censorship codes, the production outfit has come up with a scrubbed-face version of the complete scoundrel depicted in Guy de Maupassant's novel Private Affairs of Bel Ami." Variety also said that the cast was "exceptionally strong".[7] The author John Strangeland, who wrote a book about Warren William, said that the film is a "tiresome bore" and "terribly dry".[3]
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Cite error: Invalid <references>
tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.
<references />
, or <references group="..." />
External links
- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). The Private Affairs of Bel Ami at IMDb
- The Private Affairs of Bel Ami at the TCM Movie Database
- The Private Affairs of Bel Ami at AllMovie
- Review in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 14 June 1947
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Pages with reference errors
- Pages with broken file links
- 1947 films
- English-language films
- American films
- 1940s drama films
- American drama films
- Black-and-white films
- Films based on French novels
- Films based on works by Guy de Maupassant
- Films directed by Albert Lewin
- Films set in France
- Films set in the 1880s
- United Artists films
- Films produced by David L. Loew
- Film scores by Darius Milhaud
- American remakes of German films