Escape Me Never (1947, Errol Flynn, Ida Lupino, Eleanor Parker, Gig Young) – Classic Movie Review 12,409

Warner Bros’ embarrassing, quite ghastly 1947 American romantic melodrama film Escape Me Never is set in Venice at the turn of the 20th century, and stars Errol Flynn, Ida Lupino, Eleanor Parker and Gig Young.

Director Peter Godfrey’s embarrassing, quite ghastly Warner Bros’ 1947 American romantic melodrama film Escape Me Never is set in Venice at the turn of the 20th century, and stars Errol Flynn, Ida Lupino, Eleanor Parker, and Gig Young.

Escape Me Never is a misbegotten remake of the 1935 Elisabeth Bergner weepie Escape Me Never, with Ida Lupino miscast and, unusually, at a loss in the put-upon part as downtrodden but spunky heroine Gemma Smith, a young widow with a baby. Errol Flynn is also in difficulty as Sebastian Dubrok, the caddish composer who takes up with English heiress Fenella MacLean (Eleanor Parker), who has a fiancé in Sebastian’s younger brother Caryl Dubrok (Gig Young) she thinks is having an affair with Gemma Smith (Lupino).

With the washout script based on the 1934 play by Margaret Kennedy, hesitant handling by Peter Godfrey, and the struggling performances, it is a rare bust from the golden years of Warner Bros, though the stirring Erich Wolfgang Korngold score (and his dance scene Primavera) helps.

Margaret Kennedy based her play Escape Me Never on her 1930 novel The Fool of the Family, which continued her story of the fictional Sanger family of musical geniuses introduced in her 1924 novel The Constant Nymph. But the Sanger brothers are changed in Escape Me Never and never mentioned in the 1943 film of The Constant Nymph.

Set in pre World War One Europe, the play tells the story of two brothers (Caryl and Sebastian Durbok) who are composers, share a flat, and are both in love with two women – an heiress and a young innocent.

When The Constant Nymph was a hit, Warner Bros immediately announced they would film the play Escape Me Never again as a follow-up, with Leonore J Coffee working on the script and Henry Blanke producing. Shooting started in late 1945 and was completed in February 1946.

Thames Williamson is credited for the screen play, with the work by Lenore J Coffee uncredited.

It flopped. Warner Bros records say it earned $1,569,000 globally, less than its production budget of $1,900,000.

Also in the cast are Reginald Denny, Isobel Elsom, Albert Basserman, Ludwig Stossel, Frank Puglia, Frank Reicher, Doris Lloyd, Anthony Caruso, Ivan Triessault, Jack Ford, and Leonard Mudie.

The play was first performed in England in 1933. Its original London West End run at the Apollo Theatre starred Elisabeth Bergner for whom the play was written. She also starred in her Broadway debut in the play’s 1935 production at the Shubert Theatre, and appeared in a stage revival in 1942.

Lupino sings two songs in the film.

It is Korngold’s last film complete musical score, though he later adapted the music of Richard Wagner and wrote some original music for the 1955 Magic Fire, Republic Pictures’ biopic of Wagner.

Peter Godfrey also directed the Errol Flynn vehicle Cry Wolf (also starring Barbara Stanwyck) and two other films with Barbara Stanwyck, Christmas in Connecticut and The Two Mrs Carrolls, as well as The Woman in White (1948).

The cast are Errol Flynn as Sebastian Dubrok, Ida Lupino as Gemma Smith, Eleanor Parker as Fenella MacLean, Gig Young as Caryl Dubrok, Reginald Denny as Mr MacLean, Isobel Elsom as Mrs MacLean, Albert Bassermann as Professor Heinrich, Ludwig Stössel as Mr Steinach, Milida Mladova as Natrova, George Zoritch as The Dancer, Helen Thimig as The Landlady, Frank Puglia as The Guide, Frank Reicher as The Minister, Doris Lloyd, Anthony Caruso, Ivan Triessault, Jack Ford, and Leonard Mudie.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,409

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