Never Say Goodbye ** (1956, Rock Hudson, Cornell Borchers, George Sanders, Ray Collins, David Janssen, Shelley Fabares) – Classic Movie Review 11,640

Director Jerry Hopper’s 1956 American Technicolor comedy-drama romance film Never Say Goodbye stars Rock Hudson as a surgeon called Dr Mike Parker, who operates on Lisa Gosting (Cornell Borchers), the Viennese wife he walked out on 10 years previously and asks her to return to him, but Suzy Parker (Shelley Fabares), the daughter he has raised, will not accept her.

There are plenty of sniffles in this fairly effective weepie, which is the US début of German actress Borchers, who makes little impression in a predictably underwritten role.

Clint Eastwood has a surprise uncredited walk-on part as Hudson’s laboratory boy Will.

Never Say Goodbye is a remake, but not of the 1946 film Never Say Goodbye. Instead, it is a rejig of Greta Garbo’s 1932 As You Desire Me and a remake of 1945’s This Love of Ours, but derived originally from a Luigi Pirandello play, Come Prima, Meglio di Prima.

The cast are Rock Hudson as Dr Michael Parker, Cornell Borchers as Lisa Gosting, George Sanders as Victor, Shelley Fabares as Suzy Parker, Ray Collins as Dr Bailey, David Janssen as Dave Heller, Helen Wallace as Miss Tucker, John Wengraf as Professor Zimmelman, Raymond Greenleaf as Dr Kelly Andrews, Max Showalter [Casey Adams] as Andy Leonard, John Banner as the Baker Oskar, Jerry Paris as Joe, Else Neft as Frau Hempel, Robert Simon, Frank Wilcox and Clint Eastwood as Will.

It is produced in 1955, with a © MCMLV in the main titles.

Douglas Sirk recalled how he took part in the preparation of the film, and was responsible for bringing Cornell Borchers from Germany to Hollywood. But he had to leave the film to shoot Written on the Wind though was called back by the head of the studio to reshoot some George Sanders scenes, probably at the request of the actor, a close friend of Sirk.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,640

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