Parrish *** (1961, Troy Donahue, Claudette Colbert, Karl Malden, Dean Jagger, Connie Stevens) – Classic Movie Review 3383

Writer-producer-director Delmer Daves, star Troy Donahue, composer Max Steiner and cinematographer Harry Stradling Sr all reunite after their 1959 success with A Summer Place for this new overwrought 1961 romantic drama, Parrish.

The likeable and under-appreciated Donahue struggles a little with his huge huge star role as Parrish McLean, a young tobacco grower with girl problems and a need to win acceptance at the yacht club. But much better are the great, scene-stealing performances of old pros Claudette Colbert as his nice mother Ellen and Karl Malden as Judd Raike, the greedy land baron she weds.

Parrish lives with his mother on Sala Post (Dean Jagger)’s tobacco plantation in the Connecticut River Valley. Judd, who wants to drive Sala out of business, makes Parrish learn the nuts and bolts of the tobacco business. In the love department, the question is, who does Parrish end up with – Lucy (Connie Stevens), Alison Post (Diane McBain) or Paige Raike (Sharon Hugueny)?

The movie feels hollow at the centre where its heart should be, but it is still quite involving, and is attractively glossy in Technicolor, while Warner Bros has thrown in some of the best talent of the day to help it along. Daves is working from a sprawling, cliché-ridden romantic novel by the delightfully named Mildred Savage, giving him pacing and dramatic problems that he can’t quite solve. Parrish remains, like its hero, exceptionally handsome and attractive but slightly hesitant. It was Donahue’s most successful film.

Parrish  proved Colbert’s final cinema film. The Two Mrs Grenvilles, made for TV in 1987, was the only movie between this and her death in July 1996, aged 92. Before Parrish, she hadn’t made a feature since Texas Lady in 1955.

The main cast are Troy Donahue, Claudette Colbert, Karl Malden, Dean Jagger, Connie Stevens, Diane McBain, Dub Taylor, Sharon Hugueny, Hampton Francher, David Knapp, Hope Summers, Bibi Osterwald, Madeleine Sherwood, Sylvia Miles, Alfonso Marshall and John Barracudo.

Parrish is directed by Delmer Daves, runs 140 minutes, is made by Warner Bros, is released by Warner Bros (1961) (US) and Warner-Pathé Distributors (1961) (UK), is written by Delmer Daves, based on the novel by Mildred Savage, is shot by in Technicolor Harry Stradling Sr, is produced by Delmer Daves, is scored by Max Steiner and is designed by Leo K Kuter.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3383

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