Sabrina *** (1954, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden) – Classic Film Review 934

Director Billy Wilder’s 1954 romance is a pleasant but modest and none-too-sparkling romantic comedy based on a creaky 1953 Broadway play Sabrina Fair by Samuel Taylor.

William Holden stars as David Larrabee, an easy-going Long Island playboy along with Humphrey Bogart as Linus, his sombre, business-obsessed brother who both chase after their chauffeur’s lovely daughter Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn). Bogart’s Linus starts reluctantly to fall for Hepburn’s Sabrina when he tries to attract her attention away from Holden’s David.

Though it often seems buried, the wit’s there somewhere in the screenplay by Wilder, Taylor and Ernest Lehman. The film started production without a finished script, but Lehman worked to exhaustion point every day to polish up the lines. The trio won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay.

With three alluring performers and the script reasonably well taken care of, Sabrina hits the rocks with two main troubles. They are that the crackle’s not always present in Wilder’s well-crafted but rather sluggish direction, with its over-stately pace, and that the diamond sparkle’s largely absent from the performances.

The main problem, apart from Wilder’s over-reverential direction, is that a miscast Bogart seems ill at ease, cast against type in a sophisticated comedy, stepping in at the last minute to play a role intended for Cary Grant, and unhappy working with Holden, whom he disliked, as well as Hepburn because he wanted his wife Lauren Bacall in the role.

But maybe Bogart’s lack of command  here is something to do with the awkwardly written role, though, because Harrison Ford is equally uneasy in the 1995 remake.

Maybe he was just fed up, though he could have taken comfort in his $300,000 salary, against Holden’s $150,000 and Hepburn’s $15,000. Asked how he liked working with Hepburn, Bogart replied: ‘It’s OK, if you don’t mind to make 20 takes.’ He also said that Hepburn was untalented and could not act.

Bogart nicknamed Holden ‘Smiling Jim’. Holden and Hepburn fell in love during filming, but Hepburn broke it off after learning Holden could not have children.

The great thing, though, is that Hepburn is extremely appealing and effective, however. She’s the ace in the movie’s hand and scored an Oscar nomination as Best Actress. And Holden, though perhaps oddly cast (he’d probably have been more effective in the Bogart role), scores quite strongly too.

The result is a slightly indigestible curate’s egg, though the movie certainly has its admirers. Sydney Pollack must have been one of them or he wouldn’t have remade it as Sabrina in 1995. Charles Lang Jnr’s classy cinematography was Oscar nominated too, but it’s a shame that it’s in black and white. This really seems like it should have been a colour movie.

The estate on which the film’s shot belonged to Paramount Pictures chairman Barney Balaban. The original Broadway production of Sabrina Fair opened at the National Theatre on November 11 1953 and ran for 318 performances.

Although Edith Head won the film’s only Oscar for Best Costume Design, much of Hepburn’s wardrobe was by the French designer Hubert de Givenchy, picked out by the star. This was her first work with him, later her costumier of choice.

The movie was called plain Sabrina in the US to avoid confusion with Vanity Fair, and Sabrina Fair in the UK to avoid confusion with the TV star Sabrina.

Hepburn did get to star with Grant eventually – in Charade, 1963. She’d just won an Oscar for Roman Holiday (1953).

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 934

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