Tender Is the Night *** (1962, Jennifer Jones, Jason Robards, Joan Fontaine, Tom Ewell) – Classic Movie Review 7501

F Scott Fitzgerald’s great 1934 semi-autobiographical novel Tender Is the Night about rich, troubled Americans in Europe in the jazz age Twenties is difficult to film, as the BBC found in its 1985 six-part serial version with Peter Strauss, Mary Steenburgen and Sean Young.

But director Henry King’s 1962 film drama achieves what it can with strong performances, a lavish 20th Century Fox production, meticulous scripting (by Ivan Moffat), meticulous direction and beautiful escapist locations. Jennifer Jones stars as the neurotic heroine Nicole, who falls for Dr Dick Diver (Jason Robards Jr) when she is being treated in a Zurich sanatorium.

When they marry, she grows stronger but he weakens with their easy life on the French Riviera. Then there are drunken composer Abe North (Tom Ewell) and Nicole’s grasping sister Baby Warren (Joan Fontaine), who believes only in money.

Jones is adequate but overstretched in a difficult part that actually suits her, while the other three stars give most effective, complex and satisfying performances. Fitzgerald’s theme of the clash between the life of the mind and la dolce vita is developed effectively in a carefully written, intelligent screenplay.

Tender Is the Night also features Cesare Danova, Jill St John, Paul Lukas, Bea Benederet, Charles E Fredericks, Sanford Meisner, Mac McWhorter, Albert Carrier, Richard De Combray, Carole Mathews, Alan Napier, Leslie Farrell, Michael Crisalli, Earl Grant, Maurice Dallimore, Jean De Briac, Marcel De la Brosse, George Clark and Jean Bori.

It was nominated for one Oscar, for Best Original Song for the song Tender Is the Night (1962) by Sammy Fain (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics). It is sung by an off-screen vocal group during the opening credits and played in the film by pianist George Greeley. The score is by Bernard Herrmann.

It is shot in DeLuxe colour and CinemaScope by Leon Shamroy.

It runs 142 minutes or 132 minutes in the TV library print (FMC Library Print).

Tender Is the Night is remade as a BBC mini-series in 1985 and being remade again as a mini-series, originally for release in 2019.

Tender Is the Night is Fitzgerald’s fourth and final novel, with a title borrowed from John Keats’s poem Ode to a Nightingale. He considered it his greatest work.

King’s previous film was Beloved Infidel, a biopic of Fitzgerald.

The cast are Jennifer Jones as Nicole Diver, Jason Robards, Jr as Dick Diver, Joan Fontaine as Baby Warren, Tom Ewell as Abe North, Cesare Danova as Tommy Barban, Jill St John as Rosemary Hoyt, Paul Lukas as Doctor Dohmler, Bea Benaderet as Mrs. McKisco, Charles Fredericks as Mr McKisco, Sanford Meisner as Doctor Gregorovious, Mac McWhorter as Colis Clay, Albert Carrier as Louis, Richard de Combray as Francisco, Carole Mathews as Mrs. Hoyt, Alan Napier as Pardo, Leslie Farrell as Topsy Diver, Michael Crisalli as Lanier Diver, Earl Grant as Piano Player Maurice Dallimore, Tom Hernandez, Renee Godfrey, Jean De Briac, Marcel De la Brosse, George Clark, Orrin Tucker, Aladdin, John Richardson, Carl Princi, and Jean Bori.

John Richardson, who appears uncredited as young man being photographed, died on 5 January 2021 aged 86 from COVID-19. He starred with Barbara Steele in Mario Bava’s Black Sunday (1960), with Ursula Andress in She (1965) and Raquel Welch in One Million Years BC (1966).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7501

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