The Country Girl **** (1954, Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, William Holden) – Classic Movie Review 3982

Grace Kelly won the Best Actress Oscar for her non-glamorous departure role as an alcoholic actor (Bing Crosby)’s long-suffering wife, in the 1954 drama The Country Girl.

Writer-director George Seaton’s double Oscar-winning 1954 drama The Country Girl stars singer Bing Crosby, who greatly impresses in a fine, acclaimed dramatic performance as Frank Elgin, a has-been, hard-drinking singer/actor who stages a comeback in a play with the support of producer-director Bernie Dodd (William Holden). After hiring Elgin, Dodd starts a stormy relationship with his wife, the cause of his problems.

But it was Grace Kelly who won both the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Actress as Elgin’s dowdy (!) long-suffering wife Georgie, who comes to life with her husband’s success. Though Kelly is good, it is mainly an undeserved win, largely reflecting her huge popularity at the time, as well as her willingness to take on a non-glamorous role. She beat favourite Judy Garland in A Star Is Born (1954) by just six votes.

Clifford Odets’s play possibly may work well on stage, but here it seems a chilly, gloomy, alienating, audience-resistant piece, so the assured performances are the main attraction. John F Warren films in black and white, when Kelly seems to cry out for colour. It is written for the screen by director George Seaton, who took a second Oscar for the 1955 Academy Awards Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay. There were five other nominations, including Best Motion Picture (William Perlberg), Best Actor (Bing Crosby), Best Director (George Seaton), Best Cinematography – Black-and-White (John F Warren), and Best Art Direction – Black-and-White Art Direction (Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson) and Set Decoration (Samuel M Comer and Grace Gregory).

Another attraction is the Victor Young score, as well as Crosby singing four Ira Gershwin (music) – Harold Arlen (lyrics) songs – Dissertation on the State of Bliss (Love and Learn Blues), The Pitchman / It’s Mine, It’s Yours, The Land Around Us and The Search Is Through. Victor Young is seen as the recording studio conductor when Crosby sings The Search is Through in the scene shot inside the Paramount scoring stage.

Also in the cast are Anthony Ross, Gene Reynolds, Jacqueline Fontaine, Eddie Ryder, John W Reynolds, Bob Alden, Les Clark, Hal K Dawson, Howard Joslin, Jack Kenney, Ida Moore, Robert Kent, Charles Tannen, Neva Gilbert, Max Wagner and Richard Keene.

It was filmed from February to April 1954. It had a benefit world premiere at Criterion Theatre, New York, on 15 December 1954. The Gala West Coast Premiere took place at the Stanley Warner Theatre, Wilshire Blvd, at Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, on 21 December 1954 as a benefit for the US Olympic Fund.

It had good reviews and good box office, taking an estimated $6.5 million in US /Canada cinema rentals.

The original Broadway production opened at the Lyceum Theater on 10 November 1950 and ran for 236 performances. Uta Hagen won the 1951 Tony Award as Georgie Elgin.

The cast are Bing Crosby as Frank Elgin, Grace Kelly as Georgie Elgin, William Holden as Bernie Dodd, Anthony Ross as Philip Cook, Gene Reynolds as Larry, Jacqueline Fontaine as lounge singer, Eddie Ryder as Ed, Robert Kent as Paul Unger, John W Reynolds as Henry Johnson, Bob Alden, Les Clark, Hal K Dawson, Howard Joslin, Jack Kenney, Ida Moore, Robert Kent, Charles Tannen, Neva Gilbert, Max Wagner, Richard Keene and Victor Young as recording studio conductor.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3982

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