Posted on 10/22/2011 12:35:32 PM PDT by Sick of Lefties
Noman has never seen the remake of Sabrina. But, he has wondered why anybody would bother to tamper with perfection.
For starters, it doesn't get much better than William Holden, Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn. Though the male leads were big stars, it is Hepburn's picture. She can do more with her eyes and face than Michael Jordan could do with a basketball.
It is a magical story about the chauffeur's daughter who suffers a life-long, hopeless crush on the master's playboy son (Holden's David Larrabee), only to grow into an elegant beauty during a two-year stay in Paris. This obviates the need for further suffering as she returns the conquering ingenue. He's hooked.
Unfortunately, Linus (Bogart), the family tycoon, needs David to marry an heiress--his 4th nuptial--in order to cement a merger. One of the movie's memorable scenes occurs when David storms Linus's office to protest the plan:
David Larrabee: It's all beginning to make sense. Mr.Tyson owns the sugarcane. You own the formula for the plastics. And I'm supposed to be offered up as a human sacrifice on the altar of the industrial progress. Is that it?
Linus Larrabee: You make it sound so vulgar, David, as if the son of hot dog dynasty were being offered in marriage to the daughter of the mustard king...
David Larrabee: There's just one thing you overlooked. I haven't proposed and she hasn't accepted.
Linus Larrabee: Oh don't worry. I proposed and Mr. Tyson accepted.
David Larrabee: (piqued) Did you kiss him?
[end colloquy]
Linus extends the dialogue with a paean to free enterprise: it leads to development, factories, jobs, commerce, money in previously empty pockets, education, food, shoes on the feet of the poor, healthier teeth and more. It's a serious apologia delivered in a comical setting.
Linus needs to get Sabrina out of the way before David's impulsiveness disrupts his plans. What better way than to romance her while David is recovering from a self-inflicted wound.
Linus is not your typical Bogie character. He is not so far removed from the norm as Captain Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny," but more so than Charlie Allnut in "The African Queen," or Frank Dobbs in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Come to think of it, he had an impressive range, though he's most famous for Philip Marlowe, Rick Blaine-type characters. He pulls Linus off admirably.
William Holden fits like a glove in the role of David, the dashing ne'er-do-well, the spoiled scion of wealth and privilege. He plays it likably, almost cartoonishly, with Gatsbyesque smiles and jaunty leaps into sports cars and over walls. He is pure frivolity, a perfect counterweight to Linus's captain-of-industry gravitas.
Sabrina will eventually have to choose between them as they, too, will have to make their choices.
The movie plays lightly on social themes, modernity and romantically democratic notions. Sabrina's father, Fairchild sums it up with a pair of resigned, yet wise observations.
Thomas Fairchild: I like to think of life as a limousine. Though we are all riding together we must remember our places. There is a front seat and a back seat and a window in between.
Linus Larrabee: Fairchild, I never realized it before, but you're a terrible snob.
Thomas Fairchild: Yes sir.
To his daughter Fairchild says: "Democracy can be a wickedly unfair thing Sabrina. Nobody poor was ever called democratic for marrying somebody rich. "
Audrey Hepburn is captivating, exuding her trademark ethereal quality. With her slightly foreign accent, she seems more other-worldly than merely worldly. It is completely believable when she corrects her father's admonition that she is still reaching for the moon. "No, father, the the moon is reaching for me."
Wistfulness and playfulness have rarely combined to more charming affect. When matters spiral beyond her emotional control she confesses to her father that she thought she'd grown up when, really, she'd just gotten a new haircut.
Noman enjoys almost everything these actors are in. But this movie, and "Roman Holiday," make for especially good viewing with No-family.
The No-children don't always get Bogie. And, they certainly didn't get "Sunset Boulevard." But, they love Audrey Hepburn, almost instinctively.
Noman enjoys their growing old enough to enjoy "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with him. But, there is no hurry. There are so many great movies to enjoy together when they are young.
Sabrina is certainly near the top of the list.
Thanks...I’ve put it in our queue. We watch mostly the classics. (No TV, all netflix)
Yes, Sabrina is a splendid movie. One of the great classics. Although, off hand, I can’t think of a bad movie with Bogart in it.
Instead of going to the theater to see a crummy remake, I prefer to buy the old DVDs of the classic movies and watch them on a home screen.
In fact, they have bundles of classics that you can buy, 50 movies at a time, for an amazing price. Why feed the left wing jerks in Hollywood today?
Love the original.
Elegant and beautiful.
And I can't think of a bad movie with Audrey Hepburn in it :)
“In fact, they have bundles of classics that you can buy, 50 movies at a time, for an amazing price.”
Wow. How? I usually get them for $5 at a time at Walmart or used.
A very good movie, but Bogart was horribly miscast in it. IT is almost as if it were Rich Little playing the part as if it were acted by Humphrey Bogart.
We love it (even if it was written by a communist).
The bio about the movie said that Cary Grant dropped the role shortly before shooting began.
What I liked about Bogie (besides him being Bogie) was that she had a real choice to make: young, dashing and irresponsible v. old, staid and yearning to live.
Cary Grant would have made it too easy a choice over William Holden.
I wonder why?????$$$$$
"This stunning yet simple black cocktail dress which Audrey Hepburn wore in the 1954 romantic comedy Sabrina is – believe it or not – one of the most controversial frocks in cinema history. It helped to make Sabrina one of the most stylish films of the 1950s – and to establish its young star’s famous chic gamine look. It also marked her first collaboration with Hubert de Givenchy, the French couturier, with whom her style would be inextricably linked for the rest of her life." http://alisonkerr.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/style-on-film-sabrina/
Amazon carries 50-movie packs, plus other bargains. You may get a few movies you don’t want, but most of the packs are filled with real classics.
I think we need a new rule at Free Republic: All posts that mention Audrey Hepburn must include a picture.
I'll start.
Being from a family of blondes, I always wanted to look like Hepburn or Wood. Hepburn has the class!!
I wonder why the dress was considered controversial? Looks fine to me.
I haven't seen the movie, but your comment sums up the fifties in general. It was a time when people aspired to live better and nicer lives and Hollywood actually reflected those aspirations. That, of course, drove the hard left crazy, whence the sixties and seventies.
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