Saratoga Trunk

I almost didn't watch this, because I didn't care for Edna Ferber's novel, but since I like both Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper (and I didn't like the book "Showboat" or "Cimarron" either but loved both the movies) I decided to check it out, and I'm glad I did.

Bergman plays Clio Dulaine, who's determined to take 19thc New Orleans society by storm, after she and her mother were rejected by her father's aristocratic family, who refused permission for the couple to marry, leading to her father's death.

Her plan is to marry a wealthy society man and make a proper name for herself among the social elite. There's no place in her plans for Texas gambler Clint Maroon, no matter what her heart tries to tell her!

There's a lot more to this story than historical romance and you really feel the atmosphere of both New Orleans and Saratoga in the late 19thc.

Don't miss this one.

For sheer boredom, I can't think of another movie of this period that disappoints me at every turn. Both stars are badly miscast (with Swedish Bergman in a black wig), Flora Robson donning dark make-up that makes her almost unrecognizable, and a storyline that drags at an interminable pace.

The only bright spots are Florence Bates in a juicy supporting role and a melodic Max Steiner romantic score out of which came a warm melody called 'As Long As I Live'.

Well, as long as I live, I can't see why anyone can work up much interest or enthusiasm for this Edna Ferber tale that hardly ranks with her best work. Steiner, fortunately, was able to find inspiration even when the film itself was no more than ordinary. The chemistry between Cooper and Bergman is hardly noticeable here.

Trivia: Jack Warner was considering Olivia de Havilland for the role Bergman plays. De Havilland was having contract troubles with the studio at that time and mercifully she managed to let this one escape after complaining of being overworked.

The ultimate entertaining, hugely satisfying movie experience. Gary Copoper and Ingrid Bergman at their absolute peak, she in a role so different from her others--witty, flirtatious theatrical--a light-year from the nun in BELLS OF ST. MARY'S the same year. Sharp, live-wire screenplay from an engaging, bright novel by Edna Ferber, her best. Great Steiner music, quality supporting cast, sumptuous production, full of personality. A treasure.

Saratoga Trunk was one of a handful of films done during the World War II years and not released to the general public until the war ended. Warner Brothers was especially big on that, another example would be the Humphrey Bogart/Barbara Stanwyck film The Two Mrs. Carrolls.

In the case of Saratoga Trunk though, it had a built in audience guaranteed because of the tremendous hit that director Sam Wood had already done at Paramount with Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman, For Whom The Bell Tolls. They were such a smash box office hit with the public as a romantic duo that I guess Jack Warner craved a little of what Adolph Zukor was raking in at Paramount.

The vehicle for Wood/Cooper/Bergman is the Edna Ferber novel, Saratoga Trunk and I think it proved a bit too long for the screen. If it were done today it would have been a mini-series. In fact the film should have been done as a two parter because it's really two different stories with only the most fragile connection.

The first part is Ingrid Bergman and her posse, Flora Robson and Jerry Austin arrive in New Orleans where she is laying claim to the estate of her late father. Mom was a woman of easy virtue and Dad was old New Orleans creole society. She accidentally killed him back in the day. The scandal caused dad's family to see that society shunned her even after her term in prison.

Ingrid sets out to make the family pay and they do in many ways. She also meets Texan Gary Cooper while in the Big Easy. He's also out for some payback involving some railroad barons.

Both of them make their separate ways to Saratoga, during the 1890s the playground of the rich and famous. Cooper still has his score to settle and Bergman wants to snag a wealthy husband.

It might have been far better to treat the New Orleans and the Saratoga incidents as two separate films. Instead Warner Brothers and Sam Wood tried to pack it all in one film and it's over long.

Cooper and Bergman still retain the romantic appeal from For Whom The Bells Toll. They got some real good support from dwarf actor Jerry Austin as her faithful Cupidon and Flora Robson made up as a mixed racial Haitian servant. It's blackface yes, but Robson does not play it servile, not by any means.

Other good roles here are Florence Bates as the wise society dowager in Saratoga, Curt Bois as the family lawyer for Bergman's Dad's family who she negotiates with for a payoff, John Warburton as the object of her matrimony in Saratoga and Ethel Griffies as his mother. Warburton proves to be something of an unpleasant surprise for Bergman.

Bergman has the far showier role as Cleo Dulaine, but Cooper does have his moments. There is a climatic brawl that he's involved in with two factions trying to control a railway trunkline in Saratoga.

Well that's where the title comes from. What, did you think it was Ingrid Bergman's baggage?

I'll leave it to one of the ladies to give us judgment on Gary Cooper's charm.

For me, this is Ingrid Bergman at her absolute best. Shot just after Casablanca, the screenplay and Sam Wood's common sense choose to focus on Ingrid in every scene but the brief, although well done, train wreck and brawl.

She is radiant, sly, coquettish, warm, reactive, piercing, soft, hard. Most of all, she is desirable. A woman for all time, for all women.

And she is strong. Melting for a brief second, gathering her resolve and forging ahead with her plans and schemes.

The Edna Ferber novel has enough truth to provide a reasonable story line for Ingrid to carry along single handedly. Cooper and Jerry Austin as Cupidon are excellent. Florence Bates gets too little time, too late as a matron with claws.

And French, yes, bless them, they allowed Ingrid to speak French, which she did so beautifully.

The current 6.2 Yahoo rating is laughable. "Saratoga Trunk" may not be a "Casablanca" or "Notorious" but it is far better than this lowly rating. See for yourself.