Beloved Infidel

Beloved Infidel is the story of the real life romance between Hollywood gossip columnist Sheilah Graham (Deborah Kerr) and legendary writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (Gregory Peck). It is based on Graham's autobiography and the story is definitely told through her eyes. Plain and simple, the story is a soap opera and the quality of writing fits it. For a story about two professional writers, the script fails to properly develop the characters. Graham has one scene about 40 minutes in when she opens up a reveals the truth about herself, but it is not built on and scarcely mentioned again as the story transitions to a focus on Fitzgerald's drinking, which comes out a left field.

Kerr gives a good performance given how little she has to work with, and Peck tries his best to match her. However, Peck is a little miscast in this role as the emotionally troubled Fitzgerald. In between well done emotional outbursts, Peck reverts to his traditional stoicism, which works well in many of his other roles, but feels slightly out of place here. There is also a surprising no appearance by or hardly a mention of Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda. A fascinating person who at this point in her life was in a sanitarium. That is just one example of Graham's influence on the script, keeping the focus off of her lover's wife.

Ultimately, Beloved Infidel is probably not worth your time unless you are a big fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald or Deborah Kerr.

This film has all the earmarks of too many cooks spoiling the stew. Based on Shielah Graham's autobiography, it seems like the powers that be couldn't leave well enough alone. They couldn't decide if this was to be Graham's story or Fitzgerald's story, and also how much they should soft-pedal whoever's story it turned out to be. So a film that could have been a story about two fascinating (Fitzgerald) and notorious (Ms. Graham)personalities becomes a dreary disjointed soap opera about that tells us little about either. Added to this there is absolutely no period feel other than for 1959. Clumsy scene follows clumsy scene and we have no idea where we are in the story or how much time is passing. However - and this saved the film for me - Kerr has never looked lovelier, and Peck is as always a very handsome man. They truly make a beautiful, mature couple, and I only wish they had better material to work with. There is one scene that does work - Scott goes after Shielah while in a drunken state, and to see these two normally refined stars knock each other around is very disturbing and gives some fleeting idea of what goes on in a relationship such as theirs. Other than that, the movie is a wasted opportunity and achieves nowhere near the classic stature of other Wald produced soaps of the 1950 (PEYTON PLACE, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING).

Beloved Infidel is based on the memoirs of Hollywood columnist Sheilah Graham, specifically her three year affair with F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is still a legend in American literature, and a genuine legend in his own time.

That's the key to the film. Can you imagine in the previous century Charles Dickens whose works in the United Kingdom were also acclaimed in his time getting a contract and asked to turn out potboiler drama three or four times a year for the London stage? In the late 1930s F. Scott Fitzgerald was in Hollywood having to pay mounting bills for his wife Zelda's care and his daughter schooling and the way to quick cash was in Hollywood writing screenplays.

But the studios don't want genius, they want entertainment churned out quickly on a mass scale. That isn't how Fitzgerald operates. So he's fired and returns to the alcoholism that was his lifestyle during his literary hey day in the Roaring Twenties.

As Fitzgerald, Gregory Peck's one consolation in his final years is the love affair with Hollywood columnist Sheilah Graham. I have to disagree with the other reviewers who say this film is too rosy a portrayal. Remember this is Sheilah Graham's work this is based on and it's through her eyes we see Peck's disintegration. Deborah Kerr is once again a prim and proper Sheilah Graham whose slum background she's worked like a demon to overcome.

Peck and Kerr work well together, but as this is a Henry King film from 20th Century Fox, I wouldn't be surprised if the film might have been intended for Tyrone Power at one point. If it had been Power would have been well cast in the part of Fitzgerald.

This is also Henry King's next to last film and take a look at his film credits and the astonishing list of classic films that he did over 50 years in Hollywood. I guess as a followup to Beloved Infidel, King chose to do a film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night. That one for some reason is never shown.

Beloved is a classic old fashioned romantic drama the kind that sadly is not being made any more.

I, for one really love this movie. It has all the elements of a classic movie. Great Actors, Love , Betrayal, And Redemption. When watching don't be over critical. This was produced in the 1950's and all movies of this time are a bit over acted and fanciful. Try to view it for what it is(not a biographical documentary about Sheila Graham and F. Scott Fitzgerald) but a sweeten Hollywood version of their story. Very enjoyable.. Gregory Peck is at his understated best!! Deborah Kerr is very believable as a woman who loves this man despite his problems. This movie is very understated. The scene where Scott hits Sheila and threatens her with the gun is well acted; the violence is not used to make the movie more watchable as it is now a days. It is a film the evokes many different emotions from the viewer. There are the highs of being in love and the lows of despair and fright. It encompasses all. A great film!!!!

This film purports to be about the last years of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his life with his paramour Sheila Graham as seen through the eyes of Ms. Graham. Sorry, wrong number! Obviously, Ms. Graham remembers through rose colored glasses. Granted, she was there and we were not but this is a very sanitized version of life with a hopeless alcoholic, has-been. Fitzgerald was the darling of the jazz age who, with his unstable wife Zelda, ran rampant through life with a joy for living which set a standard for the time. But he dried up artistically, Zelda was committed to an institution and he took to the bottle with a vengeance. The film begins when he is on his last legs, trying to make it in Hollywood as a screen writer and having an affair with Ms. Graham, a Hollywood gossip columnist. Gregory Peck is just not believable as Fitzgerald. He is not gritty enough, not desperate enough and is just.....well, he is just Gregory Peck, not F. Scott Fitzgerald. Deborah Kerr is so wrong for this part that it is ludicrous. It appears that she was chosen for the role because she had an English accent as did Ms. Graham. Sheila Graham was a kick-ass opportunist (which she had to be to make it in the business) and Kerr is much too genteel and ladylike. I'm sure Ms. Graham loved her man and that her memories (at least some of them) were romantic and wonderful but it is just all too good to be true. Fitzgerald's last days are well known enough to make this film a saccharin fairy tale.