Mulher Exótica

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.

Ingrid Bergman (Cleo Dulaine) has never been so beautiful. Gary Cooper as "Cleent" so perfectly cast as a laconic Texan who knows this gal is up to no good. When the two lock eyes at the French Market, we know this match will be full of sparks. When they stroll in her garden in her restored French Quarter house and the love theme plays it is a dream for all us romantics.

The costumes are lovely; the set decoration makes you wish the "Quarter" was just that way. And that Saratoga still had that hotel with the wide veranda with all the old biddies gossiping.

From Edna Ferbers novel, the story is of revenge for old wrongs and the fights over who would run the railroads in the early days of that industry.

In the Saratoga scenes, Florence Bates as a grand dame steals every scene.

But it is the scene of Cleo taking on the little lawyer her New Orleans relatives have sent to buy her off that is a Magic Movie Moment. After Cleo has bested him in the negotiations, he looks at her with longing and says "may I say - you are very-beautiful". And Cleo with a happy, wicked smile says "yes, isn't it lucky." You want to shout "YES"!!!

One of my all time favorite romantic films.

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 have to admit I am prejudiced about my vote on this film, but I have strong reasons as I know some of the true history that was given the Hollywood treatment here. Edna Ferber's novel upon which this is based is from an era where real names can't be used. In a way, this film is all smoke & mirrors. Even though it was released in 1946, it was filmed shortly after Casablanca. Ingrid Bergman is at her most radiant in this movie as a brunette.

She plays a beautiful woman who is trying to trade on her beauty to get a rich husband. Today that is a gold digger, but in this social era, she is desirable & the kind of woman who makes all the men want her, & all the old snooty society types talk of her & avoid her, while wishing they were her. Ingrid is at her best & plays this role well.

Some sympathy for Ingrids character is raised in the New Orleans section of this film as she manages to get a decent belated tomb for her scandalized mother as part of the settlement by her relatives to get her to leave New Orleans. The snooty family of relatives there are so scandalized by her that they will do almost anything she asks to get her to leave town.

Gary Cooper is good in this film though he already appears to be aging a bit to play a dashing Texan Bachelor/Gambler. He pulls it off well considering that handicap which he appeared older than he was due to his real life chain smoking. Flora Robison as Ingrid's Maid got nominated for an Oscar as supporting actress in this film. Jerry Austin as Cupidor was over-looked in many ways for his role but is the only comic relief in the film & does it well.

When the film moves to Saratoga, it depicts accurately how important Saratoga was in that era. I like the sequence when Bergman walks to the Saratoge Spring to get some of the "sulfur" water which everyone considered so healthy then. When she drinks some she forces herself not to make a face and comments how good it is & that she must have more.

The real history is the railroad battle which really occurred on the rail line in Tunnel, New York- which is the actual Saratoga Trunk the film title is derived from. This battle actually happened in 1869 between agents for Andrew Carnagie & J. P. Morgan. The line was the economic key to the country in 1869 connecting coal country & the east coast. The references to it are throughout the film are very real. There is even some dialog describing Carnagie as a "Scot" though the reference is vague & unfamiliar to anyone not knowing the history around the battle.

The railroad line & the railroad tunnel in Tunnel, New York (zip code 13848) still exist although the film was shot in California. The real tunnel is about 1 mile long. It is still part of a key freight line today, years after this occurred. I grew up there. Gary Cooper's line in the film while he is riding the train into the tunnel is right, it is still "mighty pretty country".

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.