Having cast Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman in "For Whom the Bell Tolls", Sam Wood reunited them for "Saratoga Trunk", based on Edna Ferber's novel. This time they play a Texas gambler and a Creole heiress who join up in 1870s New Orleans to take on a world that's rejected them.
I've never read Ferber's novel (and most likely never will, considering how long it takes me to get through books), but the movie is worth seeing. Parts of the movie drag, but it's worth the wait for a certain scene later in the movie. Obviously the cringey thing is the casting of Flora Robson in blackface (she even got an Oscar nod for the role!); I guess that Hollywood wasn't yet ready to cast Ethel Waters or Lena Horne in this sort of role yet. Other than that, it's a fine movie.
For the record, long before I even knew about this movie, I saw the name Saratoga Trunk in the Daffy Duck cartoon "Book Revue" (Daffy gets some clothes out of the trunk for his performance).
I've never read Ferber's novel (and most likely never will, considering how long it takes me to get through books), but the movie is worth seeing. Parts of the movie drag, but it's worth the wait for a certain scene later in the movie. Obviously the cringey thing is the casting of Flora Robson in blackface (she even got an Oscar nod for the role!); I guess that Hollywood wasn't yet ready to cast Ethel Waters or Lena Horne in this sort of role yet. Other than that, it's a fine movie.
For the record, long before I even knew about this movie, I saw the name Saratoga Trunk in the Daffy Duck cartoon "Book Revue" (Daffy gets some clothes out of the trunk for his performance).