Tema: Jean Renoir: revisando sus películas

Quedaría como bonus la posibilidad de comentar (si localizo una copia) un film que, al parecer, Renoir estaba destinado a dirigir. Según comentó Deanna Durbin, la protagonista, y se recoge en imdb, el director francés rodó dos tercios de la película, pero tuvo que renunciar debido a su vieja herida en la pierna (resultado de su participación en la I Guerra Mundial). En todo caso, el film resultante (para la Universal), Mi encantadora esposa (The Amazing Mrs. Holliday, 1943), con Deanna Durbin, Edmond O’Brien, Barry Fitzgerald, aparece como dirigido por Bruce Manning, que fue además el productor. Quizá lo declarado por Durbin tenga sentido, puesto que Manning, con una amplia filmografía como guionista y productor, no dirigió ningún otro film.

Según la información disponible en el A(merican)F(ilm)I(institute) Renoir dirigió la mayor parte de la película, en concreto 47 días:

The working titles of this film were The Divine Young Lady, Call Me Yours and Forever Yours. The onscreen end credits do not list child actor Michael Chan, but only his character name, "The Chinese Baby."

In Jul 1941, Universal announced that actress Deanna Durbin's next film would be They Live Alone, based on an original screenplay by Sonya Levien and directed by William A. Seiter. Later that month, HR stated that They Live Alone would begin production on 15 Sep 1941; however, on 13 Oct 1941, HR announced that Durbin had refused to attend a press conference announcing the production of the film, and was, in fact, meeting in New York City with Universal president Nate Blumberg to demand more control over her films. On 17 Oct 1941, Durbin was suspended by the studio for her refusal to appear in They Live Alone. HR later stated that Durbin was continuing her suspension indefinitely, as she wanted permission to work for studios other than Universal, specifically M-G-M, where the producer of her previous Universal films, Joe Pasternak, had moved. In Dec 1941, HR speculated that Durbin's suspension had cost Universal over $200,000, as both They Live Alone and Marriage of Inconvenience, a second project designated for director Seiter, had been canceled due to their failure to find an appropriate female lead. Finally, on 30 Jan 1942, Durbin and Universal settled their dispute, and the actress was given story and director approval on all her films. HR announced on 3 Feb 1941 that They Live Alone was once again being put back into the production schedule at Universal, with Durbin in the lead role. On 18 Mar 1942, however, Universal announced that Three Smart Girls Join Up, a second follow-up to Durbin's debut film, Three Smart Girls (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.4623) and based on a story by RAF pilot Derek Bolton, was replacing They Lived Alone on the Universal production schedule and would begin shooting in May 1942. HR then stated on 15 Apr 1942 that all previously announced Durbin films had been replaced on the Universal production schedule by The Divine Young Lady, the initial working title of this film.

In May 1942, the title of the film was changed to Forever Yours and noted French director Jean Renoir, who had signed a one-picture deal with Universal in Feb 1942, was assigned to the film. Later that month, HR stated that editor Ted Kent was being assigned to the film, replacing Bernard W. Burton, the editor on Durbin's previous films, who had been promoted to associate producer at Universal. On 7 Aug 1942, HR announced that Renoir was being removed from the film after forty-seven days of shooting. According to the trade journal, the French director was fired due to his slow filming pace. Forever Yours had a forty-nine day shooting schedule, and Renoir was reportedly ten weeks behind schedule. Renoir, however, stated that he was leaving the film due to recurring pain caused an old World War I leg injury. Durbin requested that producer Bruce Manning assume the directorial reigns, and it was projected that the film would complete shooting in seven weeks. In early Sep 1942, after seventeen weeks of filming, writer Robert White was brought in to re-write the film's finale. It has not been determined, however, if any of his work was used in the released film. In Sep 1942, Universal announced that it was suspending principal photography on the film for at least one week for script revisions and the shooting of shipyards and street scene backgrounds in San Francisco. HR reported that producer-director Manning was being forced to direct this second unit work in San Francisco himself, as some of the selected sites were considered military backgrounds and would require special clearances. Universal requested SAG permission to pay half-salaries to the players during this lay-off period. HR then announced that principal photography had resumed on 19 Oct 1942, after significant re-writing on the screenplay by Manning and Frank M. Ryan.

A Universal plot synopsis based on a working draft of the screenplay suggests that numerous plot changes were made before the final draft was completed. In the earlier draft, Commodore Holliday attempts to run the Japanese blockade of China; Ruth and the children sneak onto the cargo ship without the help or knowledge of Timothy; when the commodore safely returns to San Francisco and his "bride," the heartbroken Tom decides to head back to sea himself; the commodore is told of Tom and Ruth's romance by Timothy, not his relatives; Ruth and Tom are married and the commodore adopts the children; and after his marriage, Tom does go to sea, but when Ruth discovers Pepe missing once again, Tom finds the young stowaway on his ship and a raft is lowered to send Pepe back to the Holliday estate. Universal press materials state that the musical numbers "Carmean," "Kashmiri Song" and "The Recessional March" were recorded by Deanna Durbin for this film, but they were not heard in the viewed print. For "The Recessional March," Durbin was accompanied by a 285 member male chorus, according to press materials. Technical advisor and lyric translator Madame Rosalyda Chang was a noted Chinese author, lecturer and diplomat at the time of this film's production, and her husband was a former Chinese ambassador to Portugal, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

HR production charts include Kim Wong in the cast, but her participation in the released film has not been determined. Frank Skinner and H. J. Salter were nominated for an Academy Award for their musical score to this film, but lost to Alfred Newmann's score for The Song of Bernadette. In 1955, Levien's story was presented on television under the same title as part of the Lux Video Theatre, starring Barbara Rush and Grant Williams, and directed by Richard Goode.

Estoy en trámites de conseguir una copia...