SUMMERTIME (1955)

David Lean left Britain to go international and Katharine Hepburn left Hollywood glamour for Mid-West spinsterhood on this location-besotted Venice romance about a once-in-a-lifetime spree for an Akron, Ohio office worker and the handsome, Venetian shopkeeper she meets between vaporetto rides.  Those floating canal buses a big surprise for Hepburn, overplaying the self-consciously naive American abroad.  But then, Lean lets everyone underline all thru the first act, as if trying to match Jack Hildyard’s KodaChrome-like lensing.  Perhaps this comes from Arthur Laurents’ play (THE TIME OF THE CUCKOO)*, but things calm down considerably, and to considerable effect, once Lean lets the dross drift off and concentrates on his Henry James-ish virgin abroad motif, many scenes playing in daringly long-take two-shots.  As the suitor, Rosanno Brazzi unexpectedly rises to the challenge Kate sets for him in great set pieces backed by frame-worthy settings.  (Producer Alex Korda telling Lean not to skip on the famous sites/sights/sighs, ‘There’s a reason they’re famous.’ he reportedly said.)  With a great local kid to show Hepburn around (these ‘kid guides’ a staple in U.S. post-war-Italian movies) and a group of fellow pensione guests to add a little variety.  (But must the Ugly Americans be quite so ugly?)  Narrowing its scope, the film makes some very satisfying turns; immensely touching by the end.

DOUBLE-BILL:  Without Lean to hold her down, Hepburn’s next spinster was her most embarrassingly overplayed & coy, gushingly gauche choosing between Burt Lancaster and Wendell Corey in THE RAINMAKER/’56.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK:  *And now, a little lesson in self-centered Hollywood star psychology.  Returning to Hollywood from B'way as a top box-office attraction with THE PHILADELPHIA STORY/’40, Hepburn’s sole regret was not being able to keep Shirley Booth in the role Ruth Hussey played in the film version.  Yet, here she is, nabbing the role Booth had won a Tony Award for in Laurents’ play on stage.  Even though Booth had recently won an Oscar® for COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA/’52.  Yet, our lesson not that Hepburn was inconsistent or hypocritical, but that she was right.  The film would have been nothing with Booth (literally nothing, it wouldn’t have been made), Booth’s film career pretty dismal post SHEBA. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/come-back-little-sheba-1952.html

CONTEST:  SUMMERTIME not the only 1955 film to symbolize sex with fireworks.  Name the other 1955 film with coitus covering pyrotechnics to win a MAKSQUIBS Write-Up of your choosing.