The Great Sinner
The Great Sinner | |
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![]() Theatrical poster | |
Directed by | Robert Siodmak |
Screenplay by | Christopher Isherwood Ladislaus Fodor René Fülöp-Miller |
Based on | The Gambler 1866 novel byFyodor Dostoyevsky |
Produced by | Gottfried Reinhardt |
Starring | Gregory Peck Ava Gardner Melvyn Douglas |
Cinematography | George J. Folsey |
Edited by | Harold F. Kress |
Music by | Bronisław Kaper |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Loew's Inc. |
Release date |
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Running time | 110 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2,075,000[1] |
Box office | $2,041,000[1] |
The Great Sinneris a 1949 Americanfilm noirdramafilm directed byRobert Siodmak.Based on the 1866 short novelThe Gamblerwritten byFyodor Dostoyevsky,the film starsGregory Peck,Ava Gardner,Frank Morgan,Ethel Barrymore,Walter Huston,Agnes MooreheadandMelvyn Douglas.
Plot
[edit]The film opens in the 1860s in a run-down attic room inWiesbaden,with a man (whose name we soon learn is Fedya) lying on a bed in the foreground. A violent storm knocks open the windows, sending the pages of a manuscript flying around the room. A woman (later revealed to be Pauline Ostrovsky, a reformed gambling addict), enters and shuts the windows, looking tenderly at Fedya. Picking up the pages of the manuscript, she realizes that they are a memoir that Fedya has been writing. The main narrative follows as an extendedflashback,sometimes withvoiceovernarration by Fedya.
While traveling by train from Moscow to Paris, Fedya, a writer, meets Pauline, who passes the time playing solitaire. Attracted to her, he decides to disembark with her at Wiesbaden and follows her to acasino.There, he finds that Pauline is a gambling addict like her father General Ostrovsky who is also at the casino. Upon seeing how undisturbed the Ostrovskys are to find out the General's wealthy mother is dying, he becomes interested in the effects of gambling. He decides to stay in Wiesbaden to do a character study of gambling addicts.
One of them is Aristide Pitard, an old thief and gambler who claims Fedya's winnings. Taking pity on the man, Fedya offers Aristide money to leave the city. Instead, Aristide returns to the casino using the money to gamble and, after losing it all, he eventually shoots himself in desperation.
But before dying, he gives Fedya a pawn ticket and asks him to redeem it and return the pawned article to its owner, but dies before revealing the owner. When Fedya goes to the pawnshop he discovers that the pledged item is a religious medal, and later finds out that it belongs to Pauline.
Meanwhile, he has fallen deeply in love with her, despite her father's discouragement of a romantic involvement with her.
After returning the medal, Fedya finds out Pauline is pledged to an arranged marriage with Armand de Glasse, the wealthy but ruthless owner of the casino. Aware that Pauline is not engaged to Armand out of love, but as a payment for her father's debts to the casino, Fedya decides to start gambling himself to earn enough money to pay off the General's debt.
He goes on a winning streak and wins a lot atrouletteand becomes a gambling addict himself. The money was to be used to pay the General's debt of 200,000 to Armand.
However, after a short period of fame for his unlikely roulette winning streak, his luck runs out and after Armand de Glasse won't redeem the General's marker until the banks reopen the next day. He then decides to take the winnings to deposit in the hotel safe but gets distracted by seeing his "lucky numbers" everywhere. Naturally he loses most of the money intended to pay Pauline's father's casino debt.
Turning up at Armand's private Baccarat game, Fedya quickly loses what remains after his roulette losses and, in a delirium to recoup his losses, borrows money from Armand to continue gambling at Baccarat.
But he loses it all, including all his future earnings used as collateral for more borrowing from ruthless Armand; only too happy to take everything he has.
After this, he desperately seeks to pawn his few remaining possessions. Losing even that, when he is completely broke, Fedya has a vision in which an apparition of Aristide appears and hands him a gun to shoot himself. Pauline appears and still delirious, he grabs Pauline's religious medal and attempts to sell it back to the pawnbroker, Emma Getzel. She refuses to buy it claiming it's worthless. However, in a now blind insanity, he almost kills her before losing consciousness in one of his unexplained dizzy spells.
In the meantime, Pauline's previously near death grandmother shows up. The general gets her interested in baccarat and she plays at the casino and loses presumably her entire fortune of 8M DM before dying at the table.
In the end, Fedya completes his book manuscript on gambling obsession. After, he turns to Pauline, who forgives him for his behavior.
Cast
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/The_Great_Sinner_MGM_TV_Still_Photo_1949.jpg/220px-The_Great_Sinner_MGM_TV_Still_Photo_1949.jpg)
- Gregory Peckas Fedya (diminutive of Fyodor)
- Ava Gardneras Pauline Ostrovsky
- Melvyn Douglasas Armand de Glasse
- Walter Hustonas General Ostrovsky
- Ethel Barrymoreas Grandmother Ostrovsky
- Frank Morganas Aristide Pitard
- Agnes Mooreheadas Emma Getzel
- Friedrich von Ledeburas Casino Secretary
- Ludwig Donathas Doctor
- Curt Boisas Jeweler/Money Lender
- Ludwig Stösselas Hotel Manager
- Ernö Verebesas Hotel Valet
- Fred Aldrichas Casino Patron (uncredited)
- Larry Steersas Casino Patron (uncredited)
Production
[edit]The working title for the film wasThe Gamblers.[2]Warner Bros.planned on making a screen adaptation ofFyodor Dostoyevsky's novel in 1940, directed byWilliam Dieterleand starringAlbert Basserman.[2]Eventually,MGMbought the rights to the short novel, and for its adaptation, the screenwriters also used elements of Dostoyevsky's life and his other novelCrime and Punishment.[3]
In April 1948,Gregory Peckwas cast in the lead role.[4]At the time it was announced, it was revealedDeborah Kerrwas scheduled to star opposite him.[4]However, in late May 1948,Lana Turnerwas cast as Peck's leading lady, with production set to start in September the same year.[5]However, a week later, in June, it was revealed thatAva Gardnerwas cast in the female lead.[6]Turner withdrew from the film due to an extended honeymoon in Europe, which prevented her from being in Hollywood in time for the commencement of filming.[6]The film was Peck and Gardner's first of three collaborations.[3]
The role played byMelvyn Douglaswas initially offered toKirk Douglas.[7]
In late June 1948,Robert Siodmaksigned on to direct. Initially, Siodmak had been unavailable to direct the film due to commitments to an ultimately unrealized project starringJoan Fontaine,but Fontaine's withdrawal due to pregnancy allowed Siodmak to directThe Great Sinner.[8]
The film went into production as a 'prestige film' and Peck later recalled that Siodmak was a "nervous wreck" as a result of the responsibility he felt.[3]Walter Hustondid not sign on for the film, which was to be his penultimate role, until production had already started in September 1948.[9]André Previnreceived an early onscreen credit as conductor ofBronisław Kaper's score and the periodbandstandmusic.
Siodmak said he had been presented with "an enormous script" which he wanted to cut "but no one took any notice so I went ahead and filmed it." He says it came in at three hours after much cutting "but it was still too long, terribly slow (Gregory Peck, a slow talker, seemed so impressed by the idea of acting in Dostoevsky that he played at about a third of even his usual speed), heavy and dull with the disadvantage that now the story didn't even make sense." The film was cut down to two hours and ten minutes. MGM wanted the film reshot with "a new and stronger love story". Siodmak refused so the studio gotMervyn Le Royto do it. He said "When I eventually saw the finished film I don't believe that a single scene was left as I had made it."[10]
Reception
[edit]Despite the first-class production values,The Great Sinnerflopped at the box office.[3]According to MGM records the film earned $1,179,000 in the US and Canada and $862,000 overseas resulting in a loss of $821,000.[1][11]
In aNew York Herald Tribunereview, the film was called "pompous and dull entertainment."[3]Timemagazine added "the rich, exuberant flow of dialogue, incident, and atmosphere characteristic of the Russian master has been choked to a pedestrian trickle. Dostoevsky's brilliant insights into the tortured motives and emotions of his lovers have paled into klieg-lighted stereotypes."[3]
TimeOutsays "the script unceremoniously culls episodes and characters from Dostoevsky's youth...Unfortunately, this prestigious MGM production is heavy-going and overdone."[12]
ScreenwriterChristopher Isherwood,who adapted the novel, admitted to the failure, saying: "It should have been much better than it was....but apart from a few good scenes, it was neither Dostoevsky's story, nor the story of Dostoevsky."[3]
References
[edit]- ^abcThe Eddie Mannix Ledger,Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
- ^ab"Notes for The Great Sinner (1949)".Turner Classic Movies.RetrievedJuly 8,2022.
- ^abcdefg"The Great Sinner: Overview Article".Turner Classic Movies.RetrievedJuly 8,2022.
- ^ab"Gregory Peck To Star in Second Baddie Role" bySheilah Graham,Bluefield Daily Telegraph,April 3, 1948, p. 12
- ^"Gregory Peck and Lana Turner to Make 'The Great Sinner'" byLouella O. Parsons,Syracuse Herald Journal,May 25, 1948, p. 22
- ^ab"Ava Gardner Replacing Lana Turner at Studio?" by Sheilah Graham,Bluefield Daily Telegraph,June 5, 1948, p. 6
- ^"In Hollywood" by Erskine Johnson,Pampa Daily News,May 31, 1949, p. 6
- ^"Hollywood" by Dorothy Manners,Middletown Times Herald,June 24, 1948, p. 12
- ^"Hollywood Highlights",The Oakland Tribune,September 27, 1948, p. 15
- ^Encounter with Siodmak Taylor, Russell. Sight and Sound; London Vol. 28, Iss. 3, (Summer 1959): 180.
- ^"Top Grossers of 1949".Variety.January 4, 1950. p. 59.
- ^"The Great Sinner".Time Out London.Archived fromthe originalon August 1, 2020.
External links
[edit]- 1949 films
- 1949 drama films
- Film noir
- American black-and-white films
- 1940s English-language films
- Films directed by Robert Siodmak
- Films set in casinos
- Films set in Germany
- Films set in the 1860s
- Films based on The Gambler (novel)
- Films based on Russian novels
- Films scored by Bronisław Kaper
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
- Films about roulette
- American drama films
- 1940s American films
- English-language drama films