Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, The (1955): Richard Fleischer’s Fictionalized Tale of Evelyn Nesbit, Starring Joan Collins, Ray Milland, Farley Granger

Richard Fleischer directed The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, a fact-based movie, shot in CinemaScope, starring Joan Collins, Ray Milland, and Farley Granger.

The Twentieth Century-Fox had originally planned the lead for Marilyn Monroe, and when she refused to do it, she was suspended.

The film relates the fictionalized story of model and actress Evelyn Nesbit (Joan Collins). Nesbit was embroiled in a scandal surrounding the June 1906 murder of her paramour, architect Stanford White (Ray Milland), by her husband, rail and coal tycoon Harry Kendall Thaw (Farley Granger).

In the court proceedings, Thaw is acquitted by the jury based on insanity, and Nesbit apologizes to Mrs. White, taking responsibility for the murder (“it was my fault, I fell in love with him”).

Writer Walter Reisch claims that Fox was enthusiastic because producer Charlie Brackett knew Stanford White as a boy.

They tracked down Nesbit to get permission to make the film. Nesbit agreed in exchange for money though she was reluctant to do publicity for the film.

Grade: B- (** out of *****)