Paramount launched the brilliant work of writer-director Billy Wilder and benefited from the prestige (and Oscars) that he brought to the studio.
Three of Wilder’s Paramount movies received nominations: “Hold Back the Dawn” in 1941, which he did not direct, but whose screenplay he wrote with Charles Brackett; “Double Indemnity” in 1944, which he directed, and “The Lost Weekend,” which won the 1945 Best Picture and other Oscars.
This film was directed by Mitchell Leisen, better known for his screwball comedies, who here plays himself in the Hollywood soundstage sequence of “I Wanted Wings,” starring Brian Donlevy and Veronica Lake.
Based on Ketti Frings’s novel of same name, “Hold Back the Dawn” centers on a Romanian gigolo, Georges Iscovescu (well played by Charles Boyer), who marries an American spinsterish teacher named Emmy Brown (Olivia de Havilland) in order to gain entry into the U.S.
In the film’s first part, we get a sense of desperate lives in a small, shabby Mexican border town. The story is set at the Esperanza, a rundown hotel, where refugees from Europe and drifters take residence.
Among the denizens are Anita Dixon (Paulette Goddard), a sexy femme who initiates the scam for Georges, Van Den Luecken (Victor Francen), a Dutch professor who acts as surrogate father, and Bertha Kurtz (Rosemary DeCamp), a pregnant refugee who wants her child to be born in America.
Through flashbacks, which are narrated by Boyer in a deliberately matter of fact style, we learn of Georges dubious past, and numerous escapades as a popular dancer and especially ladies’ escort.
On hearing his voice, she awakens; seeing him, her misery is relieved and her breathing and heartbeat normalize as he sits with her for hours. However, Hammock is still on his tail, and, when Georges sees police arriving, he takes off. He heads to Paramount to try to sell his story to director Dwight Saxon, in order to get the money for Emmy’s care. Hammock catches up with him and returns him to Mexico.
Some weeks later, Hammock returns to the border town. Anita has a new sugar daddy. Georges has unsurprisingly not heard from Emmy, and believes the worst, sitting dejectedly on a bench writing notes in the sand. Hammock joins him, and tells Georges that he didn’t report the illegal entry – Georges’ visa has been approved. Georges looks up to see Emmy, in a beautiful hat, happily waving to him in the sun from across the border. He crosses, and they depart.
As the story progresses, the girl’s honesty and charming naibvete win his true love, but not before some obstacles along the process.
Returning to the U.S., Emmy drives distractedly, in anguish at Georges’ betrayal, and gets into a serious car accident. When Georges finds out, he crosses the border, jeopardizing his visa prospects.
A handsome French, Charles Boyer belongs to a small group of leading men, who could play effortlessly and compellingly both heroic (Back Street in 1941) and villainous roles (Gaslight in 1944).
Cast
Charles Boyer as Georges Iscovescu
Olivia de Havilland as Emmy Brown
Paulette Goddard as Anita Dixon
Victor Francen as Van Den Luecken
Walter Abel as Inspector Hammock
Curt Bois as Bonbois
Rosemary DeCamp as Berta Kurz
Eric Feldary as Josef Kurz
Nestor Paiva as Red Flores
Eva Puig as Lupita
Micheline Cheirel as Christine
Madeleine Lebeau as Annie
Billy Lee as Tony
Mikhail Rasumny as Car Mechanic
Charles Arnt as Mr. John MacAdams
Arthur Loft as Mr. Elvestad
Mitchell Leisen as Mr. Saxon
Veronica Lake Movie actress on phone at beginning of film
My Oscar Book:
Oscar Nominations: 6
Picture, produced by Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
Screenplay: Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder
Actress: Olivia De Havilland
Cinematography (b/w): Leo Tover
Interior Decoration (b/w): Hans Dreier and Robert Usher, art direction; Sam Comer, set decoration
Scoring (Dramatic): Victor Young
Oscar Awards: None
Oscar Context
In 1941, a pair of sisters was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar: Joan Fontaine for “Suspicion” and Olivia De Havilland for this movie. Rumors of the feuding sisters, who were of similar age and both ambitious, circulated in the movie colony. De Havilland’s beginning were much more auspicious than her sister’s, having made a number of popular films opposite Errol Flynn. However, Fontaine’s win was only a “temporary setback,” as Olivia later made it up with two Oscars, for To Each His Own in 1946 and for The Heiress in 1949.
John Ford’s “How Green Was My Valley,” swept most of the important Oscars. Was selected while the U.S. had already been involved in the War. The film’s warmly sympathetic depiction of family unity must have hit deep chords in the country’s collective consciousness, which may explain, at least in part, why its two major competitors, Orson Welles’s masterpiece, “Citizen Kane” and William Wyler’s “The Little Foxes,” each with nine nominations, were the losers. Both films, and particularly “Little Foxes,” represented darker, somber visions of the American family. Once again, the “right” contents and “proper” ideological approach made the difference, though it’s noteworthy that “How Green” was as visually distinguishable as it was thematically acceptable.
The most nominated film in 1941 was Howard Hawks’ patriotic saga, “Sergeant York,” which received 11 nominations and won two: Gary Cooper as Best Actor and Film Editing for William Holmes.
