Hold Back the Dawn (1941)

Director:

Mitchell Leisen

Writers:

Ketti Frings (story)
Charles Brackett (written by) ...

Release Date:

26 September 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Stopped in Mexico by U.S. Immigration, Georges Iscovescu hopes to get into the country by marrying a citizen.

Plot Keywords:

Mexico | Love | American | Gigolo | Jealousy

Awards:

Nominated for 6 Oscars.

Cast

Charles Boyer	...	Georges Iscovescu
Olivia de Havilland	...	Emmy Brown
Paulette Goddard	...	Anita Dixon
Victor Francen	...	Van Den Luecken
Walter Abel	...	Inspector Hammock
Curt Bois	...	Bonbois
Rosemary DeCamp	...	Berta Kurz
Eric Feldary	...	Josef Kurz
Nestor Paiva	...	Fred Flores
Eva Puig	...	Lupita
Micheline Cheirel	...	Christine
Madeleine Lebeau	...	Anni
Billy Lee	...	Tony
Mikhail Rasumny	...	Mechanic
Charles Arnt	...	Mr. John MacAdams

Also Known As:

Memo to a Movie Director (USA) (original script title)
The Golden Door (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

116 min | USA:125 min (copyright length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #7139) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center - 1200 N. State Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Mitchell Leisen joined the Screen Actors Guild so he could play the part of the director of I Wanted Wings (1941), but he donated his acting wages to charity. The scene depicted from that movie was reshot specifically for inclusion in this movie.

Quotes:

Georges Iscovescu: Your husband?
Anita Dixon: No. No, Shaughnessy was a jockey from Caliente. Five foot three. Once over the border, I went to a judge. I said, a woman wants a man, not a radiator cap! Divorce granted, fifty dollars.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Soundtrack:

A Sinner Kissed an Angel

Send these ,the homeless,tempest-tost to me/I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

How can you be French and not love this film? First the lead is French;and in a small supporting part,there is Victor Francen,one of Julien Duvivier's ("La Fin Du Jour ",1939) and Abel Gance's ("J'accuse" 1918 and 1937) favorite actors.Plus "La Marseillaise " in the final sequences.Plus Olivia De Havilland who has been living in Paris for years.Except for Bertrand Tavernier,most of FRench critics do not speak highly of Mitchell Leisen's overlooked gem.

This is the kind of superior melodrama I love.Olivia De Havilland is one of the greatest actresses of all time,one of those who never think twice when it comes to playing demeaning parts.She is so moving,so tender and so endearing that beauty Paulette Goddard almost leaves me indifferent.And I wonder why Boyer...

The very structure of the film is highly original,being a long flashback,the hero telling his story (perhaps too much voice over) to a director to earn money (but we will know why in the last minutes )because he thinks all his trials can make a great film!Truth can be stranger than fiction cause he is in a film himself! The subject of the movie is still topical today when you see so many people leaving their country for the wealthy ones (not only America:in France ,Russians and others are actually fighting to get French citizenship).For that matter,one of the peaks is when Victor Francen declaims Emma Lazarus's poem which is graven on a tablet within the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands.There are subplots and Mitchell Leisen's talent manages to make them as interesting as the three leads .You may remember the lady who wants his baby to be an American and the way she makes her dream come true,maybe more than Boyer/Havilland's honeymoon.

A honeymoon that takes them to an old Mexican village where they go to mass,with a candle in their hand.A scene that recalls Murnau's "daybreak" .

Emmy (De Havilland) is a woman who has never known love.She really wants to hold back the dawn ,to make her dream longer than the night.She gave all she had and she 's so altruistic she even returns good for evil.When she realizes that she's through with her pursuit of happiness,she simply puts her glasses.

I had seen Leisen's film when I was still a child.I saw it last night.With the same pleasure.