SARATOGA TRUNK

 

A couple of days ago, Ingrid Bergman was given her own day as part of "Summer Under The Stars" month on Turner Classic Movies. This gave me the opportunity to watch a movie starring Bergman I had never seen before--SARATOGA TRUNK, a Warner Bros. film made in 1943, but not released until 1945. 

SARATOGA TRUNK, based on a novel by Edna Ferber, is set in the late 19th Century and deals with one Clio Dulaine (Ingrid Bergman) a feisty and attractive woman with Creole blood. Clio returns to her ancestral home in New Orleans and sets about getting revenge on her relations from her father's side, who she blames for ruining her mother. Clio also attracts the attention of Clint Maroon (Gary Cooper), a dashing Texas gambler. Clio's relatives are so embarrassed by her they pay her to get out of town, and she winds up in Saratoga, New York, trying to get a rich husband. She also still has her heart set on Clint, who gets involved in a New York railroad. 

This movie was meant to be a high-class product--the producer was Hal Wallis, the director was Sam Wood, the cinematographer was Ernest Haller, and the music was by Max Steiner. Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman were two of the biggest stars of the silver screen at the time as well. But all these talents together couldn't save SARATOGA TRUNK from being, at least from my perspective, a dreary experience. 

The film's running time is over two hours, and most of the scenes consist of Bergman and Cooper alternately flirting and annoying one another. The characters that the duo play are not very inviting. Bergman's Clio comes off as a minor league Scarlett O'Hara, with overly coquettish ways and plenty of mood swings. Ingrid is one of my favorite all-time actresses, but even I'll admit she seemed off-key here, trying too hard to show Clio's up-and-down emotional state (if anything, the woman comes off as mentally unstable). Bergman isn't helped by darkened eyebrows and a black wig that takes away from her natural beauty. 

Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman in SARATOGA TRUNK

As for Cooper, he doesn't have much to do for most of the story, except lounge around and spout folksy dialogue to Bergman. At the end of the film, Cooper helps some businessmen take over a railroad by hiring a bunch of thugs and having them fight another bunch of thugs who are not letting the line run. This action subplot feels like it comes from another movie altogether (the fight scenes were handled by a young Don Siegel). There's also a head-on collision between two locomotive engines (maybe to wake up the audience?)  These scenes apparently were examples of how rough and tough Gary Cooper's character was supposed to be, but I don't think it made the guy all that more heroic. 

Throughout the film, the character of Clio is accompanied by two servants: a housemaid (played by Flora Robson in blackface!) and a dwarf (Jerry Austin). Both of the servants get way too much screen time, with Robson and Bergman having a Mammy-Scarlett relationship here. The problem is that Robson's facial makeup is so exaggerated she looks like a female Fu Manchu, and it's hard to take her seriously. (Ironically Robson was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her performance.) 

SARATOGA TRUNK has all the elements for a Hollywood classic--impressive and expensive production design, first-class costumes, plenty of period detail, and several legendary names involved in front of and behind the camera. It just didn't work for me. The story drags on and on, and the main characters are not very compelling. It felt like a mediocre soap opera. My internet research on this film revealed it made a lot of money when it was originally released, so obviously a lot of other people liked it.