Green Dolphin Street (1947)
Arnold Gillespie ought to be congratulated. Yes, he won two Academy Awards for Special Effects, and he shared a Technical Achievement Oscar with Douglas Shearer, but shouldn’t he be one of the great names film students are taught to revere? I went through three years of film school, and until it was Frank Morgan’s week at Hot Toasty Rag and I did research on Green Dolphin Street, I’d never heard of him.
Mr. Gillespie should be looked at as a Hollywood God. He’s the man behind the special effects of San Francisco, The Wizard of Oz, An American Romance, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, The Valley of Decision, They Were Expendable, The Beginning or The End, Pagan Love Song, North by Northwest, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, both the 1935 and 1962 versions of Mutiny on the Bounty, and both the 1925 and 1959 versions of Ben-Hur. See what I mean? Why doesn’t everyone know his name?
In Green Dolphin Street, he and Warren Newcombe, a frequent collaborator, made the most impressive earthquake scene I’ve ever seen. It made San Francisco look like a first attempt—which let’s face it, it was. In addition to the earthquake, there’s an avalanche that creates a waterfall that leads to a tidal wave, as well as continual aftershocks that show trees crashing down on stunt doubles, and hot geysers springing up from crevices in the ground. It’s incredible, and it absolutely deserved its Oscar for Special Effects!
Onto the actual story: This is an epic period piece that carries one basic, depressing message: if you have terrible things happen to you in life, you’ll persevere and pretend you’re happy about it. There are so many tragic mistakes that affect the characters, and one could argue that the greatest tragedy of all is the realism that everyone pretends to make his or her peace with them. It was based off a novel, and the way the plot flits from one character to another makes me think a lot must have been cut out during the page-to-screen transition. In my opinion, the entire movie could have been the love story between Frank Morgan and Gladys Cooper; it was very interesting and touching. When they were younger, they were in love, but Gladys’s family disapproved and arranged for her to marry Edmund Gwenn instead. Gladys tried to throw herself off a cliff, but a nun, Dame May Whitty, talked her into living and making the best of things. Gladys and Teddy had two daughters together, Lana Turner and Donna Reed, and twenty years later, a widowed Frank comes back to town with his son, Richard Hart, in tow. Isn’t that interesting enough for its own movie?
This is a pretty long movie, and as the years pass, more of the plot unfolds. This could easily be remade as a 6-hour miniseries and not bore the audience. Lana and Donna both fall in love with Richard, but he prefers the kind Donna to the calculating Lana. Van Heflin, in a vague ethnic make-up, has admired Lana from afar for years but never dares to speak to her because she’s in a different social class. Van also has trouble with his girlfriend and her vengeful brother. That’s only the first twenty minutes. To get to the incredible special effects I’ve been touting, you’ve got to watch the whole thing. It’s worth it, even if you don’t agree with the message of the story. A better actress could have put more into Lana’s character, and it’s obvious some things were shortened to fit into the two hour and fifteen minute running time. It’s still an impressive epic that took millions to make, and if it can still be entertaining with lackluster leads, that’s an achievement in itself.
Want to watch it? Click here to see it on ok.ru and thanks "Classic Movies Kristine Rose" for posting!
More Edmund Gwenn movies here!
More Frank Morgan movies here!
More Donna Reed movies here!
Mr. Gillespie should be looked at as a Hollywood God. He’s the man behind the special effects of San Francisco, The Wizard of Oz, An American Romance, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, The Valley of Decision, They Were Expendable, The Beginning or The End, Pagan Love Song, North by Northwest, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, both the 1935 and 1962 versions of Mutiny on the Bounty, and both the 1925 and 1959 versions of Ben-Hur. See what I mean? Why doesn’t everyone know his name?
In Green Dolphin Street, he and Warren Newcombe, a frequent collaborator, made the most impressive earthquake scene I’ve ever seen. It made San Francisco look like a first attempt—which let’s face it, it was. In addition to the earthquake, there’s an avalanche that creates a waterfall that leads to a tidal wave, as well as continual aftershocks that show trees crashing down on stunt doubles, and hot geysers springing up from crevices in the ground. It’s incredible, and it absolutely deserved its Oscar for Special Effects!
Onto the actual story: This is an epic period piece that carries one basic, depressing message: if you have terrible things happen to you in life, you’ll persevere and pretend you’re happy about it. There are so many tragic mistakes that affect the characters, and one could argue that the greatest tragedy of all is the realism that everyone pretends to make his or her peace with them. It was based off a novel, and the way the plot flits from one character to another makes me think a lot must have been cut out during the page-to-screen transition. In my opinion, the entire movie could have been the love story between Frank Morgan and Gladys Cooper; it was very interesting and touching. When they were younger, they were in love, but Gladys’s family disapproved and arranged for her to marry Edmund Gwenn instead. Gladys tried to throw herself off a cliff, but a nun, Dame May Whitty, talked her into living and making the best of things. Gladys and Teddy had two daughters together, Lana Turner and Donna Reed, and twenty years later, a widowed Frank comes back to town with his son, Richard Hart, in tow. Isn’t that interesting enough for its own movie?
This is a pretty long movie, and as the years pass, more of the plot unfolds. This could easily be remade as a 6-hour miniseries and not bore the audience. Lana and Donna both fall in love with Richard, but he prefers the kind Donna to the calculating Lana. Van Heflin, in a vague ethnic make-up, has admired Lana from afar for years but never dares to speak to her because she’s in a different social class. Van also has trouble with his girlfriend and her vengeful brother. That’s only the first twenty minutes. To get to the incredible special effects I’ve been touting, you’ve got to watch the whole thing. It’s worth it, even if you don’t agree with the message of the story. A better actress could have put more into Lana’s character, and it’s obvious some things were shortened to fit into the two hour and fifteen minute running time. It’s still an impressive epic that took millions to make, and if it can still be entertaining with lackluster leads, that’s an achievement in itself.
Want to watch it? Click here to see it on ok.ru and thanks "Classic Movies Kristine Rose" for posting!
More Edmund Gwenn movies here!
More Frank Morgan movies here!
More Donna Reed movies here!