Sabrina
Dir: Billy Wilder
1954
****
The
goings on behind the scenes are just as famous as the film itself in Billy
Wilder’s 1954 romantic classic Sabrina. The lead actor hated everyone, the
other two leads fell in love and had an affair and the director, who would end
a 12-year business relationship with the studio after the film’s release, was
so up against it, he asked the actors to fake sickness so he’d have a chance to
catch up. Sabrina is a bonafide classic but one wonders whether it could have
been better with one or two slight changes. Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn)
is the young daughter of the Larrabee family's chauffeur, Thomas (John
Williams), and has been in love with David Larrabee (William Holden) all her
life. David is a three-times-married playboy who has never paid attention to
Sabrina because to him she was still a child. Eavesdropping on a party at the
Larrabee mansion, as she has often done before, Sabrina notices David enticing
yet another woman. Distraught, she leaves her father a suicide note and starts
every car in the garage so as to kill herself. Instead she is interrupted by
David's older brother, Linus (Humphrey Bogart), who escorts her back to her
quarters above the garage. Sabrina had been on the point of sailing for France,
where she is to attend a culinary school in Paris. After two
years there, she returns home as an attractive and sophisticated woman. When
her father is delayed from picking her up at the station, David offers her a
lift instead without even knowing it is Sabrina. Once David realizes who she is,
he is quickly drawn to Sabrina and invites her to join him at a party at the
mansion. When Linus sees this, he fears that David's imminent marriage to
Elizabeth Tyson may be endangered. If the engagement is broken, it would ruin a
profitable opportunity for a great corporate merger between Larrabee Industries
and Elizabeth's very wealthy father's business. Instead of confronting David
about his irresponsibility, Linus pretends to sympathise with him and in a
moment of inattention David sits down on champagne glasses he has placed in his
pockets, so that he is incapacitated for a few days. Linus now takes David’s
place with Sabrina on the pretext that “it’s all in the family” until both fall
in love, although neither will admit it. In fact Linus’ plan is to pretend to
be accompanying Sabrina back to Paris but not to join her on the liner.
However, when he reveals his intention to Sabrina instead, she agrees to leave
the next day and never come back. The following morning, Linus has second
thoughts and decides to send David to Paris with Sabrina. This means calling
off David's wedding with Elizabeth and the big Tyson deal, and he schedules a
meeting of the Larrabee board to announce this. However, David enters the room
at the last minute and declares that he has decided to marry Elizabeth after
all. David helps Linus recognize his own feelings for Sabrina and assists him
in rushing off to join Sabrina's ship before it leaves harbor. Linus and
Sabrina meet on board and sail away together. The story is flawed way before
the film is. I hate how suicide has been so poorly handled in love stories. You
have to go back to Romeo & Juliet to find its origins but since then,
particularly in older films of the 40s and 50s, it has been used out of context
and in a irresponsible manner. We look back at films like Sabrina and comment
on the love story without once questioning Sabrina’s mental state or the
actions of the two brothers. Everything about it, when you really think about
it, is deplorable and not romantic at all. It’s horrific really, but Hepburn’s
eyes, Holden’s charm and Bogart’s voice somehow make people overlook such
things. I like the film because I like watching Bogart, Hepburn and Holden, not
because I like either the story or the characters. Initially, Cary Grant was
considered for the role of Linus, but he declined, supposedly because he did
not want to carry an umbrella onscreen but I don’t know how true that really
is. The role was taken by Bogart. Best known for playing tough detectives and
adventurers, Bogart was cast against type as a smart businessman gradually
transformed into a romantic lead. He was something of a last minute
replacement and he knew, just like everyone else did, that he wasn’t really
right for the part. He was very unhappy during the filming, convinced that he
was totally wrong for this kind of film, mad at not being Wilder's first
choice, and not liking Holden or Billy Wilder. Bogart also disapproved
of Audrey Hepburn and he wanted his wife Lauren Bacall in
the role. Asked how he liked working with Hepburn, Bogart replied: "It's
OK, if you don't mind to make a dozen takes." During production of the
film, Hepburn and Holden entered into a brief but passionate and
much-publicized love affair but Hepburn called it off once she learned that
Holden couldn’t bare children. Bogart later apologized to Wilder for his
behavior on set, citing problems in his personal life but by that time the
stories were infamous. Wilder began shooting before the script was even
finished, and Lehman was writing all day to complete it. Eventually he would
finish a scene in the morning, deliver it during lunch, and filming of it would
begin in the afternoon. Considering the film’s many problems, the final result
is pretty miraculous. For all of the problems the film though, I do find it
funny just how many times Wilder managed to mention the play The Seven Year
Itch – the next film project with a new studio. The reality is that the film
isn’t as special as all that but it is, and always will be, a joy to watch the
four giant film makers at work.
