OVP: Saratoga Trunk (1946)

Film: Saratoga Trunk (1946)
Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Gary Cooper, Flora Robson, Jerry Austin
Director: Sam Wood
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Supporting Actress-Flora Robson)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

I continue my weekend movie extravaganza with this film, a tale by Edna Ferber, and starring two of those great movie stars: Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper.  I know I prattle on and on about the chemistry of a movie star, how it's something magnetic on the screen, but it's hard to say anything different when you encounter some of the best, and in particular, when two of the best decide to share a film together.  Two years after they made on-screen magic in For Whom the Bell Tolls, the pair are together again, and though I haven't seen the former (on the list, most assuredly), I have to assume that it's the finer of the two films, as Saratoga Trunk leaves quite a bit to be desired.

For as high of billing as he received, Gary Cooper is decidedly second fiddle in this film to Ingrid Bergman, and his character knows it.  Charming, vivacious, and the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy New Orleans aristocrat and a light-skinned creole woman of color, Bergman saunters through the film with the confidence of both a woman (and an actress) who knows she can own the room.  First, she exacts partial revenge on her father's family, blackmailing $10,000 out of them, and then uses that money to attempt to snag a wealthy railroad tycoon with a domineering mother.  She does this by impersonating a countess and is assisted by her Haitian maid (Robson, the film's only Oscar nomination) and her dwarf manservant (Austin).  Bergman has so much charisma and poise as an actress, but there are moments in this performance that seem very out-of-place.  The manic episodes in the center, and the way her calculating nature seems to swing wildly from money-hungry to love-starved gives the audience whiplash.  She's at her best in New Orleans, and when she's trying to take down a foe-when she's in a position of weakness, Bergman doesn't know how to control the swings and she goes a complete 180, rather than a more believably calculated swing, similar to Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara.

Gary Cooper, comes and goes throughout the film, and his intentions are never really known (and yes, I also talk about intentions and backstories in films frequently, and I know that's not always the point, but when it seems integral to the plot, it's a miss on the director and not an artistic license-you'll never hear me saying I want to know the why behind Anton Chigurh, for example), but he also has strong mood swings as a character-is he a bumbling cowpoke or a savvy businessman out to make his fortune?  At least with Cooper there's some plausible resolution with the character (he is indeed the latter, and a wealthy man by the film's end).  Cooper, so handsome and folksy, is probably my favorite performance in the film, though it would hardly be considered Oscar-worthy.  He also takes part in easily the most exhilarating (and best) scenes in the film, when Sam Wood (a master of the big spectacle on-screen), crashes two giant trains together onscreen for a stunning effect.  If those were models, they had me fooled (and a look around the internet suggests they were not).

The film kept hearkening back to Australia, the epic starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman for me.  Like that film, there are occasionally jolts of electricity in the cast and the plot, but overall it just keeps going on and on and on, with multiple large plot points popping up continually-you feel as if you have seen three films rather than just one.  Thirty years later, this would have made a much stronger miniseries, and if they every remake the film, that'd be my suggestion.

I can't finish chatting without addressing the film's sole Oscar nomination, but I first want to get into the cringe-inducing political incorrectness of the flick.  While it was made in the 1940's, and therefore much more commonplace, the dwarf as comic relief seemed very ill taste, and the sexist conclusion, where Bergman's strong will completely bends to be Cooper's wife and cook, is such a groan.  Worst-of-all is Dame Flora Robson donning blackface as the stereotypical maid.  While I'm guessing it isn't the only performance to have used blackface and get nominated, it's the first I've discovered.  Unlike Hattie McDaniel a few years prior, who created a strong character despite the limitations of working within a stereotype, Robson seems to rely more on tics and glares than any sort of "great" performance, and all-in-all this seems like a very odd nomination, particularly when you consider that Cathy O'Donnell was doing fine work in The Best Years of Our Lives that year, as well as Gloria Grahame in It's a Wonderful Life.  Thankfully, the Academy chose to ignore Robson for the win, and instead gave the trophy to the far more deserving Anne Baxter in The Razor's Edge.

And what about you-did you care for Robson's performance?  Did you have a preference between Bergman and Cooper?  Are you a reader of Edna Ferber (and can you speak to the novel Saratoga Trunk as well as the movie)?  Do tell!