Frenchman's Creek (film)
| Frenchman's Creek | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Mitchell Leisen |
| Produced by | Buddy G. DeSylva |
| Written by | Daphne Du Maurier (novel) Talbot Jennings |
| Starring | Joan Fontaine Arturo de Córdova Basil Rathbone |
| Music by | Victor Young |
| Cinematography | George Barnes |
| Edited by | Alma Macrorie |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Frenchman's Creek is a 1944 adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier novel (about an aristocratic English woman who falls in love with a French pirate), released by Paramount Pictures. The film starred Joan Fontaine, Arturo de Córdova, Basil Rathbone, Cecil Kellaway, and Nigel Bruce. Filmed in Technicolor, it was directed by Mitchell Leisen. The musical score was by Victor Young, who incorporated the main theme of French composer Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune as the love theme for the film.
The film is a mostly faithful adaptation of the novel, taking place during the reign of Charles II in the mid seventeenth century, mostly in the Cornish region of England.[1]
Fontaine was under contract to independent producer to David O. Selznick, who only produced a few films each year. Typically, he loaned out his contract players and director Alfred Hitchcock (who had a contract with Selznick from 1940 to 1947) to other studios. In this case, Fontaine was loaned to Paramount for this lavish production. She later complained about her work with director Leisen and some of her costars.[2]
Although the film has not been released on DVD, it has been shown on American Movie Classics.
Contents
Cast
- Joan Fontaine - Dona St. Columb
- Arturo de Córdova - Jean Benoit Aubrey
- Basil Rathbone - Lord Rockingham
- Nigel Bruce - Lord Godolphin
- Cecil Kellaway - William
- Ralph Forbes - Harry St. Columb
- Harald Maresch - Edmond (as Harald Ramond)
- Billy Daniel - Pierre Blanc (as Billy Daniels)
- Moyna Macgill - Lady Godolphin
- Patricia Barker - Henrietta
- David James - James
- Charles Coleman - Thomas, the footman
- David Clyde as Martin, the coachman
Awards
The film won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction (Hans Dreier, Ernst Fegté, Sam Comer).[3]
See also
- The Wicked Lady, a British film made a year later and telling a similar story but with very different sensibilities.
References
- ↑ Frenchman's Creek (1944)
- ↑ Self-Styled Siren: Frenchman's Creek (1944)
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Frenchman's Creek at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). Frenchman's Creek at IMDb
- Frenchman's Creek on Theater of Romance: May 22, 1954
- English-language films
- 1944 films
- 1940s historical films
- Adaptations of works by Daphne du Maurier
- American films
- American historical films
- Paramount Pictures films
- Pirate films
- Film scores by Victor Young
- Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award
- Films directed by Mitchell Leisen
- Films based on British novels
- Films set in Cornwall
- Films set in the 17th century
