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The Searching Wind

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The Searching Wind
Directed byWilliam Dieterle
Screenplay byLillian Hellman
Based onThe Searching Wind
1944 play
by Lillian Hellman
Produced byHal Wallis
StarringRobert Young
Sylvia Sidney
Ann Richards
CinematographyLee Garmes
Edited byWarren Low
Music byVictor Young
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • August 9, 1946 (1946-08-09)
Running time
108 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Searching Wind is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Dieterle and starring Robert Young, Sylvia Sidney, and Ann Richards. It is based on the play of the same name by Lillian Hellman.[1] It had originally been planned for producer Hal Wallis to make the film at Warner Bros., but after he left the studio he brought the project to Paramount Pictures.[2]

Plot

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In 1945, after hearing of the death of Mussolini, an American career diplomat and his family reflect on his mistakes he made during the interwar years.[3]

Cast

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Original play

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Hellman's play debuted on Broadway in 1944 and ran for 318 performances. Montgomery Clift was in the original cast which was directed by Herman Shumlin.[4]

Hellman later said it was "The nearest thing to a political play" she had written "which is probably why I don't like it much any more. But even there I meant only to write about nice, well born people who, with good intentions, helped to sell out a world."[5]

Opening Night Cast

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  • Edgar Andrews as First Waiter
  • Montgomery Clift as Samuel Hazen
  • Joe De Santis as Second Waiter
  • Dudley Digges as Moses Taney
  • Eugene Earl as James Sears
  • Mercedes Gilbert as Sophronia
  • Alfred Hesse as Ponette
  • Dennis King as Alexander Hazen
  • Walter Kohler as Hotel Manager
  • Arnold Korff as Count Max von Stammer
  • Eric Latham as Edward Halsey
  • Barbara O'Neil as Catherine Bowman
  • William F. Schoeller as Eppler
  • Cornelia Otis Skinner as Emily Hazen

Production

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Hal Wallis bought the screen rights for $100,000. Wallis had made a film of Hellman's Watch on the Rhine while head of Warner Bros. Hellman did the script. It was one of the first films Wallis made as a producer at Paramount.[6]

Richards' casting was announced in September 1944. Joseph Cotten turned down the male lead.[7][8]

Filming started 13 December 1945.[9]

Reception

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Variety thought the film "isn't likely to hold the run-of-the-mill entertainment-goer looking for escapist stuff" and "should earn back its coin... for though well-mounted, it nevertheless doesn't appear too heavily budgeted. The film is an improvement on the Broadway play... because it is more coherent, and better acted."[10]

References

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  1. ^ The Searching Wind at TCMDB
  2. ^ Dick p.112-13
  3. ^ ""Searching Wind"". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 14, no. 20. Australia, Australia. 26 October 1946. p. 34. Retrieved 23 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ The Searching Wind at IBDB
  5. ^ Hellman, Lillian; Bryer, Jackson R (1986). Conversations with Lillian Hellman. p. 66.
  6. ^ "Hollywood's 1944 play buying spree". Variety. 3 January 1945. p. 30.
  7. ^ "ANNRICHARDS IN BIG ROLE". News. Vol. 43, no. 6, 604. South Australia. 28 September 1944. p. 7. Retrieved 23 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "THE SCREEN Goes Escapist". The Mercury. Vol. CLXII, no. 23, 362. Tasmania, Australia. 20 October 1945. p. 11. Retrieved 23 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ Dick, Bernard F. (1982). Hellman in Hollywood. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. pp. 108–118. ISBN 978-0-8386-3140-9.
  10. ^ "The Searching Wind". Variety. 15 May 1946. p. 8.

Bibliography

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  • Dick, Bernard F. Hal Wallis: Producer to the Stars. University Press of Kentucky, 2015.
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