Dreaming Lips (1937 film)

1937 British film

2 February 1937 (1937-02-02)

Running time

94 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

Dreaming Lips is a 1937 British drama film directed by Paul Czinner and starring Elisabeth Bergner, Romney Brent and Raymond Massey.^[1]

Synopsis

The wife (Bergner) of a violin player (Brent) in a famous orchestra, falls in love with her husband's friend and, tragically, drowns herself.

Cast

Elisabeth Bergner as Gaby Lawrence
Raymond Massey as Miguel del Vayo
Romney Brent as Peter Lawrence
Joyce Bland as Christine
Sydney Fairbrother as Mrs. Stanway
Felix Aylmer as Sir Robert Blaker
J. Fisher White as Dr. Wilson
Charles Carson as Impresario
Donald Calthrop as Philosopher
Ronald Shiner as Friend
Cyril Raymond as PC
George Carney as Rescuer
Bruno Barnabe as Rescuer

Production

The film was produced by Trafalgar Film Productions with art direction by Thomas N. Morahan. It was a remake of the 1932 German film Dreaming Lips also directed by Czinner and starring Bergner which had been based on the play Mélo by Henri Bernstein. In 1953 Josef von Báky remade the film in Germany, based on the original script by Czinner and Mayer.

The script would be Mayer's last, as he would die of cancer in 1944.^[2]

Reception

The film was well received by critics, but not as financially successful as had been hoped.^[2] Writing for The Spectator in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a mixed review, describing it as "a shapely piece of sentiment" with a story "neat and plausible, the acting refined, the photography expensive". Greene, however, complains that its "sumptuous gloss[iness]" loses authenticity and that "there is nothing to remember when the night's over".^[3]

References

^ "Dreaming Lips". BFI Film Database. Archived from the original on 13 January 2009.
^ ^a ^b Howard Maxford (30 October 2014). David Lean. Pavilion Books. pp. 27–. ISBN 978-1-84994-248-5.
^ Greene, Graham (19 February 1937). "The Deserter/Dreaming Lips". The Spectator. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. Oxford University Press. p. 133. ISBN 0192812866.)