Film Snail

Centennial Summer
Centennial Summer

6.0

Centennial Summer

NR·1946·102m

Summary

In 1876 Philadelphia, two sisters vie for the affections of a Frenchman who's come to town to prepare the French pavilion for the Centennial exposition.

Crew

Director

Otto Preminger

Novel

Albert E. Idell

Writer

Michael Kanin

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Geronimo1967

July 7, 2022

5

Right from the outset, this film mis-fires. Walter Brennan comes across as a fish out of water and Cornel Wilde, with his rather ropey French accent, just doesn't work at all well, either. The latter man, having just arrived in Philadelphia from France for the US Centennial Exposition, soon becomes the object of the affections of two sisters - Jeanne Craine ("Julie") and Linda Darnell ("Edith"). Which of them will win his affections? The problem with this film is that, though colourful - there is absolutely no chemistry anywhere to be seen. The songs from Jerome Kern are pleasant enough, but there is no showstopper - and the singing, well those are either ensemble efforts or solos from actors who, frankly, aren't very good singers. The execution of the story is not without the odd bit of humour, but the presentation looks frequently quite stagey with plenty of set piece choreography that, again, might have looked fine in a theatre but is somehow rather dated and stilted on a big screen. It is watchable, and Darnell steals the show, if anyone does, but I struggled with this rather procedural and stilted melodrama.

Media

No Videos to show.

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Keywords

philadelphia, pennsylvania
love triangle
sibling rivalry
19th century