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Lizzie (1957 film)

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Wikipedia article




'Lizzie' is a 1957 American film noir drama film directed by Hugo Haas. The film is based on the 1954 novel 'The Bird's Nest' by Shirley Jackson and stars Eleanor Parker, Richard Boone and Joan Blondell. The popular songs "It's Not for Me to Say" and "Warm and Tender" were written for this film, and performed by Johnny Mathis, who played a piano player/singer in the film. (Both songs were subsequently included in Mathis' fifth album, 'Johnny's Greatest Hits'). The film was produced by MGM Studios.

Plot



Elizabeth (Eleanor Parker) has recurring headaches and is plagued with insomnia. She is receiving letters from a woman called Lizzie, but Elizabeth can't remember knowing anyone named Lizzie. When Elizabeth is under hypnosis, her psychiatrist, Dr. Wright (Richard Boone), discovers Elizabeth has three personalities: The shy Elizabeth, the Mr. Hyde-like Lizzie, and the kind, well-adjusted Beth, the woman she always should have been. It is up to Dr. Wright to help Elizabeth to become Beth completely.

Cast



* Eleanor Parker as Elizabeth Richmondt

* Richard Boone as Dr. Neal Wright

* Joan Blondell as Aunt Morgan

* Hugo Haas as Walter Brenner

* Ric Roman as Johnny Valenzo

* Dorothy Arnold as Elizabeth's mother

* Marion Ross as Ruth Seaton

* Johnny Mathis as Piano Singer

Production



Johnny Mathis made his film debut in 'Lizzie'.. The second song he sings in the film, It's Not for Me to Say','" became one of his biggest hits.

TCM.com reports that 'Lizzie''s producers sued Fox to postpone release of the film 'The Three Faces of Eve,' starring Joanne Woodward, because of the similarity of their plots. Fox did delay until early in 1957, after the publication of the biography on which 'The Three Faces of Eve' was based.

Reception



According to MGM records the film earned $280,000 in the US and Canada and $275,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $154,000.

Shirley Jackson, the author of the novel on which 'Lizzie' was based, was reportedly unimpressed with the screenplay, writing "I have read the screen play and it sounds a little like Ma and Pa Kettle, or Abbott and Costello meet a multiple personality."'The Letters of Shirley Jackson,' edited by Laurence Jackson Hyman; letter dated June 12, 1955 but when she saw the movie itself, she "thought it was extremely good, and enormously improved over the first script I saw."Shirley Jackson to Bernice Baumgarten, February 28, 1957

See also



* List of American films of 1957

References




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