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The Americanization of Emily
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = The Americanization of Emily
| image = Americanization of Emily poster.jpg
| border = yes
| caption = Theatrical release poster
by Reynold Brown
| director = Arthur Hiller
| producer = Martin Ransohoff
| screenplay = Paddy Chayefsky
| based_on =
| starring =
| music = Johnny Mandel
| cinematography = Philip H. Lathrop
| editing = Tom McAdoo
| studio = Filmways
| distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
| released =
| runtime = 115 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget = $2.7 million
| gross = $4,000,000 (rentals)"Big Rental Pictures of 1965", 'Variety', 5 January 1966, pg 6.
}}
'The Americanization of Emily' is a 1964 British-American black-and-white romantic black comedy war film written by Paddy Chayefsky, produced by Martin Ransohoff, directed by Arthur Hiller and starring James Garner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas and James Coburn. The film also features Joyce Grenfell, Keenan Wynn and William Windom. Chayefsky's screenplay was loosely adapted from the 1959 novel of the same name by William Bradford Huie, who had been a Seabee officer during the Normandy Invasion. The film is set in London during World War II in the weeks leading up to D-Day in 1944.[https://books.google.com/books?id=B0IEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=William+Bradford+Huie+%2B+d+day&source=bl&ots=e9EpKP1oMC&sig=w8SfBzIj4WTBqVnSIQ_2-TrL63g&hl=en&ei=RE0ATuyqEMvnrAerrqmJDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=William%20Bradford%20Huie%20%2B%20d%20day&f=false Life Magazine, 9 October 1944, article by Huie: 'SeaBees They Build the Roads to Victory'] Linked 2013-08-09
Controversial for its stance during the dawn of the Vietnam War, the film has since been praised as a "vanguard anti-war film." Both James Garner[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8844857220560459276 James Garner of Charlie Rose, ~6' from beginning] and Julie AndrewsBlank, Ed. [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:PTRB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=10DF57ABA3241800&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated4&req_dat=11ECDBF131F44C689BB0EDBA11D99EE0 'Andrews as Maria a result of 'happy circumstances' ']. 'Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'. 17 November 2005. have considered the film their personal favourite of those in which they acted.
Plot
Charlie Madison, a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Reserve, is a cynical and highly efficient adjutant to Rear Admiral William Jessup. Charlie's job as a batman is to keep his boss and other high-ranking officers supplied with luxury goods and amiable Englishwomen. He falls in love with a driver from the motor pool, Emily Barham, who has lost her husband, brother, and father in the war. Charlie's pleasure-seeking "American" lifestyle amid wartime rationing both fascinates and disgusts Emily, but she does not want to lose another loved one to war and finds the "practising coward" Charlie irresistible.
Profoundly despondent since the death of his wife, Jessup obsesses over the United States Army and its Air Force overshadowing the Navy in the forthcoming D-Day invasion. The admiral decides that "The first dead man on Omaha Beach must be a sailor". A combat film will document the death, and the casualty will be buried in a "Tomb of the Unknown Sailor". He orders Charlie to get the film made.
Despite his best efforts to avoid the duty, Charlie and his now gung ho friend, Commander "Bus" Cummings, find themselves and a film crew on board ship with the combat engineers who will be the first sailors ashore. When Charlie tries to retreat from the beach, Cummings shoots him in the leg with a Colt .45 pistol. A German artillery shell lands near the limping-running Charlie, making him the first American casualty on Omaha Beach. Hundreds of newspaper and magazine covers reprint the photograph of Charlie running ashore, alone, making him a war hero. Having recovered from his breakdown, Jessup is horrified by his part in Charlie's apparent death. He plans to use the heroic death in support of the Navy when testifying before a Senate committee. Emily is devastated to have lost another person she loves to the war.
Then comes unexpected news: Charlie is not dead but alive at the Allied 6th relocation center in Southampton, England. A relieved Jessup plans to show him off during his Senate testimony as the "first man on Omaha Beach", a 'sailor'. Limping from his injury and angry about his senseless near-death, Charlie plans to act nobly by telling the world the truth about what happened, even if it means being imprisoned for cowardice. By recounting what he had told her previously, Emily persuades Charlie to choose happiness with her instead, and to keep quiet and accept his role as a hero.
Main cast
* James Garner as Lt. Cmdr. Charles "Charlie" E. Madison
* Julie Andrews as Emily Barham
* Melvyn Douglas as Admiral William Jessup
* Paul Newlan as Gen. William Hallerton
* James Coburn as Lt. Cmdr. Paul "Bus" Cummings
* Joyce Grenfell as Mrs. Barham
* Keenan Wynn as Old Sailor
* Edward Binns as Admiral Thomas Healy
* Liz Fraser as Sheila
* William Windom as Captain Harry Spaulding
* John Crawford as Chief Petty Officer Paul Adams
* Douglas Henderson as Captain Marvin Ellender
* Edmon Ryan as Admiral Hoyle
* Steve Franken as Young Sailor
* Alan Sues as Petty Officer Enright
* Judy Carne as "2nd Nameless Broad"
* Sharon Tate as "Beautiful Girl" (uncredited)
* Red West as Soldier (uncredited)
Production
Casting
According to James Garner, William Holden was originally meant to play the lead role of Charlie Madison, with Garner to play Bus Cummings. When Holden backed out of the project, Garner took the lead role and James Coburn was brought in to play Bus.Garner, James & Winokur, Jon 'The Garner Files: A Memoir' Simon & Schuster; First Edition (November 1, 2011) Lee Marvin is mentioned as starring in the movie instead of Coburn in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's promotional film 'MGM Is on the Move!' (1964)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_eUNEl3BMY 'MGM Is on the Move!', 1964 (segment starts at 4:55) – YouTube (via Wolf TV-Video).] Retrieved August 4, 2022.Soundtrack
The film introduced the song "Emily", composed by Johnny Mandel with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was recorded by Frank Sinatra with Nelson Riddle arranging and conducting on October 3, 1964 and was included on the Reprise LP 'Softly, as I Leave You'. It was later recorded by Andy Williams for 'Dear Heart' (1965) and by Barbra Streisand for 'The Movie Album' (2003).Fashion
The women's hairstyles, dress fashions, makeup and shoes are all strictly 1964 not 1944.Trivia
* The party scene was filmed on the same day as President John F. Kennedy's assassination.
Comparison with the novel
'The Americanization of Emily' is based on William Bradford Huie's 1959 novel of the same name. "'Has Pat been Americanized?' ... 'She carries a diaphragm in her kit-bag'", p. 23; Strawberries "too forbidden, too expensive", p. 31; "this dress... came from Saks Fifth Avenue in the diplomatic pouch", p. 54; "Whoring is a peacetime activity", p. 102; "how can I know whether I love you for yourself or for the strawberries?" p. 104. 'The New York Times' ran a brief news item mentioning Huie's novel prior to its publication,"Books—Authors", 'The New York Times', July 14, 1959, p. 27: "'The Americanization of Emily, William Bradford Huie's new novel, will be published Aug. 12 by Dutton.... It gives a picture of the war in London in 1944 as carried on from hotel suites with the help of good food, good liquor, expensive presents, and expensive-looking women". but never reviewed it,Online search of NYT archives for "huie" and "emily" although in 1963 Paddy Chayefsky's development of the novel into a screenplay was found worthy of note.Weiler, A. H. "Movie Panorama from a Local Vantage Point, 'The New York Times', April 7, 1963, p. X15 A first draft of the screenplay for the film was written by George Goodman, who previously had a success at MGM with 'The Wheeler Dealers' (1963), also with James Garner in the male lead and with the same director and producer. In 1964, a Broadway musical with music written by John Barry was announced.[https://books.google.com/books?id=RhgvAQAAIAAJ&q=%22the+americanisation+of+emily%22+%2B+paddy&dq=%22the+americanisation+of+emily%22+%2B+paddy&hl=en&ei=JEsATt3pGonNrQeCy_GDDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBQ Plays and Players, volume 16, page 10] Linked 2013-08-09 Chayefsky's adaptation, while retaining the title, characters, situation, background and many specific plot incidents, told a very different story. He said, "I found the book, which is serious in tone, essentially a funny satire, and that's how I'm treating it."
The screenplay's theme of cowardice as a virtue has no parallel in the novel; in fact, the novel does not mention cowardice at all.
The screenplay implies, but never explicitly explains, what is meant by the term "Americanization." The novel uses "Americanized" to refer to a woman who accepts, as a normal condition of wartime, the exchange of her sexual favors for gifts of rare wartime commodities. Thus, in reply to the question "Has Pat been Americanized?", a character answers:
This theme runs throughout the novel. Another character says, "We operate just like a whorehouse ... except we don't sell it for cash. We swap it for Camels [cigarettes] and nylons [stockings] and steak and eggs and lipstick ... this dress ... came from Saks Fifth Avenue in the diplomatic pouch." Emily asks Jimmy, "Am I behaving like a whore?" Jimmy replies, "Whoring is a peacetime activity."
The screenplay uses Hershey bars to symbolize the luxuries enjoyed by Americans and their "Americanized" companions, but the novel uses strawberries.
The novel briefly mentions that Emily's mother, Mrs. Barham, has been mentally affected by wartime stress, but she is not a major character. There is no mention of her self-deception or pretense that her husband and son are still alive. The film contains a long scene between Charlie and Mrs. Barham, full of eloquent antiwar rhetoric, in which Charlie breaks down Mrs. Barham's denial and reduces her to tears while insisting that he has performed an act of kindness. The novel has no parallel to this scene.
In the film, Charlie is comically unprepared to make the documentary film demanded by Admiral Jessup and is assisted only by bumbling drunken servicemen played by Keenan Wynn and Steve Franken. But in the novel, Charlie has been a public relations professional in civilian life, takes the assignment seriously and leads a team of competent cinematographers.
Reception
Critical
In a contemporary review for 'The New York Times', critic Bosley Crowther praised Chayefsky's screenplay as including "some remarkably good writing with some slashing irreverence."'The Americanization of Emily' has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on fourteen reviews, with an average score of 7.39/10. In 'Slant' magazine, Nick Schager wrote, "Though a bit overstuffed with long-winded speeches, Chayefsky's scabrously funny script brims with snappy, crackling dialogue." In 'A Journey Through American Literature', academic Kevin J. Hayes praised Chayefsky's speeches for Garner as "stirring."
Accolades
The film was nominated for Academy Awards in 1965 for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography, and in 1966 Julie Andrews' portrayal of Emily earned her a nomination for a BAFTA Award for Best British Actress.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057840/awards IMDb: 'Awards for The Americanization of Emily'] Linked 2013-08-09'The Americanization of Emily' was among the films selected for 'The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made'.
Home media
'The Americanization of Emily' was released on Blu-ray by Warner Home Video on March 11, 2014 via Warner Archive.
See also
* List of American films of 1964
References
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