:31:01
where it doubled as the Russian ballet,
:31:04
Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain, where
it was an East German opera house,
:31:08
Thoroughly Modern Millie,
:31:10
and a burlesque house in the
Paul Newman/Robert Redford The Sting.
:31:16
By January 5, 1943 Samuel Hoffenstein
had reworked the script with Eric Taylor,
:31:21
switching the part of Raoul
from inventor to operatic baritone,
:31:25
after Nelson Eddy,
whose MGM contract had expired,
:31:28
was signed for the picture in December.
:31:30
Eddy's hair was nearly blond,
and Lubin suggested dying it black
:31:35
as "in those days, you always
thought of a Frenchman with dark hair".
:31:39
Eddy protested that
he'd rather give up the part,
:31:42
until Lubin explained
to the reluctant baritone
:31:44
that they would find
a hair dye that would wash out.
:31:47
So he put a black hairdressing on him
and he was thrilled.
:31:51
Samuel Hoffenstein was a Russian
whose best work was done
:31:54
with the Armenian director Rouben
Mamoulian at Paramount in the early '30s:
:31:58
Love Me Tonight with Chevalier
and Jeanette MacDonald,
:32:01
Song of Songs with Marlene Dietrich,
:32:03
and the original Fredric March
talking version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
:32:08
Hoffenstein's script
for the 1931 Paramount film
:32:10
was the backbone
of the 1941 Spencer Tracy remake.
:32:14
MGM actually bought
the film outright in perpetuity.
:32:17
Hoffenstein also worked with Julien
Duvivier on Tales of Manhattan, Lydia
:32:23
and Flesh and Fantasy. He also
would write Laura for Otto Preminger.
:32:28
An early credit of his was the Paramount
version of An American Tragedy,
:32:32
which had been started
by Sergei Eisenstein
:32:34
but finally made
by Josef von Sternberg.
:32:38
The 1940s saw a vogue
in gaslight horrors.
:32:42
All through World War Il,
this recherché period
:32:44
provided a nice escape valve
for wartime audiences.
:32:48
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
seemed to start the cycle in 1941,
:32:52
followed by Phantom, The Lodger,
The Man in Half Moon Street,
:32:55
The Picture of Dorian Gray,
Hangover Square,
:32:58
two versions of Gaslight -
British and American.