Munkbrogreven (Count of the Old Monk’s Bridge) (1935) Directed by Edvin Adolphson and Sigurd Wallen Svenskfilmindustri

Elsa at work

Arabella's notes.......

This is Ingrid’s first film, a comedy of sorts about a band of rowdies led by the “Count” who stage a drinking binge then spend a day eluding the police (apparently one of Sweden’s attempts to imitate Mack Sennett). Ingrid plays Elsa, a hotel maid who is the apple of the “Count’s” eye. While the reviews were kind to her, Ingrid was depressed over the press references to her height and weight. She was convinced she had failed in her first role. Little did she know at the time that the very dress she wore in the movie would be enshrined in the costume department of the Swedish Film Industry alongside a gown worn by Greta Garbo!

Oscar Nomination.....

Best Cinematography in Black and White--Gregg Toland
Best Music Scoring-- Louis Forbes

Arabella's notes.....

Ingrid would remember her entrance in this movie for a long time. They were still working on the entrance when the rest of the picture was “canned”! Ingrid was to come through the door, take off her coat and hat, hang them up and look at Leslie Howard playing the piano for his daughter...and on top of that be sensational. It was very hard to do.

The story concerns a famous Swedish violinist (played by Howard who is very, very English) who meets and falls in love with his daughter’s piano teacher,Anita, (Ingrid). Married, he leaves his wife to go abroad with Anita. But she later realizes he can never be happy without his family and leaves him even though it breaks her heart. The reviews for Ingrid’s performance were sensational and America opened its arms.

Look for....

...Edna Best (Margit Brandt)
...Cecil Kellaway (Charles Moler)
...Ann E. Todd (Ann Marie Brandt)

Oscar nomination.....

Best Cinematography, Black and White--Joseph Ruttenberg
Best Film Editing--Harold F. Kress
Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture-- Franz Waxman

Arabella's Notes......

When Ingrid got to the set of “Hyde” she knew immediately she wanted out of her part. She had been mostly cooperative in her past films but this was too much...another good girl part! She went to the Victor Fleming and told him she wanted to play the barmaid(already cast with Lana Turner)and not the fiancee. Fleming told her that was impossible because with her face no one would believe it.”I am an actress” Bergman told him. A test was arranged and when the director saw it he was amazed. With Selznick's approval, the roles were switched. One of the reviews for the picture read “Bergman...displays a canny combination of charm, understanding, restraint and sheer acting ability.” (Mockridge, New York World Telegram).

Look for...

...Ian Hunter (Dr. John Lanyon)
...Barton MacLane (Sam Higgins)
...Sara Allgood (Mrs. Higgins)
...Billy Bevan (Mr. Weller)

Casablanca (1942) Directed by Michael Curtiz Warner Bros.

Rick and Ilsa watch the Nazis march in

Oscar Award for.......
Best Director ..Michael Curtiz
Best Picture ..Hal B. Wallis
Best Writing, Screenplay ..Julius J. Epstein ,Philip O. Epstein, Howard Koch
Best Actor in a Leading Role .. Humphrey Bogart
Best Supporting Actor .. Claude Rains
Best Cinematography, ..Black and White Arthur Edeson
Best Film Editing.. Owen Marks
Best Music, Scoring .. Max Steiner

Arabella’s Notes.......

I don’t believe there is anyone in the world where movies are shown who hasn’t seen this movie over and over again. Rick and Ilsa are the Romeo and Juliet of the WW II years even though they seemed to have come out of it alive. The picture opened originally at Thanksgiving, 1942 but didn’t go into general release until late January, 1943. The war was raging in Europe and the Lindstroms (Ingrid, Petter and Pia) were firmly ensconced in America.But there were fights on the set...endless script changes, and no one knew how the movie would end. Would Ingrid be in love with Rick or Victor (Paul Henreid)? They planned to shoot two endings but when Rick said that famous line “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” they knew it
had to end there!

Look for.....

...Conrad Veidt (Major Heinrich Strasser)
...Peter Lorre (Ugarte)
...S.Z. Sakall (Carl)*
...Dooley Wilson (Sam)*
...Curt Bois (pickpocket)
* great supporting performances

Oscar Awards for....
Best Supporting Actress.. Katina Paxinou

Oscar Nominations for....
Best Actor .. Gary Cooper
Best Actress .. Ingrid Bergman
Best Supporting.. Actor Akim Tamiroff
Best Picture.. Sam Wood
and a whole slew of other Bests

Golden Globes Award for...
Best Supporting Actor.. Akim Tamiroff
Best Supporting Actress.. Katina Paxinou

Arabella’s Notes....

The author prevailed. Ernest Hemingway wanted Bergman, not Vera Zorina, for the role of Maria. David O. Selznick wanted her, too. The powers-that-be were finally convinced and turned their attention to the “sleeping bag sequence” that was regarded as too daringly erotic for the times. But the sequence made it through, too. Ingrid and Gary made love onscreen, fell a little in love off screen and every woman in America cut their hair short! And costumes were never a problem. Ingrid wore the same old trousers, held up with a rope, and the same old shirt for the entire picture!

Look for....

...Akim Tamiroff (Pablo) *
...Katina Paxinou (Pilar) *
...Vladimir Sokoloff (Anselmo) *
...Yakima Canutt (a young Cavalryman)
...Yvonne De Carlo ( a girl in the Cafe)

Oscar Awards for....
Best Actress.. Ingrid Bergman
Best Art Direction, Interior Decoration in Black and White.. William Ferrari , Cedric Gibbons
Paul Huldschinsky , Edwin B. Willis

Oscar Nominations for.....
Best Actor.. Charles Boyer
Best Supporting Actress.. Angela Lansbury
Best Cinematography, Black and White.. Joseph Ruttenberg
Best Picture ..Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
Best Writing Screenplay... John I. Balderston , Walter Reisch, John Van Druten

Arabella’s Notes.....

Ingrid wins her first Oscar! As the naive young girl swept off her feet by suave charming Charles Boyer, she gives a memorable performance as the wife who is being methodically driven mad by her unscrupulous new husband. Both Boyer and Joseph Cotten are also superb in their roles...Boyer as the cold, calculating husband and Cotten as the suspicious detective from
Scotland Yard.

Look for.....

...Dame May Whitty (Miss Thwaites) *
...Angela Lansbury (Nancy) *
...Terry Moore (Paula,age 14)
*great supporting performances

Oscar Award for....
Best Sound Recording.. Stephen Dunn

Oscar Nomination for....
Best Actor ..Bing Crosby
Best Actress.. Ingrid Bergman
Best Director.. Leo McCarey
Best Film Editing ..Harry Marker
Best Music, Scoring.. Robert Emmett Dolan
Best Music, Song .......................Johnny Burke (lyrics)
(Aren’t You Glad You’re You?) Jimmy Van Heusen (music)
Best Picture.. Leo McCarey

Golden Globes Award...
Best Actress... Ingrid Bergman

New York Critics Award..
Best Actress... Ingrid Bergman

Photoplay Award Gold Medal Winner

Arabella’s Notes.....

Leo McCarey wanted to do a sequel to “Going My Way” and he wanted Ingrid Bergman to costar in it as the by-the-book nun to Crosby’s happy-go-lucky priest. Bergman said "yes", intrigued by the role that McCarey had patterned after a real nun who liked boxing and baseball, and adored children. But Selznick said no. “What will you do while Bing is singing” he asked her and Ingrid told him “I am going to look at him..with radiance, adoration and perhaps perplexity”. She got the part. And Ingrid considered the habit she wore to be an added bonus. No one would be able to tell how much ice cream she had eaten and she loved American ice cream! So Bing sang (three songs) and Ingrid looked at him (she also sang an Swedish ditty of her own)and they made what Ingrid called a happy little movie. That happy little movie won one Oscar, had seven nominations and two other very prestigious awards!

Look for....

...Henry Travers (Horace P. Bogardus)*
...Ruth Donelly (Sister Michael)
...Joan Carroll (Patsy)
...Richard Tyler (Eddie)
...Una O’Connor (Mrs. Breen)*

Oscar Award for....
BestMusic, Scoring ...Miklos Rozsa

Oscar Nomination for.....
Best Supporting Actor... Michael Chekhov
Best Cinematography, Black and White... George Barnes
Best Director... Alfred Hitchcock
Best Effects, Special Effects... Jack Cosgrove
Best Picture... David O. Selznick

New York Film Critics Circle Award
Best Actress...Ingrid Bergman
Special Award... Ingrid Bergman

Arabella’s Notes......

It was called a “masterful psychiatric thriller”! But it may have been what you didn’t see that would have been spine-tingling. Salvador Dali was commissioned to creat a nightmare to end all nightmares. Four hundred eyes glaring down out of black velvet drapes; a pair of giant pliers 15 feet taller than Gregory Peck chasing him up the side of a pyramid. And then Ingrid, ,encased in plaster as a Grecian goddess,slowly cracking to emit streams of ants. Well, the ants were scratched at the outset probably at Ingrid’s bidding but the rest was filmed and then left on the cutting room floor.However the movie kept enough of Hitchcock’s twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat. But with Ingrid playing the doctor, it is a wonder anyone ever wanted to get well!

Look for..... ...Leo G.Carroll (Dr. Murchison)
...John Emery (Dr. Fleurot)
...Rhonda Fleming (Mary)
...Steven Geray (Dr. Graff)

Oscar Nomination for...
Best Supporting Actor... Claude Rains
Best Writing, Original Screenplay... Ben Hecht

Arabella’s Notes......

This was the second Hitchcock film for Ingrid and the beginning of a long-lasting friendship with Cary Grant. Cary plays a U.S. agent who suspects Ingrid, the daughter of a convicted Nazi spy, but falls in love with her anyway. To prove her loyalty, she marries Claude Rains, already under suspicion for anti-government activities. In this film as in all his others, Hitchcock is still sticking it to the “establishment” and, in this case, the censors as well. As Ingrid told it “A kiss could only last three seconds. So we kissed, then broke, then kissed again. When the telephone came between us, we moved..nibbled..and kissed again.” Today I guess that would be called “serial kissing”! Cary said later that the Academy should give a special award to Ingrid every year whether she made a picture or not.

Look for...

...Louis Calhern (Capt. Paul Prescott)
...Reinhold Schunzel (Dr. Anderson)
...Bea Benadaret (file clerk)
...Alfred Hitchcock (man drinking champagne at party)

Joan of Arc (1948) Directed by Victor Fleming Sierra Pictures/RKO

The Maid Of Orleans on trial!

Oscar Award for.....
Best Cinematography, Color ...Winton C. Hoch, William V. Skall, Joseph A. Valentine
Best Costume Design, Color.... Dorothy Jenkins, Barbara Karinska

Oscar Nominations for.....
Best Actress ... Ingrid Bergman
Best Supporting Actor...Jose Ferrer
Best Art Direction- Set Decoration Color.... Richard Day, Joseph Kish , Casey Roberts
Best Film Editing ... Frank Sullivan
Best Music, Scoring... Hugh Friedhofer

Arabella’s Notes........

Ingrid Bergman and apparently a cast of thousands judging from the cast sheets. This was the part Ingrid had yearned for since she began acting and had already done it on the stage as”Joan of Lorraine” in 1946. With Jose Ferrer as the Dauphin, the maid certainly had her hands full with the machinations of the French court. But, as history would have it, her fate was already sealed. The reviews called Ingrid “ a radiant and sensitive Joan”, “one of the finest actresses to grace the screen" and concluded “ (Bergman's) passionate fidelity to her part saves the day”. But there were other things on Ingrid’s mind as the filming was progressed. She had fallen in love with Robert Capa, the first Robert in her life, and the affair was ending. Each was totally committed to their own lifestyle. Robert was later killed in Vietnam in 1954. Later, just before the premiere of ‘Joan..” Victor Fleming (the film's director) died suddenly of a heart attack.

Look for....

...Francis L. Sullivan (Pierre Cauchon Count-Bishop of Beauvais)
...J. Carroll Naish (John, Count of Luxembourg, her captor)
...Ward Bond (La Hire)
...Cecil Kellaway (Jean le Maistre, Inquisitor of Rouen)
...Jimmy Lydon (Pierre d’Arc, her brother)

Italian Nat’l Film Syndicate of Film Journalists Award
Best Foreign Actress in an Italian Film... Ingrid Bergman
Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Award ..Roberto Rossellini

Arabella’s Notes....

A quote from an unidentified studio executive In Time Magazine says it all: It’s a 20-minute travelogue in an 89-minute film. When things get dull, they throw in a little sex”. It was certainly not one of Rossellini’s best creations even before the Hollywood studio hatchet men cut it to ribbons. And, with all the notoriety over her affair, Ingrid didn’t give her best, either. But enough said about that. In the next five pictures she did with Rossellini, she got better and he got no worse.

Oscar Award for....
Best Actress ... Ingrid Bergman

Oscar Nomination for...
Best Music, Scoring ...Alfred Newman

Golden Globes Award
Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama... Ingrid Bergman

National Board of Review Award
Best Actor ... Yul Brynner

New York Film Critics Circle Award
Best Actress ... Ingrid Bergman

Arabella”s Notes.....

It is another Oscar, the second for Ingrid. As the amnesiac groomed by Russian expatriates in Paris to be recognized as Anastasia , thought to be still alive after the assassination of her family, Ingrid truly shines. The transformation of her character is developed slowly and sensitively as only Bergman can do it. With Yul Brynner as her taciturn and seemingly cold mentor, she emerges from her cocoon into a radiant and self-confident woman. Her scenes with Helen Hayes as the Dowager Empress are superb. But Cary Grant would pick up her statuette because she still felt estranged from America. And at home, she was becoming equally as estranged from Rossellini.

Look for.......

...Helen Hayes (Dowager Empress)*
...Akim Tamiroff (Chernov)
...Natalie Schaefer (Lissemskaia)

Oscar Nomination for....
Best Director .. Mark Robson

Golden Globe Award
Best Film Promoting International Understanding

National Board of Review Award
Best Actress... Ingrid Bergman

Arabella’s Notes....

When Alan Burgess’s book “The Small Woman”was purchased by 20th Century Fox for this film, top exec Buddy Adler didn’t think there was even a chance they could get Bergman for the role. But director Mark Robson went straight to the “well” and met with Ingrid in Paris. The die was cast and the studio planned location sites on Formosa where the real “Little Woman”, Gladys Aylward was planning a new orphanage. She agreed to help by enlisting the townspeople as extras and costume makers. But the Nationalist Chinese Government wouldn’t okay the script and the location was suddenly moved to ..Wales? They just forgot to tell Gladys and the townspeople, leaving a lot of angry Formosans demanding payment for their labors. In Wales, they employed Chinese extras from Cardiff, London and Liverpool who looked the part but spoke mostly in Cockney! Ingrid loved the story of the London maid who became a missionary in remote China and led a hundred Chinese children to safety over the Shansi mountains during the Chinese-Japanese war. Off the set Ingrid was seriously considering marrying again...to Lars Schmidt.

Look for....

...Curt Jurgens (Captain Lin Pan)*
...Robert Donat (The Mandarin)*
...Michael David (Ho Ka)
*great supporting performances.

Oscar Award for...
Best Supporting Actress... Ingrid Bergman

Oscar Nomination for...
Best Actor ...Albert Finney
Best Cinematography... Geoffrey Unsworth
Best Costume Design... Tony Walton
Best Music, Original Dramatic Score.. Robert Rodney Bennett
Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted from Other Material... Paul Dehn

Edgar Allan Poe Award Nomination for ... Best Picture

Arabella’s Notes......

Well, here we go again. Ingrid was set to play “an absolutely marvelous old Russian princess” and she wanted to play the dowdy Swedish missionary! Lumet said the part wasn’t good enough for her. Ingrid replied, “I want to play it. I can be very funny in it..and I want to look absolutely dreadful.” Finally she got her way and Wendy Hiller took over as the princess. But Ingrid walked home with an Oscar! However, there was a tragic downside..she found she had a lump in her breast. In this star-studded picture there are some smaller lights with higher beams.

Look for...


...Vernon Dobtcheff (Concierge)
...Dennis Quilley (Foscarelli)

Oscar Nomination for...
Best Actress .. Ingrid Bergman
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.. Ingmar Bergman

Golden Globes Award for Best Foreign Film..Sweden

Golden Globes Nomination for....
Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama ...Ingrid Bergman

National Board of Review Award..
Best Actress ..Ingrid Bergman
Best Director... Ingmar Bergman
Best Foreign Language Film

New York Film Critics Circle Award....
Best Actress.... Ingrid Bergman

Arabella’s Notes....

Ingrid’s last picture is the story of a famous pianist who goes home to Norway to see her daughters, one married to a cleric and one unable to speak because of a debilitating degenerative disease. The pain is palpable and often Ingrid felt as though she was being forced to confront her own past. Her scenes with Liv Ullman were heartwrenching. Ingrid went straight from shooting this film to do a play called “Waters of the Moon” in London. The cancer was also on the move. But she would achieve yet another success. Her last appearance was in the television production of “Golda” the story of Golda Meier. She was sensational.