NATALIE WOOD: WEB SITE: NO SAD SONGS FOR ME (1950)

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NO SAD SONGS FOR ME (1950) Margaret Sullavan, Wendell Corey, Viveca Lindfors, Natalie wood, John McIntire, Ann Doran, Richard Quine, Jeanette Nolan. Director: Rudolph Mate. No actress during the golden age of Hollywood handled death with more soulful dignity than Margaret Sullavan, an actress unjustly forgotten even though she gave peerless performances in MGM classics like Frank Borzage's "Three Comrades" and Ernst Lubitsch's "The Shop Around the Corner". This modestly budgeted 1950 sudser was her last film, a decade before her own untimely death from a drug overdose. This was one of only sixteen Sullavan made since she preferred acting on stage rather than celluloid, which was a shame since she was utterly sublime no matter what the vehicle. In this appropriate swan song, Sullavan plays Mary Scott, a suburban wife and mother who learns too late that she is dying of cancer. Director Rudolph Maté holds the camera on the veteran actress for long takes as she reacts to this news. Maté lets her mercurial moods dictate the tone of the film and allows Mary to find a way to die in the most mature way possible. This is where the insightful screenplay by Howard Koch ("Casablanca") rates a cut above similar-minded soap operas. Witness the adult way he has Mary deal with her husband Brad's infidelity and her pragmatic approach in setting up Brad's assistant-turned-mistress, a serious-minded Norwegian draftsperson named Chris, as her successor in the family. While Mary's selflessness is likely to look excessive by contemporary standards, Sullavan brings such an affecting combination of pathos and intelligence to her character that she transcends the innate limitations of the material, including a few predictable turns like a high-speed drive on a deserted highway and a comically drunken scene in an all-night diner. She even has a couple of moments where she gets to recreate famous dramatic cues from "Three Comrades" such as her irritation at the ticking of an alarm clock and her valiant struggle to get out of bed. Character actor Wendell Corey does a fine job as Brad as does Viveca Lindfors ("The Way We Were") as early feminist Chris, although their affair is severely downplayed to appease 1950 censors. At 11, Natalie Wood was still five years away from "Rebel Without a Cause", but she manages to play Mary and Brad's precocious daughter with aplomb. The film has a low-budget look about it, but it doesn't take away from Sullavan's artistry which is on full display here. To the strains of Brahms' "Symphony no. 1 in C minor", the last scene packs the necessary emotional wallop even though you know the film's outcome from nearly the beginning. There is a newly remastered print on the 2011 DVD release.

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Production Credits
Director - Rudolph Mate
Screenplay - Howard Koch
From Story - Ruth Southard
Producer - Buddy Adler

Cinematography - Joseph B. Walker
Editor - William A. Lyon
Music - George Duning
Music Director - Morris W. Stoloff
Producer - Buddy Adler
Screenwriter - Howard Koch

Cats Credits

Awards

Nomination

Best Drama or Comedy Score - George Duning - 1950 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

CRITICA EN EL PERIODICO "LA VANGUARDIA" (22-1-1954)

No es nuevo, pero nunca dejará de ser conmovedor el drama de la persona que padece una enfermedad incurable y que sabe cuál es el plazo que le queda de vida; y es mas emotivo todavía si esta persona es una mujer joven enamorada de su marido, con una simpatiquisima hija y un hogar encantador, como ocurre en "Amarga Sombra". Y ocurre algo más aún, aquello que da un riesgo nuevo al conocido asunto y con lo que la película cobra un fondo de originalidad muy notable, a saber: la protagonista sabe que va a morir y saber cuándo, porque se lo ha dicho su médico en una escena de la película rigurosamente inadmisible en este punto concreto, entre otras razones porque un médico jamás debe decir a un paciente en que fecha aproximada va caer victima de su enfermedad, de no haber motivos poderosisimos que así lo aconsejen. Pues bien, la protagonista, una vez superada su angustia, en un enorme esfuerzo espiritual comprende que su marido y su hija van a quedarse solos y culmina su sacrificio preparando en vida el lenitivo para la existencia de los suyos en forma de otra mujer...Esta tensión del asunto es a nuestro juicio, lo mas interesante de "Amarga Sombra", cuyas características de intenso patetismo, han sido tratadas con un estilo hecho con finura y ponderación, limitado en lo cinematográfico, pese a lo habitual en su director, Rudolph Mate, tan dado a los cerebralismos visuales, a una planificación sencilla, dedicada a resumir en imágenes unos estados de ánimo tremendamente dolorosos que hallan la mejor expresión en el rostro envejecido, marchito y dulce de Mrgaret Sullavan, la actriz a la que debemos tan grandes y bellos recuerdos. No hay, pues en la película ningún exceso de sensiblería o de literatura plañidera. Es cierto que parte de un punto escasamente razonable y que existe alguna que otra situación poco estudiada, pero no lo es menos que la emoción del drama lo borra todo y se adentra por el alma del espectador con vibrantes acentos, sobre el fondo musical "leit-motif" de la cinta, de la magnifica primera sinfonía de Brahms. Aparte Margaret Sullavan, sobresalen Viveca Lindfors, la exquisita actriz sueca que no ha llegado a la cima no sabemos por qué razones; la graciosa pequeña Natalie Wood "que ya debe estar muy crecidita" y los excelentes actores Wendell Corey y John Mac Intyre. H. SÁENZ GUERRERO.