Green Dolphin Street was MGM's big blockbuster film of 1947 the year I made my earthly debut. Why MGM didn't bother with some color for this one is beyond me, it might have elevated it a star or two higher in the ratings.
Like Gone With the Wind it concerns the lives of four people, two sisters, the romantic Donna Reed and the more practical Lana Turner and the men that loved them, Richard Hart and Van Heflin. Only in this one Scarlett actually marries her Ashley and Rhett Butler kind of fades away before the finale.
Richard Hart is the Ashley Wilkes of the piece, the somewhat spoiled son of Frank Morgan living on St. Pierre one of the Channel Islands. He's a weak character who goes between sisters Donna Reed and Lana Turner. A Freudian slip of a pen while writing a letter in a state of intoxication has him send for Lana instead of Donna. By now Hart has arrived in New Zealand which is in its colonial period. Another refugee is Van Heflin from the same island who's the strong and adventurous Rhett Butler.
Green Dolphin Street is the only film I know made in Hollywood that ever dealt with New Zealand so it is of some curiosity. It won the special effects Oscar that year for its depiction of an earthquake and a tidal wave. Oddly enough the name of the ship that brought all these folks to New Zealand is the Green Dolphin and a sequence where it is swamped by a tidal wave was cut from the film. And it still won the special effects Oscar.
But viewers this isn't Gone With the Wind though it has pretenses. It also depicts the wars with the Maori which were every bit as bloody as the American Indian wars. I wish some Kiwis could see this film and write their impressions of it.
Like Gone With the Wind it concerns the lives of four people, two sisters, the romantic Donna Reed and the more practical Lana Turner and the men that loved them, Richard Hart and Van Heflin. Only in this one Scarlett actually marries her Ashley and Rhett Butler kind of fades away before the finale.
Richard Hart is the Ashley Wilkes of the piece, the somewhat spoiled son of Frank Morgan living on St. Pierre one of the Channel Islands. He's a weak character who goes between sisters Donna Reed and Lana Turner. A Freudian slip of a pen while writing a letter in a state of intoxication has him send for Lana instead of Donna. By now Hart has arrived in New Zealand which is in its colonial period. Another refugee is Van Heflin from the same island who's the strong and adventurous Rhett Butler.
Green Dolphin Street is the only film I know made in Hollywood that ever dealt with New Zealand so it is of some curiosity. It won the special effects Oscar that year for its depiction of an earthquake and a tidal wave. Oddly enough the name of the ship that brought all these folks to New Zealand is the Green Dolphin and a sequence where it is swamped by a tidal wave was cut from the film. And it still won the special effects Oscar.
But viewers this isn't Gone With the Wind though it has pretenses. It also depicts the wars with the Maori which were every bit as bloody as the American Indian wars. I wish some Kiwis could see this film and write their impressions of it.