LADY IN THE DARK is the odd case of a major hit which did no good for the careers of anyone involved, and does not seem to have been remembered with fondness by any of its participants. There's a fine line between a flawed masterpiece and an interesting failure, and LITD seems a perfect example of the latter. It's from a successful, indeed, revolutionary stage production, had a massive budget and oodles of talent behind it, and is undeniably successful in certain respects (costuming and set design in particular). So who messed up? No doubt a lot of people, but my vote goes to producer Buddy DaSylva as the chief culprit.
The root problem is that DaSylva had no interest in the project and didn't want to do it. Most disastrously, he hated Kurt Weill's music and cut out most of it. In losing the key song 'My Ship', this reached the level of idiocy. Director Mitchell Leisen doesn't seem to have been particularly interested in the project either, and though he wrote the screen adaptation himself (unfortunately emphasizing the strong Freudian aspects, in retrospect a very bad idea), Leisen clearly concerned himself more with those set designs and the costuming than he did with the actors. He directed more than his share of fine movies, but one suspects that he did so with more enthusiasm than he ever gave LADY IN THE DARK.
Ginger Rogers did want to do the movie. As a matter of fact, she insisted on it before signing a three picture contract with Paramount. She wasn't the most obvious choice to play Liza Elliott, but I'm not sure that anyone in Hollywood at the time was more obvious. Judy Garland was still pretty young for the role, and only Irene Dunne comes to mind as a serious alternative. I'm not sure that I can picture Irene doing 'Song of Jennie', and since that is the most successful scene in the picture I'm not sure that I can really see Irene in the role. Having no box office pull, and from what I've seen of her in a couple of small parts back in the thirties no real camera presence, Gertrude Lawrence, the originator of the stage role, was never a serious possibility.
The movie's strong points: A pretty good presentation of a woman suffering from depression; imaginative sets for the magazine office; sparkling Technicolor; lavish costumes, especially the famous dress for the Jennie number; a complete success in presenting the 'Song of Jennie', the idea of the youthful Liza watching herself being brought to trial in a cage being a particularly nice trope that couldn't have been duplicated on stage.
The movie's weak points: A misogynistic theme derived largely from Freudian psychology (author Moss Hart had recently gone through psychoanalysis himself before writing the play) which Leisen unwisely emphasized; the removal of most of the original music and radical reduction of two of the three dream sequences, which leaves the movie thematically hollow; the completely ridiculous decision to excise the song 'My Ship', which must have left any audience paying close attention utterly bewildered; miserable direction of a dance that was buried in dry ice and visual obstructions; and a general vulgarity that permeated the entire film.
As for performances, Ray Milland has no chance his character is so obnoxious, but as it's Liza Elliott's show all the way this hardly matters. Ginger Rogers is tight and buttoned down, which is in character for Liza but out of character for Ginger. Stage productions generally give Liza the chance to blossom during the dream sequences; in the movie's first two dreams, Liza is presented as a gargoyle, which may be a contrast to her real life depression but not the right kind of contrast. No doubt it's not a coincidence that the one dream that stays close to the original (Song of Jennie) is the most successful scene in the picture. I also think that Rogers nails it in the scenes of Liza's youth. This is where the crucial song 'My Ship' was cut. You can hear Rogers singing it in a radio version of LITD where she keeps her voice in its youthful character rather than singing all-out as most, if not all, other Lizas do. It's strikingly effective and would have helped the movie immensely.
Truth to tell, Mitchell Leisen's career had peaked once Wilder and Brackett stopped writing his scripts. Various circumstances meant that Ginger Rogers' film career was also within shouting distance of a gradual descent. LADY IN THE DARK didn't delay either process.
The root problem is that DaSylva had no interest in the project and didn't want to do it. Most disastrously, he hated Kurt Weill's music and cut out most of it. In losing the key song 'My Ship', this reached the level of idiocy. Director Mitchell Leisen doesn't seem to have been particularly interested in the project either, and though he wrote the screen adaptation himself (unfortunately emphasizing the strong Freudian aspects, in retrospect a very bad idea), Leisen clearly concerned himself more with those set designs and the costuming than he did with the actors. He directed more than his share of fine movies, but one suspects that he did so with more enthusiasm than he ever gave LADY IN THE DARK.
Ginger Rogers did want to do the movie. As a matter of fact, she insisted on it before signing a three picture contract with Paramount. She wasn't the most obvious choice to play Liza Elliott, but I'm not sure that anyone in Hollywood at the time was more obvious. Judy Garland was still pretty young for the role, and only Irene Dunne comes to mind as a serious alternative. I'm not sure that I can picture Irene doing 'Song of Jennie', and since that is the most successful scene in the picture I'm not sure that I can really see Irene in the role. Having no box office pull, and from what I've seen of her in a couple of small parts back in the thirties no real camera presence, Gertrude Lawrence, the originator of the stage role, was never a serious possibility.
The movie's strong points: A pretty good presentation of a woman suffering from depression; imaginative sets for the magazine office; sparkling Technicolor; lavish costumes, especially the famous dress for the Jennie number; a complete success in presenting the 'Song of Jennie', the idea of the youthful Liza watching herself being brought to trial in a cage being a particularly nice trope that couldn't have been duplicated on stage.
The movie's weak points: A misogynistic theme derived largely from Freudian psychology (author Moss Hart had recently gone through psychoanalysis himself before writing the play) which Leisen unwisely emphasized; the removal of most of the original music and radical reduction of two of the three dream sequences, which leaves the movie thematically hollow; the completely ridiculous decision to excise the song 'My Ship', which must have left any audience paying close attention utterly bewildered; miserable direction of a dance that was buried in dry ice and visual obstructions; and a general vulgarity that permeated the entire film.
As for performances, Ray Milland has no chance his character is so obnoxious, but as it's Liza Elliott's show all the way this hardly matters. Ginger Rogers is tight and buttoned down, which is in character for Liza but out of character for Ginger. Stage productions generally give Liza the chance to blossom during the dream sequences; in the movie's first two dreams, Liza is presented as a gargoyle, which may be a contrast to her real life depression but not the right kind of contrast. No doubt it's not a coincidence that the one dream that stays close to the original (Song of Jennie) is the most successful scene in the picture. I also think that Rogers nails it in the scenes of Liza's youth. This is where the crucial song 'My Ship' was cut. You can hear Rogers singing it in a radio version of LITD where she keeps her voice in its youthful character rather than singing all-out as most, if not all, other Lizas do. It's strikingly effective and would have helped the movie immensely.
Truth to tell, Mitchell Leisen's career had peaked once Wilder and Brackett stopped writing his scripts. Various circumstances meant that Ginger Rogers' film career was also within shouting distance of a gradual descent. LADY IN THE DARK didn't delay either process.