This Time For Keeps (1947) DVD5 - Eng-French Subs - Esther Willi

2014.08.15


This Time For Keeps (1947) DVD5 - Eng-French Subs - Esther Williams, Jimmy Durante [DDR]

This Time for Keeps is an American romantic musical film released in 1947 and produced by MGM. It is about a soldier, returning home from war, who does not wish to work for his father's opera company or to continue his relationship with his pre-war lover.
It stars Esther Williams, Jimmy Durante, Johnnie Johnston and opera singer Lauritz Melchior and was directed by Richard Thorpe. The film was shot in color and partly on location at the Grand Hotel, on Mackinac Island in Michigan.
This Time for Keeps became the second film in which Williams's name was first billed above the title, after Fiesta.

CAST:-
Esther Williams as Leonora Cambaretti
Johnnie Johnston as Dick Johnson
Jimmy Durante as Ferdi Farro
Lauritz Melchior as Richard Herald
Xavier Cugat as Himself
May Whitty as Grandmother Cambaretti
Mary Stuart as Frances Allenbury
Ludwig Stossel as Peter
Sharon McManus as Deborah Cambretti

Directed by Richard Thorpe
Written by Lorraine Fielding, Erwin S. Gelsey
Running time 105 minutes

MOVIE PLOT:-
Richard Herald (Lauritz Melchior) is a famous opera singer and father to Richard Herald II, who has recently returned from fighting in the war and now prefers to be known as Dick Johnson (Johnnie Johnston). Dick has been engaged to socialite Frances Allenbury (Mary Stuart) since before he left for the war, but has been expressing some apprehension about marrying her.

Mr. Herald wants his son to join him at the opera company, but Dick wants to enjoy his life now that he’s out of the army. Backstage at the theater, he sees a magazine featuring Leonora "Nora" Cambaretti, an aquacade star. Earlier, as it turns out, after Dick received an injury during the war, he stayed at a hospital where Leonora performed for the patients.

Dick had yet to have his bandages removed from his eyes and head, so he couldn’t see Nora. Other servicemen described her beauty to him, as her family’s friend, Ferdi Farro (Jimmy Durante), played on the piano. Thinking he was blind, Nora allowed Dick to touch her face and then kissed him, only to then find out that he was able to see.

Nora is now performing as the star of the Aqua Capers show. Dick surprises her there, and he reminds her of their previous meeting by giving her a quick kiss, getting his nose twisted as punishment. Nora knows Dick is there to flirt, but she offers him a job with the show, but Ferdi convinces his friend Xavier Cugat to give Dick a position as a baritone at his nightclub.
Esther Williams as Leonora 'Nora' Cambaretti and Johnnie Johnston as Dick Johnson

After an Aqua Capers performance, Dick and Nora go to dinner. Ferdi reminds her that she barely knows anything about Dick. At rehearsal the next day, Nora says before she can fall in love, Dick must pass inspection from her family back on Mackinac Island. Dick leaves with Nora while Frances's mother, Harriet, meets with Richard and agrees to announce their children's engagement, unbeknownst to Dick.

On the island, Dick meets Nora’s grandmother (May Whitty) and niece, Deborah (Sharon McManus), who warm up to him after he sings Grandmother’s favorite song, "(I’ll be with You) In Apple Blossom Time". and Nora’s grandmother grants her approval of Dick for Nora. A bit later, Dick leaves to tell his father about his relationship with Nora and break off the engagement to Frances, which Dick has not told Nora about.

Gordon finds the engagement announcement in the newspaper and shows it to Ferdi. Ferdi tell Nora about it, and she is heartbroken. Gordon arranges for her to stay somewhere Dick can't find her. Six weeks later, Mr. Herald arrives at an Aqua Capers rehearsal in an attempt to find Nora, but Ferdi will not tell him where she is. Ferdi goes to Xavier Cugat’s club to see Dick, who accuses Ferdi of being in love with Nora as well.

Meanwhile, summer arrives on Mackinac Island and tourists are flocking there. Cugat’s band has a contract to perform at the Grand Hotel, and Dick goes with them. Deborah, knowing that Nora (traveling with Gordon and Ferdi) has arrived by boat, hurries to the hotel and notifies Dick, who loads Deborah onto her bicycle and together they ride to the Cambaretti house to speak with Nora.

This trip, Nora has brought Gordon for her grandmothers' approval. Dick and Deborah walk in, and Dick tries to explain all that has happened. Nora remains confused and upset and rejects him, so he leaves. Nora and Deborah both start to cry and flee upstairs, where Ferd overhears them. He invites Mr. Herald to the island, where he apologizes to Grandmother Cambaretti for placing the announcement in the newspaper. He also recognizes her from her old days as a performer in the circus. The two decide that their children should be married and come up with a way to push the two together.

While Nora is at the swimming pool of the hotel, teaching Deborah to dive and swim, Dick begins singing "Easy to Love" with Cugat's female vocalist, which makes Deborah jealous. That night, Nora decides she is going to go after Gordon, but Ferdi convinces her otherwise.

Mr. Herald takes Grandmother to listen to Dick's performance at the hotel, where he convinces Cugat to fire his son and then begins to sing for the audience. He stops singing "La donna è mobile" and begins "Easy to Love", during which Dick gets up and sits next to Nora, where they hold hands and snuggle.

MUSICAL NUMBERS:-
"Easy to Love - Johnny Johnston
"I Love to Dance" - Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra
"I'm the Guy Who Found the Lost Chord" - Jimmy Durante
"La donna è mobile" - Lauritz Melchior
"A Little Bit This and a Little Bit That" - Jimmy Durante
"Inka Dinka Doo" - Jimmy Durante
"M'Appari" - Lauritz Melchior
"I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time" - Johnny Johnston
"S'No Wonder They Fell in Love" - Johnny Johnston, Esther Williams and Sharon McManus
"Ora è per sempre addio" - Lauritz Melchior

Near the end of the film, Cugat's band singer Lina Romay and Cugat are singing the "Chiquita Banana" song before they are interrupted by Dick (Johnny Johnston), to sing You'd Be So Easy to Love with Romay, who joins in with him, to Cugat's perplexity.

Johnston and Romay later sing a 'blended' Un poquito de amor / I'll give you all my heart together in the ending nightclub scene.
Production

Esther Williams was pregnant during the filming of This Time for Keeps, but later suffered a miscarriage.

This was the third of four films Williams made with director Dick Thorpe. Williams disliked Thorpe from the start, and the feeling was mutual. "Dick didn't like people who were too cheerful, which meant that he took an instant dislike to me," wrote Williams in her autobiography.

To convey the sense of outdoorsy, country small town life in the film, Irene decided to use a lot of plaid in the costumes. She designed a swimsuit for Williams made out of lumberjack plaid flannel. "It absorbed water like crazy. I dove into the pool and tried to swim, but the suit just dragged me to the bottom. It was like trying to swim while wrapped in an old army blanket. I actually had trouble keeping my head above water" wrote Williams in The Million Dollar Mermaid. "Finally, I reached around me, tugged at the zipper, and watched as the suit quickly sank to the bottom of the deep end of the pool." Williams's assistant had to cut holes in a towel to place around her as she exited the pool, as the set was surrounded by tourists.

Stanley Donen choreographed the dance and water ballet scenes.

Johnston was having a long-term affair with Kathryn Grayson (whom he would later marry) and in her autobiography, Williams wrote that he would read Grayson's intimate letters aloud to the girls in his fan club, including the "all-too-graphic details concerning what she liked about his love-making."



TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Video Bitrate: 4514 kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 23.976
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 448kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 6
Audio Languages: English
RunTime: 105 mins
Subtitles: English, French
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 105 mins