Saratoga Trunk (1945)

An opportunistic Texas gambler and the exiled Creole daughter of an aristocratic family join forces to achieve justice from the society that has ostracized them.

Director:

Sam Wood

Writers:

Casey Robinson (screenplay), Edna Ferber (novel)

Stars:

Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Flora Robson

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gary Cooper	...	Colonel Clint Maroon
Ingrid Bergman	...	Clio Dulaine
Flora Robson	...	Angelique Buiton
Jerry Austin	...	Cupidon
John Warburton	...	Bartholomew Van Steed
Florence Bates	...	Sophie Bellop
Curt Bois	...	Augustin Haussy
John Abbott	...	Roscoe Bean
Ethel Griffies	...	Clarissa Van Steed
Marla Shelton	...	Mrs. Porcelain
Helen Freeman	...	Mrs. Nicholas Dulaine
Sophie Huxley	...	Charlotte Dulaine
Fred Essler	...	Monsieur Begue
Louis Payne	...	Raymond Soule
Sarah Edwards	...	Miss Diggs

Storyline

On the death of her mother, the vivacious Clio Dulaine returns from Paris to her childhood home in New Orleans to seek revenge for the humiliation her mother suffered there from her father's wife's family. She also plans to marry a rich man to attain the status and respectability her mother never had, but falls for Texas gambler Clint Maroon instead. When he leaves New Orleans for the horse racing season at Saratoga Springs, she follows him there to seek her fortune - or someone else's.

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Plot Keywords:

gambler | creole | revenge | brawl | train wreck | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 March 1946 (USA)

Also Known As:

Saratoga

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,750,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It was shot in late February 1943 to late June 1943 but because of the overload of war related films they held the release to 1945.

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Goofs

In the opening shot, Clio and her companions are on a boat in the river staring into the sunrise over the French Quarter. However, at this angle, the sun would be rising in the northwest.

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Quotes

Augustin Haussy: Madame...
Clio Dulaine: Yes?
Augustin Haussy: You're very beautiful.
[Nervously]
Augustin Haussy: I mean...
Clio Dulaine: Yes, isn't that lucky?

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Connections

Referenced in The Pleasant August (1946)

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Soundtracks

"Dansez Codaine"
(uncredited)
Traditional Creole folk tune

User Reviews

That Beautiful High Society

Saratoga Trunk was one of a handful of films done during the World War II years and not released to the general public until the war ended. Warner Brothers was especially big on that, another example would be the Humphrey Bogart/Barbara Stanwyck film The Two Mrs. Carrolls.

In the case of Saratoga Trunk though, it had a built in audience guaranteed because of the tremendous hit that director Sam Wood had already done at Paramount with Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman, For Whom The Bell Tolls. They were such a smash box office hit with the public as a romantic duo that I guess Jack Warner craved a little of what Adolph Zukor was raking in at Paramount.

The vehicle for Wood/Cooper/Bergman is the Edna Ferber novel, Saratoga Trunk and I think it proved a bit too long for the screen. If it were done today it would have been a mini-series. In fact the film should have been done as a two parter because it's really two different stories with only the most fragile connection.

The first part is Ingrid Bergman and her posse, Flora Robson and Jerry Austin arrive in New Orleans where she is laying claim to the estate of her late father. Mom was a woman of easy virtue and Dad was old New Orleans creole society. She accidentally killed him back in the day. The scandal caused dad's family to see that society shunned her even after her term in prison.

Ingrid sets out to make the family pay and they do in many ways. She also meets Texan Gary Cooper while in the Big Easy. He's also out for some payback involving some railroad barons.

Both of them make their separate ways to Saratoga, during the 1890s the playground of the rich and famous. Cooper still has his score to settle and Bergman wants to snag a wealthy husband.

It might have been far better to treat the New Orleans and the Saratoga incidents as two separate films. Instead Warner Brothers and Sam Wood tried to pack it all in one film and it's over long.

Cooper and Bergman still retain the romantic appeal from For Whom The Bells Toll. They got some real good support from dwarf actor Jerry Austin as her faithful Cupidon and Flora Robson made up as a mixed racial Haitian servant. It's blackface yes, but Robson does not play it servile, not by any means.

Other good roles here are Florence Bates as the wise society dowager in Saratoga, Curt Bois as the family lawyer for Bergman's Dad's family who she negotiates with for a payoff, John Warburton as the object of her matrimony in Saratoga and Ethel Griffies as his mother. Warburton proves to be something of an unpleasant surprise for Bergman.

Bergman has the far showier role as Cleo Dulaine, but Cooper does have his moments. There is a climatic brawl that he's involved in with two factions trying to control a railway trunkline in Saratoga.

Well that's where the title comes from. What, did you think it was Ingrid Bergman's baggage?