East Side, West Side (1949)

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

Marcia Davenport (novel)
Isobel Lennart (writer)

Release Date:

4 September 1950 (Sweden)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

I was married to a man other women pursued!

Plot:

Brandon and Jessie Bourne has been married to each other for many years. A few years ago, Brandon had an extra-martial affair with Isabel Lorrison...

Plot Keywords:

Airport | Party | Uptown | Model | Guest Of Honor

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Jessie Bourne
James Mason	...	Brandon Bourne
Van Heflin	...	Mark Dwyer
Ava Gardner	...	Isabel Lorrison
Cyd Charisse	...	Rosa Senta
Nancy Davis	...	Helen Lee
Gale Sondergaard	...	Nora Kernan
William Conrad	...	Lt. Jacobi
Raymond Greenleaf	...	Horace Elcott Howland
Douglas Kennedy	...	Alec Dawning
Beverly Michaels	...	Felice Backett
William Frawley	...	Bill the Bartender
Lisa Golm	...	Josephine
Tom Powers	...	Owen Lee

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Australia:PG (TV rating) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (certificate #14126)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Chic, Filled With Stars At Their Most Glamorous; Yet Pedestrian

Can someone respond to let me know why the name "Lorrison" was featured in so many movies around this time? I have never heard of a person in real life with that name; yet it pops up over and over. And here, the character played by Ava Gardner is never referred to is Isabel but always, always, by both names.

I first saw this movie on TV as a teenager and assumed that life in Manhattan would be like this, just as thought the publishing world would be as it's portrayed in "The Best of Everything."

This has very chic settings -- the East side locations much more believable than the brief excursion into the West side area ostensibly the scene of Heflin -- and Stanwkyck's -- childhood.

The acting is good. The plot is engaging. Decent lines. The direction, though, is very static. All the style comes from the presumably Sutton Place location and the elegant interiors and from the fabulous cast of real movie stars, with James Mason a suave cad prefiguring his brilliant Humbert Humbert a bit more than a decade later.

Gale Sondergaard is amusing as Stanwyck's elderly mother. At one point, she says, "I'm 55 years old." Interesting, as in real life she was only eight years older than Stanwyck, who was 42 when this came out.

Still and all, this movie has stuck in my head for many years as the epitome of chic. The actors are all plausible as socialites, and Gardner is properly gorgeous and evil as a (very) beautiful girl who's hustled her way over from the wrong side of the tracks.

It's fun, but it could have been really great, given the performers, the original author and the screenwriter.