Sabrina (1954)

A playboy becomes interested in the daughter of his family's chauffeur. But it's his more serious brother who would be the better man for her.

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Billy Wilder, Samuel A. Taylor,

Stars:

Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden

Won 1 Oscar. Another 6 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Humphrey Bogart	...	Linus Larrabee
Audrey Hepburn	...	Sabrina Fairchild
William Holden	...	David Larrabee
Walter Hampden	...	Oliver Larrabee
John Williams	...	Thomas Fairchild
Martha Hyer	...	Elizabeth Tyson
Joan Vohs	...	Gretchen Van Horn
Marcel Dalio	...	Baron St. Fontanel
Marcel Hillaire	...	The Professor
Nella Walker	...	Maude Larrabee
Francis X. Bushman	...	Mr. Tyson
Ellen Corby	...	Miss McCardle

Storyline

Linus and David Larrabee are the two sons of a very wealthy family. Linus is all work -- busily running the family corporate empire with no time for a wife and family. David is all play -- technically employed in the family business but never showing up for work, spending all his time entertaining, and having been married and divorced three times. Sabrina Fairchild is the young, shy, and awkward daughter of the household chauffeur, who has been infatuated with David all her life, but whom David hardly notices till she goes away to Paris for two years and returns an elegant, sophisticated, beautiful woman. Suddenly, she finds she's captured David's attention, but just as she does so, she finds herself also falling in love with Linus, and she finds that Linus is also falling in love with her.

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Plot Keywords:

love | chauffeur | playboy | jar | blockbuster | 

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Taglines:

All's fair in love . . . with Sabrina Fair and her men!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

October 1954 (USA)

Also Known As:

Glykeia mou Sabrina

Filming Locations:

Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,238,813 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Like Sunset Blvd., this film started production without a finished script. Ernest Lehman worked himself to exhaustion working on the script with Billy Wilder during production. One day, when Lehman did not have an extra copy of a scene rewrite to give to Humphrey Bogart, Bogart exploded. Wilder told his crew they would not film another foot of film until Bogart apologized to Lehman. Bogart invited Lehman to his dressing room and shooting eventually continued.

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Goofs

After Sabrina tells Fairchild that the moon is reaching for her, we see a shot of the moon through the trees at the Larrabee party. Directly above and to the right of the moon, you can see the strings and holes of that backdrop.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Sabrina Fairchild: [voiceover] Once upon a time, on the north shore of Long Island, some thirty miles from New York, there lived a small girl on a large estate. The estate was very large indeed, and had many servants. There were gardeners to take care of the gardens, and a tree surgeon on a retainer. There was a boatman to take care of the boats: to put them in the water in the spring, and scrape their bottoms in the winter. There were specialists to take care of the grounds: the outdoor tennis court ...

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Connections

Referenced in A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Lover"
(uncredited)
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Lorenz Hart

User Reviews

Audrey in Long Island dressed by Givenchy

Billy Wilder, a genius when it came to adapting films from another medium, teamed up with Samuel Taylor, who wrote the play, "Sabrina's Fair", and Ernest Lehman, to create a a delightful comedy that will remain an old favorite because of the great charm the creative men imbued this movie with.

Some comments on this forum remark about the disparity of age between Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn. They all seem to forget that Ms. Hepburn played opposite with men much older than her, namely, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Rex Harrison, Fred Astaire, Gregory Peck, just to name a few. The actress was always effective and showed she had an enormous charisma no matter who was her leading man.

"Sabrina" looks as good today, as when it was first released thanks to the timeless black and white photography of Charles Lang. The big asset of the film was the unusual pairing between Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn. Both actors were wonderful together, as we witness in the film. William Holden, as the younger Larrabee, is excellent as well.

The film is a delightful comedy that, in comparison to Sidney Pollack's misguided and undistinguished attempt to bring it to the screen can't even compare with the witty and elegant film Mr. Wilder gave us.