IMDb > Back Street (1961)

Back Street (1961) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
6.5/10   315 votes
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Director:
David Miller
Writers:
Eleanore Griffin (screenplay)
Fannie Hurst (novel)
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Contact:
View company contact information for Back Street on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
11 October 1961 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama more
Plot:
Ambitious but thwarted, Rae Smith meets handsome Marine Paul Saxon, (of the Saxon department store chain)... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. more
User Comments:
Ross Hunter began to slip... more (28 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Susan Hayward ... Rae Smith
John Gavin ... Paul Saxon

Vera Miles ... Liz Saxon
Charles Drake ... Curt Stanton
Virginia Grey ... Janey nee Smith
Reginald Gardiner ... Dalian
Tammy Marihugh ... Caroline
Robert Eyer ... Paul Saxon Jr.
Natalie Schafer ... Mrs. Evans
Doreen McLean ... Miss Hatfield
Alex Gerry ... Mr. Venner
Karen Norris ... Mrs. Penworth
Hayden Rorke ... Charley Claypole
Mary Lawrence ... Marge Claypole
Joseph Cronin ... Airport Clerk
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
107 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Eastmancolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15
Company:
Carrollton Inc. more

Fun Stuff

Quotes:
Mr. Venner: I've been looking forward to seeing you.
Rae Smith: But then why don't you turn on the lights? I don't glow in the dark you know.
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Movie Connections:
Version of Back Street (1941) more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful.
Ross Hunter began to slip..., 10 August 2002
Author: moondog-8 from An American in China

Susan Hayward was surprised when Ross Hunter wanted her for one of his soap-opera movies. "I'm no chiffon gal!" she reportedly said.

But for reasons we'll probably never know, she finally agreed.

Now, frankly, I admire Ross Hunter as a producer. His movies can sum up how studios could bring great talent groups together and make good work: "the genius of the system" as critic Andre Bazin said.

Even without having Douglas Sirk directing, he still maintained a certain level of predicting what would suck an audience into the movie and of pulling out the stops at exactly the right time. Both "Midnight Lace" and "Portrait in Black" (the two he produced after "Imitation of Life" and before "Back Street") are cool movies. But "Back Street" seems to be the first movie he produced where he knew his system and just wound it up ("Get Jean Louis and Frank Skinner and Virginia Grey on the phone...") and let it go. And in winding it up and letting it go, "Back Street" careens like Vera Miles' last drunken ride through rear-projected France.

Perhaps it's the fact that the original message and source material has been so castrated (unlike the racial message in "Imitation of Life" or the conformist society message of "All That Heaven Allows"). In the original novel "Back Street", Rae never develops a career; she allows herself to be a kept woman. So when her lover dies of old age, she finds herself a penniless senior citizen...and eventually she starves to death.

Perhaps it's the fact that Susan Hayward puts her guts into so many of her performances, that her intensity makes the sets and script laughable. Also, she doesn't seem to be comfortable being viewed as a sexy glamour girl in this movie (she's no chiffon gal...), unlike Lana Turner who knew that was her key to fortune and could meld seemlessly with the gloss of the sets and Jean Louis creations.

So seeing Ross Hunter's work in "Back Street" after "Imitation of Life" and other jewels is like seeing how Mark Robson declined when he suddenly had a steady gig directing film adaptations of risque' novels: the craft and attention Robson put into "Peyton Place" is nowhere visible a decade later when he lensed "Valley of the Dolls."

Still, Ross Hunter produced some great work. I suppose he's better known today for the revelation in Douglas Sirk's posthumously printed interviews: Rock Hudson was confused and ambivalent about his sexuality until Hunter introduced him to the gay-boy-party lifestyle. Basically Ross Hunter blew the door off Rock Hudson's closet.

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