Forever Amber movie storyline. Amber St. Clair (Linda Darnell) is 16-years-old by the time the revolution of Oliver Cromwell is ended and the House of Stuart has returned to the British throne in 1660, and she is none too happy in the home of her Puritanical foster parents, and soon departs for London under the reluctant “patronage” of Bruce Carlton. Amber encounters a lot of patrons as she climbs to the top lying on her back. Carlton goes off on some privateering business in the Colonies and Amber is swindled out of the money he left her.
She goes to prison, has Carlton’s child there (which he doesn’t know about until years later), and escapes prison with the aid of highwayman Black Jack Mallard, who soon has her working as a decoy and other odd jobs, using her non-monetary assets, for his gang. She is caught and arrested by Captain Rex Morgan who, for considerations duly delivered, places her in the theatre, where she enjoys the King’s protection.
There, while pounding the boards, she first attracts the attention of King Charles II and also the Earl of Radcliffe. She marries the Earl and hits her peak when she becomes the King’s “favorite.” (“Time Magazine” was fond of calling such relationships “great and good friends.”) Carlton returns from Virginia with his bride and wants to adopt his and Amber’s child, but also takes time out to kill Morgan in a duel, based on but not supported by Amber’s long-vanished honor.
Amber still wants Carlton and sets his wife up to be compromised, but this fails and she is “found out” and the King is a bit hacked about all the going-ons, and she is soon no longer his favorite. Carlton returns to America with their child, and Amber is reduced to accepting a supper invitation from the King’s equerry. But you can’t keep a good girl down and, what the hey, tomorrow’s another day.
Forever Amber is a 1947 American romantic drama Technicolor film starring Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde. It was based on the book of the same name by Kathleen Winsor. It also starred Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, and Jessica Tandy. The film was adapted by Jerome Cady, Philip Dunne and Ring Lardner Jr., and directed by Otto Preminger,[5] who replaced original director John M. Stahl after 39 days of filming and $300,000 of production. The movie was originally budgeted at $4.5 million.
The Hays Office had condemned the novel, but within a month of its publication the movie rights had been purchased by 20th Century Fox.[7] The film on its release was initially condemned by the National Legion of Decency.
In 1947, Darnell won the starring role in the highly anticipated film adaptation when the original star, newcomer Peggy Cummins, proved too inexperienced for the role. In the novel, the newborn Amber is so named by her dying mother after the color of her father’s eyes. Publicity at the time compared the novel Forever Amber to Gone with the Wind.
The search for the actress to portray Amber, a beauty who uses men to make her fortune in 17th-century England, was modeled on the extensive process that led to the casting of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara. The film’s score, by composer David Raksin, was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Music Score.
Forever Amber (1947)
Directed by: Otto Preminger
Starring: Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, Jessica Tandy, Anne Revere, John Russell, Jane Ball, Robert Coote, Natalie Draper
Screenplay by: Philip Dunne, Ring Lardner Jr.
Production Design by: Gene Bryant
Cinematography by: Leon Shamroy
Film Editing by: Louis R. Loeffler
Costume Design by: René Hubert
Set Decoration by: Thomas Little
Art Direction by: Lyle R. Wheeler
Music by: David Raksin
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: October 22, 1947
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