Taglines: The personal story behind a sex survey.
The Chapman Report movie storyline. The sexual and romantic lives of four women residing in the upscale San Francisco suburb of Briarwood are presented against the backdrop of Dr. George Chapman and his associates coming to town to compile data through anonymous interviews for his sex survey and resulting report on sex and the American woman, especially as it relates to marriage.
The first woman is Sarah Garnell who is in a conventional twelve year marriage where her and her husband Frank Garnell’s day-to-day lives overtake any notion of romance, which she still craves. As such, she, unknown to him, has fallen into the arms of another man, her community theater director, Fred Linden. In the process, she may mistake sex for love. The second woman is divorcée Naomi Shields, who believes the answer to her loneliness and depression is to have sex with any man who will sleep with her, however indiscriminate the sex or dangerous the situation may be.
The third woman is Teresa Harnish married to Geoffrey Harnish, the two who like to think that they are the epitome of the textbook excitedly happily married couple. Teresa changes her mind only because she believes during her interview for the sex survey that Dr. Chapman sounded bored by her answers. So Teresa goes searching for that excitement. And the fourth woman is young widow Kathleen Barclay who was unable to consummate her two year marriage to test pilot Boy Barclay despite she believing she truly loving him and so wanting to please him.
Kathleen has moved back into the home of her domineering father, Alan Roby. Because of Boy’s assertions to her, Kathleen believes she is frigid. As he begins to fall for her, Chapman’s associate, Paul Radford, who conducted the interview with her and learned of her identity out of circumstance, tries to convince her that her inability to have sex with Boy was a manifestation of other issues in her life.
The Chapman Report is a 1962 American Technicolor drama film made by DFZ Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was directed by George Cukor and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and Richard D. Zanuck, from a screenplay by Wyatt Cooper and Don Mankiewicz, adapted by Gene Allen and Grant Stuart from Irving Wallace’s 1960 novel The Chapman Report. The original music was by Leonard Rosenman, Frank Perkins and Max Steiner, the cinematography by Harold Lipstein, the color coordination images and main title design by George Hoyningen-Huene, and the costume design by Orry-Kelly.
About the Production
Based on Irving Wallace’s novel that was based on the Kinsey Reports, the film was originally conceived for 20th Century Fox to attract customers with discussions and depictions of sexual matters that would not be allowed on American television. Darryl F. Zanuck was having problems with Fox during the production of two widescreen epic spectacular films for the studio in Europe, Cleopatra and The Longest Day at the same time. When Fox would not do the film, Zanuck offered the property, his son the producer, director Cukor and the female stars to his friend and rival Jack L. Warner.
Warner Brothers replaced the film’s planned male leads with their own Warner Brothers Television contract leads who received no extra money to do the film. Warner Brothers felt that casting these performers would attract their fans to the film, while at the same time pleasing the stars who had requested more interesting and different material than they had at Warners. Efrem Zimbalist Jr was given top billing over the four female stars, however in posters produced in some overseas countries his name was shifted down in favour of the much better known Shelley Winters and Jane Fonda.
Andrew Duggan played a character based on Dr. Alfred Kinsey; Efrem Zimbalist Jr played one of his researchers, who meets and interviews the four women depicted in the film. The leading ladies consist of Shelley Winters as an adulterous middle-aged housewife having an affair with artist Ray Danton; Jane Fonda as a young widow who believes she is frigid but who is in fact reacting to her husband’s violence during sex; Glynis Johns as a trendy older woman infatuated with athletic young beach boy Ty Hardin; and Claire Bloom as a “nymphomaniac”.
Costume designer Orry-Kelly dressed each of the different female characters in only one color throughout the film. As many as seven different writers worked on the film[6] with Gene Allen, who was contracted to Cukor’s organisation delivering the final screenplay. The film attracted much criticism during its production by the Legion of Decency amongst others.
The Chapman Report (1962)
Directed by: George Cukor
Starring: Shelley Winters, Jane Fonda, Claire Bloom, Glynis Johns, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Andrew Duggan, John Dehner, Harold J. Stone, Jennifer Howard, Cloris Leachman, Chad Everett
Screenplay by: Wyatt Cooper, Don Mankiewicz, Gene Allen, Grant Stuart
Production Design by: Gene Allen
Cinematography by: Harold Lipstein
Film Editing by: Robert L. Simpson
Costume Design by: Orry-Kelly
Set Decoration by: George James Hopkins
Music by: Leonard Rosenman
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: October 5, 1962 (Chicago)
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