Sabrina (1954)
7/10
Sabrina
7 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
From Oscar nominated director Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment), this was rated very highly by the critics and had good leading stars, so I decided I should see it. Basically the Larabee family are very rich, and the two sons do their own things, Linus (Humphrey Bogart) runs the family corporate empire and has no time for a personal life, and David (William Holden) is employed by the family but never shows up spending time having fun and being married and divorced three times. Young and awkward chauffeur's daughter Sabrina Fairchild (Oscar and BAFTA nominated Audrey Hepburn) has had a crush on David since childhood, but he has never really noticed her, until he returns home after two years from Paris. She is more elegant, sophisticated and beautiful and she seems to have finally caught the playboy's attention, not recognising her, she is happy to finally be gaining his interest, but Linus is worried. David is already engaged to be married to another woman, if the wedding doesn't go ahead a big corporate deal will go bust, so workaholic Linus starts a friendship with Sabrina to draw her away. In the process however it seems that she may be falling in love with her, and he returns the same feelings, so much so that when he tells her to go back to Paris, he dashes to leave with her on the boat. Also starring Walter Hampden as Oliver Larrabee, John Williams as Thomas Fairchild, Martha Hyer as Elizabeth Tyson, Joan Vohs as Gretchen Van Horn, Marcel Dalio as Baron St. Fontanel, Marcel Hillaire as The Professor, Nella Walker as Maude Larrabee, Francis X. Bushman as Mr. Tyson and Ellen Corby as Miss McCardle. Hepburn is radiant and elegant as the shy young woman, Bogart is cool and charming as the "tough guy", and Holden does alright as his brother, the direction by Wilder is good, the story when it made sense was not bad with some soppy and funny stuff, I can't quite agree with five stars out of five, but it is I suppose a worthwhile romantic comedy. It won the Oscar for Best Costume Design, and it was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography and Best Writing, Screenplay, and it won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. Humphrey Bogart was number 36, and Audrey Hepburn number 13 on The Greatest Movie Stars, Hepburn was number 31 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, Bogart was number 1 on 100 Years, 100 Stars - Men, and he was number 27 on The World's Greatest Actor. Very good!
5 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed