Sabrina (1954) is
an American romantic comedy directed by Billy Wilder and starring Humphrey
Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, and William Holden. The screenplay was by Wilder, Ernest
Lehman, and Samuel A. Taylor. The supporting cast includes John Williams,
Martha Hyer, Francis X. Bushman, Ellen Corby, and Nancy Kulp.
Sabrina Fairchild (Hepburn), the daughter of the Larrabee
family’s chauffeur (Williams) has been in love with David Larrabee for as long
as she can remember. David has been married three times and is the handsome, non-working
playboy younger brother of the hard-working Linus (Bogart). Sabrina has lived
at the Larrabee estate on Long Island her entire life. To David, she is still a
little girl.
As a way to help her forget David, her father has arranged
for her to attend the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris. Before she is
supposed to leave, she leaves her father a suicide note and proceeds to start
all the cars in the garage in an effort to kill herself. Linus, who happens to
walk by the garage and hearing all the car engines running, finds Sabrina about
the pass out from the fumes. Linus saves Sabrina and brings her to her family’s
apartment above the garage.
Sabrina goes to Paris and after completing her cooking
course, she comes back to Long Island a sophisticated young woman who David doesn’t
even recognize. David finds Sabrina enchanting but there’s one problem; he’s
engaged to be married to socialite Elizabeth Tyson (Hyer).
What will happen to Sabrina? Will she find happiness with
her childhood crush, David, or is there someone else who is a better match?
Billy Wilder (1906 - 2002) was an Austrian-born American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He won six Academy Awards for his writing and direction and was nominated twenty-one times over a career that spanned five decades. Wilder started his career as a writer, penning the screenplays for Ninotchka (1939), Ball of Fire (1942), Double Indemnity (1945), The Lost Weekend (1946), Sunset Boulevard (1951) Boulevard (1951), Sabrina (1955), Some Like it Hot (1960), and The Apartment (1961). As a director, he won Academy Awards for directing The Lost Weekend (1946) and The Apartment (1961). Wilder directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated roles. He is considered one of the most versatile directors from Hollywood’s Classical period.
Humphrey Bogart (1899 – 1957) was an American film and stage actor. He is one of the most famous and popular movie stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Nicknamed Bogie, the actor toiled in supporting roles in both A and B pictures for a decade before his breakout role as Roy Earle in High Sierra (1941). Many more film roles followed including The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), Key Largo (1948), and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). His career continued with good roles in films like In a Lonely Place (1950), The Caine Mutiny (1954), and Sabrina (1954) co-starring William Holden and Audrey Hepburn. Bogart died from cancer in 1957.
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| Audrey Hepburn and William Holden |
Audrey Hepburn (1929 – 1993) was a British actress. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her first starring role in Roman Holiday (1953), co-starring Gregory Peck. Peck predicted that Hepburn would be a big star during production and insisted that she receive equal screen building with him. Hepburn also starred on Broadway in Gigi and Ondine. Other film roles include Sabrina (1954), War and Peace (1955), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), How to Steal a Million (1966), Wait Until Dark (1966), Two for the Road (1967). Besides her acting career, Hepburn was a fashion icon and a humanitarian working as Goodwill Ambassador with UNICEF.
William Holden (1918 - 1981) was an American actor and major movie star. He was one of the most bankable stars of the 1950s. Holden starred in some of the most popular and beloved films of all time including Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina, Picnic (1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and Stalag 17 for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Holden became a star with his very first role in Golden Boy (1939). He had lead roles in other popular films like Our Town (1940), and I Wanted Wings (1941). World War II interrupted his career. Holden was a first lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force. After the war, he made some popular but forgettable films. It wasn’t after he collaborated with director Wilder on Sunset Boulevard that Holden’s popularity and stature in Hollywood grew to superstar status.
Sabina trivia
- Cary Grant was Wyler's first choice to play Linus.
- Humphrey Bogart wanted his wife (Lauren Bacall) to play Sabrina.
- Bogart did not enjoy working with Hepburn and Holden. Bogart thought Hepburn was inexperienced.
- The script was being worked on as they filmed. Reportedly, one scene was written in the morning and shot that afternoon. Writer Ernest Lehman had a nervous breakdown during production.
- Hepburn was 24, Holden was 35, and Bogart was 53 during the film's production.
- Bogart was paid $300,000, Holden $150,000, and Hepburn $15,00.
To watch the film on YouTube, click on the link below.
To join the discussion on November 21, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and a link to the discussion on Zoom.
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| Bogart, Hepburn, and Holden |
Discussion questions
- Would you have rather seen Cary Grant in the role of Linus or did you think Humphrey Bogart was just right for the role? Joseph Cotten played Linus in Sabrina Fair, the play on which the movie is based. Can you see Cotten in the Bogart role?
- Some critics think that William Holden was miscast as David; do you agree with the critics?
- This was only Hepburn's second major film role. What did you make of her performance?
- Do you think Lauren Bacall would have made a good Sabrina?
- Did this film remind you of any other romantic comedies you've seen?
and 
, groomed during the waning days of the old studio system. She signed a seven-year contract with MGM, but they didn’t seem to know what to do with her. Her best movie roles came by way of other studios on loan outs.
(1953), was her biggest role at this point in her career. She played opposite two undisputed superstars: 
and 
. But she almost didn’t get that role. 
(who starred with Gable in Never Let Me Go that same year) was director John Ford’s (and MGM’s) first choice. Due to her developing mental illness, Tierney had to drop out. It was then that Kelly was given the role of the unfaithful wife who falls for Gable’s character, but loses him in the end. For this role, Kelly received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress. But even with the nomination, Kelly’s stardom wasn’t a sure thing.
was searching for a female lead for a film he was directing at Warner Bros., 
. While looking for an actress to cast, he reviewed an old screen test Kelly had done at Twentieth Century Fox and watched Mogambo. While Hitchcock thought Kelly was stiff, if not a bit wooden, he saw that she had potential. Almost immediately, the master of suspense started to mold Kelly into the prototypical cool Hitchcock blond. When Dial M for Murder was released, the reviews were good, some even thinking it better than the stage play upon which it was based. This time, Crowther mentioned Kelly in the sixth paragraph (out of seven) of his review saying, “Grace Kelly does a nice job of acting the wife's bewilderment, terror and grief.” From the likes of Crowther, that was absolutely glowing praise.
the role that eventually went to 
. Kelly loved the Rear Window script and decided she'd rather portray a model from Manhattan than a middle-class girl from New Jersey. She could not have imagined how fortuitous a choice that would be.
Under Hitchcock’s direction, Head went to work on creating a wardrobe that would be true to Kelly’s character as well as showcase her incredible beauty. With Kelly, Head had a clean canvas upon which she could create a look that was stylish, chic, and deceptively simple in design.
, 
, and 
(December). For her performance in The Country Girl, she was awarded the Best Actress Academy Award for 1955. The competition was unusually stiff that year, with Kelly besting Dorothy Dandridge (
), Jane Wyman (
), Audrey Hepburn (
), and Judy Garland (
). Garland was the sentimental and the odds-on favorite, so Kelly’s win was a bit of a shock to many. Supposedly, six votes separated the two stars.
, again working with Hitchcock and Edith Head. In 1956, she would have two films in release, 
and 
, which would be her last. On April 19, 1956, Kelly wed Prince Rainier of Monaco. Rumors of a comeback never materialized. Grace Kelly remained Princess Grace of Monaco until her traffic death in a car accident on September 14, 1982. She was 52 years old.
