Fedora (1978)

Fedora: Directed by Billy Wilder. With William Holden, Marthe Keller, Hildegard Knef, José Ferrer. Down-on-his-luck Hollywood producer Barry ‘Dutch’ Detweiler attempts to lure Fedora, a famous but reclusive film actress, out of retirement.

“Billy Wilderu0026#39;s second-last film comes full circle from 1950u0026#39;s Sunset Boulevard.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFedora begins with a news announcement of the great actressu0026#39; death. Dutch Detweiler (William Holden) narrates the film, and attends Fedorau0026#39;s lying in state. He recalls what led up to that moment, and the story begins.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDutch (William Holden) has a script that is perfect for the actress Fedora (Marthe Keller), a Garbo-like myth wrapped in a legend, who lives a reclusive life in Corfu. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne day, he sees her in town and reintroduces himself – they knew each other 30 years earlier. He is astounded by her unchanged beauty. She wears gloves because her doctor canu0026#39;t do anything about aging hands. and she asks him for a few dollars. When he asks if she received his script, she says that they hide the mail from her. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAfter some spying on Fedora, Dutch comes to the conclusion that she is not being well treated and is imprisoned. Desperate to see her, he tries every way he can to gain entrance to the house, and at one point actually breaks in, only to be knocked out by someone who acts as her chauffeur. When he comes to, heu0026#39;s in his hotel, and a week has passed. And lots has happened.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFedora is based on the story in Tom Tryonu0026#39;s book, u0026quot;Crowned Heads,u0026quot; which is three stories – the first about a Lana Turner-type, the second a combination of Clifton Webb and Ramon Navarro, and the third Fedora, actually based on Dietrich, Garbo, and a few other actresses. The first two stories were kind of sleazy. Fedora is really the best one.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI remember this did not get good reviews at the time. Billy Wilder had no end of problems with it. It did not get a full release internationally or nationally; it was not publicized; and it was so badly cut that audiences laughed in all the wrong places when it was shown initially. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s pathetic to me that a great talent like Billy Wilder was treated so badly by modern Hollywood, but Iu0026#39;m not surprised.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think this is an interesting story and if Wilder had been allowed to do what he wanted, it would have been a marvelous film. One of the things that brought it down for me was the abominable performance of Marthe Keller. This role brought an end to her brief Hollywood career.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat really bothered me was all the dubbing. Neither Knefu0026#39;s nor Kelleru0026#39;s voices were used, and itu0026#39;s obvious. The actresses just sound dubbed with very little effort at performances. I may be overly sensitive; that dubbing sound is a big turnoff for me, but maybe not for others.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think this plays better on television than it probably did in the theaters, and itu0026#39;s definitely worth seeing for Holden at least, who is Joe Gillis had he lived.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA series of unfortunate events spoiled what this film could have been, but itu0026#39;s still Billy Wilder, itu0026#39;s still William Holden, and you canu0026#39;t go too wrong.”