But Not for Me (film)

But Not for Me is a 1959 American comedy film directed by Walter Lang and starring Clark Gable, Carroll Baker and Lilli Palmer.[2] It was distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on the 1934 play Accent on Youth written by Samson Raphaelson.

But Not for Me
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWalter Lang
Written byJohn Michael Hayes
Based onAccent on Youth by Samson Raphaelson
Produced byWilliam Perlberg
George Seaton
StarringClark Gable
Carroll Baker
Lilli Palmer
Lee J. Cobb
CinematographyRobert Burks
Edited byAlma Macrorie
Music byLeith Stevens
Production
company
Perlberg-Seaton Productions
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • 19 August 1959 (19 August 1959)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$2.5 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)[1]

Plot

Russ Ward is a Broadway producer with a 30-year record of success who has been out of town. On returning to New York, everybody wants a piece of him: ex-wife Kathryn Ward, hard-drinking playwright Jeremiah "Mac" MacDonald, magazine reporter Roy Morton, business manager Miles Atwood, and lawyer Charles Montgomery, one after another.

The main topic of discussion is Give Me Your Hand, the new play Russ is producing. The reporter hears it's in trouble, but Russ says that's untrue. He vows it will be ready for its Boston tryout right on schedule. He and writer Mac have a story about a middle-aged man romancing a 22-year-old woman, and just can't seem to make it work.

Kathryn keeps reminding him of his age, which Russ likes to lie about. Russ tells loyal young secretary and student actress Ellie Brown it is likely time to retire because the new show is a mess.

Ellie is in love with Russ, so much so she proposes marriage to him. That gives him an idea. What if the play had the young woman pursuing the man? That way he wouldn't seem such a lecher. A delighted Mac rewrites it, and everyone involved works on it at the Long Island mansion where the former actress Kathryn lives, partly thanks to her alimony from Russ.

A rich backer named Bacos wants in, but Atwood says his money isn't needed because an anonymous angel is financing the whole show. Ellie reads the woman's part, and strikes everybody as perfect for it. Gordon Reynolds, an up-and-coming young actor in Ellie's acting class, gets the male lead. Gordon has been in love for a long time with Ellie, but Russ doesn't discourage her love for him.

The show's so-so in Boston, and a few of them panic, but Russ insists it'll be a hit on Broadway, and, sure enough, he's right. Now, he needs to let down Ellie gently, and next thing he knows, she and Gordon have gotten married. Ellie returns exasperated because Gordon wants to give up theater and move to Butte, Montana. She strips and leaps into Russ's bed so Gordon can catch her there and demand an annulment.

Everybody gets every misunderstanding sorted out. The newlyweds decide to compromise, and Russ, who finally has figured out that Kathryn was the anonymous angel who financed the show, is ready to give their relationship a second act.

Cast

Previous versions

The 1935 film Accent on Youth starred Herbert Marshall and Sylvia Sidney. The 1950 film version was a musical entitled Mr. Music, starring Bing Crosby and Nancy Olson.

Novelization

A worthwhile novelization of the screenplay was written by American writer Edward S. Aarons (1916-1975) under the mild pseudonym Edward Ronns, published in a mass market, tie-in paperback edition by Pyramid Books (cover price 35¢) with a release date of September, 1959 and copyright assigned to Paramount Pictures Corporation. (Aarons is best known for his prolific "Assignment" espionage series, featuring agent Sam Durell.)

References
  1. "1959: Probable Domestic Take", Variety, 6 January 1960 p 34
  2. "NY Times review". New York Times. October 3, 1959. Archived from the original on May 21, 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2008.
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