Take Her, She's Mine

Take Her, She's Mine is a 1963 American comedy film starring James Stewart and Sandra Dee based on the 1961 Broadway comedy written by Henry Ephron and Phoebe Ephron. The film was directed by Henry Koster with a screenplay by Nunnally Johnson. It features an early film score by prolific composer Jerry Goldsmith.[3] The character of Mollie, played by Elizabeth Ashley on Broadway and in the film by Dee, was based on the screenwriters' 22-year-old daughter Nora Ephron. The supporting cast features Robert Morley, John McGiver and Bob Denver.

Take Her, She's Mine
Lobby card
Directed byHenry Koster
Screenplay byNunnally Johnson
Based onTake Her, She's Mine
1961 play
by Henry Ephron
Phoebe Ephron
Produced byHenry Koster
StarringJames Stewart
Sandra Dee
Audrey Meadows
CinematographyLucien Ballard
Edited byMarjorie Fowler
Music byJerry Goldsmith
Distributed by20th Century-Fox
Release date
  • November 13, 1963 (1963-11-13)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2,435,000[1]
Box officeest. $3,400,000 (US/ Canada)[2]

Plot

A Los Angeles attorney is overprotective toward his teenage daughter as she leaves home for college and to study art in Paris. Concerned over the letters that she has written describing her beatnik friends and activist beliefs, he travels to Paris to investigate her living situation.

Cast

Development

The film was based on a popular play with Art Carney. It was written by Henry and Phoebe Ephron based on Phoebe's correspondence with their daughter Nora, who was away at college. They wrote the script in six weeks and sent it to their agent. Both Josh Logan and Hal Prince wanted to produce the film, but the Ephrons decided on Prince as Logan had wanted big stars.[5]

Production

The film rights were bought by 20th Century-Fox, which hired Nunnally Johnson to write the script. Johnson submitted a draft, but new studio head Darryl F. Zanuck demanded a rewrite with the last act set in Paris to lend the film more international appeal.[6] Johnson later called the ending "a very lousy third act, all taken on the back lot and the French didn't understand that any more than the Americans either, by that time. But he (Zanuck) insisted on it."[7]

The film was released on November 13, 1963, just nine days before the assassination of John F. Kennedy; in fact, a radio spot for the film aired on KLIF in Dallas (the city where the assassination was located) just a few minutes after their first bulletin of the shooting. Quickly, 20th Century-Fox recalled all 350 copies of the film in order to delete a scene in which a character supposedly speaks with Jacqueline Kennedy.[8]

Reception

According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $6,100,000 in film rentals to break even and made $5 million, resulting in a loss.[9]

References
  1. Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p253
  2. "Big Rental Pictures of 1964", Variety, 6 January 1965 p 39. Please note this figure is rentals accruing to distributors not total gross.
  3. Clemmensen, Christian. Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004) tribute at Filmtracks.com. Retrieved 2011-04-14.
  4. To Michaelson's annoyance, people repeatedly mistake him for "that, uh, actor" James Stewart. He laments that this has been happening "ever since Mr. Smith Goes to Washington came out."
  5. Ephron, Henry (1977). We thought we could do anything : the life of screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron. Norton. p. 196-197.
  6. Johnson p 367-368
  7. Johnson p 369
  8. "Movie Will Lose JFK References". Buffalo Evening News (Buffalo, New York). November 27, 1963. p. 21.
  9. Silverman, Stephen M (1988). The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox. L. Stuart. p. 323.

Bibliography


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