Forever Amber (1947)

Forever Amber is a 1947 American romantic drama film starring Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde. It was based on the book of the same name by Kathleen Winsor. It also starred Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, Dolores Hart, and Jessica Tandy.

The film was adapted by Jerome Cady, Philip Dunne and Ring Lardner, Jr., and directed by Otto Preminger, who replaced original director John M. Stahl after 39 days of filming and $300,000 of production. The movie was originally budgeted at $4.5 million.

The Hays Office had condemned the novel, but within a month of its publication the movie rights had been purchased by 20th Century Fox.

In 1947, Darnell won the starring role in the highly anticipated film adaptation when the original star, newcomer Peggy Cummins, proved too inexperienced for the role. The character Amber in the novel was so called because of her eye color. Publicity at the time compared the novel Forever Amber to Gone with the Wind. The search for the actress to portray Amber, a beauty who uses men to make her fortune in 17th-century England, was modeled on the extensive process that led to the casting of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara.

The film's score, by composer David Raksin, was nominated for the Academy Award for Original Music Score.

Synopsis

The film begins in 1644 during the English Civil War, as we see a group of Roundheads pursuing a Cavalier's carriage. The carriage drives into the country where its passengers abandon a baby, named Amber, on the doorstep of a farming cottage. The roundheads soon catch up with the carriage and kill all the passengers while the farmers discover and decide to adopt Amber.

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