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Centennial Summer

6 votes

In 1876 Philadelphia, two sisters vie for the affections of a Frenchman who's come to town to prepare the French pavilion for the Centennial exposition.

Status: Released

Released Date: 1946-07-10

Runtime: 102 mins

Director: Otto Preminger

Writer: Michael Kanin

Spoken language: English

Genres: Music, Comedy, History

Original title: Centennial Summer

Production Companies: 20th Century Fox

Production Countries: United States of America

Cast

Jeanne Crain

Cornel Wilde

Linda Darnell

William Eythe

Walter Brennan

Constance Bennett

Dorothy Gish

Barbara Whiting

Kathleen Howard

Buddy Swan

Paul Everton

Avon Long

Charles Dingle

Larry Stevens

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Right from the outset, this film mis-fires. Walter Brennan comes across as a fish out of water and Cornel Wilde, with his rather ropey French accent, just doesn't work at all well, either. The latter man, having just arrived in Philadelphia from France for the US Centennial Exposition, soon becomes the object of the affections of two sisters - Jeanne Craine ("Julie") and Linda Darnell ("Edith"). Which of them will win his affections? The problem with this film is that, though colourful - there is absolutely no chemistry anywhere to be seen. The songs from Jerome Kern are pleasant enough, but there is no showstopper - and the singing, well those are either ensemble efforts or solos from actors who, frankly, aren't very good singers. The execution of the story is not without the odd bit of humour, but the presentation looks frequently quite stagey with plenty of set piece choreography that, again, might have looked fine in a theatre but is somehow rather dated and stilted on a big screen. It is watchable, and Darnell steals the show, if anyone does, but I struggled with this rather procedural and stilted melodrama.

2022-07-07

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