The Story of Three Loves
Encyclopedia
The Story of Three Loves, also known as Equilibrium, is a 1953 romantic anthology film
made by MGM. It consists of three stories, "The Jealous Lover", "Mademoiselle", and "Equilibrium". The film was produced by Sidney Franklin
. "Mademoiselle" was directed by Vincente Minnelli
, while Gottfried Reinhardt directed the other two segments. The screenplays were written by John Collier
("The Jealous Lover", "Equilibrium"), Jan Lustig ("Equilibrium", "Mademoiselle"), and George Froeschel
("Equilibrium", "Mademoiselle").
"The Jealous Lover" stars Moira Shearer
and James Mason
; "Mademoiselle" features Leslie Caron
, Farley Granger
, Ethel Barrymore
, and Ricky Nelson
; Pier Angeli
and Kirk Douglas
headline "Equilibrium".
The music score is by Miklós Rózsa
. The soundtrack featured the 18th Variation from Sergei Rachmaninoff
's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
, performed by the pianist Jakob Gimpel
for "The Jealous Lover".
), and asks him politely why one of his works has never been performed since its debut. When Coudray remains silent, the fan leaves him alone with his thoughts, leading to a flashback.
Ballerina Paula Woodward (Moira Shearer
) auditions for Coudray. Coudray is impressed, but then Paula collapses and has to be carried off stage. A doctor informs her aunt Lydia (Agnes Moorehead
) that she has a heart condition that will force her to give up dancing.
Some time later, Paula attends a performance of Coudray's latest ballet. After everyone else has left, she goes on stage and starts dancing. However, she is not alone. Coudray has been watching. He is dissatisfied with certain aspects of his work; from what he has seen of Paula's impromptu performance, he believes she can help him fix the defects.
At first, Paula declines his invitation to dance for him at his studio home, but eventually agrees. Paula lives up to Coudray's high expectations, but exhausts herself in the process. Coudray tenderly kisses her before she goes to change. She slips away and returns home to Lydia with the news of what she has done. But on her way upstairs, she dies, her last words a lament that she had promised Coudray that she would be with him always.
). A chance remark by a passerby about a governess triggers her flashback.
She is the governess and French tutor to Thomas Clayton Campbell Jr., a bored eleven-year-old American boy (Ricky Nelson
) left in her charge at a hotel by his absent parents. One day, another boy dares him to visit Mrs. Hazel Pennicott (Ethel Barrymore
), who lives next door and is reputed to be a witch. When he wishes he were a man, she tells him to wrap a red ribbon around his finger and recite her name at 8 pm, but she warns him that the spell will only last until midnight. The incantation works, and he is transformed into a young man (Farley Granger
).
In his new form, he goes to find Mademoiselle, and is surprised to find that he no longer despises Mademoiselle, nor the romantic poetry that she kept reciting to him. They embark on a whirlwind romance, but he warns her that he has only a few hours before he has to go away. He does however promise that he will see her off at the train station the next day. He flees as the clock strikes midnight.
He keeps his word, but as the young boy. Mademoiselle quits her job to remain in Rome. While waiting for her lover to show up, she bumps into Mrs. Pennicott and spills the contents of the old woman's purse. Mademoiselle gathers up the various items, but after Mrs. Pennicott thanks her and leaves, she picks up an overlooked red ribbon.
The film shifts back to the ship. While Mademoiselle is knitting in a deck chair, the red ribbon blows away. When she goes to retrieve it, she encounters a handsome young man who informs her that he saw her before, from the train as it departed the station.
), leaning over the rail and gazing at the ocean.
In Paris, Narval saves a suicidal Nina Burkhardt (Pier Angeli
) after she jumps from a bridge over the Seine River. He goes to visit her in the hospital, and finds her still very depressed. He gives her his address and asks her to come see him.
When she does (having nowhere else to go), he tells her that he was once a great trapeze
artist. However being the best was not enough for him; he kept trying more and more dangerous tricks, and two years ago, his partner was killed as a result. After that, nobody would work with him. As Nina has demonstrated that she has no fear of dying, he asks her to be his new partner. When she agrees, he starts training her, despite his friends' warning that his obsession will kill her too.
Narval learns Nina's own dark secret. She and her husband had been imprisoned by the Nazis
in a concentration camp during World War II
. She was released. Sensing that he was planning an escape, she had written him a letter begging him to wait, that the Allies would liberate him soon enough. However, she entrusted the letter to a man who betrayed them. Her husband was executed.
At last, the act is ready. They audition for an important American, who insists they perform the climax, the "Leap of Death" (a blind jump by Nina through a screen to Narval on the trapeze), without a safety net, just as they would before a live audience. They do the trick, but then Narval makes a decision. They walk away, leaving the circus behind them. Back aboard the ship, Narval is joined by a loving Nina.
(Cedric Gibbons
, E. Preston Ames
, Edward C. Carfagno, Gabriel Scognamillo
, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason
, Arthur Krams
, Jack D. Moore
).
Anthology film
An anthology film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event . Sometimes each one is directed by a different director...
made by MGM. It consists of three stories, "The Jealous Lover", "Mademoiselle", and "Equilibrium". The film was produced by Sidney Franklin
Sidney Franklin (director)
Sidney Franklin was an American film director and producer. His brother Chester Franklin also became a director during the silent film era best known for helming the early Technicolor film Toll of the Sea....
. "Mademoiselle" was directed by Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
, while Gottfried Reinhardt directed the other two segments. The screenplays were written by John Collier
John Collier (writer)
John Henry Noyes Collier was a British-born author and screenplay writer best known for his short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker from the 1930s to the 1950s. They were collected in a 1951 volume, Fancies and Goodnights, which won the International Fantasy Award and remains in...
("The Jealous Lover", "Equilibrium"), Jan Lustig ("Equilibrium", "Mademoiselle"), and George Froeschel
George Froeschel
Georg "George" Froeschel was an Austrian screenwriter best known for Mrs. Miniver, Quentin Durward, and The Story of Three Loves, while working for MGM in the 1940s and 1950s. Before working in film he was a lawyer and journalist.-Biography:Georg Froeschel was born in 1891, the son of a Jewish...
("Equilibrium", "Mademoiselle").
"The Jealous Lover" stars Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer, Lady Kennedy , was an internationally famous Scottish ballet dancer and actress.-Early life:She was born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, the daughter of actor Harold V. King...
and James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
; "Mademoiselle" features Leslie Caron
Leslie Caron
Leslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. In 2006, her performance in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit won her an Emmy for guest actress in a drama series...
, Farley Granger
Farley Granger
Farley Earle Granger was an American actor. In a career spanning several decades, he was perhaps best known for his two collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Rope in 1948 and Strangers on a Train in 1951.-Early life:...
, Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
, and Ricky Nelson
Ricky Nelson
Eric Hilliard Nelson , better known as Ricky Nelson or Rick Nelson, was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor...
; Pier Angeli
Pier Angeli
Pier Angeli was an Italian-born television and film actress. Her American cinematographic debut was in the starring role of the 1951 film Teresa, in which she won a Golden Globe Award...
and Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
headline "Equilibrium".
The music score is by Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian-born composer trained in Germany , and active in France , England , and the United States , with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953...
. The soundtrack featured the 18th Variation from Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor, Op. 43 is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is written for solo piano and symphony orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto. The work was written at Villa Senar, according to the score, from July 3 to August 18, 1934...
, performed by the pianist Jakob Gimpel
Jakob Gimpel
Jakob Gimpel was a Polish concert pianist and educator.Jakob Gimpel was born in Lvov...
for "The Jealous Lover".
The Jealous Lover
On an ocean liner, a passenger recognizes famed ballet creator Charles Coudray (James MasonJames Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
), and asks him politely why one of his works has never been performed since its debut. When Coudray remains silent, the fan leaves him alone with his thoughts, leading to a flashback.
Ballerina Paula Woodward (Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer, Lady Kennedy , was an internationally famous Scottish ballet dancer and actress.-Early life:She was born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, the daughter of actor Harold V. King...
) auditions for Coudray. Coudray is impressed, but then Paula collapses and has to be carried off stage. A doctor informs her aunt Lydia (Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...
) that she has a heart condition that will force her to give up dancing.
Some time later, Paula attends a performance of Coudray's latest ballet. After everyone else has left, she goes on stage and starts dancing. However, she is not alone. Coudray has been watching. He is dissatisfied with certain aspects of his work; from what he has seen of Paula's impromptu performance, he believes she can help him fix the defects.
At first, Paula declines his invitation to dance for him at his studio home, but eventually agrees. Paula lives up to Coudray's high expectations, but exhausts herself in the process. Coudray tenderly kisses her before she goes to change. She slips away and returns home to Lydia with the news of what she has done. But on her way upstairs, she dies, her last words a lament that she had promised Coudray that she would be with him always.
Mademoiselle
The story then shifts to a second passenger, referred to only as Mademoiselle (Leslie CaronLeslie Caron
Leslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. In 2006, her performance in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit won her an Emmy for guest actress in a drama series...
). A chance remark by a passerby about a governess triggers her flashback.
She is the governess and French tutor to Thomas Clayton Campbell Jr., a bored eleven-year-old American boy (Ricky Nelson
Ricky Nelson
Eric Hilliard Nelson , better known as Ricky Nelson or Rick Nelson, was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor...
) left in her charge at a hotel by his absent parents. One day, another boy dares him to visit Mrs. Hazel Pennicott (Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
), who lives next door and is reputed to be a witch. When he wishes he were a man, she tells him to wrap a red ribbon around his finger and recite her name at 8 pm, but she warns him that the spell will only last until midnight. The incantation works, and he is transformed into a young man (Farley Granger
Farley Granger
Farley Earle Granger was an American actor. In a career spanning several decades, he was perhaps best known for his two collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Rope in 1948 and Strangers on a Train in 1951.-Early life:...
).
In his new form, he goes to find Mademoiselle, and is surprised to find that he no longer despises Mademoiselle, nor the romantic poetry that she kept reciting to him. They embark on a whirlwind romance, but he warns her that he has only a few hours before he has to go away. He does however promise that he will see her off at the train station the next day. He flees as the clock strikes midnight.
He keeps his word, but as the young boy. Mademoiselle quits her job to remain in Rome. While waiting for her lover to show up, she bumps into Mrs. Pennicott and spills the contents of the old woman's purse. Mademoiselle gathers up the various items, but after Mrs. Pennicott thanks her and leaves, she picks up an overlooked red ribbon.
The film shifts back to the ship. While Mademoiselle is knitting in a deck chair, the red ribbon blows away. When she goes to retrieve it, she encounters a handsome young man who informs her that he saw her before, from the train as it departed the station.
Equilibrium
The camera moves to Pierre Narval (Kirk DouglasKirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
), leaning over the rail and gazing at the ocean.
In Paris, Narval saves a suicidal Nina Burkhardt (Pier Angeli
Pier Angeli
Pier Angeli was an Italian-born television and film actress. Her American cinematographic debut was in the starring role of the 1951 film Teresa, in which she won a Golden Globe Award...
) after she jumps from a bridge over the Seine River. He goes to visit her in the hospital, and finds her still very depressed. He gives her his address and asks her to come see him.
When she does (having nowhere else to go), he tells her that he was once a great trapeze
Trapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances...
artist. However being the best was not enough for him; he kept trying more and more dangerous tricks, and two years ago, his partner was killed as a result. After that, nobody would work with him. As Nina has demonstrated that she has no fear of dying, he asks her to be his new partner. When she agrees, he starts training her, despite his friends' warning that his obsession will kill her too.
Narval learns Nina's own dark secret. She and her husband had been imprisoned by the Nazis
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in a concentration camp during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She was released. Sensing that he was planning an escape, she had written him a letter begging him to wait, that the Allies would liberate him soon enough. However, she entrusted the letter to a man who betrayed them. Her husband was executed.
At last, the act is ready. They audition for an important American, who insists they perform the climax, the "Leap of Death" (a blind jump by Nina through a screen to Narval on the trapeze), without a safety net, just as they would before a live audience. They do the trick, but then Narval makes a decision. They walk away, leaving the circus behind them. Back aboard the ship, Narval is joined by a loving Nina.
Cast
- Pier AngeliPier AngeliPier Angeli was an Italian-born television and film actress. Her American cinematographic debut was in the starring role of the 1951 film Teresa, in which she won a Golden Globe Award...
- Nina Burkhardt - Ethel BarrymoreEthel BarrymoreEthel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
- Mrs. Hazel Pennicott - Leslie CaronLeslie CaronLeslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. In 2006, her performance in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit won her an Emmy for guest actress in a drama series...
- Mademoiselle - Kirk DouglasKirk DouglasKirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
- Pierre Narval - Farley GrangerFarley GrangerFarley Earle Granger was an American actor. In a career spanning several decades, he was perhaps best known for his two collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Rope in 1948 and Strangers on a Train in 1951.-Early life:...
- Thomas Clayton Campbell Jr. - James MasonJames MasonJames Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
- Charles Coudray - Moira ShearerMoira ShearerMoira Shearer, Lady Kennedy , was an internationally famous Scottish ballet dancer and actress.-Early life:She was born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, the daughter of actor Harold V. King...
- Paula Woodward - Agnes MooreheadAgnes MooreheadAgnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...
- Aunt Lydia - Zsa Zsa GaborZsa Zsa GaborZsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian-born American stage, film and television actress.She acted on stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1932, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that...
- Flirt at Bar (segment "Mademoiselle") - Richard AndersonRichard AndersonRichard Norman Anderson is an American actor in film and television, known to TV audiences as Steve Austin's and Jaime Sommers' boss, Oscar Goldman, in both The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman TV series and their three subsequent TV movies: The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man...
- Marcel (segment "Equilibrium")
Awards
The film was nominated an Academy Award for Best Art DirectionAcademy Award for Best Art Direction
The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
(Cedric Gibbons
Cedric Gibbons
Austin Cedric Gibbons was an Irish American art director who was one of the most important and influential in the field in the history of American film. He also made a great impact on motion picture theater architecture through the 1930s to 1950s, the period considered the golden-era of theater...
, E. Preston Ames
E. Preston Ames
E. Preston Ames was a famous Hollywood art director.Ames first made inroads into Hollywood when he was a draftsman working on The Wizard of Oz in 1939...
, Edward C. Carfagno, Gabriel Scognamillo
Gabriel Scognamillo
Gabriel Scognamillo was an Italian art director. One of the first films he worked on was Jean Renoir's provocative 1931 film "La Chienne"...
, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason
F. Keogh Gleason
Francis Keogh Gleason was a resident set decorator at MGM studios for over 40 years. In that time he won 4 Academy Awards and was nominated an additional 3 times.-External links:...
, Arthur Krams
Arthur Krams
Arthur Krams was an American set designer. He first made a name for himself working for MGM on films such as Holiday in Mexico, Easter Parade and The Student Prince in the mid 40s. Later, he went on to work with Paramount Pictures. While there, he shared an Oscar for The Rose Tattoo...
, Jack D. Moore
Jack D. Moore
Jack D. Moore was an American set decorator. He won an Academy Award and was nominated six times in the category Best Art Direction.-Selected filmography:...
).