The World of Suzie Wong (film)
Encyclopedia
The World of Suzie Wong is a 1960 British
-American
romantic
drama film directed by Richard Quine
. The screenplay by John Patrick was adapted from the stage play by Paul Osborn
, which was based on the novel of the same title
by Richard Mason. The film starred William Holden
and Nancy Kwan
, who replaced France Nguyen, the original choice for the film.
en route to Hong Kong Island
, he meets Mee Ling, a seemingly proper young woman of lofty social status. She mischievously tries to have him arrested for stealing her purse, but the misunderstanding is resolved and they go their separate ways.
With limited financial resources at his disposal, Robert looks for inexpensive rooming in the infamous Wan Chai
district. By chance, he sees Mee Ling leaving a run-down hotel in the district, and he astounds proprietor Ah Tong by renting a room for a month rather than the usual hour or two. Robert quickly discovers the true nature of the establishment. In the bar next door, he is bemused to find Mee Ling again, this time dressed in a slinky red cheongsam and in the company of a sailor. This time, she calls herself Suzie Wong, and she unabashedly admits she really is a prostitute.
The following day, Robert visits a banker to set up an account. The banker's secretary and daughter, Kay O'Neill, immediately is attracted to the newcomer.
Robert asks Suzie to model for him. As they get better acquainted, he learns she was forced into her profession as a means of survival when she was ten years old. She begins falling in love with him, but he tries to dissuade her, although he finds her very appealing. Meanwhile, he also is pursued discreetly by Kay. At a dinner party she hosts, Robert meets Ben Marlowe, whom he recognizes as one of Suzie's clients, with his wife.
Ben offers to make Suzie his mistress, and she accepts in order to make Robert jealous. When Ben reconciles with his wife, he asks Robert to break the news to Suzie. She is so hurt by the rejection that Robert finally admits he loves her.
Initially, the two are very happy, but their relationship becomes strained. One day, Robert follows Suzie on one of her periodic disappearances. He finds her visiting the infant son she has kept hidden from him, and he accepts the child. When his paintings fail to sell, he finds himself facing financial difficulties, and both Kay and Suzie offer to give him money, but his pride will not let him accept. When Suzie pays his rent and offers to resume prostitution to help him, he drives her away in a fit of anger.
Realizing his mistake, Robert searches for Suzie. When he finally finds her, he learns her baby has died in the annual flooding, and the two commit themselves to each other.
, who had played the role of Suzie Wong in the Broadway production opposite William Shatner
and was familiar to film audiences from her appearance in South Pacific
, originally was signed to reprise the role she had created on stage. After five weeks of location shooting in Hong Kong, the cast and crew – including director Jean Negulesco
– moved to London to film exteriors. Nuyen was involved romantically with actor Marlon Brando
, and his rumoured affair with Barbara Luna
was causing her distress. She began to overeat, and before long was unable to fit in the body-hugging silk cheongsams her character was required to wear. Unwilling to halt production until she could get her weight under control, executive producer Ray Stark
replaced her with Nancy Kwan
, who was touring the United States and Canada as the understudy
to the lead in the road company of the play. Stark had auditioned her for the film but at the time thought she was too inexperienced to handle the lead.
Stark also fired Negulesco and replaced him with Richard Quine
. Everyone involved in the completed Hong Kong scenes was required to return to reshoot them with Kwan, and all the unpublished publicity with Nuyen, including an article and photo layout for Esquire
, had to be redone.
The film's title song was written by Sammy Cahn
and Jimmy Van Heusen.
Artist Dong Kingman
acted as the film's technical advisor
and painted sets for the film.
The film premiered at Radio City Music Hall
in New York City.
Bosley Crowther
of the New York Times observed that sceptics could assume "that what we have here is a tale so purely idealized in the telling that it wafts into the realm of sheer romance. But the point is that idealization is accomplished so unrestrainedly and with such open reliance upon the impact of elemental cliché
s that it almost builds up the persuasiveness of real sincerity. Unless you shut your eyes and start thinking, you might almost believe it to be true." He added, "Mr. Patrick's screenplay contrives such a winning yum-yum girl that, even if she is invented, she's a charming little thing to have around . . . And a new girl named Nancy Kwan plays her so blithely and innocently that even the ladies should love her. She and the scenery are the best things in the film."
Variety
said, "Holden gives a first-class performance, restrained and sincere. He brings authority and compassion to the role. Kwan is not always perfect in her timing of lines (she has a tendency to anticipate) and appears to lack a full range of depth or warmth, but on the whole she manages a fairly believable portrayal."
Time Out London said because the film is "denied the chance of being honest about its subject, it soon degenerates into euphemistic soap opera, with vague gestures towards bohemianism
and lukewarm titillation."
in Sunrise at Campobello
. George Duning
was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
but lost to Dimitri Tiomkin
for The Alamo
.
format with an audio track and subtitles in English.
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
-American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
romantic
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
drama film directed by Richard Quine
Richard Quine
Richard Quine was an American stage, film, and radio actor and film director.Quine was born in Detroit. He made his Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May in 1939 and appeared in My Sister Eileen the following year...
. The screenplay by John Patrick was adapted from the stage play by Paul Osborn
Paul Osborn
Paul Osborn was an American playwright and screenwriter best known for writing the screen adaptation of East of Eden as well as South Pacific, The Yearling, The World of Suzie Wong and Sayonara....
, which was based on the novel of the same title
The World of Suzie Wong
The World of Suzie Wong is a 1957 novel written by Richard Mason. The main characters are Robert Lomax, a young British artist living in Hong Kong, and Suzie Wong, the title character, a Chinese woman who works as a prostitute...
by Richard Mason. The film starred William Holden
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
and Nancy Kwan
Nancy Kwan
Nancy "Ka Shen" Kwan is a Eurasian-American actress, who played a pivotal role in the acceptance of actors of Asian descent in major Hollywood film roles...
, who replaced France Nguyen, the original choice for the film.
Plot
American architect Robert Lomax is an aspiring artist who relocates to Hong Kong for a year to see if he can make a living as a painter. On the Star FerryStar Ferry
The Star Ferry, or The "Star" Ferry Company, is a passenger ferry service operator in Hong Kong. Its principal routes carry passengers across Victoria Harbour, between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon...
en route to Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km², as of 2008...
, he meets Mee Ling, a seemingly proper young woman of lofty social status. She mischievously tries to have him arrested for stealing her purse, but the misunderstanding is resolved and they go their separate ways.
With limited financial resources at his disposal, Robert looks for inexpensive rooming in the infamous Wan Chai
Wan Chai
Wan Chai is a metropolitan area situated at the western part of the Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. Its other boundaries are Canal Road to the east, Arsenal Street to the west and Bowen Road to the south. The area north of Gloucester Road is often called...
district. By chance, he sees Mee Ling leaving a run-down hotel in the district, and he astounds proprietor Ah Tong by renting a room for a month rather than the usual hour or two. Robert quickly discovers the true nature of the establishment. In the bar next door, he is bemused to find Mee Ling again, this time dressed in a slinky red cheongsam and in the company of a sailor. This time, she calls herself Suzie Wong, and she unabashedly admits she really is a prostitute.
The following day, Robert visits a banker to set up an account. The banker's secretary and daughter, Kay O'Neill, immediately is attracted to the newcomer.
Robert asks Suzie to model for him. As they get better acquainted, he learns she was forced into her profession as a means of survival when she was ten years old. She begins falling in love with him, but he tries to dissuade her, although he finds her very appealing. Meanwhile, he also is pursued discreetly by Kay. At a dinner party she hosts, Robert meets Ben Marlowe, whom he recognizes as one of Suzie's clients, with his wife.
Ben offers to make Suzie his mistress, and she accepts in order to make Robert jealous. When Ben reconciles with his wife, he asks Robert to break the news to Suzie. She is so hurt by the rejection that Robert finally admits he loves her.
Initially, the two are very happy, but their relationship becomes strained. One day, Robert follows Suzie on one of her periodic disappearances. He finds her visiting the infant son she has kept hidden from him, and he accepts the child. When his paintings fail to sell, he finds himself facing financial difficulties, and both Kay and Suzie offer to give him money, but his pride will not let him accept. When Suzie pays his rent and offers to resume prostitution to help him, he drives her away in a fit of anger.
Realizing his mistake, Robert searches for Suzie. When he finally finds her, he learns her baby has died in the annual flooding, and the two commit themselves to each other.
Production
France NuyenFrance Nuyen
France Nuyen is a French actress.-Biography:Nuyen was born in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. Her mother was French, her father Vietnamese. During World War II, her mother and grandfather were persecuted by the Nazis for being Gypsies...
, who had played the role of Suzie Wong in the Broadway production opposite William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
and was familiar to film audiences from her appearance in South Pacific
South Pacific (film)
South Pacific is a 1958 musical romance film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, and based on James A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific...
, originally was signed to reprise the role she had created on stage. After five weeks of location shooting in Hong Kong, the cast and crew – including director Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco was a Romanian-born American film director and screenwriter....
– moved to London to film exteriors. Nuyen was involved romantically with actor Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
, and his rumoured affair with Barbara Luna
Barbara Luna
BarBara Ann Luna is an American actress with an extensive list of roles in film, television, and shows. Notable roles included Five Weeks in a Balloon and Lt. Marlena Moreau in the classic Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror"...
was causing her distress. She began to overeat, and before long was unable to fit in the body-hugging silk cheongsams her character was required to wear. Unwilling to halt production until she could get her weight under control, executive producer Ray Stark
Ray Stark
Ray Stark was an American film producer and powerbroker known for his Machiavellian ways.While putting together the Broadway musical Funny Girl - the highly fictionalized account of the life of his mother-in-law, Fanny Brice - its producer David Merrick took Stark and his wife to see an unknown...
replaced her with Nancy Kwan
Nancy Kwan
Nancy "Ka Shen" Kwan is a Eurasian-American actress, who played a pivotal role in the acceptance of actors of Asian descent in major Hollywood film roles...
, who was touring the United States and Canada as the understudy
Understudy
In theater, an understudy is a performer who learns the lines and blocking/choreography of a regular actor or actress in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to appear on stage because of illness or emergencies, the understudy takes over the part...
to the lead in the road company of the play. Stark had auditioned her for the film but at the time thought she was too inexperienced to handle the lead.
Stark also fired Negulesco and replaced him with Richard Quine
Richard Quine
Richard Quine was an American stage, film, and radio actor and film director.Quine was born in Detroit. He made his Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May in 1939 and appeared in My Sister Eileen the following year...
. Everyone involved in the completed Hong Kong scenes was required to return to reshoot them with Kwan, and all the unpublished publicity with Nuyen, including an article and photo layout for Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, had to be redone.
The film's title song was written by Sammy Cahn
Sammy Cahn
Sammy Cahn was an American lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area...
and Jimmy Van Heusen.
Artist Dong Kingman
Dong Kingman
Dong Kingman was a Chinese American artist and one of America's leading watercolor masters. As a painter on the forefront of the California Style School of painting, he was known for his urban and landscape paintings as well as his graphic design work in the Hollywood film industry...
acted as the film's technical advisor
Technical advisor
A technical advisor is an individual who is expert in a particular field of knowledge, hired to provide detailed information and advice to people working in that field...
and painted sets for the film.
The film premiered at Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
in New York City.
Cast
- William HoldenWilliam HoldenWilliam Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
..... Robert Lomax - Nancy KwanNancy KwanNancy "Ka Shen" Kwan is a Eurasian-American actress, who played a pivotal role in the acceptance of actors of Asian descent in major Hollywood film roles...
..... Suzie Wong - Sylvia SymsSylvia SymsSylvia M. L. Syms OBE is a British actress. She is probably best known for her roles in the films Woman in a Dressing Gown , Ice-Cold in Alex , No Trees in the Street , Victim and The Tamarind Seed...
..... Kay O'Neill - Michael WildingMichael Wilding (actor)-Early life:Born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England, Wilding was a successful commercial artist when he joined the art department of a London film studio in 1933. He soon embarked on an acting career.-Career:...
..... Ben Marlowe - Laurence NaismithLaurence NaismithLaurence Naismith was an English actor.Naismith appeared in films such as Carrington VC , Richard III , Sink the Bismarck! , Jason and the Argonauts , and Diamonds Are Forever . He also starred in a children's ghost film The Amazing Mr Blunden...
..... O'Neill - Andy Ho ..... Ah Tong
Critical reception
Today the film is a classic, but when it was released it attracted a mixed response.Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
of the New York Times observed that sceptics could assume "that what we have here is a tale so purely idealized in the telling that it wafts into the realm of sheer romance. But the point is that idealization is accomplished so unrestrainedly and with such open reliance upon the impact of elemental cliché
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
s that it almost builds up the persuasiveness of real sincerity. Unless you shut your eyes and start thinking, you might almost believe it to be true." He added, "Mr. Patrick's screenplay contrives such a winning yum-yum girl that, even if she is invented, she's a charming little thing to have around . . . And a new girl named Nancy Kwan plays her so blithely and innocently that even the ladies should love her. She and the scenery are the best things in the film."
Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
said, "Holden gives a first-class performance, restrained and sincere. He brings authority and compassion to the role. Kwan is not always perfect in her timing of lines (she has a tendency to anticipate) and appears to lack a full range of depth or warmth, but on the whole she manages a fairly believable portrayal."
Time Out London said because the film is "denied the chance of being honest about its subject, it soon degenerates into euphemistic soap opera, with vague gestures towards bohemianism
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
and lukewarm titillation."
Awards and nominations
Nancy Kwan was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama but lost to Greer GarsonGreer Garson
Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award...
in Sunrise at Campobello
Sunrise at Campobello
Sunrise at Campobello is a 1960 American biographical film made by Dore Schary Productions and Warner Bros. It tells the story of the initial struggle by future President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his family when he was stricken with paralysis at the age of 39 in August...
. George Duning
George Duning
George Duning was an American musician and film composer. He was born in Richmond, Indiana and educated in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where his mentor was Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco....
was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is one of several categories presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association , an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications outside North America, since its institution in 1947...
but lost to Dimitri Tiomkin
Dimitri Tiomkin
Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin was a Russian-born Hollywood film score composer and conductor. He is considered "one of the giants of Hollywood movie music." Musically trained in Russia, he is best known for his westerns, "where his expansive, muscular style had its greatest impact." Tiomkin...
for The Alamo
The Alamo (1960 film)
The Alamo is a 1960 American historical epic released by United Artists. The film was directed by John Wayne, who also starred as Davy Crockett. The cast also includes Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie and Laurence Harvey as William B...
.
DVD release
The film was released on Region 1 DVD on June 29, 2004. It is in anamorphic widescreenAnamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
format with an audio track and subtitles in English.