The Red Danube

The Red Danube (1949)

Beautiful Maria...the four lives that touched hers were never the same again!

A Russian ballerina in Vienna tries to flee KGB agents and defect.

Date of release
1949-10-14
TMDB
6.7 / 10 (11)
Runtime
1h 59m
Genres
Drama, War, Romance
Director
George Sidney

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

The Red Danube is a 1949 American drama film directed by George Sidney and starring Walter Pidgeon, Ethel Barrymore, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury, and Janet Leigh. The film uses the repatriation of Soviet citizens after World War II as a backdrop and was based on the 1947 novel Vespers in Vienna by Bruce Marshall.

Production

Shortly after the release of the novel Vespers in Vienna, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer showed interest in a film adaptation, and production was set to start in June 1947. In January 1947, it was announced Irene Dunne, Spencer Tracy and Robert Taylor were set to star. In October 1947, some of the background footage was shot on location in Rome and Vienna.

On October 14, 1948, it was announced Audrey Totter was slated to co-star as Audrey Quail. She was replaced by Angela Lansbury in early 1949. Agnes Moorehead briefly replaced Barrymore in March 1949.

For the scenes of the war camps, 1,500 starved-looking extras were sought. The crew admitted they were looking for real war refugees, but found that most of them were already looking too healthy. One crew member called it "the biggest casting problem since The Good Earth (1937)".

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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