Destiny

Destiny (1944)

Framed for two crimes he didn't commit, and betrayed by his girl, Cliff Banks finds himself on the run from the police. Now distrustful of everyone, he finds a safe haven hiding out at a quaint country cottage under the care of a kindly old farmer and his daughter, a Cinderella-like blind woman who seems to be able to communicate with nature. There he is forced by their love to question his misanthropy.

Date of release
1944-12-22
TMDB
5.2 / 10 (10)
Runtime
1h 5m
Genres
Crime, Drama
Director
Reginald Le Borg, Julien Duvivier

Casting

Interesting facts

Destiny is a 1944 American drama film noir directed by Reginald LeBorg and starring Gloria Jean, Alan Curtis, Frank Craven, and Grace McDonald.

Background

Destiny was originally planned as the opening segment of the episodic all-star drama Flesh and Fantasy (1943), directed by Julien Duvivier. Universal Pictures previewed the film to enthusiastic response; Gloria Jean's performance received the highest praise, but the studio recut the feature from four sequences to three and shelved the first half-hour.

Two years later, the studio assigned producer Roy William Neill to expand the half-hour Gloria Jean sequence into a full-length feature.(Neill produced and directed the Sherlock Holmes film series starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.) Neill produced the new material but did not direct; the project was rushed through production in two weeks while Gloria Jean was available, so Neill had no time to plan his artistic, carefully composed scenes.

The new director was Reginald LeBorg. Screenwriter Roy Chanslor wrote additional material: his action-melodrama script covered the first half of the new feature, with Alan Curtis the focal point; Gloria Jean does not appear until the second half, constituting the original Flesh and Fantasy footage with the blind girl and her father. Chanslor tacked on a new, happier ending to replace the tragic ending staged for Flesh and Fantasy.

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