Lydia

Lydia (1941)

The Story of a free woman and her romances!

Lydia MacMillan, a wealthy woman who has never married, invites several men her own age to her home to reminisce about the times when they were young and courted her. In memory, each romance seemed splendid and destined for happiness, but in each case, Lydia realizes, the truth was less romantic, and ill-starred.

Date of release
1941-09-18
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (13)
Runtime
1h 44m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Julien Duvivier

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

Lydia is a 1941 American romantic drama film directed by Julien Duvivier and starring Merle Oberon as Lydia MacMillan, a woman whose life is seen from her spoiled, immature youth through bitter and resentful middle years, until at last she is old and accepting. The supporting cast features Joseph Cotten, Edna May Oliver and George Reeves. The picture is often referred to as a remake of Duvivier's Un carnet de bal (1937), which starred Marie Bell as the leading character, although the two films actually share few plot elements.

Production

The film was produced in the U.S. by London Films, the company controlled by producer Alexander Korda, who saw the film in part as a starring vehicle for his wife, Merle Oberon. Julien Duvivier was hired to direct the film (under the working title Illusions), adapted from Un Carnet de Bal and reset in America by Ben Hecht and Samuel Hoffenstein, with a budget of over one million dollars.

Before approving the film's release, the Production Code Administration (also known as the "Hays Office") demanded a different ending to the film so that Lydia would "pay" for her love tryst in a cabin. Despite his initial resistance, Korda gave in and shot several new endings to the film, claiming to like the one that was approved even better than the original.

The film's musical score by Miklós Rózsa includes piano miniatures and fragments of a concerto composed by one of Lydia's suitors. Rózsa later extended the latter piece into a full-scale work for two pianos and orchestra, the New England Concerto.

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