Saratoga Trunk*

Saratoga Trunk

Directed by Sam Wood. 135 mins. (1945)

Gary Cooper – Col. Clint Maroon

A charismatic Texas gambler and a determined Creole woman form a bold alliance to reclaim her rightful place in New Orleans society, challenging class prejudice and corruption in the post–Civil War South.

Also starring Ingrid Bergman, Flora Robson, Jerry Austin, John Warburton, and Florence Bates.

Based on Edna Ferber’s 1940 novel, the title refers to a major railroad “trunk line” linking Albany and Binghamton, New York. The film earned an Academy Award nomination for Flora Robson’s supporting performance.

MARIA’S NOTES

As the chemistry was strong between Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman in Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, it was a natural coupling for them to be paired in the film adaption of Edna Ferber’s best selling novel, Saratoga Trunk. Both movies were directed by Sam Woods but Saratoga Trunk had any number of problems including a lack of directorial vision to make the film come off, costing $1.75 million to make and coming in 42 days behind schedule. Stories don’t always move well from the page to the stage and even though it was a pleasure to watch Cooper and Bergman together on the big screen, it was not at the top of anyone’s must-see list.

As a sidebar - the white Stetson hat that my father wore in Saratoga Trunk is the hat that he gave to Pablo Picasso many years later when we visited the great painter in the South of France. In several of David Douglas Duncan’s fabulous photography books on Picasso, you can find the artist proudly wearing this hat - he carried it off well!

Maria Cooper Janis