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From one of the most underrated directors of Hollywood’s golden era, Mitchell Leisen (Remember the Night), comes the heart-rending romantic drama Hold Back the Dawn...

Charles Boyer (Gaslight) gives an enthralling performance as Georges Iscovescu, a Romanian-born gigolo who arrives at a Mexican border town seeking entry to the US. Faced with a waiting period of eight years, George is encouraged by his former dancing partner Anita (Pauline Goddard, Modern Times) to marry an American girl and desert her once safely across the border. He successfully targets visiting school teacher Emmy Brown (Olivia de Havilland, Gone with the Wind), but his plan is compromised by a pursuing immigration officer, and blossoming feelings of genuine love for Emmy.

A moving and thoughtful film with a wonderful script (co-written by Billy Wilder), Hold back the Dawn benefits from evocative performances by Boyer and de Havilland, and an over-arching sense of romantic melancholy. An enduring classic of its era, Leisen’s film was nominated for no-less than six Academy Awards and is presented here in High Definition for the first time.


SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation transferred from original film elements
Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM audio soundtrack
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
New audio commentary by film scholar Adrian Martin
Love Knows No Borders, a newly filmed video appreciation by film critic Geoff Andrew
The Guardian Lecture: Olivia de Havilland, A career-spanning onstage audio interview with Olivia de Havilland recorded at the National Film Theatre in 1971
Rare hour-long radio adaptation of Hold Back the Dawn from 1941 starring Charles Boyer, Paulette Goddard and Susan Haywood
Gallery of original stills and promotional images
Original trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jennifer Dionisio

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by writer and critic Farran Smith Nehme

That cover

Luckily there's always the reverse cover! So excited to see Leisen getting released on Blu-Ray. Fingers crossed they have Midnight in the pipeline too or would consider it if this title sells well.

Flesh tones? Who needs 'em.

What A Disgrace wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 12, 2019 2:37 pm

Flesh tones? Who needs 'em.

When your skin is that pale, to avoid a nasty sunburn you need to hold back the dawn and wait until nightfall if you want to remain a magnificent doll. The love of a woman for the pleasure of sunscreen still lives on for such pallid types.

Y’all are crazy. That cover is gorgeous. I love all of Jennifer Dionisio’s covers. She did Detour for Criterion too.

With Poulette Goddard.

DRW.mov wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:09 pm

Y’all are crazy. That cover is gorgeous. I love all of Jennifer Dionisio’s covers. She did Detour for Criterion too.

French director Pierre Salvadori pronounced it “Lee-son” when I heard him talk earlier this year

A German friend confirmed they would pronounce it 'Ly-son'

I have a Germanic last name as well, since the e comes before the i, it's definitely "Ly-son". I had that explained to me many times when I was little and learning to spell since my last name has an "ie" in it. Adrian Martin is just making a simple mistake a lot of people do with the "ei" and "ie" combination.

Americas would probably say Lee, or at least that's my gut instinct. Given that he was American I would assume the Lee pronunciation is at least possible. Certainly a lot of that has occurred (for example a friend who pronounces his name do-boys).

Its spelled Leisen, but its pronounced Throat Warbler Mangrove.

Based on the spelling, and German rules of pronunciation, I’ve always assumed something like “Lyzen”.

The film is a masterpiece, but Geoff Andrew falls foul of over-thickly-spread auteur theory in his piece in the extras. He spends a great deal of time pointing out how underrated Leisen is, supposedly in contrast to Sturges and Wilder in their own direction of their scripts. They, he claims, were more interested in wisecracks than character.

He repeatedly refers to subtleties of plot and character, how compassionate and even-handed the treatment of the characters is. Not once, though, does he offer any evidence that these qualities were something that Leisen introduced to the screenplay, and makes no mention of any editing or rewriting. He essentially describes choice moments in the film and asserts that these are Leisen’s doing, rather than the work of the men whose names are on the screenplay.

I find Hold Back the Night an extremely characteristic work by Wilder, actually: Boyer is another in his long line of male whores, and there are touches that flash all the way forward to The Apartment and Kiss Me, Stupid. Plus, Wilder actually underwent the experience of having to wait in a Mexican town for his visa to be granted. Andrew, though, is (like David Thomson) in the Wilder naysayer camp.

tenia wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 14, 2019 10:17 am

With Poulette Goddard.

Hey Man, after all she is a chick.

Olivia de Havilland herself provides three authoritative pronunciations in the 1971 National Film Theatre audio interview included in the extras on this disc:

1. Mitchell Leisen she pronounces "LIE-sen" at 68:00

2. William Keighley (co-director of The Adventures of Robin Hood) she pronounces "KEE-lee" at 48:00

3. The interviewer says "Rafe" Richardson at 82:00, but Olivia twice says "Sir RALF", and she worked with him.

It's long been certain that Ralph Richardson favoured the more phonetic spelling - as distinct from Vaughan Williams or Fiennes, who are definitely Rafes.

(As is Rafe Spall, although he helpfully makes it obvious.)

This has a breezy touch for an immigration drama, and its smartest move is in dissecting the con aspects that come with the territory of fight/flight selfishness in these predicaments of personal need. The con is sped up with a comic bite at first, but this isn’t a comedy, and Leisen knows when to slow down his narrative to reveal the emotional consequences of such behavior, as well as the effects on one’s conscience, without becoming didactic. The choice to flesh out the lively supporting parts along with the leads help to humanize all parts in the process. I felt sympathy for everyone in this film, and understood the moral relativity carried worth even in manipulation.

I guess I don’t see Wilder quite as uniformly cynical as others, at least that’s not the word I think of (though he certainly can go that route and has a cynical streak of films including the excellent Ace in the Hole), Instead I think he’s profoundly aware of the falsehoods in subscribing to socially celebrated virtues with a blind eye. The best drama comes from a clash of perspective or an awakening of peripheries after one’s actions yield unexpected results when contesting with a world and other people who cannot possibly exist for your wavelength, and this film is sensitive to this natural drama thanks to the compassionate air emanating from both leads even when Boyer is brewing secrets and causing harm.

De Havilland falls in love right before our eyes in a way only possible in the movies but with exuberance that is accessible for empathy. There is also a melodic sense of culture as a nebulous connective energy, and the time spent on the run contrasting Boyer’s distraught processing of his cognitive dissonance with de Havilland’s elated romanticism is transparently intense, but again with a light vibe that permits awe in narrative holds rather than loud forced introspection. As senseabove mentioned in the Wilder thread, the putting on of the glasses is a powerful moment as both a metaphor and superficial tic, a desperate gesture to protect oneself and the only tangible movement she can make to issue control in that moment. The film also works because despite Leisen’s and Wilder’s kindness to the characters, the story could have ended in either polar cap and each would have felt earned.

The pounding score during one of Hollywood’s most optimistic endings signals something different than your typical Hollywood fare, where this reconciliation is not expected or deserved, but a generous magic that we are consciously grateful for. Wilder’s exposition of neutrality only assists in that broken-down feeling that these moments are not promises but beautiful offerings to celebrate with humble thanks.