No Minor Vices
Encyclopedia
No Minor Vices is a 1948
American
black-and-white
comedy film
written by Arnold Manoff
and directed by Lewis Milestone
with Robert Aldrich
as 1st assistant director
. Created for David Loew
's Enterprise Productions, the film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
, and is the last of four films made by Dana Andrews
for Lewis Milstone.
bankrupted Enterprise Productions, a film which United Artists
called "probably the greatest commrcial failure in the history of motion pictures", No Minor Vices was conceived as a means to keep Enterprise going until all possible revenues could be gotten from Arch of Triumph. Enterprise co-founder Charles Einfeld gave Lewis Milestone a title No Minor Vices and suggested he create film to go with it. It became literally a matter Milestone calling in friends to make the film, with Dana Andrews even investing some of his own money in the project, but losing his investment when the film bombed. Andrews felt that part of No Minor Vices poor box office showings were due to the film being released by MGM rather than by United Artists, and with MGM not doing a decent a job in promoting as might have UA. Milestone chose to "play it safe" with the film. In order to keep audiencs interested in the film's simple plot line, Milestone would sometimes cut to a scene that had a litle man in a window making cigars and reacting to things that had nothing to do with the scene just intercut. Film editor Robert Parrish
reported that if a scene was lousy, Milestone could cut to this little guy, but the running gag was not enough upon which to build a film. No Minor Vices kept Enterprise alive as a company, but money was tight.
Perry Ashwell (Dana Andrews
) takes his attractive wife April (Lilli Palmer
) and their conservative lifestyle for granted. When he allows artists Octavio Quaglini (Louis Jourdan) into their lives to sketch Their "inner selves", Octavio becomes enamoured with April and tries to steal her away from Perry.
praised the film, writing that it was a "brand of frivolous spoofing that is very rare on the screen—so rare, indeed, that it is difficult even to understand." They refer to the film as "cubist humor" that spoofs in the manner of Gertrude Stein
, making a "very original film". They further offered that the film was directed by Lewis Milestone for the defunct Enterprise Productions, and that the three main stars are good as they play their roles "in the grand and sweeping style." Hal Erickson of Allmovie wrote "No Minor Vices doesn't always work, but it's fun to watch Louis Jourdan plug his way through a role that Burgess Meredith
or Hans Conried
could have played blindfolded." Jane Lockhart of The Rotarian wrote that with "Prolonged attempt to symbolic, whimsical turns out to be faintly boring long before the end is reached."
as Eine Frau zuviel, in Finland
as Katselen ihmisiä, in Poland
as Kobieta bez skazy, in Sweden
as Kyss mej långsamt, in Spain
as Ningún vicio menor, and in Italy
as Tra moglie e marito. For its 1959 Danish
television debut, it was titled Tre er én for mange.
1948 in film
The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
written by Arnold Manoff
Arnold Manoff
Arnold Manoff was an American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s....
and directed by Lewis Milestone
Lewis Milestone
Lewis Milestone was a Russian-American motion picture director. He is known for directing Two Arabian Knights and All Quiet on the Western Front , both of which received Academy Awards for Best Director...
with Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich was an American film director, writer and producer, notable for such films as Kiss Me Deadly , The Big Knife , What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte , The Flight of the Phoenix , The Dirty Dozen , and The Longest Yard .-Biography:Robert...
as 1st assistant director
Assistant director
The role of an Assistant director include tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, maintaining order on the set. They also have to take care of health and safety of the crew...
. Created for David Loew
David Loew
David L. Loew was an American film producer. He and his brother Arthur Loew were the twin sons of MGM founder Marcus Loew. After being elected to the board of directors of Loew's, Inc., in 1922, he resigned from the studio in 1935 to launch an independent production career...
's Enterprise Productions, the film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
, and is the last of four films made by Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
for Lewis Milstone.
Background
After the expensive flop of the film Arch of TriumphArch of Triumph (1948 film)
Arch of Triumph is a 1948 American war romance film made by Enterprise Productions. The film was directed by Lewis Milestone and adapted from the 1945 Erich Maria Remarque novel Arch of Triumph....
bankrupted Enterprise Productions, a film which United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
called "probably the greatest commrcial failure in the history of motion pictures", No Minor Vices was conceived as a means to keep Enterprise going until all possible revenues could be gotten from Arch of Triumph. Enterprise co-founder Charles Einfeld gave Lewis Milestone a title No Minor Vices and suggested he create film to go with it. It became literally a matter Milestone calling in friends to make the film, with Dana Andrews even investing some of his own money in the project, but losing his investment when the film bombed. Andrews felt that part of No Minor Vices poor box office showings were due to the film being released by MGM rather than by United Artists, and with MGM not doing a decent a job in promoting as might have UA. Milestone chose to "play it safe" with the film. In order to keep audiencs interested in the film's simple plot line, Milestone would sometimes cut to a scene that had a litle man in a window making cigars and reacting to things that had nothing to do with the scene just intercut. Film editor Robert Parrish
Robert Parrish
Robert R. Parrish was an American actor, film editor, film director, and writer. He received an Academy Award for Film Editing for the 1947 film, Body and Soul....
reported that if a scene was lousy, Milestone could cut to this little guy, but the running gag was not enough upon which to build a film. No Minor Vices kept Enterprise alive as a company, but money was tight.
Plot
Successful dentistDentist
A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...
Perry Ashwell (Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
) takes his attractive wife April (Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer , born Lilli Marie Peiser, was a German actress. She won the Volpi Cup, the Deutscher Filmpreis three times, and was nominated twice for a Golden Globe Award.-Life and career:...
) and their conservative lifestyle for granted. When he allows artists Octavio Quaglini (Louis Jourdan) into their lives to sketch Their "inner selves", Octavio becomes enamoured with April and tries to steal her away from Perry.
Cast
- Dana AndrewsDana AndrewsDana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
as Perry Aswell - Lilli PalmerLilli PalmerLilli Palmer , born Lilli Marie Peiser, was a German actress. She won the Volpi Cup, the Deutscher Filmpreis three times, and was nominated twice for a Golden Globe Award.-Life and career:...
as April Ashwell - Louis Jourdan as Octavio Quaglini
- Jane WyattJane WyattJane Waddington Wyatt was an American actress perhaps best known for her role as the housewife and mother on the television comedy Father Knows Best, and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the science fiction television series Star Trek...
as Miss Darlington - Norman LloydNorman LloydNorman Lloyd is an American actor, producer, and director with a career in entertainment spanning more than seven decades. Lloyd, who currently resides in Los Angeles, has appeared in over sixty films and television shows....
as Dr. Sturdivant - Bernard Gorcey as Mr. Zitzfleisch
- Roy RobertsRoy RobertsRoy Roberts was an American character actor. Over his more than 40-year career, he appeared in more than nine hundred productions on stage and screen.-Biography:...
as Mr. Felton - Fay BakerFay BakerFay Baker was an American stage, film and television actress, and a successful author under the pen name Beth Holmes. Her novel, , made the Los Angeles Times bestseller list in 1978...
as Mrs. Felton - Sharon McManus as Gloria Felton
- Ann DoranAnn DoranAnn Lee Doran was an American character actress.-Early life and career:Born in Amarillo, Texas, Doran began acting at the age of four. She appeared in hundreds of silent films under assumed names to keep her father's family from finding out about her work...
as Mrs. Faraday - Beau BridgesBeau BridgesLloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
as Bertram - Frank Kreig as Cab Driver
- Kay Williams as Receptionist
- Robert Hyatt as Genius
Critical response
The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
praised the film, writing that it was a "brand of frivolous spoofing that is very rare on the screen—so rare, indeed, that it is difficult even to understand." They refer to the film as "cubist humor" that spoofs in the manner of Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, making a "very original film". They further offered that the film was directed by Lewis Milestone for the defunct Enterprise Productions, and that the three main stars are good as they play their roles "in the grand and sweeping style." Hal Erickson of Allmovie wrote "No Minor Vices doesn't always work, but it's fun to watch Louis Jourdan plug his way through a role that Burgess Meredith
Burgess Meredith
Oliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...
or Hans Conried
Hans Conried
Hans Georg Conried, Jr. was an American comedian, character actor and voice actor.-Early years:He was born on April 15, 1917 in Baltimore, Maryland to Hans Georg Conried, Sr. and Edith Beyr Gildersleeve. His mother was a descendant of Pilgrims, and his father was a Jewish immigrant from Vienna,...
could have played blindfolded." Jane Lockhart of The Rotarian wrote that with "Prolonged attempt to symbolic, whimsical turns out to be faintly boring long before the end is reached."
Awards and nominations
- 1949, Writers Guild of AmericaWriters Guild of AmericaThe Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
WGA Award nomination for 'Best Written American Comedy'
Release
The film had international film and television release: In GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
as Eine Frau zuviel, in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
as Katselen ihmisiä, in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
as Kobieta bez skazy, in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
as Kyss mej långsamt, in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
as Ningún vicio menor, and in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
as Tra moglie e marito. For its 1959 Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
television debut, it was titled Tre er én for mange.
External links
- No Minor Vices at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- No Minor Vices at Allmovie
- No Minor Vices film poster
