This Time for Keeps
Encyclopedia
This Time for Keeps is an American
romantic
musical film
released in 1947
and produced by MGM
. It is about a soldier
, returning home from war who does not wish to work for his father's opera company or to continue his relationship with his pre-war lover. It stars Esther Williams
, Jimmy Durante
, Johnnie Johnston and Lauritz Melchior
and it was directed by Richard Thorpe
. The film was shot in color on location at the Grand Hotel
, on Mackinac Island
in Michigan
. This Time for Keeps became the second film in which Williams's name was first billed above the title, after Fiesta
.
) is a famous opera singer and father to Richard Herald II, who has recently returned from fighting in the war, and now prefers to be known as Dick Johnson (Johnnie Johnston). Dick has been engaged to socialite
Frances Allenbury (Mary Stuart) since before he left for the war, and has been expressing some apprehension about marrying her.
Mr. Herald wants his son to join him at the opera company, but Dick wants to enjoy his life now that he’s out of the army. While speaking to his father backstage after a show, he sees a magazine featuring Leonora Cambaretti, an aquacade star. As it turns out, after Mr. Herald received an injury during the war, he stayed at a hospital where Leonora performed for the patients. Dick, who had yet to have his bandages removed from his eyes and head, though he is healed, couldn’t see Nora, and the men described her beauty to him as her family’s friend, Ferdi Farro (Jimmy Durante
) played on the piano. Thinking he is blind, Nora allowed Dick to touch her face and then kissed him, only to then find out that he was able to see, and she swam away.
Now, Nora is performing as the star of the Aqua Capers show. Dick finds Nora, and after giving her another kiss, he gets his nose twisted as punishment. Nora misunderstands why Dick is there to see her, and offers him a job with the show, but Ferdi then convinces his friend Xavier Cugat
to give job a position as a baritone at his night club.
After an Aqua Capers performance, Dick and Nora go to dinner together. When Nora arrives back at the hotel, Ferdi reminds her that she barely knows anything about Dick. At rehearsal the next day, Nora tells Dick that before they can fall in love, he has to pass inspection from her family, back on Mackinac Island
. Dick leaves with Nora while Frances's mother, Harriet meets with Richard and agrees to announce their children's engagement.
On the island, Dick meets Nora’s grandmother (May Whitty
) and niece, Deborah, (Sharon McManus), who warm up to him after he sings Grandmother’s favorite song, "(I’ll be with You) In Apple Blossom Time". Meanwhile, Ferdi and Gordon find that Dick’s engagement has been announced in the newspaper and try to think of a way to let Nora know. When the two return home, they each discover the engagement announcement separately. Nora is heartbroken, and Gordon arranges for her to stay somewhere far away from Dick and her Grandmother, since Dick would know where to find her if she were there. Dick arrives just as she leaves, only to be confronted by Ferdi. Six weeks later, Mr. Herald arrives as an Aqua Capers rehearsal in an attempt to find Nora, in case Dick is with her, but Ferdi will not tell him, though he knows where both of them are. Ferdi goes to see Dick at Xavier Cugat’s club, where he accuses Ferdi of being in love with Nora as well.
Meanwhile, summer has arrived on Mackinac Island, and tourists are flooding the island. Xavier Cugat’s band has a contract to perform at the Grand Hotel
, and Dick goes with them. Deborah, knowing that Nora has arrived by boat, hurries to the hotel and notifies Dick. Dick loads Deborah onto her bicycle and rides all the way to the Cambaretti house to speak with Nora. Nora tells him that she couldn’t be with him because she would never know whether or not he was lying to her, and he leaves. Ferdi invites Mr. Herald to the island, where he apologizes to Grandmother Cambaretti for placing the announcement in the newspaper. He also recognizes her from her old days as a performer in the circus
. The two decide that the children should be married and come up with a way to push the two together.
While Nora is at the swimming pool of the hotel, teaching Deborah to dive and swim, Dick begins singing "Easy to Love" with Xavier Cugat's female vocalist, which makes Deborah jealous and Gordon leave. That night, Nora decides she is going to go after Gordon, but Ferdi convinces her otherwise. Mr. Herald takes Grandmother to listen to Dick's performance at the hotel, where he convinces Xavier Cugat to fire his son and then begins to sing for the audience when Nora arrives with Ferdi. He stops singing "La donna è mobile
" and begins "Easy to Love
", during which Nora gets up and sits next to Dick, where they hold hands and snuggle into each other.
This was the third of four films Williams made with director Dick Thorpe
. Williams disliked Thorpe from the start, and the feeling was mutual. "Dick didn't like people who were too cheerful, which meant that he took an instant dislike to me," wrote Williams in her autobiography.
To convey the sense of outdoorsy, country small town life in the film, Irene
decided to use a lot of plaid in the costumes. She designed a swimsuit for Williams made out of lumberjack plaid flannel. "It absorbed water like crazy. I dove into the pool and tried to swim, but the suit just dragged me to the bottom. It was like trying to swim while wrapped in an old army blanket. I actually had trouble keeping my head above water" wrote Williams in The Million Dollar Mermaid. "Finally, I reached around me, tugged at the zipper, and watched as the suit quickly sank to the bottom of the deep end of the pool." Williams's assistant had to cut holes in a towel to place around her as she exited the pool, as the set was surrounded by tourists.
Johnston, was having a long-term affair with Kathryn Grayson
(whom he would later marry) and in her autobiography, Williams wrote that he would read Grayson's intimate letters aloud to the girls in his fan club, including the "all-too-graphic details concerning what she liked about his love-making."
(1945), Fiesta
(1947), Pagan Love Song (1950), Million Dollar Mermaid
(1952) and Easy to Love
(1953).
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
romantic
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
released in 1947
1947 in film
The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25...
and produced by MGM
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...
. It is about a soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
, returning home from war who does not wish to work for his father's opera company or to continue his relationship with his pre-war lover. It stars Esther Williams
Esther Williams
Esther Jane Williams is a retired American competitive swimmer and MGM movie star.Williams set multiple national and regional swimming records in her late teens as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team...
, Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
, Johnnie Johnston and Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
and it was directed by Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe was an American film director.Born Rollo Smolt Thorpe in Hutchinson, Kansas, he began his entertainment career performing in vaudeville and onstage. In 1921 he began in motion pictures as an actor and directed his first silent film in 1923. He went on to direct more than one hundred...
. The film was shot in color on location at the Grand Hotel
Grand Hotel (Mackinac Island)
The Grand Hotel is a historic hotel and coastal resort located on Mackinac Island, Michigan, a small island located at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac within Lake Huron between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. Constructed in the late 19th century, the facility advertises itself as...
, on Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island is an island and resort area covering in land area, part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European...
in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. This Time for Keeps became the second film in which Williams's name was first billed above the title, after Fiesta
Fiesta (1947 film)
Fiesta was an American Technicolor musical-drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1947, starring Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalbán, Mary Astor and Cyd Charisse. The film was directed by Richard Thorpe and written by George Bruce and Lester Cole...
.
Plot
Richard Herald (Lauritz MelchiorLauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
) is a famous opera singer and father to Richard Herald II, who has recently returned from fighting in the war, and now prefers to be known as Dick Johnson (Johnnie Johnston). Dick has been engaged to socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
Frances Allenbury (Mary Stuart) since before he left for the war, and has been expressing some apprehension about marrying her.
Mr. Herald wants his son to join him at the opera company, but Dick wants to enjoy his life now that he’s out of the army. While speaking to his father backstage after a show, he sees a magazine featuring Leonora Cambaretti, an aquacade star. As it turns out, after Mr. Herald received an injury during the war, he stayed at a hospital where Leonora performed for the patients. Dick, who had yet to have his bandages removed from his eyes and head, though he is healed, couldn’t see Nora, and the men described her beauty to him as her family’s friend, Ferdi Farro (Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
) played on the piano. Thinking he is blind, Nora allowed Dick to touch her face and then kissed him, only to then find out that he was able to see, and she swam away.
Now, Nora is performing as the star of the Aqua Capers show. Dick finds Nora, and after giving her another kiss, he gets his nose twisted as punishment. Nora misunderstands why Dick is there to see her, and offers him a job with the show, but Ferdi then convinces his friend Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...
to give job a position as a baritone at his night club.
After an Aqua Capers performance, Dick and Nora go to dinner together. When Nora arrives back at the hotel, Ferdi reminds her that she barely knows anything about Dick. At rehearsal the next day, Nora tells Dick that before they can fall in love, he has to pass inspection from her family, back on Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island is an island and resort area covering in land area, part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European...
. Dick leaves with Nora while Frances's mother, Harriet meets with Richard and agrees to announce their children's engagement.
On the island, Dick meets Nora’s grandmother (May Whitty
May Whitty
Dame May Whitty, DBE , born Mary Louise Whitty, was an English stage actress who appeared in numerous films in later life, achieving recognition in several character roles.-Background:...
) and niece, Deborah, (Sharon McManus), who warm up to him after he sings Grandmother’s favorite song, "(I’ll be with You) In Apple Blossom Time". Meanwhile, Ferdi and Gordon find that Dick’s engagement has been announced in the newspaper and try to think of a way to let Nora know. When the two return home, they each discover the engagement announcement separately. Nora is heartbroken, and Gordon arranges for her to stay somewhere far away from Dick and her Grandmother, since Dick would know where to find her if she were there. Dick arrives just as she leaves, only to be confronted by Ferdi. Six weeks later, Mr. Herald arrives as an Aqua Capers rehearsal in an attempt to find Nora, in case Dick is with her, but Ferdi will not tell him, though he knows where both of them are. Ferdi goes to see Dick at Xavier Cugat’s club, where he accuses Ferdi of being in love with Nora as well.
Meanwhile, summer has arrived on Mackinac Island, and tourists are flooding the island. Xavier Cugat’s band has a contract to perform at the Grand Hotel
Grand Hotel (Mackinac Island)
The Grand Hotel is a historic hotel and coastal resort located on Mackinac Island, Michigan, a small island located at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac within Lake Huron between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. Constructed in the late 19th century, the facility advertises itself as...
, and Dick goes with them. Deborah, knowing that Nora has arrived by boat, hurries to the hotel and notifies Dick. Dick loads Deborah onto her bicycle and rides all the way to the Cambaretti house to speak with Nora. Nora tells him that she couldn’t be with him because she would never know whether or not he was lying to her, and he leaves. Ferdi invites Mr. Herald to the island, where he apologizes to Grandmother Cambaretti for placing the announcement in the newspaper. He also recognizes her from her old days as a performer in the circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
. The two decide that the children should be married and come up with a way to push the two together.
While Nora is at the swimming pool of the hotel, teaching Deborah to dive and swim, Dick begins singing "Easy to Love" with Xavier Cugat's female vocalist, which makes Deborah jealous and Gordon leave. That night, Nora decides she is going to go after Gordon, but Ferdi convinces her otherwise. Mr. Herald takes Grandmother to listen to Dick's performance at the hotel, where he convinces Xavier Cugat to fire his son and then begins to sing for the audience when Nora arrives with Ferdi. He stops singing "La donna è mobile
La donna è mobile
"La donna è mobile" is the cynical Duke of Mantua's canzone from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto . The inherent irony is that it is the callous playboy Duke himself who is mobile...
" and begins "Easy to Love
Easy to Love
"Easy to Love" is the title of a R&B single by For Real, it was the second single from their debut album It's a Natural Thang. Billboard magazine noted "super-tight harmonies that are proiminent, but not overshadowing; instatly memorable melody stands as the cut's focal point.-Chart positions:...
", during which Nora gets up and sits next to Dick, where they hold hands and snuggle into each other.
Main cast
- Esther WilliamsEsther WilliamsEsther Jane Williams is a retired American competitive swimmer and MGM movie star.Williams set multiple national and regional swimming records in her late teens as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team...
as Leonora Cambaretti - Johnnie Johnston as Dick Johnson
- Jimmy DuranteJimmy DuranteJames Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
as Ferdi Farro - Lauritz MelchiorLauritz MelchiorLauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
as Richard Herald - Xavier CugatXavier CugatXavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...
as Himself - May WhittyMay WhittyDame May Whitty, DBE , born Mary Louise Whitty, was an English stage actress who appeared in numerous films in later life, achieving recognition in several character roles.-Background:...
as Grandmother Cambaretti - Mary StuartMary Stuart (actress)Mary Stuart was an American actress and singer/songwriter.She was born as Mary Stuart Houchins in Miami, Florida and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she graduated from Tulsa Central High School and attended the University of Tulsa before embarking on her professional career...
as Frances Allenbury - Ludwig StosselLudwig StösselLudwig Stössel was an actor born in Lockenhaus, Austria. He was one of many Jewish actors and actresses that were forced to flee Europe when the Nazis came to power in 1933....
as Peter - Sharon McManus as Deborah Cambretti
Music
- "Easy to LoveEasy to Love"Easy to Love" is the title of a R&B single by For Real, it was the second single from their debut album It's a Natural Thang. Billboard magazine noted "super-tight harmonies that are proiminent, but not overshadowing; instatly memorable melody stands as the cut's focal point.-Chart positions:...
- Johnny Johnston - "I Love to Dance" - Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra
- "I'm the Man Who Found the Lost Chord" - Jimmy Durante
- "La donna è mobile" - Lauritz Melchior
- "A Little Bit This and a Little Bit That" - Jimmy Durante
- "Inka Dinka DooInka Dinka DooInka Dinka Doo is a 1933 popular song with words and lyrics written by Jimmy Durante and Ben Ryan. By 1934 the song was a major hit record and it became Durante's theme song for the rest of his life....
" - Jimmy Durante - "M'Appari" - Lauritz Melchior
- "I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time" - Johnny Johnston
- "S'No Wonder They Fell in Love" - Johnny Johnston, Esther Williams and Sharon McManus
- "Ora è per sempre addio" - Lauritz Melchior
Production
Esther Williams was pregnant during the filming of This Time for Keeps, but later suffered a miscarriage.This was the third of four films Williams made with director Dick Thorpe
Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe was an American film director.Born Rollo Smolt Thorpe in Hutchinson, Kansas, he began his entertainment career performing in vaudeville and onstage. In 1921 he began in motion pictures as an actor and directed his first silent film in 1923. He went on to direct more than one hundred...
. Williams disliked Thorpe from the start, and the feeling was mutual. "Dick didn't like people who were too cheerful, which meant that he took an instant dislike to me," wrote Williams in her autobiography.
To convey the sense of outdoorsy, country small town life in the film, Irene
Irene Lentz
Irene Lentz , also known as Irene, was an American costume designer. Her work as a clothing designer in Los Angeles led to her career as a costume designer for films in the 1930s...
decided to use a lot of plaid in the costumes. She designed a swimsuit for Williams made out of lumberjack plaid flannel. "It absorbed water like crazy. I dove into the pool and tried to swim, but the suit just dragged me to the bottom. It was like trying to swim while wrapped in an old army blanket. I actually had trouble keeping my head above water" wrote Williams in The Million Dollar Mermaid. "Finally, I reached around me, tugged at the zipper, and watched as the suit quickly sank to the bottom of the deep end of the pool." Williams's assistant had to cut holes in a towel to place around her as she exited the pool, as the set was surrounded by tourists.
Johnston, was having a long-term affair with Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson was an American actress and operatic soprano singer.From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to MGM by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals...
(whom he would later marry) and in her autobiography, Williams wrote that he would read Grayson's intimate letters aloud to the girls in his fan club, including the "all-too-graphic details concerning what she liked about his love-making."
Critical response
A 1947 New York Times review of the film called it a "very dull show, consciously cute and embarrassingly cloying for most of its over-extended length.Home media
On October 6, 2009, Turner Entertainment released This Time for Keeps on DVD as part of the Esther Williams Spotlight Collection, Volume 2. The 6 disc set was a follow up to the company's Esther Williams Spotlight Collection, Volume 1, and contains digitally remastered versions of several of Williams's films including Thrill of a RomanceThrill of a Romance
Thrill of a Romance was an American romance film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1945, starring Van Johnson, Esther Williams and Carleton G. Young, with musical performances by opera singer Lauritz Melchior...
(1945), Fiesta
Fiesta (1947 film)
Fiesta was an American Technicolor musical-drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1947, starring Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalbán, Mary Astor and Cyd Charisse. The film was directed by Richard Thorpe and written by George Bruce and Lester Cole...
(1947), Pagan Love Song (1950), Million Dollar Mermaid
Million Dollar Mermaid
Million Dollar Mermaid is a 1952 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer biographical musical film of the life of Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Arthur Hornblow Jr. from a screenplay by Everett Freeman. The music score was by Adolph Deutsch, the...
(1952) and Easy to Love
Easy to Love (film)
Easy to Love is a 1953 musical film directed by Charles Walters. It stars Esther Williams and Van Johnson.-Cast:*Esther Williams as Julie Hallerton*Van Johnson as Ray Lloyd*Tony Martin as Barry Gordton*John Bromfield as Hank...
(1953).