''Two Weeks in Another Town'' is a 1962 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Vincente Minnelli Vincente Minnelli (born Lester Anthony Minnelli; February 28, 1903 – July 25, 1986) was an American stage director and film director. He directed the classic movie musicals ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' (1944), ''An American in Paris'' (1951), ''Th ...

and starring

Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Do ...

and Edward G. Robinson. The supporting players include

Cyd Charisse Cyd Charisse (born Tula Ellice Finklea; March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008) was an American actress and dancer. After recovering from polio as a child and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s. Her roles usually featured her abilit ...

Claire Trevor Claire Trevor ( Wemlinger; March 8, 1910April 8, 2000) was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ''Key Largo'' (1948), and received nomina ...

Daliah Lavi Daliah Lavi (born Daliah Lewinbuk or Levenbuch, he, דליה לביא ; 12 October 1942 – 3 May 2017) was an Israeli actress, singer, and model. Biography Daliah Lewinbuk (or Levenbuch) was born in Shavei Tzion, British Mandate of Palestine ...

, George Hamilton, and

Rosanna Schiaffino Rosanna Schiaffino (25 November 1939 – 17 October 2009) was an Italian film actress. She appeared on the covers of Italian, German, French, British and American magazines. Early life She was born in Genoa, Liguria to a well-off family. Her mot ...

. The film was based on a 1960 novel by

Irwin Shaw Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: ''The Young Lions'' ( ...

and depicts the shooting of a romantic costume drama in Rome by a team of decadent Hollywood stars during the

Hollywood on the Tiber Hollywood on the Tiber is a phrase used to describe the period in the 1950s and 1960s when the Italian capital of Rome emerged as a major location for international filmmaking attracting many foreign productions to the Cinecittà studios. By contr ...

era. The picture contains several references to ''

The Bad and the Beautiful ''The Bad and the Beautiful'' is a 1952 American melodrama that tells the story of a film producer who alienates everyone around him. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, written by George Bradshaw (writer), George Bradshaw and Charles Sch ...

,'' a previous successful

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

movie directed by Minnelli and produced by

John Houseman John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director ...

a decade earlier, also with a screenplay by

Charles Schnee Charles Schnee (6 August 1916 Bridgeport, Connecticut - 29 November 1963 Beverly Hills, California) was a screenwriter and film producer. He wrote the scripts for the Westerns '' Red River'' (1948) and '' The Furies'' (1950), the social melodrama ...

, music by

David Raksin David Raksin (August 4, 1912 – August 9, 2004) was an American composer who was noted for his work in film and television. With more than 100 film scores and 300 television scores to his credit, he became known as the "Grandfather of Film Music ...

, and starring Kirk Douglas as the lead character. The story was seen by some as a depiction of the relationships among

Tyrone Power Tyrone Edmund Power III (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958) was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include '' Jesse James'', ...

Linda Christian Linda Christian (born Blanca Rosa Henrietta Stella Welter Vorhauer; November 13, 1923 – July 22, 2011) was a Mexican film actress, who appeared in Mexican and Hollywood films. Her career reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. She played Mara ...

and

Darryl Zanuck Darryl Francis Zanuck (September 5, 1902December 22, 1979) was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. He played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of ...

. At the time of its release, the film was perceived as a box-office failure, with overall losses totaling approximately $3 million.

Plot

Once an established movie star, Jack Andrus has hit rock bottom. An alcoholic, he has been divorced by wife Carlotta, barely survived a car crash, and spent three years in a sanitarium recovering from a nervous breakdown. Maurice Kruger, a film director who was something of a mentor to Andrus, is a has-been. However, he has landed a job in Italy, directing a movie that stars Davie Drew, a handsome, up-and-coming young actor. Andrus is offered a chance to come to Rome and play a role in Kruger's new film. He is crestfallen upon arriving when told that the part is no longer available to him. Kruger's mean-spirited wife Clara doesn't pity him a bit, but Andrus is invited to take a lesser job assisting at Cinecittà Studio with the dubbing of the actors' lines. While working, he socializes with the beautiful Veronica, but she actually is in love with Drew. The actor is having a great deal of difficulty with his part, and the movie is over budget and behind schedule. Kruger's stress is increased by the constant harping of Clara, resulting in a heart attack that sends the director to the hospital. Andrus is asked to take over the director's chair and complete the film. Glad to do this favor for Kruger, he takes charge and gets the film back on schedule. The actors respond to him so much that Drew's representatives tell Andrus the actor will insist on his directing Drew's next film. Proud of what he has done, Andrus goes to Kruger in the hospital, delighted to report the progress he's made, only to be attacked by Clara for trying to undermine Kruger and steal his movie from him. Andrus is shocked when Kruger sides with her. An all-night descent into an alcohol-fueled rage follows. Carlotta goes along as a drunken Andrus gets behind the wheel of a car and races through the streets of Rome, nearly killing both of them. At the last minute, Andrus comes to his senses. He vows to return home, continue his sobriety and get his life back on track.

Cast

as Jack Andrus * Edward G. Robinson as Maurice Kruger *

as Carlotta *

as Clara Kruger *

as Veronica * George Hamilton as Davie Drew *

as Barzelli * James Gregory as Tom Byrd *

Mino Doro Mino Doro (6 May 1903 – 13 April 1992) was an Italian actor who appeared in more than a hundred films between 1932 and 1970. Doro generally played supporting and character roles. He appeared as a blackshirt in the 1934 Fascist propaganda fi ...

film producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

Tucino

Production

''Two Weeks in Another Town'' was created by the same team that worked on ''

'': director (Vincente Minnelli), producer (John Houseman), screenwriter (Charles Schnee), composer (David Raksin), male star (Kirk Douglas), and studio (MGM). Both movies feature performances of the song " Don't Blame Me": by

Leslie Uggams Leslie Marian Uggams (born May 25, 1943) is an American actress and singer. Beginning her career as a child in the early 1950s, Uggams is recognized for portraying Kizzy Reynolds in the television miniseries ''Roots'' (1977), earning Golden Glob ...

in ''Two Weeks in Another Town'' and by

Peggy King Peggy King (born February 16, 1930) is a jazz vocalist and television personality. She was a member of big bands led by Charlie Spivak, Ralph Flanagan, and Ray Anthony. Career "Pretty Perky Peggy King", as she was called, appeared on ''The Geo ...

in ''The Bad and the Beautiful''. In one scene of the former, the cast watches clips from ''The Bad and the Beautiful'' in a screening room, presented as a movie in which Douglas's character, Jack Andrus, had starred. ''Two Weeks in Another Town'' is not a sequel, however; the characters in the two stories are unrelated. George Hamilton was cast as "a troubled, funky James Dean-type actor, for which I couldn't have been less appropriate" as he later admitted.George Hamilton & William Stadiem, ''Don't Mind If I Do'', Simon & Schuster 2008 p 157 In the scene where Jack Andrus searches for David Drew in nightclubs in Rome, the song is "O' Pellirossa" featuring the Italian singer and drummer

Gegè Di Giacomo Gennaro Di Giacomo (1918–2005) was an Italian drummer and singer. Biography Nephew of the poet Salvatore Di Giacomo Salvatore Di Giacomo (12 March 1860 – 5 April 1934) was an Italian poet, songwriter, playwright and fascist, one of ...

. The adult subject matter ran into problems with the MPAA and the conservative studio executives at MGM. Joseph Vogel, the new studio head, wanted to transform the project into a "family film" and had it re-edited without Minnelli's input, reducing the total running time by 15 minutes. Both Minnelli and Houseman protested but to no avail. An orgy-party scene inspired by

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most i ...

's ''

La Dolce Vita ''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for "the sweet life" or "the good life"Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi) by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcell ...

'' was deleted as well as a melancholy monologue by Cyd Charisse that was supposed to humanize her character. Kirk Douglas later wrote in his 1988 autobiography that "this was such an injustice to Vincente Minnelli, who'd done such a wonderful job with the film. And an injustice to the paying public, who could have had the experience of watching a very dramatic, meaningful film. They released it that way, emasculated." The Maserati Kirk Douglas drives is a 3500 GT Spyder.

Reception

Critical

Initially, the film wasn't well-received by critics or the public.

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

in his ''New York Times'' review of August 18, 1962 wrote: "The whole thing is a lot of glib trade patter, ridiculous and unconvincing snarls and a weird professional clash between the actor and director that is like something out of a Hollywood cartoon." The film's reputation has greatly improved over time. David Thomson called it "underrated," writing in ''

The New Biographical Dictionary of Film ''The New Biographical Dictionary of Film'' is a reference book written by film critic David Thomson, originally published by Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd in 1975 under the title ''A Biographical Dictionary of Cinema.'' Organized by personality, ...

'' that it was "invested with such intense psychological detail that the narrative faults vanish." Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote that it was "one of innellis last great pictures...The costumes, decor, and 'Scope compositions show Minnelli at his most expressive, and the gaudy intensity—as well as the inside detail about the movie business—makes this compulsively watchable."

Box office

According to MGM records, the film earned $1 million in the U.S. and Canada and $1.5 million elsewhere, resulting in an overall loss of $2,969,000.

References

External links

* * * * * {{Authority control 1962 films 1962 drama films American drama films Films directed by Vincente Minnelli Films scored by David Raksin Films about filmmaking Films about Hollywood, Los Angeles Films based on American novels Films set in Rome Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films CinemaScope films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films