jjnxn-1 Somewhat saucy romp has a ravishingly beautiful and amber haired Linda Darnell in the lead full of piquant carnality, lavish costumes and settings and a scene stealing George Sanders as Charles II. What it doesn't have is a lively pace and that to some extent is its undoing. Preminger was the wrong director for a piece of entertainment like this that required a florid touch, Michael Curtiz would have been much more at home at the helm.The novel this is based on was a notorious but tremendously successful sensation of its day. That book while certainly not "A Great American Novel" is a highly enjoyable piece of pulp fiction full of sex, murder and double crosses in fancy clothes with a complex, very entertaining heroine at its center who has a good heart but is not overly burdened with morals. Unfortunately since they tried to film it in the forties when the Production Code was in full force the more salacious plot points had to be excised. What made it to the screen has its moments but shows the heavy hand of censors most evident in the abrupt ending but scattered throughout the movie. Still a fun romp with Linda giving a spirited performance and for those who haven't read the book a somewhat racy tone.A troubled production from the beginning what with censorship problems, a recast leading lady, Linda Darnell stepped in after production had started when Peggy Cummings didn't work out and Lana Turner couldn't be borrowed from MGM and a martinet in the director's chair. There are still a few amusing stories connected to the backstage upheaval that went on. Linda Darnell had worked with Preminger before on Fallen Angel and it had been rough going but she truly came to loathe him during production of Amber. Later while filming A Letter to Three Wives Joseph Mankiewicz needed her to throw a look of disgust at a picture unseen by the audience, to achieve that look he slipped a picture of Preminger into the frame without her knowledge, he got his look. A small sampling of Preminger's directorial style: after acting out a scene for Linda and Cornel Wilde he screamed at them as they tried to do as he had instructed "Don't do it like I did it! Do it like I meant it!"One peripheral story: when Ava Gardner was briefly married to Artie Shaw he flew into a rage and berated her when he caught her reading Forever Amber saying it was trash and she should be focusing her attention on things that would enrich her mind, he was that kind of husband. They divorced shortly after and within the year he had married Kathleen Winsor...the author of Forever Amber!

blanche-2 "Forever Amber" was one of those ambitious studio projects that was in trouble from the beginning. The result is nowhere near as bad as one would guess.Based on a novel by Kathleen Winsor (who had definitely been thinking about the story since she saw Gone with the Wind 8 years earlier), the story concerns Amber, a great beauty at the time the Stuarts were restored to the English throne. Amber is ambitious for the finer things in life, a la Madame Bovary. She leaves her life of poverty, and the man she is told to marry, and gets a ride to the big city with Bruce Carlton (Cornel Wilde) and Lord Almsbury (Richard Greene), two adventurers who want to get the money promised them by King Charles II (George Sanders) for their last voyage and then go off to sea again. Amber falls in love with Carlton immediately. The two have a romance, but for Carlton, it's more a dalliance. However, he leaves Amber pregnant. She's cheated out of the money he gave her by two con artists, and she's arrested.Amber escapes prison with the help of a highwayman (John Russell), who uses her in his robbery gang; she seduces the victim to go with her, and he's robbed. One night, as the police chase her, she runs into the home of Captain Rex Morgan (Glenn Langan). Morgan tells Amber that if she takes a job on the stage, she will have the king's protection. So the next thing we know, Amber is a performer. Eventually she winds up as a favorite of King Charles and lives in the palace with her son.The film started out starring Peggy Cummins, who apparently wasn't doing a very good job. She was replaced with Linda Darnell, who is as gorgeous as a blond as she was as a brunette. Though she's very sensual as Amber, she's not particularly vixenish or fiery. Her costumes are absolutely stunning. The whole color production is stunning, sumptuously produced.As one might guess, the story was mighty scandalous in the '40s, with Amber sleeping her way to the top, as it were. The film received horrific publicity because the Catholic church demanded changes, and if they didn't get them, the film would get the feared "C" rating (condemned) which meant Catholics couldn't go and see it. The changes were made, the film was rated B (objectionable in part for all) but because of all the bad publicity, it didn't make much money."Forever Amber" moves a little slowly, and Darnell has no chemistry with Cornell Wilde. Not only that, but there isn't much film footage showing why she fell for him. The cast is pretty good, with a charming performance by Richard Greene and a nice character turn by Anne Revere. Sanders is a real standout, as is Richard Haydn as the Earl of Radcliffe. Wilde doesn't register much; he could never warm up the camera, but he looks good here.A derivative film, but worth seeing for Darnell's great beauty.

jdavij2003 I just wanted to say that for an old movie, it was okay. I read the book before I saw the movie, and usually that is cause for nitpicking. I think that the main problems I had with the movie were that it seemed to jump around a lot and I don't think I would have known what was going on if I hadn't read the book. Also, one comment mentioned that the ending could have led to a sequel, which I guess is true. But, in the book, Amber lets Bruce and Corrine take little Bruce, and then Amber's enemies tell her that Corrine has died, so Amber takes off to America to be with him. The problem is, Corrine is alive, Amber's enemies simply wanted to be rid of her. I really think it would be great if the movie were remade today, with all the details. I would pay to see it!

countryway_48864 I had not seen Forever Amber since I saw it in a theater as a young girl and was completely captivated by the intrigue and the flash and dash of it all.Seeing it now as a MUCH older woman, I see the holes, mostly in the lighting which is quite dim even when it should be bright. Perhaps the set designer was trying to give the effect of period lighting.I was struck by how much the story follows the bare-bones of Gone With The Wind, in particular the way it ends and the glamorous and enigmatic Baron Carlton- Cornell Wilde, walk away with the child while Amber watches from the window. A perfect opening for the sequel that never came.Forever Amber doesn't even pretend to be a GREAT film, but it is a good one with good acting and some wonderful touches, especially George Sanders' terrific "Snidley Whiplash" aka James II. as he calls his brace of King Charles spaniels "children".Linda Darnell is lovely but not as accomplished an actress as Vivian Leigh (or as beautiful). Cornell Wilde is NOT Clark Gable-but who was? Still, both manager to give satisfactory performances.Wilde's best scenes are with the child who looks very much like him. There is a warmth and humor about Wilde when he is interacting with the child that is charming. His Baron Carlton is aloof and something of a snob with everyone else. He is aware of his station in life and unable to break his code of behavior even for Amber. I have no doubt he likes her, but I don't think he ever loved her in the same way she loved him. He never really seems to empathize with her struggles, but is genuinely grateful to her for saving his life and delighted with his young son. He is an puzzle wrapped in a conundrum.Amber is all surface. She has the depth of a parking-lot puddle and I find myself wishing Maureen O'Hara had been cast. Then REAL sparks would fly. In Darnell's Amber we get a smudge-pot. Oh well.The glimpses of the court and old London, the plague and the fire are interesting and, in general the film is FUN.My one REAL regret is that we never see enough of Wilde fencing. He was a National fencing champion and on the 1936 Olympic Fencing team, but his fencing scene in Amber is shot through fog so dense you can hardly see him. That's a shame!!Enjoy that barn-burner for what it is, not what it could have been!