The Restless and the Damned
| The Restless and the Damned | |
|---|---|
 French poster | |
| Directed by | Yves Allégret |
| Written by | René Wheeler |
| Based on | novel Manganese by |
| Produced by | Robert Dorfmann Lee Robinson |
| Starring | Edmond O'Brien Richard Basehart |
| Cinematography | Carl Kayser Henri Persin Louis Stein Giles Bonneau |
| Edited by | Albert Jurgenson |
| Music by | Henri Crolla André Hodeir Ray Ventura |
Production companies | Silverfilm (France) Australian Television Enterprises (Australia) |
Release date | 15 October 1959 (France) |
Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Languages | English French |
| Box office | 767,540 admissions (France)[1] |
The Restless and the Damned (also known as L'Ambitieuse) is a 1959 French-Australian film co produced by Lee Robinson. It was shot on location in Tahiti and the Tuamotu Islands. There are French and English-language versions.
Synopsis[]
In Tahiti, an ambitious woman, Dominique, promotes the fortunes of her husband, George, by extracting money from George's family to finance his operations and seducing a prospective business partner. But when George decides to leave her for another woman, Claire, she tries to kill him.[2]
Cast[]
- Edmond O'Brien as Buchanan
- Richard Basehart as George Rancourt
- Andrea Parisy as Dominique
- Nicole Berger as Claire
- Nigel Lovell as Andre
- Reg Lye as Mathews
- Jean Marchat as Uncle Albert
- Denise Vernac as Aunt Edwige
Production[]
The film was shot in late 1958. Originally Lee Robinson was to direct the English-language version but after a few days Yves Allégret directed both.[3]
Rafferty and Robinson contributed £40,000 of the film's budget, coming from hire of studio facilities to two films shot in Tahiti and their involvement in several episodes of the US documentary series, High Adventure.[4]
Edmond O'Briens fee was more than $200,000. He was cast on the strength of his performance in The Girl Can't Help It("it was considered a comedy of importance" said Dorfman) and his Oscar. The film was also known as The Ambitious.[5]
Release[]
The film was a box office failure and did not achieve cinema release in England, the United States and Australia and ended the feature film partnership of Chips Rafferty and Lee Robinson.[6] It was sold to American TV under the title The Climbers.
References[]
- ^ French box office hits of 1959 at Box Office Story
- ^ "The Restless and the Damned". The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia. 1 April 1959. p. 65. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- ^ Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p227
- ^ Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years, Currency Press, 1989, p203
- ^ Irene Papas Will Team With Quinn: Actress Fills Out 'Navarone'; O'Brien Hails Europe's Silver Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times 22 Mar 1960: C9.
- ^ 'King of the Coral Sea: Lee Robinson in interview with Albert Moran' Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture vol. 1 no 1 (1987)
External links[]
- The Restless and the Damned at IMDb
- The Restless and the Damned at National Film and Sound Archive
- The Restless and the Damned at Oz Movies
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- 1959 films
- Australian films
- French films
- English-language films
- English-language French films
- 1959 adventure films
- Films directed by Yves Allégret
- Films set in French Polynesia
- Australian multilingual films
- French multilingual films
- French-Australian culture
- 1950s multilingual films
- Australian film stubs
- 1950s film stubs
- Adventure film stubs