Sabrina

• Title:  Sabrina
• Director:  Billy Wilder
• Date:  1954
• Studio:  Paramount
• Genre:  Romance, Drama
• Cast:  Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden
• Format:  Standard, Black and White
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC

"Oh, I'm not telling you that you have to be a cook as she was, or that I want you to marry a  chauffeur like me, but you know how I feel about it.  Your mother and I had a good life together, we were respected by everyone.  That's as much as anyone can want in this world.  Don't reach for the moon, child."  Fairchild, Sabrina's father


"It's all beginning to make sense -- Mr. Tyson owns the sugar cane, you own the formula for the plastics and I'm supposed to be offered up as a human sacrifice on the alter of industrial progress -- is that it?"  -- David


"So strange to think of you being touched by a woman - I always thought you walked alone."  -- Sabrina
"No man walks alone by choice."  -- Linus

Sabrina, cannot in truth be called a "romantic comedy", because the storyline is, in many ways, quite dark, though the second half  of  the film does turn into a typical romantic triangle.  Hepburn is Sabrina, the daughter of  the chauffeur, living on the very large, Long Island estate belonging to the Larrabee family.  She's quite young, and quite taken with David (Holden), the younger of  the two Larrabee brothers.  David, however, barely knows she exists.  When Sabrina sees David romantically involved with another woman, she gets so upset, she decides to commit suicide.  And even though she's scheduled to go to France for cooking school the next day, she goes to the garage, starts all the cars, closed all the doors and tries to kill herself, after leaving a note for her father.  Sabrina is rescued by Linus (Bogart) the older Larrabee brother, and nothing more is said about what happened.

After the incident, she's sent off  to France, and cooking school.  In France, at first, Sabrina can think of nothing but David, and even her classes don't distract her.  And given that the classes start with "How to boil water" and "how to crack an egg" - you can't really blame her for being bored.  But soon she's taken under the wing of  and old baron who teaches her about style, and grace, and she returns to New York two years later and outwardly changed women - full of  style and sophistication.  But, inwardly, she's still obsessed with David.  Upon learning he's engaged, she still plans to ensnare him.


Sabrina's plans, however, are somewhat derailed by Linus, the older Larrabee (Humphrey Bogart), who's arranged his brother's marriage to a sugar cane heiress to cement a business deal to make bullet-proof plastic from sugar cane.  (Don't ask, just like you don't want to try and figure out how the daughter of the chauffeur can afford the prestigious Cordon Blue cooking school in France).  Linus arranges his brother's match, but playboy David thinks that this is one girl he's not interested in.  And when he sees Sabrina in all her finery at the train station, he's hooked.  But, Linus, most to save his business deal, and partially because he's also intrigued by this sophisticated woman in his midst, also starts to date Sabrina.


And thus, we have the triangle, who will end-up with Sabrina?  Like many movies from the 1950s, it's the men in her life -- her father, the two brothers, and the two brothers' father, who seem determined to make Sabrina's choice of  a husband for her, rather than letting Sabrina choose.  Still, it is a good movie anyway, and the first time I watched it I was genuinely surprised who she ends up choosing after all.


Billy Wilder directed Sabrina, which accounts for it's dark tone, and I'm not just talking about the black and white filming.  Wilder's direction is incredible, especially his use of  deep focus and shots of the characters completely isolated from each other, surprising in a romance (but not surprising coming from Wilder - an accomplished Film Noir director).  Even in what would normally be a very romantic scene, Linus and Sabrina boating, she's on one end of  the boat, he's on the other.  The boat's only about 15 feet and the two "lovers" are sitting as far apart as they could possibly get without one of them being in the ocean.  When Sabrina confront Linus in his office - the lighting is used to great effect and further isolates the characters.


Recommendation:  See it! (At least once)
Rating: 3.8 Stars Out of  5
Next Film:  Same Time, Next Year