Lady in the Dark
US (1944): Romance/Comedy/Drama
Ginger Rogers has an intriguing role as a successful magazine editor-in-chief of Allure who is troubled by seemingly inexplicable symptoms, and unwillingly seeks the services of a psychoanalyst. She explores a series of dreams, presented in delirious Technicolor, and the analysis takes her progressively further back into her unhappy childhood. In the meantime, Rogers is beset by romantic troubles, losing interest in a recent divorcé and a hunky movie star and doing battle with her handsome but stubborn co-worker. Unsurprisingly, the lessons she learns in analysis resolve psychological distress and her romantic quandary at once. A curious Hollywood treatment of the then-voguish interest in Freudian analysis. Based on a Broadway musical by Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin and Moss Hart. Mitchell Liesen directs this Paramount release; cast also includes Ray Milland, Warner Baxter, Jon Hall, Barry Sullivan, Mischa Auer and Phillis Brooks.
The mink dress Rogers wears in the circus-themed dream sequence in the film, created by Edith Head, was widely reported to have been the most expensive costume in film history at that time. It reputedly cost $35,000. (amctv.com)
3 nominations
· Interior Decoration (Color) 1944: Hans Dreier & Raoul Pene du Bois - Art Direction, Ray Moyer - Set Decoration
· Cinematography (Color) 1944: Ray Rennahan
· Music Scoring Awards (Scoring of a Musical Picture) 1944: Robert Emmett Dolan