Sabrina
Short description
Sabrina Fairchild is the daughter of the chauffeur for the wealthy Larrabee family, and she has long been infatuated with David, the younger Larrabee son, whose life revolves around leisure and romance. Her father sends her to Paris to study cooking, hoping the distance will cure her, and she returns two years later as a poised and elegant young woman. David finally takes notice of her, but his attentions collide with the family's plans: his older brother Linus, who runs the Larrabee business, has arranged a marriage for David that is meant to secure a major corporate merger.
Billy Wilder directed and produced the film, the eighth of the twenty-two features he directed in chronological order, following Stalag 17 and preceding The Seven Year Itch. He wrote the screenplay with Ernest Lehman and Samuel A. Taylor. Humphrey Bogart plays Linus, Audrey Hepburn plays Sabrina, and William Holden plays David, with Walter Hampden, John Williams and Martha Hyer among the credited cast of forty-two.
Made by Paramount for about two million dollars, the film returned roughly ten million worldwide, a strong multiple of its cost. On IMDb it holds 7.6 out of 10 from around seventy-five thousand votes, while on TMDB it has 7.5 from over a thousand. A critics' rating of 8 out of 10 from eighty-two reviews places it in similar territory to those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Humphrey Bogart replaced Cary Grant at the last minute.
- Bogart and his co-star William Holden couldn't stand each other. The reason was that Bogart disapproved of Audrey Hepburn being chosen for the lead female role, as he wanted his wife Lauren Bacall to play Sabrina. Holden, however, fell in love with Hepburn. When asked how it was working with Hepburn, Bogart replied: "Okay, except for having to do 20 takes."
- Bogart earned $300,000 for his role, Holden – $150,000, and Hepburn's fee was only $15,000.
- Although Edith Head won the Oscar for Best Costume Design, the majority of Audrey Hepburn's outfits were created by French couturier Hubert de Givenchy. The actress herself chose them. This film marked Hepburn's first collaboration with Givenchy; subsequently, throughout her career, she dressed exclusively in his designs. Before 'Sabrina', Givenchy had never heard of Audrey Hepburn and when he was offered the job on the film, he thought they were referring to Katharine Hepburn.
- "Sabrina" was the first of four films in a row where Audrey Hepburn had to play heroines who had romantic relationships with men old enough to be their fathers.
- At the theater, Sabrina and Linus watch the play "The Seven Year Itch." Billy Wilder, the film's director, made his next film based on this play in 1955.
- The estate where the filming took place belonged to Barney Balaban, the then-head of Paramount Studios.
- As with the film "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), filming of "Sabrina" began even though the script was not yet finished. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman and director Billy Wilder worked on it daily to the point of exhaustion. Once, when Lehman couldn't provide Bogart with a copy of a newly rewritten scene, the actor flew into a rage. Wilder then announced that filming would not continue until Bogart apologized to the screenwriter. And only after Bogart invited Lehman to his dressing room did filming resume.
- Working on the script took so much time that Wilder couldn't balance it with filming. Once, to finish writing one of the scenes in time, he even asked Audrey Hepburn to pretend to be sick.
- During filming, Hepburn and Holden began a romance, but when the actress learned that Holden could not have children, she broke off the relationship.
- Humphrey Bogart always stopped filming at 6:00 PM, as that was when he began drinking whiskey with soda. If anyone tried to make him work after six in the evening, he would leave proudly without saying a word.
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