Lizzie (1957 film)

Plot

Elizabeth (Eleanor Parker) has recurring headaches and is plagued with insomnia. She is receiving letters from a woman called Lizzie, but Elizabeth can't remember knowing anyone named Lizzie. When Elizabeth is under hypnosis, her psychiatrist, Dr. Wright (Richard Boone), discovers Elizabeth has three personalities: The shy Elizabeth, the Mr. Hyde-like Lizzie, and the kind, well-adjusted Beth, the woman she always should have been. It is up to Dr. Wright to help Elizabeth to become Beth completely. In the end, the events of young Elizabeth's birthday are revealed: Her mother—an abusive alcoholic—came late to the child's birthday with her drunken boyfriend in tow. Elizabeth lost her temper with her, and she collapsed and died. Elizabeth blames herself for her mother's death. Elizabeth's Aunt Morgan, who has shown little sympathy for her niece's suffering, knew about this. Then Elizabeth retrieves another memory of that day: Her mother's boyfriend raped her. (This is shown through a prolonged sequence in which he slowly pursues her up the stairs and into her bedroom, concluding with a closeup of the girl's face.) She never told anyone. Aunt Morgan's is angry, shocked, and genuinely sorry.

In the present, alone in her bedroom, a three-way mirror is the stage on which Beth fights and wins the battle for dominance. Dr. Wright promises that he will continue to help her learn to live.

Cast

• Eleanor Parker as Elizabeth Richmondt
• Richard Boone as Dr. Neal Wright
• Joan Blondell as Aunt Morgan
• Hugo Haas as Walter Brenner
• Ric Roman as Johnny Valenzo
• Dorothy Arnold as Elizabeth's mother
• Marion Ross as Ruth Seaton
• Johnny Mathis as Piano Singer

Production

The film was produced by Bryna Productions, which was Kirk Douglas' company.

Johnny Mathis made his film debut in Lizzie. "It's Not for Me to Say" became one of his big hits during his career. Both this song and "Warm and Tender", which appear in the film, were subsequently included in Mathis' fifth album, Johnny's Greatest Hits.

TCM.com reports that Lizzie's producers sued Fox to postpone the release of the film The Three Faces of Eve, starring Joanne Woodward, because of the similarity of their plots. Fox did delay until early in 1957 after the publication of the biography on which The Three Faces of Eve was based.

Reception

According to MGM records, the film earned $280,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $275,000 in other markets, resulting in a loss of $154,000.

Shirley Jackson, the author of the novel on which Lizzie was based, was reportedly unimpressed with the screenplay, writing "I have read the screen play and it sounds a little like Ma and Pa Kettle, or Abbott and Costello meet a multiple personality." but when she saw the movie, she "thought it was extremely good, and enormously improved over the first script I saw."

References

References

1. "The Eddie Mannix Ledger". Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
2. "Lizzie".
3. ''The Letters of Shirley Jackson,'' edited by Laurence Jackson Hyman; letter dated June 12, 1955
4. Shirley Jackson to Bernice Baumgarten, February 28, 1957
5. Franklin, Ruth. (2017). "Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life". Liveright.