The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing

1955 American film

The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Richard Fleischer
Written by	Walter Reisch Charles Brackett
Produced by	Charles Brackett
Starring	Ray Milland Joan Collins Farley Granger
Cinematography	Milton R. Krasner
Edited by	William Mace
Music by	Leigh Harline
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	October 1, 1955
Running time	109 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.7 million^[1]
Box office	$1.3 million (US)^[2]

The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing is a 1955 American film directed by Richard Fleischer from a screenplay by Walter Reisch and Charles Brackett, and starring Joan Collins, Ray Milland, and Farley Granger. The CinemaScope film was released by Twentieth Century-Fox, which had originally planned to put Marilyn Monroe in the title role, and then suspended her when she refused to do the film.^[3]

Plot

The film relates the fictionalized story of Evelyn Nesbit. Nesbit was a model and actress who became embroiled in the scandal surrounding the June 1906 murder of her paramour, architect Stanford White, by her husband, rail and coal tycoon Harry Kendall Thaw.

Cast

Ray Milland as Stanford White
Joan Collins as Evelyn Nesbit Thaw
Farley Granger as Harry Kendall Thaw
Luther Adler as Delphin Delmas
Cornelia Otis Skinner as Mrs. Thaw
Glenda Farrell as Mrs. Nesbit
Frances Fuller as Mrs. Elizabeth White
Phillip Reed as Robert J. Collier
Gale Robbins as Gwen Arden
James Lorimer as McCaleb
John Hoyt as William Travers Jerome
Robert F. Simon as Stage Manager
Harvey Stephens as Dr. Hollingshead
Emile Meyer as Hunchbacher

Production

Writer Walter Reisch claims the film was his idea; he says 20th Century Fox were enthusiastic in part because producer Charlie Brackett knew Stanford White as a boy. Reisch estimates the film was 70% fact and 30% fictionalised. They tracked down Nesbit to get permission to make the film. Nesbit agreed in exchange for money although she was reluctant to do publicity for the film.^[4]

References

^ Solomon, Aubrey (1989), Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, The Scarecrow Filmmakers, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, p. 249, ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1
^ "The Top Box-Office Hits of 1955", Variety Weekly, January 25, 1956.
^ "Trivia", IMDb.
^ McGilligan, Patrick (1991). Backstory 2: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1940s and 1950s. University of California Press. pp. 240–243.