NEVER SAY GOODBYE

US, 1956, 96 minutes, Colour.
Rock Hudson, Cornell Borchers, George Sanders, Shelley Fabares, Ray Collins, David Janssen.
Directed by Jerry Hopper.

An attractive romantic soap opera of the fifties, a star vehicle for Rock Hudson and for Cornel Borchers who had
appeared in The Big Lift and The Divided Heart in England. Miss Borchers was not to be a success on the American screen and made only Istanbul with Errol Flynn after this.

However, Rock Hudson was to have a very successful career. George Sanders appears in a characteristic role. Direction is by Jerry Hopper, but it is the kind of film that Douglas Sirk was making at Universal at this time, especially with Rock Hudson, for example Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows. The screenplay is based on a play by Luigi Pirandello.

1. The perennial appeal of this kind of romantic melodrama? The title, soap opera? Men/women relationships, marriage, misunderstanding, search, children?

2. How attractive a film? Colour photography, wartime European setting, affluent America? The fifties and the soap opera gloss? The stars? The romantic score?

3. The atmosphere of the decade after the war and this film's impact? Now? The American view of Europe, the Iron Curtain, Communists, the United States?

4. The significance of the title ? as used by Susie, as used by Lisa, by Mike, by Victor?

5. The introduction to the American setting, Californian society in the fifties? Mike and his skill, his work, relationship with Susie, the hallowing of the memory of her mother? The importance of the audience judging Mike from the favourable impression at the beginning? How was it to change?

6. His address, the situation of the drink afterwards with the doctors, the encounter with Victor, the confrontation with Lisa and the accident? The melodramatics of his saving her life?

7. The clash with Mike and Victor and the audience taking sides? Victor's accusations, the flashbacks at this point? The establishing of tension? The presentation of Victor and Lisa during the war, their performances, the American occupation, the attraction between Lisa and Mike, the build-up to their marriage. the happiness, the birth of their daughter, Mike's jealousies and the separation? The audience change of attitudes towards Mike and towards Lisa? Victor and his influence in America, his influencing Lisa's decision about going to California, his arrival, his drawing of Susie’s mother for her, his final decision at the end? The comparison of the two men? Their presentation as a focus judging Lisa?

8. The character of Lisa and the initial accident? The flashbacks and establishing her as a person of integrity, at the piano playing, the love for Mike, the marriage, child, Victor's opening night and Mike's jealousy, the giving of piano lessons and his outburst? Her being hurt, her going to her father and being trapped? The audience feeling for her and Mike's not being able to find her?

9. Rock Hudson's style as Mike? His presence in the Army, an American in Europe, American behaviour in Europe, his attitudes towards Victor, the jealous outbursts and their credibility, his searching for Lisa and return home?

10. What did the audience want to happen after Lisa's recovery? Her going to California and her plan? The wisdom of the doctor's advice? The encounter with Susie and Susie's hostility, the failure of relationship? Lisa telling her the truth and her inability to accept it? The party, Lisa's decision to say goodbye, Victor's contribution?

11. The impact of the realization for Susie? The appreciation of Lisa's saying goodbye, Mike and the stories about her mother, the response to Victor's portrait?

12. Themes of family, love, children, mistakes, hurt, reconciliation?