Mitchell Leisen | Golden Earrings
Classic Film and Television Home Page (with many articles on directors)
Mitchell Leisen
Mitchell Leisen is an American film and television director.
Some common subjects in the films of Mitchell Leisen:
- Mothers (hero's good mother, heroine's bad mother, mothers as chief determinant of kids' lives: Remember the Night,
adopted baby: The Lady Is Willing,
unwed motherhood and its heartbreak: To Each His Own,
unwed mother: No Man of Her Own,
mothers of grown hero and heroine: The Mating Season)
- New identities (heroine, hero: Midnight,
heroine gets new lifestyle at farm: Remember the Night,
hero: Golden Earrings,
unwed mother: No Man of Her Own,
Thelma Ritter: The Mating Season)
- Working class work (manicurist: Hands Across the Table,
magazine publisher: Easy Living,
cab divers: Midnight,
farmers: Remember the Night,
department store: The Mating Season)
- City people have adventure in country (couple moves through war-torn Europe: Arise My Love,
Christmas holiday on farm: Remember the Night,
Mexican small towns: Hold Back the Dawn,
Englishman travels with Gypsy: Golden Earrings,
women pioneers have nervous breakdowns crossing endless prairie: The Prairie Story)
- People evade sinister authorities (couple moves through war-torn Europe: Arise My Love,
crooked Justice of the Peace: Remember the Night,
hero flees immigration official: Hold Back the Dawn,
couple evades Nazis: Golden Earrings)
- Nervous breakdowns in bad situations (war pilot: The Eagle and the Hawk,
mother-in-law nearly wrecks couple's marriage: The Mating Season,
women pioneers have nervous breakdowns crossing endless prairie: The Prairie Story)
Imagery:
- Pianos (hero plays piano badly but family loves it: Remember the Night,
pioneer woman brings piano with her: The Prairie Story)
- Christmas and presents (family exchanges presents: Remember the Night,
department store wrapping job: The Mating Season)
Food:
- Breakfast (rich family: Easy Living, group breakfast at chateau: Midnight, apartment: The Mating Season)
- Restaurants and comedy (Automat: Easy Living, hamburger joint: The Mating Season)
- Pass-through windows and food preparation (Automat: Easy Living, apartment kitchen: The Mating Season)
- Kitchens (farm house: Remember the Night, apartment: The Mating Season)
Clothes:
- New clothes (fur coat and hat: Easy Living,
heroine lent old-fashioned dress for party: Remember the Night,
provided for heroine to help with scheme: Midnight,
Gypsy outfit for hero: Golden Earrings)
- Closets full of clothes (wife's fur coats: Easy Living, heroine: Pete and Gladys)
- Sophisticates with mustaches (man on bus: Easy Living, John Barrymore: Midnight)
Golden Earrings
Golden Earrings (1947) is a powerful drama, about Gypsies and their horrendous conflicts with the Nazis.
The new experiences hero Ray Milland undergoes mix romance with discovery of what it is like to be part of a minority.
These experiences in part are an allegory about "gay awakening": the discovery of gay feelings and a gay identity.
Golden Earrings is the likely (but uncredited) source for a good episode of the TV series The Big Valley,
Hide the Children (Arthur H. Nadel, 1966).