Dreaming Lips (1937 film)

Dreaming Lips is a 1937 British drama film directed by Paul Czinner and starring Elisabeth Bergner, Romney Brent and Raymond Massey.

Synopsis
The wife (Bergner) of a violin player (Brent) in a famous orchestra, falls in love with her husband's friend and, tragically, drowns herself.

Cast

 * Elisabeth Bergner as Gaby Lawrence
 * Raymond Massey as Miguel del Vayo
 * Romney Brent as Peter Lawrence
 * Joyce Bland as Christine
 * Sydney Fairbrother as Mrs. Stanway
 * Felix Aylmer as Sir Robert Blaker
 * J. Fisher White as Dr. Wilson
 * Charles Carson as Impresario
 * Donald Calthrop as Philosopher
 * Ronald Shiner as Friend
 * Cyril Raymond as PC
 * George Carney as Rescuer
 * Bruno Barnabe as Rescuer

Production
The film was produced by Trafalgar Film Productions with art direction by Thomas N. Morahan. It was a remake of the 1932 German film Dreaming Lips also directed by Czinner and starring Bergner which had been based on the play Mélo by Henri Bernstein. In 1953 Josef von Báky remade the film in Germany, based on the original script by Czinner and Mayer.

The script would be Mayer's last, as he would die of cancer in 1944.

Reception
The film was well received by critics, but not as financially successful as had been hoped. Writing for The Spectator in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a mixed review, describing it as "a shapely piece of sentiment" with a story "neat and plausible, the acting refined, the photography expensive". Greene, however, complains that its "sumptuous gloss[iness]" loses authenticity and that "there is nothing to remember when the night's over".