by Adam Ritchie, Contributing Writer
Hi, classic film devotees! In this month’s 20th Century Flicks, we have a bit of a treat in store for you. This month you’re getting treated to a double scoop of delicious cinema from last century with an epic showdown of original versus remake. Let’s talk about Sabrina.
The original Sabrina from 1954 was directed by legendary Billy Wilder, and stars the magnificent Audrey Hepburn, along with icons Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. Sabrina was remade in 1995, directed by Sydney Pollack, and stars Julia Ormond, Harrison Ford, and Greg Kinnear in the respective three leading roles.
The general plot for both films is as follows:
Sabrina (Hepburn, Ormond) is the daughter of the chauffeur for the wealthy Larrabee family; she and her father live above the garage in the servant’s quarters of the property. Her entire life she has been in love with David, (Holden, Kinnear) who is the playboy of the two brothers. He is fancy free, and being married and divorced three times before, is happy to “share his love around,” as it were.
Sabrinabecomes crestfallen and ships off to France for a couple of years to learn a trade, become a new woman, and most importantly to get over David. Linus Larrabee, (Bogart, Ford) who is devoted to work and nothing more, is headstrong on creating a merger between his company and another. So much so that he plants a newspaper article to have David married off the daughter of the company’s owner.
Upon her return from Paris, Sabrinais a new person. No longer the ugly duckling, but now a beautiful swan, she just happens to be waiting for a lift back home when David stumbles across her and immediately drawn in by her beauty. Not recognizing who she is, he offers her a lift home only to find she lives at the same address as him. Once there, it still takes him more than a second to realize he is thirsting after the ugly duckling he never gave light of day to before.
It is clear Sabrinahas not cured herself of David, and Linus, seeing David become immediately smitten, takes things into his own hands to ensure David doesn’t get distracted by Sabrinaand threaten the merger. When David uses his old move to meet a girl on the indoor tennis court (because there is an outdoor one too of course!) with a bottle of champagne and a couple of glasses, he manages to self-sabotage the rendezvous by absent-mindedly sitting on the champagne glasses and needing emergency surgery.
Linus happily jumps at the opportunity to make sure Linus and Sabrina stay out of arms reach and takes over rendezvous responsibilities. Fulfilling his duties as a good big brother, Linus happily dances and tries to charm Sabrinato get her mind off David, even kissing her mid step and saying, “it’s all in the family.” Over the next few weeks, whilst Davis is belly up and off his butt, Linus continues to woo Sabrinawith little intention of reciprocating her feelings, as she manages to fall for him with every passing minute they are together.
For plot, I think I’ll leave it here in the hope the above is convincing enough to see either of the two films, and lead into the inevitable comparisons.
For cast, Hepburn is playing in the majors, compared to Ormond still batting on the sandlot. This is not at all saying Ormond is bad, because she isn’t; its just that Hepburn is one of THE biggest Hollywood icons in the history of cinema. When we talk about GOATs, Hepburn is in that conversation, and for me, can’t be rivaled. Ormond was never going to live up to Audrey in my eyes.
Ford runs rings around Bogart, and I will never understand his icon status. In the four or five films I’ve seen him in, he’s only great in The Treasure of Sierra Madre, and he is solid in Sabrina; however, Ford is great all the time. For me, Holden and Kinnear are on equal footing in their respective roles as David.
Comparing the two films, 1954 is undoubtedly better than 1995. It has more charm, heart, and charisma. Plus, it has Hepburn, and then one of the greats in Wilder directing. 1995 is definitely worth watching, and has plenty of good in it, mostly Ford lighting up the screen and delivering some great one liners. 1995 also falls into the ‘90s rom-com trap of piling on the cheese a little too gooey.
Both are a strong recommend from me, and feel free to choose your own order to see them if I’ve managed to convince you in any way. I hope I have, because I’d hate for you to miss out a couple of bangers!
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