The film, also known as Summer Flight, was a United Artists release, co-produced by The Mirisch Corporation and Barbican Films, and shot in England at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, with exteriors in Kent, London, Fowey, Cornwall, and at Heathrow Airport. Daniel Petrie directed the script, adapted by Jessamyn West and an uncredited Joseph Hayes from the play Dark Victory by George Emerson Brewer, Jr. and Bertram Bloch.
Chet Baker appears in the opening scene, set in a party in Hayward's palatial home. Appearing with Baker were British pianist Stan Tracey, bassist Jeff Clyne, and Donald Brown. Baker's well-documented troubles with substance abuse were in evidence during production. On the ride to the studio, Baker kept asking the driver to stop so he could score some drugs, and was so intent on getting his fix that he never spoke to anyone else in the van. Another musician was on the set - Chubby Checker, famed for introducing The Twist, who was hired to teach the dance to Hayward for her to perform during the party sequences.
Susan Hayward was quoted as saying that in the role of Laura Pember, she "had finally found the same kind of pivotal, demanding, and challenging screen assignment that won her the Motion Picture Academy's coveted "Oscar™" for her performance in I Want to Live! (1958)." She certainly had the wardrobe of an Academy Award-winner, including 36 pairs of designer shoes made specifically for her by Ferragamo, and jewelry supplied by famed London jewelers Harvey and Gore, estimated at the time to be worth over two million dollars. Such expensive pieces made the producers obligated to have guards on the set during each scene that Hayward wore the gems. Despite the glamor treatment, Hayward remained refreshingly down-to-Earth. She was mentioned in the press for having refused to sign autographs during the production of Stolen Hours, not, as some might have thought, because she was too important, but rather the opposite. "There are so many people worthy of admiration; great sportsmen, scientists, doctors, statesmen. I don't believe worship of show business personalities is good for young people."
The subject matter of Stolen Hours would prove sadly prophetic for Susan Hayward; ten years after completing the film, she would be diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor, which many believe was caused by radiation exposure during filming of The Conqueror (1956) in St. George, Utah, only 137 miles from the nuclear testing site in Yucca Flat, Nevada. She would succumb to her illness in March 1975.
Stolen Hours was released in October 1963 and immediately drew unfavorable (and inevitable) comparisons with Dark Victory. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that if viewers remembered the Bette Davis film, they would know what they were getting with Stolen Hours, except that Hayward was no Davis. "What's wrong, you may ask with Miss Hayward? Why isn't she able to give as strong a performance as Miss Davis memorably gave? Well, for one thing, she postures. She strikes dramatic attitudes. She acts like an old opera singer delivering a thundering aria. When she first comes on as a playgirl in a stately English home, she moves among her guests with a grand manner that would look pompous and affected on the queen. [...] Miss Hayward overacts." Crowther lay the blame on her "generous" producers and director Petrie, who he felt had not done her any favors by setting the film in "such luxury and gaudy elegance that it only adds further artificiality to a synthetic character."
SOURCES:
Crowther, Bosley "Screen: Melancholy Gallant Woman: 'Dark Victory' Remake Opens at Astor" The New York Times 17 Oct 63
Gavin, James Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker
The Internet Movie Database
Jackovich, Karen G. and Sennet, Mark "The Children of John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Dick Powell Fear That Fallout Killed Their Parents" People 10 Nov 80
Monahan, Kasper "Actors Getting More Modest it Would Seem -Hayward, Hagen, Bendix Deplore Vain Brethren" The Pittsburgh Press 16 Oct 63
"Carolina Features Susan Hayward" The Sumter Daily Item 25 Oct 63
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/17786/Stolen-Hours/
