By Richard Harland Smith
Flight from Destiny
Brief Synopsis
An elderly professor with six months to live plots a murder to reunite two young lovers.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Vincent Sherman
Director
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Betty Farroway
Thomas Mitchell
Professor Henry Todhunter
Jeffrey Lynn
Michael Farroway
James Stephenson
Dr. Lawrence Stevens
Mona Maris
Ketti Moret
Film Details
Also Known As
Invitation to a Murder, Trial and Error
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Feb
8,
1941
Premiere Information
New York opening: 25 Dec 1940
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Trial and Error by Anthony Berkeley (New York, 1937).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 15m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Synopsis
When philosophy professor Henry Todhunter learns he has only six months to live, he polls the members of the University Club to learn what they would do in a similar situation. Each man has a different answer, but Henry's interest is piqued when one suggests murdering a person who is a menace to society. Henry discusses the idea with his doctor, Lawrence Stevens. Although Larry argues that no man is entitled to act as judge and jury, Henry believes that a man facing death possesses the immortality to act without self interest for the benefit of society as a whole. Henry's friend, Betty Farroway, who is waiting for him when he returns home, is concerned because her husband Michael, an artist, is acting strangely. Henry agrees to talk to Michael and accompanies Betty home in a taxi. Stuck in traffic, Henry and Betty see Michael kiss Ketti Moret in front of her gallery. The next day, Henry asks Ketti to stop interfering with Michael's life, and she replies that her only interest is in his work. Later Michael is hit by a car and while semi-conscious begs Betty to destroy a painting. Intrigued, Henry and Betty explore Michael's studio, where they find a painting done in the style of an ancient painter. Henry realizes that Michael has been forging paintings for Ketti, and believing that in Ketti he has met a truly evil person, investigates her life. He learns that no one, not even her abandoned child, her mother, or her former husband cares if Ketti lives or dies. Michael admits painting the fakes and Henry suggests that he ask Ketti to reveal the real painter to the person who bought the counterfeit painting. When she refuses, Michael threatens to kill her and is overheard by Ketti's maid. After Michael leaves, Henry emerges from his hiding place in Ketti's apartment and kills the unremorseful woman. Henry's plans go awry when Michael is arrested for the murder. Henry immediately confesses, but at first, no one believes his story. Eventually, he convinces Larry to testify to their conversation on the subject of murder, and is soon convicted and sentenced to death. Henry plans to exert himself enough to cause a fatal heart attack and thus avoid the electric chair, but when one of his former students is brought to jail after having been inspired to murder by Henry's example, he realizes the damage that he has done and accepts his punishment as just.
Director
Vincent Sherman
Director
Cast
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Betty Farroway
Thomas Mitchell
Professor Henry Todhunter
Jeffrey Lynn
Michael Farroway
James Stephenson
Dr. Lawrence Stevens
Mona Maris
Ketti Moret
Jonathan Hale
District Attorney
David Bruce
Saunders
Thurston Hall
Dean Somers
Mary Gordon
Martha
John Eldredge
Peterson
Hardie Albright
Ferrers
William Forrest
Prentiss
Weldon Heyburn
Brooks
Dewolf Hopper
Travin
Alexander Lockwood
Conway
Frank Reicher
Edward Kreindling
Willie Best
George
Libby Taylor
Maid [Libby]
Romaine Callender
Pyschiatrist
Ed Gargan
Doorman
Sol Gorss
Taxi driver
Elliott Sullivan
Taxi driver
Rafael Storm
Monsieur Lescaut
Ed Stanley
Doctor
Ann Edmonds
Nurse
Manart Kippen
Detective Pereti
Inez Palange
Mrs. Moraciagos
Alden Chase
Walter Sender
Rolla Stewart
Ketti's daughter
Alexis Smith
Young woman
Richard Kipling
Elderly man
Peter Ashley
Young man
John Hamilton
Judge
Robert Homans
Jailer
Eddy Chandler
Head keeper
Bess Flowers
Evelyn Mulhall
Lucia Carroll
George Campeau
Wedgwood Nowell
Crew
Elmer Decker
Assistant Director
Leo F. Forbstein
Music Director
Bryan Foy
Executive Producer
Damon Giffard
Gowns
Edmund Grainger
Associate Producer
Esdras Hartley
Art Director
Ray Heindorf
Orchestra Arrangement
Charles Kenyon
Contract Writer
Charles Lang
Sound
Thomas Richards
Film Editor
H. Roemheld
Music
Robert Rossen
Contract Writer
Barry Trivers
Screenwriter
James Van Trees
Director of Photography
Perc Westmore
Makeup Artist
Film Details
Also Known As
Invitation to a Murder, Trial and Error
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Feb
8,
1941
Premiere Information
New York opening: 25 Dec 1940
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Trial and Error by Anthony Berkeley (New York, 1937).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 15m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Articles
Flight from Destiny -
British crime writer Anthony Berkeley Cox (who published under the nom de plume "Frances Iles") had a good year in Hollywood in 1941, when Alfred Hitchcock adapted his 1932 novel Before the Fact as Suspicion and Vincent Sherman brought his 1937 book Trial and Error to the big screen as Flight from Destiny (1941). Fresh from his 1940 Academy Award win as Best Supporting Actor for Stagecoach (1939), Thomas Mitchell stars as a professor of philosophy who, upon learning that he has only six months to live, decides to commit "a social murder," one that would benefit society... and finds a just cause in the plight of young lovers (Geraldine Fitzgerald and Jeffrey Lynn) who have become pawns of a criminal gang. Scripted by Barry Trivers (with an uncredited assist from Robert Rossen and Charles Kenyon), Flight from Destiny sits intriguingly at the midway point between Edmund Goulding's classic weepy Dark Victory (1939) and Rudolph Maté's film noir cornerstone D.O.A. (1950), both of which featured terminally ill but proactive protagonists making the most of their allotted time. In its own complex resolution, Flight from Destiny also anticipates a key plot point of Hitchcock's Rope (1948, based on a 1929 stage play), with Mitchell coming to appreciate all too late that his ideology has had unforeseen repercussions. Flight from Destiny provided Hollywood newcomer Alexis Smith with an early (uncredited) role; later that year, Warner Bros. would promote her to leading lady status opposite Errol Flynn in Dive Bomber (1941).
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
Flight from Destiny -
British crime writer Anthony Berkeley Cox (who published under the nom de plume "Frances Iles") had a good year in Hollywood in 1941, when Alfred Hitchcock adapted his 1932 novel Before the Fact as Suspicion and Vincent Sherman brought his 1937 book Trial and Error to the big screen as Flight from Destiny (1941). Fresh from his 1940 Academy Award win as Best Supporting Actor for Stagecoach (1939), Thomas Mitchell stars as a professor of philosophy who, upon learning that he has only six months to live, decides to commit "a social murder," one that would benefit society... and finds a just cause in the plight of young lovers (Geraldine Fitzgerald and Jeffrey Lynn) who have become pawns of a criminal gang. Scripted by Barry Trivers (with an uncredited assist from Robert Rossen and Charles Kenyon), Flight from Destiny sits intriguingly at the midway point between Edmund Goulding's classic weepy Dark Victory (1939) and Rudolph Maté's film noir cornerstone D.O.A. (1950), both of which featured terminally ill but proactive protagonists making the most of their allotted time. In its own complex resolution, Flight from Destiny also anticipates a key plot point of Hitchcock's Rope (1948, based on a 1929 stage play), with Mitchell coming to appreciate all too late that his ideology has had unforeseen repercussions. Flight from Destiny provided Hollywood newcomer Alexis Smith with an early (uncredited) role; later that year, Warner Bros. would promote her to leading lady status opposite Errol Flynn in Dive Bomber (1941).
By Richard Harland Smith
Geraldine Fitzgerald (1913-2005)
Born in Dublin on November 24, 1913, Fitzgerald was educated for a time in a convent school in London. Back in her native Dublin, she happily accompanied her aunt, the Irish actress Shelah Richards, to a theater one afternoon when the director mistook her for an actress, and instructed her "to go backstage and change." An inauspicious start, but it gave her the acting bug. She made her stage debut in 1932 in Dublin's Gate Theater and later appeared in a few forgettable British films: Open All Night (1934), The Ace of Spades, Three Witnesses (both 1935). She made the trip across the Atlantic in 1938 to act with Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater, but agents from Warner Bros. quickly signed her and she was soon off to Hollywood.
She made her film debut in 1939 supporting Bette Davis in Dark Victory, but it was her performance in a second film later in the year that proved to be the most memorable of her career - the role of Isabella Linton in Wuthering Heights. She earned an Oscar® nomination for her turn and stardom should have been around the corner, but Fitzgerald's feuding with studio head Jack Warner (he refused to let her return to the New York stage and she would refuse parts that she thought were inferior) led to some lengthy suspensions of unemployment. Irregardless, Fitzgerald still had some shining moments at Warner Bros. the heady melodrama The Gay Sisters (1942); the superb espionage thriller Watch on the Rhine (1943); Robert Siodmak's terrific, noirish thriller The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945); and a tough crime drama where she played opposite John Garfield Nobody Lives Forever (1946).
Fitzgerald returned to New York by the '50s, and found much work in many of the live television dramas that were so popular in the day: Goodyear Television Playhouse, Lux Video Theatre, Studio One, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars; and even some taped television shows: Naked City, Alfred Hitchcock Presents in between her stage demands.
She did return to the screen by the mid-'60s and proved herself a fine character actress in films like The Pawnbroker (1965); Rachel, Rachel (1968); Harry and Tonto (1974); a wonderfully memorable comic turn as Dudley Moore's feisty grandmother in Arthur (1981); and yet another noteworthy performance as Rose Kennedy in the acclaimed mini-series Kennedy (1983). She also appeared in a few television programs: St. Elswhere, Cagney & Lacey, and The Golden Girls before ill-health forced her to retire by the early '90s. Among the relatives that survive her are her son, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (Brideshead Revisited; a daughter, Susan Scheftel; and her great-niece, the English actress Tara Fitzgerald.
by Michael "Mitch" Toole
Geraldine Fitzgerald (1913-2005)
Geraldine Fitzgerald, the Irish born actress who, long in America, distinguished herself as a young ingenue in film classics like Wuthering Heights and later as a first-rate character player in hits such as Arthur, died on July 16 in her Manhattan home, succumbing to a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.
She was 91.
Born in Dublin on November 24, 1913, Fitzgerald was educated for a time in a convent school in London.
Back in her native Dublin, she happily accompanied her aunt, the Irish actress Shelah Richards, to a theater one afternoon when the director mistook her for an actress, and instructed her "to go backstage and change." An inauspicious start, but it gave her the acting bug. She made her stage debut in 1932 in Dublin's Gate Theater and later appeared in a few forgettable British films: Open All Night (1934), The Ace of Spades, Three Witnesses (both 1935). She made the trip across the Atlantic in 1938 to act with Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater, but agents from Warner Bros. quickly signed her and she was soon off to Hollywood.
She made her film debut in 1939 supporting Bette Davis in Dark Victory, but it was her performance in a second film later in the year that proved to be the most memorable of her career - the role of Isabella Linton in Wuthering Heights. She earned an Oscar® nomination for her turn and stardom should have been around the corner, but Fitzgerald's feuding with studio head Jack Warner (he refused to let her return to the New York stage and she would refuse parts that she thought were inferior) led to some lengthy suspensions of unemployment. Irregardless, Fitzgerald still had some shining moments at Warner Bros. the heady melodrama The Gay Sisters (1942); the superb espionage thriller Watch on the Rhine (1943); Robert Siodmak's terrific, noirish thriller The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945); and a tough crime drama where she played opposite John Garfield Nobody Lives Forever (1946).
Fitzgerald returned to New York by the '50s, and found much work in many of the live television dramas that were so popular in the day: Goodyear Television Playhouse, Lux Video Theatre, Studio One, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars; and even some taped television shows: Naked City, Alfred Hitchcock Presents in between her stage demands.
She did return to the screen by the mid-'60s and proved herself a fine character actress in films like The Pawnbroker (1965); Rachel, Rachel (1968); Harry and Tonto (1974); a wonderfully memorable comic turn as Dudley Moore's feisty grandmother in Arthur (1981); and yet another noteworthy performance as Rose Kennedy in the acclaimed mini-series Kennedy (1983). She also appeared in a few television programs: St.
Elswhere, Cagney & Lacey, and The Golden Girls before ill-health forced her to retire by the early '90s. Among the relatives that survive her are her son, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (Brideshead Revisited; a daughter, Susan Scheftel; and her great-niece, the English actress Tara Fitzgerald.
by Michael "Mitch" Toole
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's working titles were Invitation to a Murder and Trial and Error.
