''Centennial Summer'' is a 1946 musical film directed by

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...

. Starring

Jeanne Crain Jeanne Elizabeth Crain (May 25, 1925 – December 14, 2003) was an American actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her title role in ''Pinky'' (1949). She also starred in the films '' In the Meantime, Darling'' (1944 ...

and

Cornel Wilde Cornel Wilde (born Kornél Lajos Weisz; October 13, 1912 – October 16, 1989) was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker. Wilde's acting career began in 1935, when he made his debut on Broadway. In 1936 he began making small, uncredited ap ...

, the film is based on a novel by Albert E. Idell. It was produced in response to the hugely successful 1944

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

musical film '' Meet Me in St. Louis''.

Plot

The movie is about two sisters growing up in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in the 1870s. They both fall for a Frenchman who has to prepare the

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

for the

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

Cast

Awards

The movie was nominated twice at the

19th Academy Awards The 19th Academy Awards were held on March 13, 1947, honoring the films of 1946, hosted by Jack Benny. ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' won seven of its eight nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and both male acting Oscars. T ...

. One of those nominations was for Best Original Song for the song ''All Through the Day'', written by

Jerome Kern Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in ove ...

and

Oscar Hammerstein II Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II (; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) director in the musical theater for almost 40 years. He won eight ...

. In Kern's case, the nomination was posthumous, as he had died on 11 November 1945.

Songs

*"The Right Romance" *"Up with the Lark" *"All Through the Day" *"In Love in Vain" *"Cinderella Sue" *"Two Hearts Are Better Than One" was cut from the film.

References

External links

* 1946 films Films directed by Otto Preminger Films scored by Alfred Newman Films set in 1876 American musical films 20th Century Fox films 1946 musical films Films based on American novels 1940s English-language films 1940s American films {{musical-film-stub