Saratoga Trunk

A thoroughly bad, seriously miscast costume drama, with Bergman playing the illegitimate Creole beauty who upsets New Orleans society in the Gay Nineties when she sets out to avenge her mother by trashing the well-heeled family of her father. Cooper is a gambler called Clint Maroon whom she takes up with, while Robson, smeared with boot polish, plays Hattie McDaniel. Edna Ferber's doorstop novel should have become a delirious vehicle for Bette Davis or Tallulah Bankhead. Bergman is all wrong - she has the beauty but not the bravado - and Sam Wood hasn't a clue.