Trivia / Sabrina (1954)

• Bad Export for You: Europe and Australia got the movie on Blu-Ray almost a year earlier than America did, albeit with no bonus features or widescreen option.
• Dyeing for Your Art: William Holden had his hair lightened blonde for the role of David Larabee.
• Hostility on the Set: Humphrey Bogart was not a happy man during the making of this film, and his attitude rubbed off on everyone else after a while. Notably, he despised William Holden, who he saw as a pretentious braggart, and felt overlooked by director Billy Wilder, who it made no secret that he prefered working with Holden and Audrey Hepburn, and had no idea what to do with Bogart. Bogart also had issues with Hepburn, privately accusing her of delaying production as she often required multiple takes for her scenes. That it also was an Open Secret on the set that Holden and Hepburn were having an affair, and that Wilder by all appearences encouraged this, just rubbed extra salt into the wound. Bogart later apologized to Wilder for his behavior on-set, citing problems in his personal life.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Humphrey Bogart is famous for playing hard-boiled, cynic, cool characters. Here, he plays the awkward, withdrawn workaholic Linus.
  • Cynical Billy Wilder seems like a surprising choice for the director/producer/co-writer of a modern (by fifties standards) fairy tale.
• Romance on the Set: Audrey Hepburn and William Holden fell in love during the making of this film, but Hepburn broke off the relationship on learning that Holden could not have children. It is debatable how much truth there is to this, as Holden was married at the time and had fathered two children with his wife.
• Science Marches On: When Sabrina tells the Baron that wanting David to love her feels as difficult as reaching for the moon, he tells her that people have started building rockets to reach the moon.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The role of Linus was originally meant for Cary Grant, who supposedly rejected the part because he did not want to carry an umbrella onscreen.
  • Bogart wanted his wife Lauren Bacall to play the title role.
• Working Title: Sabrina Fair. The title was changed in the US so audiences wouldn't link it with highbrow stories like Vanity Fair. Paramount considered changing the film's title to The Chauffeur's Daughter.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants:
  • During production, Billy Wilder was continuously working on the script. One day he asked Audrey Hepburn to feign illness so he would have enough time to finish the scene to be shot.
  • Ernest Lehman, whom Paramount borrowed from MGM, worked frantically to complete the script during filming and eventually suffered a nervous breakdown. One scene was written during a lunch break and shot that afternoon in seventy-two takes.

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