Never Say Goodbye (1956) User Reviews (18)

Well Done, Sirk-Influenced Melodrama

[Michael27-1 · 7/10 · 5 July 2005]

Although Jerry Hopper is the credited director of "Never Say Goodbye", Douglas Sirk oddly goes unrecognized as the co-director. Though Sirk's presence can be felt at times, "Never Say Goodbye" lacks the visual irony and heaving drama of his greatest films. Nonetheless, this is a beautifully-acted, handsomely-crafted affair, with a lush Frank Skinner score and some climactic melodrama thrown in for good measure. Part war romance, part domestic drama, "Never Say Goodbye" is an interesting hybrid that actually works.

Rock Hudson plays a military doctor who falls in love with nightclub pianist, Cornell Borchers. They marry and have a baby and all seems right. That is, until Hudson's seething jealousy wrecks everything that they had established. Tragedy tears the couple apart and Hudson must raise their daughter alone. Years later, fate brings the couple back together and their daughter(played surprisingly well by a young Shelley Fabares)must come to grips with the mother she had never known. The always good George Sanders is sorely underused as the man who blames Hudson for the entire ordeal.

"Never Say Goodbye" has its heavy-handed moments for sure. And you just might roll your eyes at how quickly and cleanly the ending gets wrapped up. But the action gets rolling almost from scene one and it turns out to be a satisfying, if unmemorable, nugget of 1950's soap opera. Uinversal-International continues to churn out the glossy fluff with this one.

It's a really sweet story, but

[r96sk · 6/10 · 7 January 2022]

It's a really sweet story, but the execution of it to bring it to our screens is disappointing.

The A to B of 'Never Say Goodbye' is rather endearing, with people reconnecting. However, how the film fills in the blanks is kinda shoddy. I found a lot of the dialogue to be cringeworthy and the way characters act came across as irritating. I will say most of that stems from the final 30 or so minutes, it's a tad more solid up until that point.

The cast members themselves are good, it's all well acted. Rock Hudson, Cornell Borchers and George Sanders are all decent value. The look of the film is also pleasant enough. I just wish the production itself, namely on the writing side, was more well made.

Clint Eastwood has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it uncredited role, though is named - as 'Will'. Still a fair few films until his career really got going.

I like to dream my dreams when I 'm wide awake.

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 27 March 2021]

This remake of "this love of ours " starring Merle Oberon inspired by a play by Pirandello was to be directed by Douglas Sirk who provided the movie with the German actress Cornell Borchers ;portions of the movie were directed by Sirk himself.

If you like melodrama with a capital M ,you will like "never say goodbye" ;Jerry Hopper cannot be mentioned in the same breath as Sirk who was the master of the genre in the fifties ; there are similarities with "magnificent obsession" : the accident , Dr Parker assisting the surgeon during the operation ,and his guilt feeling (he caused Wyman' s blindness in "obsession " ,he unfairly accuses his faithful wife of cheating on him ,which causes her daughter's "advanced Elektra complex" .There are roughly three parts ,the second of which is a long flashback ,taking place in Vienna just after WW2.

Sirk could turn exponential tear-jerkers into masterpieces ,Hopper only made an estimable work ;directing is rather flat ,but the screenplay achieves maximum emotion ,the girl is adorable (the final sketch is really a good trick ,thanks to the always reliable George Sanders );an uncredited Clint Eastwood (today my favorite American director) appears as Dr Parker 's lab assistant .

Partly Sirk

[grahamclarke · 28 January 2004]

Although widely acknowledged that parts of "Never Say Goodbye" were directed by Douglas Sirk, the credit is given to Jerry Hopper with no mention of Sirk at all. Filmographies of Sirk's work most often do not include this work.

"Never Say Goodbye" has many of the hallmarks of Sirk's work, though is much lacking in the biting social criticism that elevated his finest work. Like "Interlude" this is pure melodrama, filmed with style but ultimately forgettable.

Rock Hudson and George Sanders turn in predictably solid performances but it is Cornell Borchers an Ingrid Bergman Greta Garbo hybrid, who manages to bring a sense of truth to the more than unlikely drama, which is essential for the melodrama's success.

While obviously not in the class of the major Sirk melodrama's there is enough here of interest to followers of his work.

Undistinctive but enjoyable tearjerker

[rfkeser · 6/10 · 23 November 1999]

Undistinctive but enjoyable tearjerker: American doctor loves/loses/finds Vienna nightclub entertainer. The skillful screenplay mixes motherhood, medicine and the Iron Curtain, plus manages a few provocative digs at American male behavior. Rock Hudson and George Sanders give appealing performances. In the central role, German actress Cornell Borchers looks like Ingrid Bergman but lacks her warmth. A rich supporting cast includes a bit by Clint Eastwood . Old-fashioned, but done with some dignity.

Not so magnificent jealousy

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 25 May 2022]

While melodrama has been very variable in film and television history, with a mix of very moving and sometimes tense and also too soapy and over-heated in the case of others. Rock Hudson was always a likeable actor, especially in romantic comedies, and George Sanders has always been a favourite of mine since his voice work in 'The Jungle Book'. Being one of the best at that time at being cads and villains and possessors of one of the most distinctive and beautiful speaking voices in film.

'Never Say Goodbye' was something of an uneven film to me. There are a fair share of good things, including one particularly great performance, but also an equal fair share of shortcomings, including most of the traps melodramas have fallen in a number of times. 'Never Say Goodbye' is a long way from a bad film, there are far worse films out there including this type of film. It is also a long way from great and too much of a mixed bag for me to consider it particularly good.

The best aspects are the production values and the acting. The film still looks very handsome and ravishingly shot in Technicolor, while uncredited Douglas Sirk's contribution is skillful enough. The music is haunting and not too overwrought. Some of the film is poignant, especially the more tragic elements of the story.

Of the performances, Sanders comes off best, have always found it interesting when actors that specialises in a certain type of role go against type and pull it off equally as well as their usual roles. Sanders' character is a far cry from his caddish and villainous roles that he was known for, he has seldom been more sympathetic (even in 'Call Me Madam', another atypical role that he did beautifully) and noble and it comes off beautifully. Cornell Borchers (an unfamiliar name) also comes off beautifully and is very touching. Shelley Fabares is affecting as the daughter. Hudson's performance is uneven, much of it being down to how his character is written, but when his character isn't a jerk he is charming and dashing.

However, there are things that don't come off particularly well. When made to behave like a jerk, Hudson didn't seem comfortable with it and was out of his depth and the character's jealousy doesn't seethe. At times it seemed too melodramatic, at other points it was too reserved. The chemistry between him and Borchers varied as well, it was charming to begin with but loses its sparkle and becomes bland later on (was also rooting for her character to leave him). The direction fares similarly, Sirk's contribution shows how he was one of the few directors to play to Hudson's strengths and understand them whereas Jerry Hopper's direction was undistinguished with little of the hold no barrels approach that the film would have benefitted from.

Furthermore, the script manages to be both over-heated and under-nourished, lots of soap and syrup overdose but no substance underneath. The story becomes too excessively melodramatic and over-heated, as well as lacking in passion and rather dully paced. The characters became a lot less easy to care for and why Borchers' character would find any appeal in him later didn't come over as realistic.

Summarising, very mixed feelings here. 5/10.

Great George Sanders performance

[HotToastyRag · 3/10 · 12 November 2020]

I recognized this movie about ten minutes in, but if you want to save yourself the guesswork, it's a remake of 1945's This Love of Ours, starring Merle Oberon. Both films start off showing a dedicated father raising his young daughter alone. Her mother is dead, and she's built a little shrine in the gazebo outside that makes her feel safe and loved. Then, the father is having drinks at a restaurant and he sees a woman that looks familiar. Cue the flashback of how he met his wife and started a family.

The major difference in this version from the original is George Sanders's character (Claude Rains in the original). Back in 1945, he was a foppish cartoon artist bordering on flamboyance. In the remake, George is still an artist who draws caricatures, but he's not silly. He's clearly in love with his friend (Miss Cornell Borchers) but can't speak up because he knows she's in love with Rock Hudson. Rock is such a jerk in this movie and makes so many mistakes, it's a wonder the movie wasn't entitled "How Many Times Can Dr. Parker Foul Things Up?" He's so incredibly unlikable I have no idea why Cornell wouldn't transfer her affections to her devoted pal, George. If you're a fan of his, you're going to want to sit through this lousy movie to see his range. I've never seen him in a role like this, and I've never seen such sensitive, loving expressions on his face. I didn't know he had it in him! The rest of the movie (the mystery and the love story, and the reasons behind everything) is very disappointing, but George Sanders is great.

Memories from a LONG time ago

[dubledeuce · 10/10 · 31 December 2006]

Everyone remembers their first kiss and their "first" time and for me this movie represents my first movie that I can actually remember. My step-mother took me to see it when I was but a tender lad of 10 in St Louis, MO.

This movie set in my mind a kind of will to find my own mother although at the time I had not a CLUE as to HOW, IF, or WHEN I would do this, I just had this intense confidence that I COULD and WOULD find her one day.

About all that I remember about this movie is the bombing of a European city and the loss of this little girls mother. I also remember the character Victor (I always thought he was played by David Nivens) as the little girls confidant and her pained frustration at not being able to understand why she could not find her mother and her resistance to the idea of her father's desire to marry this "outsider" and have her take the place of her missing mother. Of course the outsider was in fact her long lost mother from the war years.

Victor was the only trusted link that she had to her mother, as he knew her during the war.

Finally, at the end of her 8th Birthday party celebration, as the outsider was preparing to leave the family as a failed endeavor at persuading the little girl to accept her as her "NEW" mother, the little girl asks Victor (he was a portrait artist and also did caricatures at the Biirthday party) to draw a picture of her mother as he remembered her some 8 years earlier.

Of course Victor did a charcoal sketch of the "outsider" and presented it to the little girl folded in half. As she opened the large format drawing and looked at the image, she thought there was some sort of deception going on and she questioned him about his attempt to fool her.

I cannot for the life of me remember his actual response but is was in the form of a question of "what she wanted to believe", sorta like the young peasant girl in the film Dr. Zhivago, who did not want to believe something that was not true

The little girl reconciled with her Mother and all ended well that started out so horribly.

For the record, I did search for, and found, my birth mother in Belton, TX in 1970. Unfortunately the ending was not the same, quite the opposite. But until we try there will always be an ache in the heart to want to know. I saw and felt that ache in this movie.

DubleDeuce

Positively Noble

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 12 May 2015]

German film star Cornell Borchers stars with Rock Hudson in this Fifties romance of love and sacrifice Never Say Goodbye. Who would have thought that George Sanders would not be a cad in a film.

Hudson plays an army doctor in post war Europe awaiting home and discharge and he runs into Borchers and Sanders in a nightclub. He and Borchers marry and they have a kid who grows up to be Shelley Fabares. But the way she and Sanders keep hanging around together arouses the old green eyed monster in Rock. He confronts her and she takes off behind the Iron Curtain in post war Vienna where who knows she might have run into Harry Lime.

Fast forward to the present being 1956. Borchers and Sanders are in Los Angeles doing their club act and she runs into Hudson who has told his daughter that her mother was dead. After this the film becomes positively weepy.

I won't say more, but everybody here becomes positively noble and noble does not wear well on George Sanders.

Never Say Goodbye was what was termed a woman's picture back in the day and for those who are inclined to these type films this one is for you. Look fast and you'll see Clint Eastwood as one of Rock's medical colleagues.

Douglas Sirk guided Rock through a few of these kinds of films in their salad days. But Sirk knew enough to keep his hands off this.

The Doctor's Wife

[richardchatten · 1/10 · 2 March 2021]

This dreadful remake of 'This Love of Ours' (1945) proves that Hollywood could make a far drearier cold war drama in colour with violins than in black & white with saxophones.

Rock Hudson plays a dedicated young doctor to whom Cornell Borchers declares that "Bride and groom, it sounds so... so married!" George Sanders in a floppy bow tie, his hat tilted at a jaunty angle, has a rare sympathetic role as the 'other' man. The course of true love naturally doesn't run easily, but for two hours you just couldn't care less...

Superior Romance; a Wartime Film for Everyone; Borchers is Lovely

[silverscreen888 · 8/10 · 30 June 2005]

This is a beautiful color film which many might classify as a '"woman's picture". However, it has three very fine performances by Rock Hudson, George Sanders and Cornell Borchers, very good supporting actors and a moving storyline told from the point of view of the male participant. So it is a romance, a dramatic film, and a frankly superior "tear-jerker" all rolled into one. The storyline is fairly straightforward. Michael Parker, a doctor, married a German girl and lost her during WWII, having to go on while thinking she is dead. She reenters his life in the US with an old friend as escort, one who blames him for what she had to suffer. She wants to get back together with Parker, but first has to win over his daughter who idolizes the mother she has never known; finally, the escort, an artist, draws the little girl a picture of her mother, and seeing it, the little girl learns who is her real mother accepts her joyfully. The film was written from a Luigi Pirandello play, and the final version of the screenplay was done by Charles Hoffman. The cast is an unusually good one. Directed by Jerry Hopper, it also features Ray Collins, David Janssen, Casey Adams, Jerry Paris, John Banner, Robert F. Simon, Helen Wallace, Frank Wilcox and many others. The remarkable fact of the production is the realism of its motivations and reactions; it is never glossy, never cheap, often very moving. Shelley Fabares as the stubborn little girl is quite good also. But lovely Cornell Borchers and suave George Sanders are the best actors in this solid film. The technical production is very good, for any era. Sets by Russell A Gausman and Julia Heron, music by Frank Skinner, Bill Thomas's costumes and hairstyles by Joan St. Oegger plus makeup by Bud Westmore insured that this was to be an expensive-looking ad beautiful finished product. This is an appealing story, which qualifies as a wartime film also, one partly told in interesting flashbacks; it has never been appreciated for what it avoided becoming nor for what it was made to be--a very fine story about people whose lives were torn asunder by war...

Say Hello to Goodbye ***1/2

[edwagreen · 6 September 2011]

Terrific 1956 film where Dr. Rock Hudson accidentally runs into his wife. Hudson had thought that wife, an excellent Cornell Borchers, was long dead. In the company of an artist, the picture reverts back to Austria and how Hudson met and married Borchers.

Of course, Borchers having to go back to East Germany and trapped there, leads to her separation from Hudson, who eventually gave up and thought she was dead.

This film, a prime tear-jerker, has solid performances by all concerned. Hudson displays that emotional anger and as stated, he gives a tremendous performance. Borchers, whose film career in America, was greatly limited is certainly the Ingrid Bergman of her time. Surprised that Bergman didn't snag the role for herself, but in 1956 she was busy winning the Oscar for "Anastasia."

Clearly depicts one of many personal struggles during WWII

[bavariancreme · 10/10 · 18 September 2001]

I think this movie shows how much a persons life can change and be affected by the events that occurred in WWII. This movie, unlike many newer movies today, has a real hard-hitting story that can truly be felt by the viewer. A movie that doesn't have to live off of sex and violence, and can, I believe, is a great movie!

Realizing too late how you can hurt the one you love

[lora64 · 9/10 · 5 September 2001]

This isn't high drama but appeals more to one's tender side and family life values. The doctor Michael (Rock Hudson) finds romance with Lisa, an entertainer (Cornell Borchers) while in Europe; they wed and in time a daughter becomes a part of their life too. But his streak of jealousy gets the upper hand when he thinks she is secretly meeting another man. It causes havoc and estrangement for them in the years ahead and much needs to be set aright again, especially for the little girl who in all this time of separation is deprived of a mother.

George Sanders as Victor, has a typical role of being the outsider, almost the observer. Here he's an artist, a devoted confidante of Lisa, and cares for her well-being as years pass.

For fans of Rock Hudson this is a fine movie from his heyday of being a top Hollywood heart throb.

Review of Never Say Goodbye starring Rock Hudson

[Islandjam1 · 19 November 2011]

Please, does anyone knows where this movie can be found? To either buy or rent! Please advise and thank you in advance.

A wonderful family movie...yes with drama! I liked it very much and thought it was well put together. With the war surrounded this couple and the jealousy of Rock made the wife a bit uncomfortable. However he seemed to have loved her very much and was very concern for her safety after she was missing and wanted to take her with him to the States especially since she was his wife and the mother of his very young daughter. It was hurtful for all 3 of them with her missing for so many years.

How can I get to watch this movie again? It has been quite a number of many years and I just cannot find it to purchase and not in rental stores either. Can someone please advice on this? Much thanks

Repairing an unforgivable mistake by Rock Hudson after seven years

[clanciai · 9/10 · 3 June 2023]

This would have been a perfect role for Ingrid Bergman, and Cornell Borcher actually looks like her at times, and does almost as well as Ingrid Bergman would have done. It is a very sensitive part in a very sensitive story, and it is a very good story, actually based on something of Luigi Pirandello, the dramatist and Nobel prize winner, so no wonder the story is fascinating. Rock Hudson makes one of his usual standard stolid routine figures, trying to look like Cary Grant but entirely without the Grant charm, while the real charmer and actor here is George Sanders in one of his best roles, as eloquent as ever, in a very suave European continental character of cosmopolitan refinery, and he is the character you will remember from this film. The scenes in Vienna are the best, a long flashback, and Douglas Sirk was well at home there, having started in the German film business before like so many others he left for America under a new name for a new career - his real name was Hans Detlef Sierck, he worked in Germany until 1937, making a star of Zarah Leander among others, and left mainly because of his second wife, who was Jewish. His films are always stylish with excellent music, he worked carefully and meticulously, making melodrama his speciality, of which this film is an outstanding and wrongfully underrated example.

Decent Rock Hudson flick

[durantsteven · 18 December 2018]

Rock Hudson plays a military doctor who falls in love with nightclub pianist, Cornell Borchers. They marry and have a baby and all seems right. That is, until Hudson's seething jealousy wrecks everything that they had established. Tragedy tears the couple apart and Hudson must raise their daughter alone. Years later, fate brings the couple back together and their daughter (played surprisingly well by a young Shelley Fabares)must come to grips with the mother she had never known.

Compared to the original

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 2 January 2023]

After watching the previous version which is called THIS LOVE OF OURS and was produced by Universal in 1945, I watched NEVER SAY GOODBYE last night. I can see how they updated the script to work in Cornell Borchers' Eastern European culture. Miss Borchers is fantastic at doing melodramatic close-ups on camera, but I think I favor Merle Oberon's interpretation in the original.

Miss Oberon is substantially more aloof, not as warm as Borchers, and since this is a story about how a mother abandoned her little girl, I would say it plays better if the mother is still standoffish when she first reunites with the daughter seven years later. It makes sense if she doesn't fully warm up to motherhood until the end. Because Oberon remains cold and detached for most of the story, it is much more powerful when she finally caves in and embraces her daughter. Whereas with Borchers' interpretation, she comes across too warm and fuzzy and registers less inner emotional turmoil than Oberon does who masters the role with her smart performance.

I definitely think Charles Korvin outshines Rock Hudson in the leading role. For the first time, I realized what limited range Rock Hudson had as a performer. In the third-billed role, George Sanders is decent, but I feel Claude Rains adds more flair in the original and Rains' part was expanded in a key scene which gives him a significant advantage over Sanders.

The one thing that I do not like about the remake is how tight and confining the sets are. The original uses much more spacious sets, and we really get a feel that the lead doctor (Korvin/Hudson) is quite wealthy and that he is hiding his daughter on the estate from the pain of the outside world. The home in the remake looks like something the Cleaver family lives in, a suburban type home on the Universal backlot, which was probably a deliberate choice to make the story appeal more to middle-class viewers. I don't think the use of Technicolor helps and actually prefer the black-and-white shadings of the original.