Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Running time: 98 minutes
Cynthia (1947)
“With Cynthia, Elizabeth Taylor left the film world of dogs, horses and childhood to play a lovely miss on the brink of womanhood — and put herself on the brink of a remarkable career as one of Hollywood’s great beauties and stars. Taylor plays the title character, a physically frail 15-year-old who uses her musical gifts to break free of her protective parents and then begins to enjoy typical teenage fun and romance (with a suitor played by James Lydon of the long-running Henry Aldrich series, who also wooed Taylor in the same year’s Life with Father). The outstanding supporting cast includes Mary Astor, George Murphy and S.Z. Sakall, but it's a radiant Taylor who forever makes Cynthia a girl to remember.” [From the DVD]
Cast
Cynthia Bishop: Elizabeth Taylor
Larry Bishop: George Murphy
Professor Rosenkrantz: S. Z. Sakall
Louise Bishop: Mary Astor
Dr. Fred I. Jannings: Gene Lockhart
Carrie Jannings: Spring Byington
Ricky Latham: James Lydon
Will Parker: Scotty Beckett
Fredonia Jannings: Carol Brannan
Miss Brady: Anna Q. Nilsson
Mr. Phillips: Morris Ankrum
McQuillan: Kathleen Howard
Stella Regan: Shirley Johns
Alice: Barbara Challis
J. M. Dingle: Harlan Briggs
Gus Wood: Will Wright
Crew
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Producer: Edwin H. Knopf
Screenwriters: Harold Buchman and Charles Kaufman
Based on the Play “The Rich, Full Life” by: Viña Delmar
Cinematographer: Charles Schoenbaum
Musical Score: Bronislau Kaper
Musical Numbers: Johnny Green
Editor: Irvine Warburton
Costumes: Irene
Elizabeth received her first cinematic kiss in Cynthia, courtesy of co-star James Lydon (who also played opposite her in Life with Father, released the same year). She later admitted that she had been “terrified” by the prospect of being kissed onscreen (“I’d barely, by then, received my first real-life kiss—a smack and a dart into the house—the boy was Marshal Thompson, a young actor”). Lydon, she said, gave her a polite peck on the lips, “but that buss was more like a handshake”.
Cynthia was popular at United States military bases, domestically and abroad. After the release of Cynthia, letters began pouring in for Elizabeth from young servicemen. However, the film wasn’t a box office success across the pond. Elizabeth’s father, Francis, felt that “Cynthia was not well received because our coeducational teen-agers are not understood by the British.”