The Four Poster (1952) DVD-R

Starring Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer
Directed by Irving Reis

Print: black/white
Runtime: 103 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B

Jan de Hartog's two-person stage play The Fourposter has always
seemed to attract married acting couples, a tradition established by the
play's first Broadway stars Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. The film
version featured Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer, who (you guessed it) were
man and wife at the time. The story traces the history of a marriage from
the wedding night in 1890 to the death of the wife in the 1930s; all crucial
scenes are acted out in the couple's boudoir, near the fourposter bed
they'd received as a wedding present. The passing years, and the
triumphs and tragedies of the couple, are wittily represented by
transitional animation sequences produced by the UPA cartoon studios. A
musical version of The Fourposter titled I Do I Do opened on Broadway in
1966, breaking precedent by starring Mary Martin and Robert Preston,
who were happily married but not to each other.