Desire Under the Elms (1958)

Synopsis: Delbert Mann's moody adaptation of the Eugene O'Neill tragedy DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS stars Sophia Loren in her American film debut. Ephraim Cabot (Burl Ives), the larger-than-life patriarch of a New England farm in 1840, has had three sons, now grown, by two different wives, both dead. He's... Delbert Mann's moody adaptation of the Eugene O'Neill tragedy DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS stars Sophia Loren in her American film debut. Ephraim Cabot (Burl Ives), the larger-than-life patriarch of a New England farm in 1840, has had three sons, now grown, by two different wives, both dead. He's bought out the shares in the farm of two of his sons, but a third, Eben (Anthony Perkins), stays on, believing he has a right to the land, which his mother had previously owned. The old man decides he wants another son, and makes a deal with Anna (Loren), a 20-year-old woman, to marry him in exchange for the deed to the land in his will. But perhaps inevitably, Loren finds herself attracted to young Eben, and when she becomes pregnant, Ephraim has had nothing to do with it. After the baby is born, the unwitting old farmer makes public his bargain with Anna; and as Eben, shocked and enraged, flees the farm, the young woman's response leads to tragedy for all. Perkins delivers a typically nuanced performance in this epic family saga that features a sweeping score by Elmer Bernstein and garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography. [More]