A millionaire with a mysterious fiancee hires a detective to discover the truth about her past.A millionaire with a mysterious fiancee hires a detective to discover the truth about her past.A millionaire with a mysterious fiancee hires a detective to discover the truth about her past.
Ricky Allen
- Boy in Library
- (uncredited)
Val Avery
- Pudgey Smith
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaTo prepare herself to play the heroine with a checkered past, Carroll Baker actually worked a shift in an all-night diner (where she went unnoticed), made change in a penny arcade booth, visited a Tijuana brothel and so forth - publicity stunt "research" that was documented in a lengthy February 27 1965 Saturday Evening Post picture story called "The Lady Was A Tramp".
- GoofsIn the library sequence, none of books are marked with the Dewey Decimal System coding or other markings that would enable anyone to easily find or shelve books.
- Quotes
Alan Macklin: You mentioned something about a job.
Frederic Summers: Sylvia West. I want to know who she is. I want to know everything there is to know about Sylvia West. Everything a prospective husband has a right to know.
- ConnectionsReferenced in What's My Line?: Lee Remick (2) (1965)
- SoundtracksSylvia
Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster
Music by David Raksin
Sung by Paul Anka
Thru the courtesy of RCA Victor Records
Featured review
Sylvia (1965)
A movie far out of its time, yet ahead of its genre. By 1965 this kind of small black and white film had migrated to television productions, or had disappeared. While clearly low budget without any stars, it keeps a tight formal structure and strong production throughout. And the idea, gradually piecing together someone's identity, makes for a great movie.
Even if it does borrow, in terms of structure only, from "Citizen Kane," no less. That is, an investigator is set off to learn who the real Sylvia is, and by meeting with one important contact after another, and going through a series of well done flashbacks, we are able to piece together the complicated life of the title character. The biggest difference from Kane (besides virtuosic style) is that Sylvia is an ordinary person. Or she seems ordinary until you learn in stages the nuances and integrity of her survival.
There are many things left unanswered, and I'm not sure that's totally for the best. We never quite understand her meandering through dramatic (and noble) moments one after another. What kind of childhood set her off this way ("Kane," significantly, pivoted around a childhood event). Sylvia is a construction, apparently beautiful (in movie terms), but more importantly interesting, strong, independent. A great role model.
The investigator, called Mack, is played by George Maharis, who has a steady and calm approach all through. What happens after the establishment of his role is really terrific, because each person he encounters offers a new scenario, a new setting and story and conversation, and then a new flashback. And some of these side characters are fabulous true characters. So you get captivated time and after time. In some ways the least interesting character is this hopeless perfect and yet tainted paradigm, Sylvia, who by the end gets her own long segment, a present tense adjustment of all of what we've seen so far.
It's a little stilted at times, and the patient pace isn't always a benefit. The ending might actually seem a bit inevitable, too, which is fair enough. But in the big view you almost want to see it again to catch some of the piece you might have missed. It's filmed a decade after the last great noirs, and so isn't a big in the mode (though some people throw every b&w movie into the mix if they have a loner guy and a blonde). And it is a terrific tonic to the bigger Hollywood machine made stuff coming out in widescreen color (a lot of it). But when you see the changes in the medium with "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and so on the next year or two, it's really really old fashioned.
Check it out.
A movie far out of its time, yet ahead of its genre. By 1965 this kind of small black and white film had migrated to television productions, or had disappeared. While clearly low budget without any stars, it keeps a tight formal structure and strong production throughout. And the idea, gradually piecing together someone's identity, makes for a great movie.
Even if it does borrow, in terms of structure only, from "Citizen Kane," no less. That is, an investigator is set off to learn who the real Sylvia is, and by meeting with one important contact after another, and going through a series of well done flashbacks, we are able to piece together the complicated life of the title character. The biggest difference from Kane (besides virtuosic style) is that Sylvia is an ordinary person. Or she seems ordinary until you learn in stages the nuances and integrity of her survival.
There are many things left unanswered, and I'm not sure that's totally for the best. We never quite understand her meandering through dramatic (and noble) moments one after another. What kind of childhood set her off this way ("Kane," significantly, pivoted around a childhood event). Sylvia is a construction, apparently beautiful (in movie terms), but more importantly interesting, strong, independent. A great role model.
The investigator, called Mack, is played by George Maharis, who has a steady and calm approach all through. What happens after the establishment of his role is really terrific, because each person he encounters offers a new scenario, a new setting and story and conversation, and then a new flashback. And some of these side characters are fabulous true characters. So you get captivated time and after time. In some ways the least interesting character is this hopeless perfect and yet tainted paradigm, Sylvia, who by the end gets her own long segment, a present tense adjustment of all of what we've seen so far.
It's a little stilted at times, and the patient pace isn't always a benefit. The ending might actually seem a bit inevitable, too, which is fair enough. But in the big view you almost want to see it again to catch some of the piece you might have missed. It's filmed a decade after the last great noirs, and so isn't a big in the mode (though some people throw every b&w movie into the mix if they have a loner guy and a blonde). And it is a terrific tonic to the bigger Hollywood machine made stuff coming out in widescreen color (a lot of it). But when you see the changes in the medium with "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and so on the next year or two, it's really really old fashioned.
Check it out.
- secondtake
- Jul 11, 2011
- Permalink
- How long is Sylvia?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Das Vorleben der Sylvia West
- Filming locations
- Beverly Amusement Park, 8500 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, California, USA(lunch scene after the bookshop)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 55 minutes
- Color
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content