Pitch Your Movie: Anna’s “Desire of the Soul”
Make sure to read, comment as well as vote using the star rating at the end of this post! This is simple courtesy if you expect your own pitch to be read! Here is Anna’s “Desire of the Soul”.
“Desire of the Soul”
Otto Preminger
The Logline
Life seemed perfect for them until two strangers entered their lives.
The Characters
 | Rock Hudson is Roy Grayson, a Virginia suburbanite with an ideal life, a steady job at an advertising agency and a stable marriage. However, recently his life has gotten more secretive. |
 | Doris Day is Janet Grayson, Roy's wife. She is a housewife who has grown bored with her daily and married lives. |
 | Montgomery Clift is Dave Mareau, a new co-worker at Roy's agency. He appears that he wants to know Roy, but it soon becomes something else... |
 | Tony Curtis is Max Kovan, Roy and Janet's new neighbor. He is a young widower who has moved from New York City to start a new life. |
 | Thelma Ritter is Helen Jordan, Janet's close friend. Janet goes to her when something is troubling her. She is also the one who introduces Janet to Max. |
 | Lee J. Cobb is Trevor Watson, Roy's boss. He is the one who introduces Roy to Dave. |
 | Lee Remick is Nancy Baker, Roy's secretary. She is the one who discovers the extent of Roy's friendship with Dave. |
The Outline
Theme: The main theme is infidelity. It will become a tad more clear once you read the outline.
Setting: Virginia, 1958
Prologue: We get a glimpse of Roy and Janet’s morning routine: Roy heads off to work while Janet cleans the house and has friends over for gossip. Both get bored after their tasks are done, more so for Janet. It is also revealed that their marriage is in a bit of a slump.
Act One: Trevor introduces Dave to the agency’s employees. Being polite, Roy asks Dave to go out for a drink after work. At the bar, Roy notices that Dave is making passes at him, embarassing Roy. The day after the incident, Dave’s interest in Roy has only intensified. Roy avoids his advances, but Dave tells him that he’ll give in sooner or later. And later that night, Roy does.
Act Two: Roy returns home after his fling with Dave, lies to Janet about his whereabouts and goes upstairs to get some sleep. It is here we are introduced to Max, courtesy of Helen and her neighborly nature. Janet is attracted by Max’s charm, but doesn’t show it. It’s also here where Roy and Dave’s illicit relationship is discovered by Nancy.
Act Three: It’s here where Janet and Max start seeing more of each other. Helen continuously asks Janet if she and Max are more than just friends, but Janet vehemently denies it. But during one of their meetings, Max admits to Janet that he’s in love with her. Upon returning home, Janet is questioned by Roy about her whereabouts. Janet lies about who she was with and furiously brings up what Nancy had told her. She cries when she’s alone, upset over two affairs: Roy’s and her own.
Epilogue: Max proposes to Janet while Dave drunkenly breaks it off with Roy. Roy professes his love to Janet as a means of apologizing for his actions, but Janet belittles him for his dishonesty and announces she is leaving him for Max. The final image is Roy staring at Janet’s wedding ring in his hand.
So what do you think? Would you see this?
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18 Comments
Very interesting idea, especially considering that you wouldn’t see anything like it when these people were alive. Solid idea. I don’t care much for the ending, but it is a nice spin on the marriage-on-the-brink-of-destruction genre. Well done!
Hi Anna, as I said on your blog, I’m generally not big on films dealing with infidelity but your cast is definitely intriguing. It certainly appeals to fans of classic cinema.
I’m with you Ruth. Infidelity often put me off.
But I like reading your Pitch Anna, Nice and simple pitch, I like it because I don’t have to read long sentences…in just short lines we already get the picture.
Totally agree! This might be the best pitch lenghtwise so far in the two drafts!
I am not that keen on the subject matter and its a bit to similar to Far from Heaven to draw me to the cinema probably a rental when I have Rock Hudson marathon!
A classics cast about infidelity and gay relationships? That’s a bit inspired, I’d say!
There was a Golden Age Hollywood movie called ‘The Children’s Hour,’ with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine, that came close to being an explicitly gay movie. There was a lot of hinting and suggestion, but it was pretty obvious what it was about. This pitch isn’t like that movie, fortunately, but I find I’m not all that interested in the marriage aspect. What if the same story were told from Dave’s point of view? I’d rather learn about the life of a gay man in the – late 50s? Early 60s? – and why he would choose to be a homewrecker. Is it just about sex, or is he really in love with Roy? I think his is the story with more potential.
All classic. Quite like it.
I think you have a perfect cast for this film. My one critique is that I feel like Douglas Sirk would be a more fitting director.
Yeah, after seeing Magnificent Obsession I think Sirk would’ve been a better director.
ahhh. sweet ode to broken romance. nice. good job!
I wrote a paper on family melodramas of the 1950s. There is something about the subject matter that intrigues me. I would definitely see this film. I do agree that it is very much like “Far From Heaven”. I also agree that Douglas Sirk would probably be more fitting for this film, but obviously you have your reasons for choosing otherwise. I would be interested in a little more depth as somebody who appreciates the premise. I can’t argue against your cast. I also like the Ad Agency take. The more I think about this, the more upset I am that this film was never made.
Interesting pitch Anna, not exactly something I would expect given the cast, which I believe gives you some solid credence. As to the story, it sounds like there is a lot of opportunity for these actors to relish the days in film where stylistic talk was more important than action.
Not a big fan of infidelity and gay relationship movies ahah but this seems like it could be a great Hitchcock movie!
Funny you bring that up. I was originally going to have this Vertigo kind of thing going on with Max having Janet look like his dead wife, but I realized it was a little too much and scrapped it.
It feels like Mad Men meets American Beauty meets Brokeback Mountain. I love all three of those, so a mash up might be something I’d go for.
The main inspirations for Desire of the Soul were Revolutionary Road (the not-so-ideal 1950′s marriage) and Brief Encounter (the emotional affair). Interesting call on Mad Men, American Beauty and Brokeback Mountain.
Like it! It’s the role Rock Hudson would never have played, but was born for. Inspired!
As everyone else has said, the subject matter juxtaposed with the cast makes this movie so interesting! Great work.
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