Escape Me Never is a 1947 film directed by Peter Godfrey.
Sebastian and Caryl Dubrok (Errol Flynn and Gig Young) are both struggling composers in 1900 Venice. Through a misunderstanding, Caryl's high-class fiancée Fenella (Eleanor Parker) becomes convinced that Caryl has a second girlfriend, Gemma (Ida Lupino). Actually, Gemma, a widow with an infant son, is living with Sebastian, not Caryl.
Fenella, quick to assume the worst, promptly leaves Venice. Sebastian, Caryl, and Gemma all take off after her in order to explain that Gemma is actually Sebastian's roommate. The trio (actually four, with the baby) stop off for the night in a village in the Italian Alps. It turns out Fenella is there too, and Sebastian, who has never met her and doesn't know who she is, falls in love.
Tropes:
- As You Know: The time setting is fixed by a Venice tour guide who tells his tour group "Here we are, in 1900," before showing them the spot where Othello supposedly met Desdemona.
- Call-Back: After realizing that Gemma is who he really loves, Sebastian changes the title of his ballet from "Primavera" to "Gemma (Escape Me Never)" after his wife and the song that he wrote for her.
- Death of a Child: Sebastian, too wrapped up in his ballet production to notice and too much of a purist to do "hack work" that might bring in some money, does nothing when Gemma's son Piccolo becomes seriously ill. Piccolo dies.
- Door-Closes Ending: Technically the door doesn't close, but it still the same effect, as Gemma and Sebastian go in through the side door to watch his new ballet being performed, and the film ends.
- Easily Forgiven: Sebastian not only cheats on Gemma, but indirectly causes baby Piccolo's death by being too busy with work and his other woman to make sure the boy gets a doctor. Gemma still takes him back at the end.
- Empathy Doll Shot: Piccolo's little doll is still in his crib, after Sebastian comes back and finds out that his stepson is dead.
- Executive Meddling: In-Universe. After The Prima Donna ballerina starts complaining about the music and costumes in Sebastian's opera, his producers start pushing Sebastian to slow down the tempo of the big number and work some Tchaikovsky into the score. Sebastian refuses and walks off the production in a huff.
- A Foggy Day in London Town: All the scenes set in London are shown to be foggy and damp. This is plot-relevant as, when her little son Piccolo gets sick, Gemma blames it on the crappy London weather.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Caryl admits it, saying that Sebastian is passionate and dramatic while he himself is "dull." Sebastian remains dedicated to his art while Caryl decides to give up composing and go into music production.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: After a single night in an Alpine inn, Sebastian and Fenella have fallen in love and she's contemplating dumping Caryl.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: A tour guide calls Venice "the city of silence," and this remark is followed by the blast of a cannon. (A cannon salute is fired every day at noon.)
- Love Dodecahedron: Both Gemma and Fenella wind up falling in love with Sebastian, which Fenella's fiancée Caryl doesn't like at all.
- The Prima Donna: The prima ballerina dancing in Sebastian's ballet throws a fit, saying that the music and the dance routine are all wrong, and she threatens to quit. She nearly derails the whole show.
- Someone to Remember Him By: In the backstory, Gemma had a husband who died, and left her with little baby Piccolo. (This is a case of Hays Code censorship, as the play this film is based on simply made Gemma an unwed mother.)
- Stock Footage: The shot of the Church of St. Mark in Venice is obviously stock footage spliced into the film.
- Title Drop: "Escape Me Never" is a song that Sebastian writes for Gemma to sing.
