Doll-A-Day 2019 #55: Oscar Week: Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa

    For the next seven days we'll be celebrating the Academy Awards,which are being given out tonight. The doll celebrating the Oscars today is this lady.

She's Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa.

This doll is supposed to be Ingrid Bergman,but I don't think she bears much resemblance to her.

Maybe it's her startled look.

'Ilsa' was sold as a single doll,or in a two pack with the other doll in the series, Humphrey Bogart as 'Rick'.

The dolls were based on the characters Ilsa and Rick, from the movie "Casabanca".

 

The doll was made by Premeire,and sold in 1998. Premiere does much better with it's male dolls. I think another problem with the Premeire dolls is the thick fabric they use for the clothes. If it were thinner it would be much more to scale and not bunch awkwardly.

Ingrid is 9" tall. Her hat is part of her head and can't be removed,and she has a molded blob of hair.

Her shoes are molded and painted.

She has jointed knees and elbows,and can turn her head.
 

Looks like somebody stole her glass. Other Premeire dolls came with accessories,but I don't think these did. Maybe they were supposed to,and the accessories never made it into production. They did come with display bases though.

Ingrid Bergman was born in Stockholm Sweden on August 29,1915. She acted in films in Sweden and Germany before making her American film debut in 1939,with the film "Intermezzo". The switch must have been made easy by the fact that in addition to Swedish and German, she also spoke  English, French,and Italian. She was known for her natural looks,which were unusual in film in those days. Ingrid Bergman wore no make up and sported unplucked brows.

 

"Casablanca" was released in 1942. The film was a romantic drama set in,where else, Casablanca. Rick must choose between keeping Ilsa,with whom he previously had been in love,with him,or sending her off with her husband so she can help him continue to fight the Nazis. The release of the film was moved up when the Allied forces invaded North Africa.

The doll is a recreation of 'Ilsa',from the final scene of the film,where 'Rick' convinces her that she must go with her husband,because "You're a part of his work, the thing that keeps him going." It's the famous, "...You'll regret it,maybe not today,maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life...Here's lookin' at you kid." scene.

Maybe that blob of hair wasn't so far off.

There's a great Muppets parody of that scene,which actually uses almost the exact dialogue from the scene,(Only changing one word),but still manages to be hilarious. You can see it HERE.
Her clothes are removable. Under her jacket she wears a satiny blouse.

This doll was rescued from our flooded basement. Somewhere down there the 'Rick' doll is waiting to join her.

The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards. Humphrey Bogart was nominated as Best Actor,but Ingrid Bergman was not nominated as Best Actress. Bogart didn't win anyway, but the movie won three other Oscars: Best Picture,Best Director, (Michael Curtiz),and Best Screenplay,(Julius J. and Phillip G. Epstein and Howard Koch).

Ingrid Bergman did win a Best Actress Oscar though. In fact,she won two of them,(For "Gaslight" in 1944 and "Anastasia" in 1956),and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar,(for "Murder on the Orient Express" in 1974). She is one of only 5 people to have won three Oscars, (Although Katherine Hepburn still beats them all with the four she won.),and was nominated seven times. She also won two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award,a BAFTA award,and four Golden Globe Awards.
  Although Ingrid Bergman was loved by the American public,she became very unpopular when, in 1950,while married, she had an affair,and a child, with her director, Roberto Rossellini. She was even denounced on the floor of the U.S. Senate. She divorced her first  husband and entered into a custody battle for her daughter Pia. (Pia,who later became an actress herself, was born in 1938.) Ingrid married Rossellini the same year,and had two more children,one of whom, Isabella Rossellini,also became an actress. Ingrid was forced by the scandal to leave Hollywood,and work in Europe. She would not return to Hollywood until 1956,when she returned to star in "Anastasia",for which she won her second Oscar.

  Ingrid Bergman continued to act,her last work being the mini series "Golda" in 1982,in which she played Golda Meir. Ingrid died of breast cancer on her birthday in 1982.