Trunk (1943, released 1945), Warner Brothers Warner Brothers sought to exploit the "exciting potential" of a Bergman-Cooper pairing in Saratoga Trunk (1945), an "expensive and lavish" production that did not live up to expectations. (The "Trunk" refers to the Saratoga Trunk Line, owned by a railway baron played by John Warburton) Though filmed in early 1943, the picture was not given general release until early 1945, initially presented only to US servicemen stationed overseas during the war. Wood's direction of Saratoga Trunk lacked his characteristic celerity and its "languid" tempo earned the film only an "admirable but dull" rating by critics, despite its "rich production values." The director of Hollywood's Production Code Administration, Joseph Breen registered some distaste for the characterization of Clio Dulaine (Ingrid Bergman) as a mixed-race (half-Creole) courtesan who seeks matrimony with wealthy white gamblers and capitalists. The only acting Academy Award nomination went to British actress Flora Robson, who wore blackface makeup to portray the mulatto servant Angelique Buiton. A commercial failure, Saratoga Trunk did not diminish the mutual esteem which Cooper and Wood held for one another. Their next feature was decidedly not of the epic-heroic proportions of their three previous collaborations, but a light comedy: Casanova Brown. Three Comedies: Casanova Brown, Guest Wife and Heartbeat: 1944-1946 Wood continued his collaboration with Cooper in a comedic vein after the delayed release of Saratoga Trunk with International Pictures' Casanova Brown (1944), a vehicle intended to appeal to female movie patrons. Cooper absconds with his own infant daughter from a maternity ward in order to prevent his former wife offering the child up for adoption. Wood's situation comedy was no more than a moderate success. Wood followed with Guest Wife (1946) starring Claudette Colbert and RKO's Heartbeat (1946) starring Ginger Rogers. A cinematic "trifle" largely carried by the virtues of star Colbert, Guest Wife also benefits from Wood's expert handling of his cast, "a talent in itself." Biographer Tony Thomas summarizes Wood's approach to controlling his actors: Wood rejoined Ginger Rogers after their success in the romance Kitty Foyle (1940) to film a remake of French director Henri Decoin's 1939 Battement de coeur, in Heartbeat. The Dickensian theme features Rogers as an Oliver Twist-like character who enlists to serve the Fagin-like figure (Basil Rathbone) as a pickpocket. The picture would have been better served is Wood possessed "the sly touch of a Guitry or a Lubitsch" rather