My first in a series on tough guys is big, bad, Bob Mitchum. Mitch may have given more good performances in more bad or mediocre films than any Hollywood star of his stature.
Born in Connecticut in 1917, Robert Mitchum came up the hard way:riding the rails during the depression, ditch digging and boxing professionally. Down south at 14, Mitchum was arrested for vagrancy and did time on a Georgia chin gang. Somehow Mitchum escaped and went back to his family, now in Delaware. Ever footloose, Mitchum soon rode the rails out to California in 1936 and stayed with his sister, Julie. One of his many jobs was as ghost writer for astrologist Carroll Righter. It was sister Julie who convinced Bob to join the Players Guild of Long Beach where Mitchum worked as a stage hand and sometime bit player for the company. In 1940 Mitchum married his childhood sweetheart Dorothy. Also around this time Mitchum got a job at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation where he would work with a fellow named James Dougherty, who at the time happened to have a girlfriend {and future wife}Norma Jean Baker aka Marilyn Monroe. A nervous breakdown, apparently from job related stress, forced Mitchum to quit Lockheed and he decided to try his luck working in movies.
The image of noir:Fedora, trench coat, wet pavement, Mitchum in the urban jungle. Only thing missing is the cigarette and a dame.
Mitchum broke into films in the early 40's when Hollywood was having a leading man shortage due to several big name actors-Tyrone Power, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Taylor, William Holden, Robert Montgomery among others-joined the troops; fighting fascism in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific. In 1943, Mitchum got his first speaking part in a Hopalong Cassidy western, a quickie called Hoppy Serves a Writ. For the young Mitchum, who by this time also had a young son, James, it was a boon or as he would put it, "50 bucks a week and all the hay that I could eat". From that point on, Mitchum never stopped working. Most of the 20-odd films Mitch made on his way to the top were forgettable fare: the western West of the Pecos; a comedy The Girl Rush; Border Patrol; We've Never Been Licked to name but a few. However, he did make a bit of an impression in his two MGM pictures at the time, small parts though they were, in 1943's The Human Comedy and 1944's Twenty Seconds Over Tokyo. Also in 1944, RKO Pictures, an always struggling {now defunct}studio, signed Mitchum to a long term contract with the usual options. Not quite sure what to do with their new piece of beefcake, the studio put him in a couple of westerns. Then in 1945, maverick director William Wellman {Wings, the original A Star is Born, The OxBow Incident} borrowed Mitchum for a important part in his war film The Story of G.I. Joe, as Lt.Walker, a reflective, lonely officer of Company C that journalist Ernie Pyle {Burgess Meredith}immortalized in a series of newspaper articles. The picture was a hit, Mitchum got his one and only Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor {he lost}and it made him a star.
The Story of G.I. Joe, 1945
Hollywood in the 1940's sometimes moved so fast that it took awhile before a studio realized what it had in it's own backyard. Thus in 1946, Mitchum was on loan-out to MGM for 1946's Undercurrent, directed by Vincente Minnelli and co-starring a couple of big 1940's names Robert Taylor and Katharine Hepburn {who took none too kindly to Mr. Mitchum, as a relatively inexperienced newcomer, being one of the two stars cast opposite her} and Desire Me starring the Queen of The Metro Lot in the 40's, Miss Greer Garson. Mitchum also appeared in the noirish-western, Raoul Walsh's Pursued with Teresa Wright for Warner Bros. He also had a small yet memorable part in Edward Dymtryk's Till The End Of Time, stealing the show as a war veteran whose inner softness and sensitivity betrays an outer cynicism and hardness, his one and only 1946 film for RKO. It wasn't until 1947, two years after putting him under contract, that Mitchum had a part that was worthy of his talent, 1947's Out Of The Past, RKO's classic example of noir with a femme fatale {the lethal Jane Greer in the performance of her life}, a charming yet dangerous villain {an early portrait by Kirk Douglas}, seductive b&w photography {by the great Nicholas Musuraca}, and a doomed protagonist - not an innocent but not guilty either - who is a victim of fate, played by our man Mitchum.
Mitchum, about to enter the cantina to wait. And wait. And wait. Out of the Past, 1947
The waiting is over. Here she comes, out of the sun, into the shadows. Big Bob is about to be hit by a ton of soft, lush, deadly bricks. Out of the Past, 1947
Look at her. Try to tell yourself you wouldn't be her chump, too. Out of the Past, 1947
Out of the Past changed the Mitchum persona. In G.I. Joe, Mitchum, however laconic, was a man of action. But Out of the Past took his lazy, laconic, easygoing style and turned it into a character flaw. From that point on in his career Mitchum often played a chump. Films like Where Danger Lives, His Kind of Woman, The Lusty Men and especially Otto Preminger's 1953 noir classic Angel Face, show us a Mitchum whose character has little ambition. They're men that-though not old in years-have already witnessed too much of life's frustration and defeat and can be fooled only by love; men who are just floating thru life, until a dangerous woman enters the frame and then it's game over.
The start of Jeff McCloud's long walk home. The Lusty Men, 1952
In 1952 Mitchum took on the role of Jeff McCloud, a former rodeo champ now just trying to get by one day at a time, in The Lusty Men. Also in it are Arthur Kennedy as a ranch hand, wanting more from life and thinking bronco-busting can get it for him, and Susan Hayward as his wife, who only wants a quiet life and a place to call their own. Directed by Nicholas {Rebel Without Cause} Ray, it's a small, lonely film that was overlooked by most critics and nearly all moviegoers in it's day, but it has developed a bit of a reputation as a cult film and gives Mitchum one of his most atypical roles and best, self contained performances. His Jeff McCloud is just a little solitary, just a little melancholy {check out the way he answers the old timer he meets at his old boyhood home when the old man asks McCloud if he has ever been married}and a physical wreck with broken bones left all over the rodeo circuits of the west. The Lusty Men is a kind of stepbrother to Huston's 1961 film The Misfits, with it's black and white photography, the shotty, fringe-dwelling hangouts of the nomadic principle characters; people with no where to go and getting there fast, looking for "a home of their own" in Nicholas Ray's phrase, but destined never to find one.
The right hand says love. Need I tell you what the left hand says? 1955's Night of the Hunter
1955's Night of the Hunter is one of the true masterpieces of expressionistic cinema with the dark, angular camera work by Stanley Cortez {The Magnificent Ambersons} of studio-bound sets, Charles Laughton's only directorial effort is a tour-de-force of evil. Evil personified by the presence of Robert Mitchum. I know more than a few folks who had seen this movie on the late, late show and being scarred for life and never trusting Robert Mitchum again. To some, any role he would play in the future would be measured against his satanic "preacher".
Night of the Hunter. The preacher's wedding night, with Shelley Winters.
Having been busted in 1949 for possession of marijuana, Mitchum would retain the persona of an outcast, a wild man, a loose cannon, someone who is dangerous to be around. The 1949 arrest was big front page news and quite the scandal. Along with Errol Flynn's rape trial, Ingrid Bergman's near-career-ending affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini and Fatty Arbuckle's rape trial, Mitchum's arrest for possession is one of the legendary scandals of Tinseltown. Put yourself in the time frame of the late 40's/early 50's: Men and women didn't openly "play house", women didn't have children out of wedlock, only junkies smoked reefer, to name but a few taboos of the day. Now put yourself in Mitchum's place and one would have to figure,"my career is over". Not only that, he was busted in the home of a woman who was not his wife. So in addition to his career, Mitchum could have also have lost his wife and his family. Ouch. Mitchum was convicted, served his time:7 days in county jail {His take on it: "Like Palm Springs, without the riff-raff."}and 43 days in the Castaic, California prison farm, said the right things about being "sorry" and so on. Mitchum must have been relieved when he found out that his career wasn't going to be thrown away like an old newspaper. The reason for this: Howard Hughes' RKO went into major damage control to save their number one box-office star. The studio paired Mitchum up with Out of the Past co-star Jane Greer for a noir The Big Steal and a family Christmas themed comedy with Janet Leigh, Holiday Affair. These two films showed Mitchum as both tough and tender. The films clicked, as did many snapshots of Bob home playing daddy and good hubby for public consumption. Mitchum was off and running for another 40 years of stardom. And he got to keep his wife and kids. Or vice versa.
Doin' time.
Out of the clink.Mitchum emerges, bigger than ever.
In 1954 Mitchum's RKO contract ended and he began free lancing. 20th Century-Fox for Preminger's Point of No Return with Marilyn Monroe, Stanley Kramer's all-star snooze-fest Not As A Stranger, John Huston's Heaven Knows, Mr, Allison, the first of 3 movies with Deborah Kerr. Also during his mid-50's career, Mitchum was fired from John Wayne's Batjac production of William Wellman's Blood Alley opposite Lauren Bacall. According to Sam O'Steen's memoir Cut To The Chase, Mitchum showed up to the San Francisco location after a night of heavy drinking and tore a room apart when he found out he was not promised a driver for the location filming and quit or was replaced after 3 days filming claiming he couldn't work with director Wellman. Now this is the same director who 10 years earlier cast Mitch in G.I. Joe the picture that made him a star of the first order and he and Wellman had just made 1954's Track Of The Cat, a psychological western filmed in color but using mostly a black & white color scheme. Couldn't work with Wellman? Clearly Mitchum had some issues to work out with himself. As the years past the 50's gave way to the 60's, Mitchum would continue
to grow as an actor, at times essaying portraits in films one would not
have expected of him. Vincente Minnelli's Home From The Hill and Fred Zinnemann's The Sundowners
from 1960 and both, especially the Zinnemann film, becoming hits with
critics and audiences. In fact one could make a strong case for 1960
being Mitchum's Annus mirabilis, his year of years, as he was voted The
National Board of Review Critics Award as it's Best Actor of 1960 for
the two previously mentioned films. Oscar, as usual, turned a deaf ear.
Part, if not all, of Mitchum's problem with the Hollywood community {and
thus, Oscar}is his rep as a bad boy. As Max Cady in1962's Cape Fear, Mitchumfeeds off that rep showing the audience a study in sadistic bullying, threatening intimidation and finally, all-out physical violence.
1962 also brought the all-star WWII epic The Longest Day and Two For The Seesaw, which paired him up for the first time with Shirley MacLaine. According to her memoir My Lucky Stars, in which Miss MacLaine dishes on the famous co-stars from her many films, she and Mitchum had an affair which lasted several years. Although she was in love with Mitchum, MacLaine eventually called it quits when it became increasingly clear that he would never leave his wife. The 60's brought a lot of junk Mitchum's way too: The Last Time I Saw Archie a feeble comedy, the jungle adventure film Rampage; Man In The Middle; a couple of westerns Villa Ride and 5 Card Stud and the artsy-fartsy Secret Ceremony with Mia Farrow and Liz Taylor. A couple of good ones came out of the mid to late 60's too. Howard Hawks' El Dorado with Duke Wayne {who apparently held no grudge against Mitch for the Blood Alley debacle}and a very young James Caan in what is essentially a re-working of Hawks' 1959 western classic Rio Bravo with Mitchum replacing Dean Martin as the drunk law enforcer of a small west Texas town. The other movie Mitchum made that I have a fond memories of is 1965's African-adventure saga called Mister Moses with pistol-hot Carroll Baker of Baby Doll and The Carpetbagger's fame. I say memories because I haven't seen this movie in at least 20 years, as it seems to be forgotten and never shows up on the cable channels I receive. Never put out to the home video market in any form, I recall seeing it on KCOP TV Channel 13 back in the 80's and was quite taken with Mitchum's portrayal of a con man trying to get an African tribe to relocate it's location, but as to the reason it must relocate is something I have completely forgotten. Made by the British director Ronald Neame, photographed by Oswald Morris, with a music score by John Barry. Perhaps a company like Olive Films, who have rescued several older movies from complete extinction in recent years, will come along and save it from lost-movie-purgatory.
On the beach with Sarah Miles in Ryan's Daughter, 1970
The 70's brought a new Mitchum. A kind of kinder, gentler Mitchum, a Robert for the New Age/New Male 70's. Oh Bob could still be big, bad and tough if the situation warranted it {such as 1972's Wrath of God and The Yakuza from 1975 would demonstrate} but there would be parts like the kind, cuckolded schoolmaster/ husband of Sarah Miles' Rosy Ryan in David Lean's much maligned Ryan's Daughter; 1971's Going Home with Mitchum as a man just released from prison for the murder of his wife, a crime which occurred years before, and having to deal with his young son {Jan-Michael Vincent} and the obvious issues they must deal with; 1976's The Last Tycoon starring Robert DeNiro as a Irving Thalberg-like movie studio head and Mitchum playing an L.B. Mayer type who pretty much opposes DeNiro at every turn and 1978's remake of the Bogart and Bacall classic, The Big Sleep. Directed by Michael Winner {Death Wish 1,2 and 3 The Nightcomers, The Sentinel]}, the remake changes locales from southern California 1940's to London, England circa 1978; to me that right there is a major flaw. The cast is a good one, though: Sarah Miles {taking the Bacall part}, James Stewart, Richard Boone, John Mills, Joan Collins, Candy Clark, Edward Fox. But Mitchum {whose presence is still being felt in every frame} in his second go round as Raymond Chandler's gumshoe, cannot do much to elevate the script, faithful though it is to the source novel; Winner's direction is by the numbers and his pacing flacid. The 70's also brought a couple of films I have yet to see, The Friends of Eddie Coyle and The Amsterdam Kill. In 1974 Mitchum was set to play in Rosebud, an international thriller with Otto Preminger at the helm for what would be the third time in for a Mitchum movie. But it wasn't meant to be. Bringing back shades of his Blood Alley debacle, reportedly Mitchum showed up on location in Corsica drunk. On location for two weeks, Mitchum had worked a total of three days. As reported in Lee Server's terrific bio of Mitchum called Baby, I Don't Care, Mitchum gets bored and moves from professional actor to erratic liability, fighting with Preminger and being replaced by Peter O'Toole, another actor with a hell-raising, hard drinking reputation.{Mitchum's take on it:"O'Toole! Hell, that's like replacing Ray Charles with Helen Keller"}.
Lobby card for Farewell, My Lovely, 1975
Which brings me to what may be my favorite Mitchum movie of all-time. Its certainly is one of my favorite Mitchum performances: 1975's Farewell, My Lovely.Critics at the time liked Mitchum's take on Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. As pointed out by critics at the time, Mitchum, at 57, was least at decade too old; yet he made the part his own. My only regret is that he didn't play the part earlier. Made fast on the heels of that other all-time great neo-noir Chinatown {1974}, Farewell, My Lovely takes Mitchum's age factor and put it front and center in the opening voice over narration, with Marlowe explaining to the audience that he is holed up in a seedy hotel and coming to grips with "the plain fact that I am tired, and growing old". The femme fatale is played by Charlotte Rampling, fresh from her romp with Dirk Bogarde in the explicit, controversial The Night Porter, and though British, she brings the right amount of Bacall-esque sultriness the part requires. As Marlowe, Mitchum is tough and seen it all but shows great empathy toward some of the characters; the old floozy Jessie Florian, ex-bandleader Tommy Ray and his family, even for the big lug who hired him and started the whole thing, Moose Malloy. The film also features an early Sylvester Stallone, pre-Rocky, as one of the thugs who works for Madame Frances Amthor.
Released on August 8, 1975, Farewell, My Lovely reminded fans and critics alike why Robert Mitchum was a great screen actor. There was buzz about a possible Oscar nomination, with his increasing age making him a sentimental favorite. But, no. Hollywood chose to look away and ignore another great Mitchum performance. And it was his last great one, too
The 80's brought a few theatrical releases, most of them negligible. In 1982, age 65 and still capable of doing good work, Mitchum made his dramatic small screen debut in the noir-ish mystery One Shoe Makes It Murder with Angie Dickinson. A year later, Mitchum was absolutely frightening in the TV movie A Killer In The Family, as the title role. Then came the big behemoth 1983's TV event of the decade, the adaptation of Herman Wouk's bestseller The Winds Of War. In it Mitch is Victor "Pug" Henry, a middle aged Naval officer and confidante of FDR. The mini-series was well received by the critics and TV viewers alike. It was a reunion of sorts for Mitchum; Polly Bergen who played Gregory Peck's wife in Cape Fear was cast as Mitchum's wife, Jan-Michael Vincent played his son, just as he did in 1971's Going Home and Peter Graves who appeared with Mitchum in The Night Of The Hunter in 1955. Also in the extravaganza were Ali MacGraw, John Houseman and Ralph Bellamy. In 1988, it's sequel War and Remembrance, was broadcast to acclaim and huge ratings, though most reviews noted that at 71, Mitchum had become too old for the part whose character was about 50 in the book.
Group Portrait. The Winds Of War, 1983
The last nine years brought mostly cameos {Scrooged, the remake of Cape Fear}and some TV spots including a weekly sitcom called A Family For Joe. Broadcast in 1990 on Saturday nights at 8pm, it ran for nine episodes and was cancelled. His last filmed performance came in something called James Dean:Race With Destiny in 1997. In 1996 when he was informed that his lungs were shot from too many cigarettes, doctors wanted to put him in hospital, but he refused. Robert Mitchum died at home in Montecito, California on July1,1997 at the age of 79. His wife Dorothy, still with him after all those years, had gone into his room to check on him. He had stopped breathing. She kissed him, one last time. Peace had finally come for Robert Mitchum.
"I don't want to die."
"Neither do I baby, but if I do....I want to die last."
Quote from Out Of The Past
Sources: Baby, I Don't Care by Lee Server
Wikipedia's Robert Mitchum page
My Lucky Stars by Shirley MacLaine
Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies: Robert Mitchum by John Belton
And the movies of Robert Mitchum
In case anyone has noticed, I am having a little trouble putting thoughts down on keyboard here in blogland. I am working on several things including a Robert Mitchum piece as part of an on-going series on movie Tough Guys {much like my Crush of the Week has been}, a Billy Wilder thing-a-ma-jig, some articles on my favorite character actors {Peter Lorre, George Sanders, etc;}and a couple of other things I have been juggling but can't quite seem to finish {in some cases, even start}.
Mitchum seems unimpressed with my road block issues.
Call it lack of motivation, call it laziness, call it life getting in the way, or call it any damn thing you please. One of my goals for 2013 was to be more productive on this thing, this blog that has given me so much satisfaction these {almost} 2 years. In fact, in May it will be 2 years and I would like to cook up something special, but creativity is at an all-time low at the present. Any suggestions would be helpful. I would measure them with a grain of salt. Even as I write this ideas are leaving my brain and moving on to other body parts.So I will close this brief post with one of my inspirations:Oscar Levant. Levant is one of several legends I have yet to touch on. His sharp, witty mind {like razor blades}, his talent as an actor, concert pianist, talk show host and self destructive behavior seems like a perfect fit for my jagged sensibility.
I was never voted anything, but the second quote seems apt.
Miss Novak's lovely back in Strangers When We Meet, 1960.
Unlike Elizabeth Taylor, Hepburn {Audrey}, Grace Kelly and other Hollywood actresses and sex symbols that rose to stardom in the 1950's, Kim Novak, having celebrated her 80th birthday last month, is still with us. Because she was unfairly compared to that other blonde bombshell of the 50's, Marilyn Monroe, Novak possibly hasn't registered as heavily as she should have. In fact aside from being blonde and beautiful, when it came to their screen persona Novak and Monroe had nothing in common. Whereas Marilyn's screen image that has passed down through the years is of a somewhat innocent, childlike creature almost unaware of her sexuality, Novak's screen character's are generally more somber, isolated, melancholy and she is completely aware of the power she has over men, sometimes to her regret. In her private life she seemed a reluctant goddess, turning her back on Hollywood in the late 60's and, though there would be brief comebacks in the 70's and 80's, she never really returned.
Giving her all for her art: Novak as Mildred in 1964's Of Human Bondage.
In the 1960 film Strangers When We Meet, which contains one of Novak's best performance's and is a favorite film of mine, helmed by her one time fiance and maybe her best director Richard Quine {the pair would end up making 4 films together}, Novak playing an unhappily married housewife, continually rebuffs married architect Kirk Douglas' advances until her resolve breaks down and she plunges into an affair that is at times sexy, tawdry, sensitive, yet ultimately doomed not to last. A time capsule film, Strangers When We Meet seems wonderfully perceptive when confronting the mores and morals of the late 50's and challenges anything Douglas Sirk was doing over at Universal Studios around the same time. It would also be of interest to any Mad Men fans.
Novak as the lonely housewife, Maggie, getting ready to leave the no-tell-motel she shares with Kirk Douglas, Strangers When We Meet.
Perfectly cast in Hitchcock's Vertigo from 1958, Kim gives us two Novak's:The ethereal Madeleine and the down to earth working girl Judy. Novak, who always had a somewhat dreamy quality, was perhaps better suited to the Madeleine character than the common Judy. Her portrayal of the sad, lost Madeleine rings true, with Novak giving an almost effortless performance and is as much a part of the film's continued success as James Stewart's Scottie, Bernard Herrmann's influential musical score and Sir Alfred's steady pacing and flowing images. The film has grown in stature so much that in 2012 Vertigo was voted by the British film publication Sight And Sound, in a poll begun in 1952 and done every ten years since, as the #1 film of all-time, the first time since 1962 that the honor wasn't awarded Citizen Kane {maybe we can now simply enjoy that picture without having that 50 year burden of All-Time Greatest Film hanging over it}
As the haunted Madeleine in Hitchcock's Vertigo, 1958
One of my favorite movie's of Novak's and one that gets overlooked is 1964's Of Human Bondage with Lawrence Harvey. In it she plays the low class waitress Mildred, the same role that Bette Davis made her own in 1934. Mildred's character takes advantage of the club-footed, failed-art-student-now medical student Phillip {Lawrence Harvey}. It was a stretch for her, with a cockney accent and a down-to-earth opportunistic demeanor, Mildred is not the type of part she would normally take but Novak was obviously looking for challenges. Supposedly the film was a difficult shoot. Originally Henry Hathaway, an old hand at John Wayne westerns, was hired. Hathaway had just completed the Wayne opus Circus World and was probably not the right man for the job. He left production early on and retreated to more comfortable ground with The Sons of Katie Elder, another Wayne western. Ken Hughes took over direction. Novak and co-star Harvey didn't see eye to eye and working with him was a strain for her. In the book Kim Novak On Camera by Larry Kleno, Kim is quoted "For some reason, known only to him, he refused to talk to me except in the line of duty" {Novak was another in a long line of actresses who didn't get along with Harvey}. The good thing is that none of this shows on screen. In fact their roles on screen are somewhat the reverse of their off-screen situation, with Novak being the bitch and Harvey having a forgiving nature and not being able to let go of his feeling for Mildred. I like the film and admire the effort of all involved but at the time it was considered a failure both with the public and critics. The movie is worth seeking out {it plays on Turner Classic Movies from time to time} for Novak's atypical work, Oswald Morris's photography, John Box' production design which perfectly capture gas lit London and Ron Goodwin's memorable score.
Larry shows Kim how he really feels about her, 1964's Of Human Bondage
Other Novak movies worth a look or two are Richard Quine's Bell, Book and Candle with Novak as the witch Gillian who casts a spell on Jimmy Stewart, Preminger's The Man With The Golden Arm with Sinatra impressive as a druggie trying to get clean and Novak as a "hostess" of a nightclub who tries to help him to go straight, as Madge {the "Pretty One"} in Joshua Logan's Picnic opposite William Holden, the noir drama Pushover under Quine's direction with Fred MacMurray as the poor sap who falls for her charms and Pal Joey a not-to-faithful adaptation of the 1940 Rogers & Hart Broadway musical about a heel nightclub entertainer {Frank Sinatra} who charms his way into the life of rich society dame Rita Hayworth, while also trying to get Novak's Linda English in the sack. These films, all from the 50's and all big, big hits helped Novak to be voted 9th in Quigley Publications annual top ten list of 1956.
Novak with Pyewacket, Bell, Book and Candle 1958
While under exclusive contract to Harry Cohn's Columbia Pictures in the 1950's, Novak got deferential treatment at the studio with top scripts, directors, co-stars, cameramen. She was given the best of everything. When Harry Cohn's heart gave out on February 27, 1958 Novak's career would never quite be the same. Cohn had discovered, nurtured, pampered, disciplined {Novak's "friendship" with Sammy Davis,Jr caused Cohn no end of grief}, molded her into a rival of Monroe's and also to replace Columbia's aging sex symbol Rita Hayworth. With Cohn gone Novak's career lost much of it's steam. Her box office allure took a slow fade to black as the 60's went psychedelic, yet 1964's Kiss Me, Stupid, co-starring Dean Martin at the peak of his popularity and Billy Wilder at the helm, must have seemed a good idea at the time. But when the film was released, it was condemned as a filthy near-porn movie by the Catholic Church, which forbid it's parishioners from seeing it and the movie's critic's tarred and feathered writer/director Wilder, who some felt had gone too far in his tastelessness with this tale of a hooker who poses as the wife of an aspiring songwriter, essentially pimping her out to sell his song to Dino-who is stuck in a desert town overnight with car trouble-while the aspiring composer's real wife, through circumstance's far to intricate to relate here, winds up in the hooker's trailer and has a one night fling with Dino. Ring-a-ding-ding!
1968's Legend of Lylah Claire
In 1968, after three years away from the screen, Novak came back to give her last real stab as the lead in a Hollywood feature in Robert Aldrich's The Legend of Lylah Claire. Her last few films not being particularly successful, a lot was riding on Lylah Claire's success. If it didn't hit big with the public Kim would be pretty much through as an A-List Hollywood star. In it Kim plays Else Brinkman a struggling actress in Hollywood going nowhere. Because of Elsie's striking resemblance to her, she is hired to playin a biopic about the mythic Lylah Claire, a kind of Garbo-Dietrich star from the golden days of the movies who died years earlier amid scandal and innuendo. Peter Finch plays her Svengali/Sternberg-ish director/former lover and Ernest Borgnine plays a Harry Cohn-like studio head who is funding the picture. Director Aldrich coming off 1967's mega hit The Dirty Dozen - although an entirely different kind of movie from Lylah - was hotter than a firecracker on the 4th of July, but he had some experience with this kind of story, as The Big Knife {his 1955 take on what was a version of the John Garfield story} demonstrated, so Kim's decision to take the part, whatever private thoughts of the script she may have harbored, showed a shrewdness on her part. She clearly wanted Lylah to put her back to her pre-1962 days. Well, it didn't happen. Lylah Claire has gone down in history as one of those "Guilty Pleasures" of cinema, a movie perhaps only appreciated by a movie-drunk-on-movies cinephile like myself, and as big a box office bomb as Dirty Dozen was a hit.
Kim, casual in the 70's.
That pretty much ended Novak's career as any kind of force in Hollywood. She would come back now and then, once in a while, in films which she may have been the female lead - White Buffalo opposite 70's tough guy Charles Bronson or the 1979 curio, hard-to-see Just A Gigolo, one of David Bowie's forays into film that also contains Marlene Dietrich's last screen appearance - but her career essentially ended in the 60's. One of the few bright spots in her post-60's filmography is the1980 Agatha Christie murder mystery The Mirror Crack'd, that co-starred Kim with such 50's stalwarts as Rock Hudson playing a movie director/husband to Elizabeth Taylor's fragile actress and Tony Curtis doing his best Sidney Falco from Sweet Smell of Success as a bottom-line producer. But stealing the show as diva movie star Lola Brewster, delivering some of the movie's best lines and looking like a million bucks, was Kim Novak. The scenes with La Liz are like outtakes from Cukor's The Women or Mankiewicz' All About Eve : Bitchy!! I love Taylor, but she did not look her best in this movie - she appears to be rather frumpy - and when she and Novak have their picture taken together for a publicity gathering of the film Hudson and Curtis are trying to make, Novak says to Liz "Chin up, dear. Both of them". What a moment! Unfortunately that kind dialogue doesn't hold up for the entire movie and Novak has only a handful of scenes, but she makes them count and leaves the strongest impression in the picture.
Novak, with Rock & Liz, looking like a million dollars in The Mirror Crack'd
In a recently televised interview with Robert Osbourne on Turner Classic Movies {taped from 2012's TCM Classic Film Festival} Novak mentioned that she would have liked to have gotten more, or at least some, recognition from her peers in the film industry. Novak went on to say her life has been a good one, that she doesn't have any regrets, yet one could sense a sadness and longing to have some respect for her efforts. Osbourne said that he hoped she appreciated the turn out from fans at the film festival and an emotional Novak said yes she did and it seemed to mean a lot to her. The fact that in 2012 Vertigo was named the # 1 film by Sight & Sound,proves that Kim Novak is appreciated. Long after bigger stars have come and gone and been forgotten, Kim Novak will live on through her films and her work in them.For that reason and also because she is, was and always will be hot, Kim Novak is my Crush of the Week {and beyond}.
Sources : Kim Novak on Camera by Larry Kleno
TCM's Interview with Kim Novak
Ok, so here I am again gloating. I got 6 of the 8 categories correct, not as good as last years 7 of 8 but not too bad. I thought I was in some deep shit when Waltz won Supporting Actor because no one, I mean no one, picked him to win. It was suppose to be between DeNiro and Tommy Lee Jones. So that little surprise set me up early for some shockers that, to be honest, never materialized. Looking back, I think Tarantino winning for Original Screenplay was something I had overlooked. I didn't take into account how much the Academy feared a win for Mark Boal. For his acceptance speech could have been a real lollapalooza about political suppression and smear campaigns that Oscar didn't want to deal with. Has Hollywood and more specifically the Academy of Arts & Sciences gotten that gutless? Remember these moments :
And poignant moments like this :
The only Oscar Cary Grant, above, would ever get, four years after he made his last film
Charlie Chaplin, above, receives a Lifetime Achievement Oscar twenty years after being exiled from America for being an "undesirable" Communist sympathizer. This closed the Oscar show in 1972.
Stanley Donen, above, giving one of the best acceptance speeches ever for his Lifetime award.
I remember when I saw these events as they happened and every year I tune in to the Oscars hoping there will be a memorable moment like these. But I gotta tell you, the last ten years or so have been pretty bland. And the fact that the Academy has regulated the special Lifetime Achievement, Jean Hersholt Humanitarian and Irving Thalberg Award to a separate time and place and then show just bits from that ceremony, robs the Oscars of it's heart, it's history and, yes, it's sentimentality. My first thought when Jennifer Lawrence got stuck on her dress and fell was " OMG poor thing ". I also immediately after that said to myself, "yes! Awesome". Because something unscripted happened and it was something memorable, however humiliating for her { I'm sure she is over it by now }.
JLaw's "oh shit!" moment.
As for the show and it's entertainment value, I kind of liked it. Yes it ran too long, the musical tributes were bogus {if one is going to honor musicals in movies why limit it to the past ten years? And who gives a shit about a Chicago cast reunion, like it's some kind of West Side Story or Sound of Music reunion?} But I liked Seth MacFarlane, thought his jokes were generally funny and in bad taste {if you're funny, taste goes out the window} and after the first fifteen minutes or so, it's all awards and little humor anyway.
I'd like nominate, on second thought declare, Quentin Tarantino the winner as "Worst Dressed Male", the dude may be able to write some snappy dialogue but he needs a fashion guru. But I didn't watch the red carpet nonsense cuz I don't care who anyone is wearing. I'm over with all the ladies dressing up like it's prom night at the local high school. It's plain boring and no one really cares if you wear Valentino or Versace or whoever. The "interviews" are lame as well. I say, do away with the red carpet altogether.
So, as far as Oscar is concerned, that's all from Tinseltown this year. Only the Tinsel is wearing a bit thin. Maybe next year will give us all some real surprises.
This Sunday, Feb. 24th, are the Oscar's and as anyone who knows me can tell you, I always watch the show. They may not mean much to me anymore, but Oscar is the only award show I have to see. Maybe it's because I remember when I thought winning an Oscar really meant something. Well, I was young and naive and I now realize winning an Oscar doesn't mean a damn thing, except to the folks who win one. Last year my Oscar predictions were pretty awesome. Of the top 8 catagories I got 7 of them right. This year I may not do as well. Little more of a crapshoot in some of the races. I won't give a rundown of all the nominees so if you wanna know who they are, Google it. But here are my predictions. Are you ready? Here we go:
Best Picture - Argo
Best Actor - Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln
Best Actress - Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Supporting Actor - Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Supporting Actress - Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Best Director - Ang Lee, Life Of Pi
Best Original Screenplay - Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty
Best Adapted Screenplay - Chris Terrio, Argo
My picks and I'm sticking with them. These are the ones I think will win. I don't want all of them to win, but I think they will. Some are tough calls. DeNiro has stiff competition from Tommy Lee Jones and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. All the Supporting Actors have won an Oscar before, but I think Bobby D may have the edge. Silver Linings is a most enjoyable film and DeNiro, a great actor, has spent far too long in the wilderness making a lot of crappy movies and giving uninspired performances. I think Oscar will welcome him back home. The Adapted screenplay vote for Argo is mostly based on the fact that Affleck failed to get a Director nom, despite his winning the DGA. There is no way Argo can take Best Pic and not take Screenplay. Best Director is the toughest call. Will Spielberg beat out Ang Lee? Maybe. Lincoln is predictable, stately and unimaginative but Spielberg is Spielberg and may be tough to beat. If little Stevie beats out Ang Lee it won't be by much as I feel they are neck and neck going down the stretch. I would love to see David O.Russell win for Silver Linings, but I don't think it's gonna happen so my bet is on Lee for Life of Pi. For Supporting Actress I would prefer to see Amy Adams over Anne Hathaway. I liked Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings but would like to see someone else get Best Actress. Lawrence is only 22 and has time on her side to win for a different movie. But I feel she will win, she's the flavor of the month, the new Julia Roberts and Hollywood loves a golden girl, the fairy tale princess. If she wins she will have no where to go but down. Unlike their male counterparts, Actresses have a history of winning young. Males, not so much { no male under 29 has ever won Best Actor }. 28 women under the age of 30 have won Best Actress, so Lawrence seems to have age on her side as well. The shoo-ins are DD-Lewis for Best Actor and Hathaway and Argo for Picture. So enjoy the show and check back a day or two after the awards and we will review how I did or didn't do.
I cannot honestly say when I saw my first Hitchcock film, but I know it was sometime in the1970's when I was in my teens. I wasn't aware of the " Hitchcock Blonde " as an icon of not only cinema but culture in general, but there was one thing this young man knew : these women were both cool and hot and slightly dangerous. If one was to dally in their yard, one had better bring his " A " game.
Tippi in Marnie, 1964
The ones that got to me the most were, I suppose, the one's I saw first, and I started with some of Hitch's best : Psycho, Notorious, North By Northwest, The Birds, Marnie. Saw them on TV in the 70's, sometimes in primetime, like Psycho on KABC channel 7, but I do remember seeing Marnie, for the first timeon Movie Til' Dawn on Channel 5 out of Los Angeles, probably at about 3 in the morning. With commercials. However, in those days of youth I was more resilient than this old carcass is today and didn't have trouble finishing up the movie about 5:30am. Also, I worked the night shift at Taco Bell then, which made it easier to stay up to til the wee hours of the morn. I can also remember catching up with some of the lesser known films in Sir Alfred's canon : I Confess, which The Master made in 1952, I caught up with on KCOP-13 [ one of LA's least predigious local stations ] one night. It starred Anne Baxter fresh from All About Eve in 1950 and, most important to this misunderstood youth, Montgomery Clift as a priest, who takes the confession of a man who has just committed murder but, because of the vows to his faith, cannot reveal to the police who the killer is and, therefore, becomes a suspect himself. The forgotten Mr & Mrs. Smith [ not the one with Brangelina ] with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery, a lightweight comedy [ Hitch's only out and out non-suspense American film ] that is not without it's pleasures.
Grace gives Cary her best " Come hither ". To Catch a Thief, 1955
All thru my Hitch education, there were 5 films I had never seen and these were reputed to be among some of his best : 1948's Rope, the first of four Hitch made with James Stewart. 1954's Rear Window also with Jimmy, but this time with the supreme Hitchcock leading lady Grace Kelly. Hitch's 1956 remake [ the original coming out of his English period in 1934 ] of The Man Who Knew To Much with Doris Day giving one of her best performances. Vertigo, Hitch's darkest tale of obsessive desire, from 1958 with Kim Novak and James Stewart and, finally, the black comedy The Trouble With Harry, with Shirley MacLaine in her film debut, from 1956. All 5 of these films had been held back from release for, I don't know -10 or 15 years - so that when Universal Pictures decided to have a major re-release in 1984, it was a big deal. The result of which, these movies now completely restored, were seen by a new generation [ like moi ] for the first time. And on the big screen in theaters all around the country. Just like they were meant to be seen years ago when they had first been made.
Alfred, with Doris Day, on location in London. The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956
I didn't get the chance to view all five in a theater when these movies were back in circulation. But I was able to catch up with three of the five: Rear Window and Vertigo with my wife at the time at home in Santa Barbara at the Riviera theater and The Man Who Knew Too Much, whichI saw on my own in a Costa Mesa multi-plex [ I was there on business, don't ask ]. I have to admit that, at the time, most of Vertigo eluded me. I found the first half to be a compelling story of a man falling in love with the woman he is hired to follow, but for most of the second half I found myself thinking, " No way could this guy not know that this girl is the same one he followed in the first part of the movie. No way! " The second half seemed silly and impractical. I did, however, find Vertigo's tragic ending emotionally satisfying, moving and dark. More than dark. The ending is black as pitch. Now, having grown older [ wiser? ] I understand Stewart's obsessive desire for a woman he possesses briefly, only to ultimately lose her forever. Having watched Vertigo many, many times since, I find the whole film an experience unlike few I have ever seen. It has become one of The Master's movies I revisit on a yearly basis, usually when I find myself feeling melancholy and fragile, much like Jimmy Stewart in the movie. It is a great film to watch when one is a little lost in life. And Kim Novak as the object of Stewart's lust and obsession is ethereal. Maybe more than any blonde in a Hitchcock film, Novak encapsulates [ or rather Hitch captures within her ? ] the elusive, sad, lonely, sexy, mercurial presence that Hitchcock had been trying to catch and bottle for over 25 years. One can completely understand Stewart being caught in her sway. Vertigo is also well known for the Hitchcock gaze. Hitch's camera loved nothing more than to gaze upon his leading ladies by the male who is fixated on her. So many of his films do this and we, the audience, become conspirators in Hitchcock's little game of voyeurism.
A blonde like no other. Kim Novak, Vertigo 1958
Hitchcock blondes always put up with alot on screen [ and off ? ]. From Joan Fontaine in Rebecca and Suspicion, Ingrid Bergman in Spellbound and Notorious, Grace Kelly in Dial M For Murder, Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much, up to his last film Family Plot with Barbara Harris, Hitch put his blonde heroines thru a nail-biting ringer. The blonde in his films were also sexy, playful, suspicious and withholding and she usually had the upper hand in his films, maybe that is why Hitch put her though so much and treated her, at least at first, roughly, before he became totally beastly towards her. Beginning with Madeline Carroll in 1935's The 39 Steps, Hitch presented a woman who instantly distrusts her male counterpart, in this case Robert Donat in a familar Hitchcock conceit : the man falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit who must then try to prove his innocence, not just with the authorities but more importantly, to the blondewho initially neither trusts nor believes him. This was one of Hitch's favorite theme's played out again and again in Saboteur, Spellbound, To Catch A Thief, The Wrong Man, North By Northwest, Frenzy.
Stewart, Kelly and Alfred at work on Rear Window, 1954.
Inevitably, the older Hitch got the more frustrated he became and the object of his fixation would come to a bloody gruesome end, as one can see from the YouTube clips above. In Donald Spoto's celebrated biography The Dark Side of Genius, the author suggests Hitch was a very sexually frustrated man, locked into a loveless marriage to a woman he respected and did indeed love [ in fact couldn't live without her ] but who held no romance for him, one in which his sexual longings and desires remained dormant. Someone once said Hitch cast Jimmy Stewart in the roles in which he saw himself and cast Cary Grant in roles in which he wished to be seen. If one looks at these two actors and the roles they play, Stewart from Rope in 1948 to Vertigo in 1958 and Grant in 1941's Suspicion to 1959's North By Northwest the theory makes an enormous amount of sense. Grant being pursued by the likes of Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest and Grace Kelly in To Catch A Thief, sexually available and wanted and Stewart being limited and hesitant his affection for Grace Kelly in Rear Window and his lust and pursuit of Kim Novak in Vertigo, unable to fully explore and share his obsession for the beautiful apparition that has so entranced him and consequently has him completely frozen with fear.
The blonde bookworm : Eva Marie Saint, North By Northwest, 1959
Another thing to remember is that Hitchcock totally shaped and created each of his blondes to his exact specifications. From the hair shape and color and length of it, to the color and design of her dress, type of shoes and so on. Notice in some of the pictures I've posted, that a lot of these ladies look an awful lot alike. Doris Day and Kim Novak wear practically the same outfit. The hair on many of these women are also similar. Sir Alfred have a very definite type of woman he liked. Not only that but, obviously in his direction of them: " Turn your head this way", " Oh no, my dear. Your leg must reach this height " or " I want you to look at him like he is a roast beef sandwich. " In his movies, unlike his life, Hitch had complete control over not only his characters, but more importantly, his women.
Hitchcock's obscure object of desire: Tippi Hedren, The Birds, 1963
Recently there have been two films that deal with Hitchcock and his obsessions with blondes. Hitchcock, with Anthony Hopkins as the Master of Suspense and his making of Psycho, for theatrical release and HBO's The Girl with Toby Jones as Hitch and Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedren about the making of The Birds, in which Sir Alfred supposedly forsook all his decorum and compose in the thrall of Miss Hedren's beauty, and lost himself completely, making unseemly advances toward her. Believe it or not. I for one do not discount Hitchcock's losing his control for a much younger blonde woman whom he plucked out of obscurity, tries to make into a star and feels that the least she should do is show him her appreciation. This theory seems consistent with his character. If you don't believe me watch his films.
Alfred, Tippi and friend. Doing publicity for The Birds
My favorite Hitchcock Heroines { or victim }:
Joan Fontaine in Rebecca - 1940, and Suspicion - 1941
Ingrid Bergman - Notorious - 1946
Alida Valli in The Paradine Case - 1947
Laura Elliott in Strangers on a Train -1951
Grace Kelly in Rear Window - 1954, and To Catch a Thief - 1955
Janet Leigh in Psycho - 1960
Tippi Hedren in The Birds - 1963, and Marnie - 1964
Joan Chandler in Rope - 1948
Priscilla Lane in Saboteur - 1942
The forgotten blonde : Priscilla Lane in Saboteur, 1942
On January 18, 1904 Archibald Leach was born in Bristol, England. Young Archie would eventually grow up and morph into Cary Grant, " The Man From Dream City " to quote critic Pauline Kael. Archie's life would go through a metamorphosis, growing from the young, callow Archie Leach [ could there ever be a name so incongruous with the public persona? ] into the suave [ so fuckin' suave ] Cary Grant, who himself modeled his persona after Noel Coward [ NO one, I'm convinced is original ]. The road was long, arduous, with many detours. From Bristol to New York City and finally to Hollywood where Archie would have a long [ 1932-1966 ] career as the romantic leading man not only his time, but possibly all-time. Cary Grant, with Archie Leach never far from sight, wouldn't always enjoy the ride.
Roz Russell learns never trust your ex. Left to right, Ralph Bellamy, Grant and Roz in His Girl Friday, 1940
The man from Bristol was full of neurosis. From the time he was a child Archie felt he was not loved or belonged anywhere. At the age nine his father told him his mother had gone away on a " long holiday ", Archie thought his mum had died, when in fact she had been placed in a mental institution. It was not until he was 31 that Archie, now Cary Grant to the world at large, would learn that his mother was alive. Whatever obstacle Archie had to climb, Cary learned to do it with style.
A delightful turn on the dance floor as Ingrid Bergman watches, Indiscreet, 1958
Along with Fred Astaire, Grant brought a style and elegance to Hollywood's golden age that, in today's cinema, is sorely lacking . Grant also brought a sense of fun to his roles. Whether poking fun at Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story, egging on Victor MacLaglen in George Stevens' Gunga Din or lying and betraying Rosalind Russell in Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday, Grant had a twinkle in his eyes that said " I'm having fun, aren't you ? ". Yes, we were. From 1937 on though 1943 or maybe 1944 no one Hollywood personality made more popular, entertaining movies than Grant, movies that are still popular today. These were the years Grant consolidated his stardom after nearly six years as supporting player, second and romantic lead in roughly two dozen bland snooze-fests. From 1932 to 1936 Grant appeared in movies with titles like Sinners in the Sun, Hot Saturday, Kiss and Make-Up, Ladies Should Listen; etc. All forgettable, though Grant did make a couple that have gone down thru the ages as classics or close to it : the Mae West ribald, innuendo-filled She Done Him Wrong and the Dietrich-Sternberg epic to mother love Blonde Venus, in which Marlene sings " Hot Voodoo " in an ape suit. Other than that the early to mid 30's was a pretty barren time for Grant, although being under contract to Paramount Pictures he did pull down a handsome salary. But the scripts were weak, and so was Grant. He felt he was better and had more to offer than the average romantic leading men like George Brent, David Manners or Patrick Knowles.
Somewhere in this cemetery set is Archie Leach's tombstone: With Priscilla Lane in Capra's Arsenic & Old Lace, 1944
In 1936 Grant played a supporting part in the Katharine Hepburn gender bending dramady Sylvia Scarlett with George Cukor directing. It's a strange film, even seen today, and one can only wonder what depression era audiences thought of it in 1936. Grant plays a cockney con man named Jimmy Monkley with alot of Cary Grant, or Archie Leach, thrown in for good measure. Sylvia Scarlett's director George Cukor said that it was the first time Grant " felt the ground under his feet " as a performer. Consequently Grant's Monkley, with his cockney accent and side glances, is charming yet dangerous and a precursor to many of Grant's character's to come, especially the Hitchcock films Grant would soon be appearing in. From Sylvia Scarlett on, Grant took control of his future as well. Not satisfied with the weak material Paramount was offering Grant decided to free-lance, a bold move in the studio controlled 30's Hollywood. Grant did protect himself by signing non-exclusive contracts with both RKO and Harry Cohn's Columbia Pictures. But as a non-exclusive, Grant could and did make movies for other studios such as MGM and Warners.
Hitch & Cary : Two of the most famous profiles in movie history.
Cary Grant had several key collaborators in his career. On the director side there was Hitchcock with 4 films [ Suspicion-1941, Notorious-1946, To Catch a Thief-1955, North By Northwest-1959 ], 3 films with George Stevens [ Gunga Din-1939, Penny Serenade-1941, Talk of the Town-1942 ], 4 films with Leo McCarey [ The Awful Truth-1937, My Favorite Wife-1940 as producer only, Once Upon a Honeymoon-1942, An Affair To Remember-1957 ], George Cukor with 3 [ Sylvia Scarlett-1936, Holiday-1938, Philadelphia Story-1940 ], Howard Hawks with a whopping 5 films [ Bringing Up Baby-1938, Only Angels Have Wings-1939, His Girl Friday-1940, I Was a Male War Bride-1949, Monkey Business-1952 ] and the Stanley Donen 4 [ Kiss Them For Me-1957, Indiscreet-1958, The Grass is Greener-1960, Charade-1963 ].
Cukor makes his point during filming of The Philadelphia Story, 1940
Of course Grant's performing wasn't contained in a bottle, he had some legendary co-stars with whom he'd bounce off from time to time. Not to take anything away from James Stewart, Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, David Niven and some others, but Grant usually flourished when he was the sole male lead and the other male was usually Ralph Bellamy or Rudy Vallee or Barry Fitzgerald. Grant, who performed along side nearly all the leading ladies of his time, would be the center of attention to the leading female in the picture. Grant's leading ladies were some of the best and most beautiful the movies had to offer and a big reason some of his films still are popular and resonate with today critic's and film buffs. Irene Dunne made 3 with him [ The Awful Truth, My Favorite Wife, Penny Serenade ], Katharine Hepburn with 4 movies [ Bringing Up Baby, Holiday, Sylvia Scarlett, Philadelphia Story ] were his most frequent co-stars of the late 30's early 40's period among others such as Jean Arthur [ Only Angels Have Wings, Talk of the Town ], Rosalind Russell [ His Girl Friday ], Ingrid Bergman twice [ Notorious, Indiscreet ], Sophia Loren [ Pride & The Passion, Houseboat ], Grace Kelly [ To Catch a Thief ], Ginger Rogers two times [ Once Upon a Honeymoon, Monkey Business ], up through the 1960's with Doris Day [ That Touch of Mink ], Leslie Caron [ Father Goose ] and most memorably with Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen's Charade in 1963.
One may not know it to view the above clip, but Charade is a thriller in the Hitchcock tradition but with added emphasis on romance and comedy as much as thrills. It may be the best Hitchcock suspense flick Sir Alfred never made.
At his ambiguous best in Hitchcock's Suspicion
One of the things that made Grant unique as a performer was his willingness to appear crabby and unlikeable. Some of these examples are His Girl Friday in which Grant plays not only Roz Russell's former newspaper editor but her ex-husband as well, who is trying everything he can think of to prevent Russell's elopement with Ralph Bellamy, including getting Bellamy and his mother thrown in jail. In 1943's Mr. Lucky, a real personal fave of mine, Grant plays a shady gambler who trades identity with a dead Greek to get out of the draft [ this in the middle of America's most patriotic moment, the Second World War ] and proceeding to lie to the head of a war relief organization to let him run the charity casino to help raise funds, but Grant intends to keep the money raised to fund his gambling ship. In Hitchcock's underrated Suspicion, Grant plays a playboy who falls for Joan Fontaine's bookish Lina. Grant's character Johnnie is a no good charming cad who cannot keep down a job and is always coming up with get-rich-quick schemes. And if that isn't enough, Johnnie gives Lina good reason to think he may be trying to kill her. Notorious, Grant's next for Hitch in 1946, was a dark tale of espionage with that consummate actor of skill and ease, Claude Rains and beautiful Ingrid Bergman. In it Grant and Ingrid play American spies down in Rio to investigate on the lam Nazi war criminals who may have some secret formula involving a metal ore or something. Anyway the plot doesn't matter as much as the two leads. Bergman and Grant had rarely been better [ that's saying something ! ] as the spy-crossed lovers, with Grant's jealousy and sour feelings for Ingrid and the way their relationship wilted in the warmth of the South American climate, almost resulting in Bergman's death. However, Grant comes to his senses just in time. The film is among the best on Sir Alfred, Cary and Miss Bergman's resume, of whom the latter would soon have a tremendous fall from grace and lean times professionally in the years between 1950 and 1955, due to her relationship with Italian film director Roberto Rossellini.
Through his long run in Hollywood, Cary received two Oscar noms for Best Actor, 1941's Penny Serenade and None But The Lonely Heart in 1944 and never won a competitive Oscar. Finally in 1970, Grant was presented an Oscar, four years after the release of his last film Walk, Don't Run, for his lifetime achievement in films. It was long overdue. Grant, like many of the actors and directors of that glorious age of American cinema [ Stanwyck, Jean Arthur, Irene Dunne, Dietrich, Kirk Douglas, Garbo, Gardner, Mitchum, Eddie Robinson, I could go on but will stop ], was taken for granted for making an extremely difficult situation and character look spontaneous and natural, no matter how many times one had rehearsed it. Grant didn't take roles that would extend his range, except on rare occasions and both of his Oscar nominated turns represent a different Grant than audiences expected at the time. When an actor brakes out of their well-oiled comfort-zone, it can result in an Oscar or at least a nomination which can almost be as good for a career. It is interesting to think of how his career would have differed if Grant had taken one or all of this next batch [ probably not much ], but to think of him in Billy Wilder's Sabrina, in the role Bogie played in that 1954 film or imagine his impact in Wilder's Love in the Afternoon, as an aging playboy-exec-ugly American business man ready to pounce on any available tail he can find, only to be caught up in Audrey Hepburn fever circa 1957, is to regard a different Grant than the one who had carefully planned his career since his brake from the exclusive contracts so prevalent in the time of studio controlled Hollywood. The topper to all these roles refused by Grant is the part of the alcoholic, fading fast movie star Norman Maine in the Judy Garland, Cukor directed, remake of A Star Is Born in 1954. According to Patrick McGilligan's definitive biography, Cukor had a reading of the script at his home, just to give Cary a feel for the role, although Grant was familiar with the 1937 original with Fredric March in the part slated for Grant. Cukor went on and on about how wonderful Grant would have been in the role of Norman, based on his incredible reading and interpretation of the Maine character. But Cary turned the part down. Of these three movies that never were for Grant, A Star is Born is the one I wished he had taken. I am sure Grant would have been no less astounding than James Mason was in that magnificent opus of Hollywood career, love and loss.
So fuckin' suave!
.
When Grant died suddenly in November 1986 it was kind of a stunner. Yeah the guy was 82, but Grant, even after he quit the movies, still had a charisma and style that was totally his own. Though by this time Grant was completely white haired he still embodied the male animal at his best, sometimes silly, dark, dangerous, sly, mischievous, elusive and romantic. As hard as the comedians tried to mimic him, Grant remained an original, a man who invented a character for himself to play not only on screen, but off as well, and then eventually merged with that concept for himself, which is a riff on Grant's own assessment of himself in the 1970's. He is my favorite movie star from the age 1930 to about 1960/63. That image refuses to grow old. So is the man who invented it.
Sources : Cary Grant by Jerry Vermilye
George Cukor : A Double Life by Parick McGilligan
Wikipedia
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