Relaxation of the Code, limited to be sure, saw
more adult content into films as the 50's wore on. MGM tentatively adapted Tea
and Sympathy in 1956. Columbia
held its Picnic a same year. 1957 tossed grenade that was Peyton Place, a considerable hit that
proved grown-up stuff could sell. From here came check-off of one forbidden
theme after another. United Artists' Lonelyhearts was sold on basis that most
of ten commandments were made to be broken. "Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy
Neighbor's Wife" became a useful and provocative tag line. Sex and
resultant shame still went hand-in-hand where most movies were concerned, this
a legacy of twenty years under Code dominion. At least now, we'd get a
little more of the sex. Trouble was too many picshopping the same bus. They
couldn't all click. Lonelyhearts was one that didn't, a worse-even-than-feared
flop. Was the theme too reflective of lonely people going to movies, or worse,
sitting home alone watching them? Or maybe star Monty Clift was played out
after his accident and recovery. Either way --- few wanted any part of
Lonelyhearts.
There were two distinct Montgomery Clifts. The
one before his wreck, and what remained after. Little of the old Clift survived
the crash. He became an entirely different sort of actor, a character rather
than romantic star. It was a circumstance Tyrone Power might have wished for in
latter stage of hiscareer, even as he, or anyone, would have loathed to come
by it in the same way. I wonder if it relieved Clift to be shed of such beauty
as to distract from his performing. He'd become more intense, go deeper, after
recovery. Some would say increasing addictions were part-cause of that, but
messed up as he admittedly was from completion of RaintreeCounty
to the end, I don't see impairment in his work. A burden Clift carried from
start was fan idolatry (of frivolous bobby-sox sort) and their insistence he
fulfill promise of a perfect face and romance it implied. Clift turned down
parts that might satisfy that ideal, and so did few to truly please his base.
Momentum had slowed before the accident; in fact, Clift seemed not to care so
much if he remained a film star, as evidenced by further reject of parts andcommitment to stage work. Jack Larson would later say that there came stacks of
scripts to Monty's NY flat, some from eventual hits to star others, all ignored
by first-choice Clift. Catastrophe that it was, the wreck did give the actor entree
to parts he'd find more rewarding, with pressure relaxed for him to do
conventional Hollywood leads. Trouble was
critics knocking the new, to them now damaged, Clift, plus a public made
uncomfortable to see him so.
Lonelyhearts was based on a Nathaniel West
novella, earlier adapted on precode terms with Lee Tracy. As may be imagined,
latter had an entirely different approach from what independent producing Dore
Schary did in 1958. Schary wrote the Lonelyhearts screenplay as well, drama ladled in heaviest
terms per 50's unpeel of hot potatoes. Everyone aboard carries a big sack of
rocks, emptied often and discussed into powder. Is there anything so
overwritten as overwritten 50's drama? Montypenning advise to lovelorn for a
newspaper column could as easily be comedy, or like before, ribald precode, but
Lonelyhearts was all intense bets down, Clift and co-stars Robert Ryan, Myrna
Loy, plus Dolores Hart, Maureen Stapleton in support, vying for lead at
suffering. Ryan's part, though not his performance, is repetitive and ponderous
(the actor valiant in opposition to Schary's script), while Loy's character
does feature-length penance for having once strayed during marriage to Ryan
(their adultery theme a major focus of UA merchandising).
All this is joyless as written, depressing as
performed. In his own changed circumstance, Montgomery Clift wanted all the
more to distance himself from what he'd call "Angry Young Men" at
work in movies and theatre. He had never embraced the Method, in fact deplored
it, regarding the Actor's Studio as fakeryunder leadership of
"charlatan" Lee Strasburg. Clift had come to a point where he
could no longer laugh at any aspect of life, so that even where he does here,
it's cover for despair just beneath. His own tragedy had disqualified the actor
for anything other than tragic parts. We're surprised to see his
Lonelyhearts character evade death in a last reel, the plot having set that up,
but Schary couldn't risk dollars spent, and so contrived a happy, or at least
hopeful, ending. Outcome for distributing UA was neither, Lonelyhearts doing
ruinous $354,279 in domestic rentals, $329,000 foreign. Networks passed on a
run, which would have helped, Lonelyhearts put tosyndication in 7-62 with UA's
"Showcase Of The 60's, Number One" package (alongside 30 other features). Lonelyhearts
was released in 1992 on VHS, but in no other US format since (a Region Two DVD
is around). It runs even with Freud as most obscure and unattainable of
Montgomery Clift films.
David Mamet, in his book TRUE AND FALSE, is with Clift on describing The Method as fakery. Mamet writes, "Invent nothing. Deny nothing. Stand up. Speak up. Stay out of school." Says the same in his book on film, BAMBI VS GODZILLA. Both are excellent reads that should be given asap to anyone considering a career in theater, the movies or both. Nathaniel West is a favorite author. The movie of DAY OF THE LOCUST is pretty good. I saw this once and liked it. Never understood what the fuss was about Clift's looks. They never changed for me. He had, probably, deeper demons (or a demon) and never learned to use it in the classic Greek sense of a guiding spirit. You hit the nail on the head, though, about the movie being too close to home for movie audiences. More than one person has told me they like looking at movies (and TV) as they can look at other people without having them looking back. I love having people look back.
There's an 80s indie version of Miss Lonelyhearts which makes the same mistake-- playing West's jet-black comedy for the most lugubriously pathetic pathos. It needed a Bunuel.
Clift doesn't do much for me pre-accident -- his performance in Hitchcock's "I Confess" just kind of sits there, even if he does have some kind of presence. But post-accident, he's fascinating, even in his final, so-so movie "The Defector."
Clift's terrific in "Freud," which my daughter found helpful before taking a college psych course! My copy lacks one crucial dream sequence, however, which I remember from AMC's sole airing 25 years ago. Why isn't "Freud" officially on DVD in the US? It's far better than its reputation, and even Larry Parks is excellent -- better, in fact, than in the Jolson bios.
"Freud" is a real neglected great, and Clift is terrific in it. There are several Region Two discs, but none so far in the US. This one made a big impression on me when network-premiered by NBC in 1968.
Yes I remember that showing in 68...surprised NBC left the dream sequences in...or that bit where Susannah York said she was raised as a Prostitute. ...er Protestant
Dan Mercer offers some thoughts on Montgomery Clift's post-accident career:
There is a story that, at the premiere of "Lonelyhearts," someone screamed when Montgomery Clift made his first appearance on screen. Perhaps it's apocryphal, a way of illustrating the effect of the accident on his looks. Nothing of the sort had occurred during showings of "Raintree County," even though half of his scenes for that picture were filmed after his accident. Great pains, however, had been taken to disguise the damage done to his appearance. He was still wearing the same period hair style and wardrobe, which helped. The camera angles and lighting were carefully chosen and the right profile, which was the least affected, was photographed whenever possible. "Lonelyhearts" was stark and contemporary, in contrast to "Raintree County," and Clift, as though to assert a new, more authentic style, was deliberately shorn of anything that might recall how glamorous his image had been before. Truth to tell, however, it was a fading glamor even when "Raintree County" began filming in the spring of 1956. Clift was 36 years old, already in the throes of an increasingly hectic life style, and no longer possessed of that extraordinary masculine beauty he enjoyed when he made his debut before the cameras 10 years before, with "Red River." It was not due to any accident, unless the passing of time is an accident, and another reason why there was not such a great difference between the scenes filmed before and after. No doubt he would have looked only a little different in "Lonelyhearts" had the accident not taken place, with that short, unflattering hair style, those cheap suits, and with the harsh lighting and photography. The dystopian world of Nathanael West had no room for romance or tenderness. Possibly his career would have slowed anyways, even if "Lonelyhearts" hadn't so blatantly dispelled any thought that he was still an attractive man. He made six more films over the following five years, all character studies of emotionally disturbed men, as though his own ravaged looks were a metaphor for their inner disfigurement. He then went a stretch of four years before making his last film, a Cold War spy drama call "The Defector." It was released three months after his death on July 22, 1966, of heart disease and a number of other health problems. Supposedly, he was to star opposite Elizabeth Taylor in "Reflections in a Golden Eye," in the part that Marlon Brando would play, but one that would have been little different from the roles he'd been playing and with no more likelihood of reviving his career.
I really enjoy these smart, thoughtful posts. However, I'll posit a correction: it's quite untrue that Clift lost his sense of humour after the car accident. If you watch the recent documentary, "Making Montgomery Clift," he was a very funny guy, who continued to find joy, even shortly before his death. So I'd disagree that he " had come to a point where he could no longer laugh at any aspect of life, so that even where he does here, it's cover for despair just beneath."
Having seen "Making Montgomery Clift," I am quite in agreement with you, Inverness. That was a wonderful profile of Clift that challenged a lot of myths about this great actor, a few of which I had unfortunately bought into. Thanks for the corrective.
9 Comments:
David Mamet, in his book TRUE AND FALSE, is with Clift on describing The Method as fakery. Mamet writes, "Invent nothing. Deny nothing. Stand up. Speak up. Stay out of school." Says the same in his book on film, BAMBI VS GODZILLA. Both are excellent reads that should be given asap to anyone considering a career in theater, the movies or both. Nathaniel West is a favorite author. The movie of DAY OF THE LOCUST is pretty good. I saw this once and liked it. Never understood what the fuss was about Clift's looks. They never changed for me. He had, probably, deeper demons (or a demon) and never learned to use it in the classic Greek sense of a guiding spirit. You hit the nail on the head, though, about the movie being too close to home for movie audiences. More than one person has told me they like looking at movies (and TV) as they can look at other people without having them looking back. I love having people look back.
There's an 80s indie version of Miss Lonelyhearts which makes the same mistake-- playing West's jet-black comedy for the most lugubriously pathetic pathos. It needed a Bunuel.
Clift doesn't do much for me pre-accident -- his performance in Hitchcock's "I Confess" just kind of sits there, even if he does have some kind of presence. But post-accident, he's fascinating, even in his final, so-so movie "The Defector."
Clift's terrific in "Freud," which my daughter found helpful before taking a college psych course! My copy lacks one crucial dream sequence, however, which I remember from AMC's sole airing 25 years ago. Why isn't "Freud" officially on DVD in the US? It's far better than its reputation, and even Larry Parks is excellent -- better, in fact, than in the Jolson bios.
"Freud" is a real neglected great, and Clift is terrific in it. There are several Region Two discs, but none so far in the US. This one made a big impression on me when network-premiered by NBC in 1968.
Yes I remember that showing in 68...surprised NBC left the dream sequences in...or that bit where Susannah York said she was raised as a Prostitute. ...er Protestant
Unlike Freud, Lonelyhearts does turn up from time to time on TCM. Keep an eye out for it.
Dan Mercer offers some thoughts on Montgomery Clift's post-accident career:
There is a story that, at the premiere of "Lonelyhearts," someone screamed when Montgomery Clift made his first appearance on screen. Perhaps it's apocryphal, a way of illustrating the effect of the accident on his looks. Nothing of the sort had occurred during showings of "Raintree County," even though half of his scenes for that picture were filmed after his accident. Great pains, however, had been taken to disguise the damage done to his appearance. He was still wearing the same period hair style and wardrobe, which helped. The camera angles and lighting were carefully chosen and the right profile, which was the least affected, was photographed whenever possible. "Lonelyhearts" was stark and contemporary, in contrast to "Raintree County," and Clift, as though to assert a new, more authentic style, was deliberately shorn of anything that might recall how glamorous his image had been before. Truth to tell, however, it was a fading glamor even when "Raintree County" began filming in the spring of 1956. Clift was 36 years old, already in the throes of an increasingly hectic life style, and no longer possessed of that extraordinary masculine beauty he enjoyed when he made his debut before the cameras 10 years before, with "Red River." It was not due to any accident, unless the passing of time is an accident, and another reason why there was not such a great difference between the scenes filmed before and after. No doubt he would have looked only a little different in "Lonelyhearts" had the accident not taken place, with that short, unflattering hair style, those cheap suits, and with the harsh lighting and photography. The dystopian world of Nathanael West had no room for romance or tenderness. Possibly his career would have slowed anyways, even if "Lonelyhearts" hadn't so blatantly dispelled any thought that he was still an attractive man. He made six more films over the following five years, all character studies of emotionally disturbed men, as though his own ravaged looks were a metaphor for their inner disfigurement. He then went a stretch of four years before making his last film, a Cold War spy drama call "The Defector." It was released three months after his death on July 22, 1966, of heart disease and a number of other health problems. Supposedly, he was to star opposite Elizabeth Taylor in "Reflections in a Golden Eye," in the part that Marlon Brando would play, but one that would have been little different from the roles he'd been playing and with no more likelihood of reviving his career.
I really enjoy these smart, thoughtful posts. However, I'll posit a correction: it's quite untrue that Clift lost his sense of humour after the car accident. If you watch the recent documentary, "Making Montgomery Clift," he was a very funny guy, who continued to find joy, even shortly before his death. So I'd disagree that he " had come to a point where he could no longer laugh at any aspect of life, so that even where he does here, it's cover for despair just beneath."
Having seen "Making Montgomery Clift," I am quite in agreement with you, Inverness. That was a wonderful profile of Clift that challenged a lot of myths about this great actor, a few of which I had unfortunately bought into. Thanks for the corrective.
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