The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (10 page)

Necessarily, that seems the core of her life as an actress. But in addition, she has played
Miss Julie
on Swedish TV,
After the Fall
and
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
on the stage, and these other films:
My Sister My Love
(66, Sjoman);
Le Viol
(67, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze);
Svarta Palmkronor
(68, Lars Magnus Lindgren);
The Girls
(68, Mai Zetterling);
Taenk pa et Tal
(69, Palle Kjaerulff-Schmidt);
Storia di una Donna
(69, Leonardo Bercovici);
The Kremlin Letter
(70, John Huston);
Afskedens Time
(73, Per Holst);
Blondy
(75, Sergio Gobbi);
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
(77, Anthony Page);
An Enemy of the People
(78, George Schaefer);
Quintet
(79, Robert Altman);
L’Amour en Question
(79, André Cayatte);
The Concorde—Airport ’79
(79, David Lowell Rich);
Twee Vrowen
(79, George Sluizer);
Barnforbjudet
(80, Johan Bergenstrahle);
Blomstrande Tider
(80, John Olsson);
Marmeedupprovet
(80, Erland Josephson and Sven Nykvist);
Jag Rodnar
(81, Sjoman);
Svarte Fugler
(83, Lasse Glom); as Nastassja Kinski’s mother in
Exposed
(83, James Toback);
A Hill on the Dark Side of the Moon
(83, Lennart Hjulstrom);
Sista Laken
(84, Jan Lindstrom);
Huomenna
(86, Julia Rosna);
Babette’s Feast
(87, Gabriel Axel);
Los Dueños de la Silencia
(87, Carlos Lemos);
Zernando al Viento
(88, Gonzalo Suarez); and, for TV,
Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story
(88, Lamont Johnson).

She works less often now, occasionally for Swedish TV:
Till Julia
(91, Margarete Garpe);
Una Estación de Paso
(92, Gracia Querejeta);
Blank Päls och Starka Tassar
(92, Arne Hedlund);
Drømspel
(94, Unni Straume);
Il Sogno della Farfalla
(94, Marco Bellocchio);
Det Blir Adrig Som Man Tänkt Sig
(00, Mans Herngren and Hannes Holm);
Anna
(00, Erik Wedersøe);
Elina—Som om Jag Inte Fanns
(02, Klaus Härö); as Queen Alexandra in
The Lost Prince
(03, Stephen Poliakoff);
Arn-Tu Knight Templar
(07, Peter Flinth).

Harriet Andersson
, b. Stockholm, Sweden, 1932
By the standards we have come to expect of Swedish actresses, Harriet Andersson is something of an outsider: a little coarse, sensual, dark, and slatternly, a creature of more homespun sensibility: thus, her fame was based originally on the arbitrary, sexy working girl, Monika, in
Summer with Monika
(52, Ingmar Bergman). Her own background was in revue and the chorus line, rather than the straight theatre. She began filming in her late teens:
Medan Staden Sover
(50, Lars-Eric Kjellgren);
Anderssonskans Kalle
(50, Rolf Husberg);
Biffen och Bananen
(51, Husberg);
Puck Heter Jag
(51, Schamyl Bauman);
Sabotage
(52, Eric Jonsson);
Ubat 39
(52, Erik Faustman); and
Trots
(52, Gustaf Molander). After
Summer with Monika
, she made several films for Bergman, invariably representing the sensual “lower” woman: first as the circus girl in
Sawdust and Tinsel
(53);
A Lesson in Love
(54);
Journey into Autumn
(55); and
Smiles of a Summer Night
(55). After that, she made three more films with Bergman: superb as the schizophrenic in
Through a Glass Darkly
(61); in
Now About These Women
(64); and as the dying sister in
Cries and Whispers
(72). If she did not work for him much more it may be because of her marriage to director Jorn Donner, a man more disposed to drawing out her vitality. Her other films include:
Hoppsan!
(55, Stig Olin);
Sista Paret Ut
(56, Alf Sjoberg);
Nattbarn
(56, Gunnar Hellstrom);
Kvinna i Leopard
(58, Jan Molander);
Flottans Overman
(58, Olin);
Brott i Paradlset
(59, Kjellgren); to Germany for
Barbara
(61, Frank Wisbar);
Siska
(62, Alf Kjellin);
Lyckodrommen
(63, Hans Abramson);
A Sunday in September
(63, Donner);
To Love
(64, Donner);
Loving Couples
(64, Mai Zetterling);
For Vanskaps Skull
(65, Abramson);
Lianbron
(65, Sven Nykvist);
Har Borjar Aventyret
(65, Donner); to Britain for
The Deadly Affair
(66, Sidney Lumet);
Ormen
(66, Abramson); in an episode from
Stimulantia
(67, Donner);
Rooftree
(67, Donner);
Mennesker Modes og Sod Musik Upstar in Hjertet
(67, Henning Carlsen);
Jag Alskar du Alskar
(68, Stig Bjorkman);
The Girls
(68, Zetterling);
Anna
(70, Donner);
Den Vita Vaggen
(75, Bjorkman);
Monismanien 1955
(75, Kenne Fant);
La Sabina
(79, José Luis Borau); as the kitchen maid in
Fanny and Alexander
(82, Bergman);
Rakenstram
(83, Hellstrom);
Summer Nights
(87, Gunnel Lindblom).

In recent years, she has done
Himmel og Helvede
(88, Morten Arnfred);
Blankt Vapen
(90, Carl-Gustav Nykvist);
Høyere enn Himmelen
(93, Berit Nesheim);
Majken
(95, Kjell-Ake Andersson);
Selma & Johanna
(97, Ingela Magner);
Pip-Larssons
(98, Eva Dahlman and Clas Lindberg);
Det Sjunde Skottet
(98, Ulf Alderinge);
Happy End
(99, Christina Olofson);
Judith
(00, Alexander Moberg);
Gossip
(00, Colin Nutley);
Kaspar i Nudådalen
(01, Åsa Kalmér and Maria Weisby);
Stora Teatern
(02, Richard Looft);
Dogville
(03, Lars von Trier).

Dana Andrews
(Carver Dana Andrews) (1909–92), b. Collins, Mississippi
By the time he died (only months after his best costar, Gene Tierney), Andrews was not sufficiently remembered as a movie actor. He had been unwell for years—which meant perhaps that he was an alcoholic. His final films were unworthy of him. So there’s a need to stress how clever and subtle an actor he was, always at his best playing “ordinary,” albeit fallen, guys.

He came to movies rather late, because he was already a qualified accountant and trained singer when he was seen by Goldwyn at the Pasadena Playhouse. Andrews kept as quiet as possible about his singing, and no one would boast in Hollywood about being an accountant. He had ten very good years with Fox (while Goldwyn wasted him), especially as an apparent hero with something to hide. Andrews could suggest unease, shiftiness, and rancor barely concealed by good looks. He did not quite trust or like himself, and so a faraway bitterness haunted him.

He made his screen debut in
Lucky Cisco Kid
(38, Bruce Humberstone), but had his first worthwhile part in
The Westerner
(39, William Wyler). The next few years he worked hard at Fox with occasional pictures for Goldwyn:
Sailor’s Lady
(40, Allan Dwan); good in
Swamp Water
(41, Jean Renoir);
Belle Starr
(41, Irving Cummings);
Tobacco Road
(41, John Ford); not quite comfortable as hoodlum Joe Lilac in
Ball of Fire
(42, Howard Hawks)—it was more a Dan Duryea role, and Duryea played his sidekick;
Berlin Correspondent
(42, Eugene Forde);
The North Star
(43, Lewis Milestone); impressively resolute as a doomed man in
The Ox-Bow Incident
(43, William Wellman);
The Purple Heart
(43, Milestone); and
Up in Arms
(44, Elliott Nugent).

Then in 1944 he was exactly cast as the insecure, love-stricken police detective in
Laura
(44, Otto Preminger). Now a leading actor, he was in
State Fair
(45, Walter Lang);
A Walk in the Sun
(46, Milestone); not even nominated for his fine work in
The Best Years of Our Lives
(46, Wyler);
Canyon Passage
(46, Jacques Tourneur);
Boomerang
(47, Elia Kazan);
Night Song
(47, John Cromwell), playing a blind pianist;
The Iron Curtain
(48, Wellman);
No Minor Vices
(48, Milestone); in the J. D. Salinger adaptation
My Foolish Heart
(49, Mark Robson);
Britannia Mews
(49, Jean Negulesco); a priest in
Edge of Doom
(50, Robson); and
I Want You
(50, Robson), the end of his Goldwyn contract.

Preminger alone mined the strain of moral ambiguity in his bearing, the automatic smile and the slur in his voice: as the indecisive con man in
Fallen Angel
(45), the big shot who calls everyone “honeybunch” in
Daisy Kenyon
(47), and the crooked detective in
Where the Sidewalk Ends
(50).

He began to decline, and he was forced farther afield to find small pictures that would have him:
Sealed Cargo
(51, Alfred Werker);
Assignment Paris
(52, Robert Parrish);
Elephant Walk
(53, William Dieterle);
Duel in the Jungle
(54, George Marshall);
Strange Lady in Town
(55, Mervyn Le Roy);
While the City Sleeps
(56, Fritz Lang); ideal again as the lying hero in
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
(56, Lang);
Night of the Demon
(57, Tourneur);
Zero Hour
(57, Hall Bartlett); and
Enchanted Island
(58, Dwan). He was briefly memorable in
In Harm’s Way
(61, Preminger) and as the broken Red Ridingwood in
The Last Tycoon
(76, Kazan). His last films were
Good Guys Wear Black
(77, Ted Post);
The Pilot
(79, Cliff Robertson); and
Prince Jack
(84, Bert Lovitt).

Julie Andrews
(Julia Elizabeth Wells), b. Walton-on-Thames, England, 1935
If you can’t say something good, don’t say nuthin’ at all—so Thumper is taught in
Bambi
. (But maybe he turned into a killer rabbit under the stress.) Still, let me declare this: that Julie Andrews is a miracle, an English rose that never withers or pales, and the singing figurehead in two of the most successful films ever made:
The Sound of Music
(64, Robert Wise) and
Mary Poppins
(64, Robert Stevenson). That she makes wholesomeness seem like a terminal condition, that she valiantly resists being interesting, should teach me that many people find enormous pleasure at the movies for reasons that baffle me. Despite those hits, she has never had lasting support—indeed, her stirring (but somehow unstirred) brightness and rectitude resemble Christmas as an occasion all the family can enjoy, qualities that never seem to age.

Of course, she created the role of Eliza onstage in New York and London for
My Fair Lady
, but was then denied the role in the film because Jack Warner reckoned she was not box office. So Audrey Hepburn got the part, but was not allowed to sing, and a year later, Andrews took the best actress Oscar for
Mary Poppins
. It may be worth adding that the bounty and reassurance of her two films came just as the social order and political optimism were cracking up, like ice floes in the spring.

The rest is very odd:
The Americanization of Emily
(64, Arthur Hiller) was beyond her;
Hawaii
(66, George Roy Hill) was an epic flop; while in
Torn Curtain
(66, Alfred Hitchcock), she simply declined to be sexy, fearful, or excited.
Thoroughly Modern Millie
(67, Hill) put her in the 1920s—she had done
The Boy Friend
on the London and New York stages—and was her last real hit. She played Gertrude Lawrence in
Star!
(68, Wise) and lost, for three hours.

She entered a second marriage, with director Blake Edwards, and began to work only for him. His customary tartness had no evident effect; indeed, it is more likely that she began to lead him to pictures made for Thumper’s mother: the large failure of
Darling Lili
(70);
The Tamarind Seed
(74);
10
(79), in which she had to rise above Bo Derek, who sold the picture. She was in
Little Miss Marker
(79, Walter Bernstein); she made a famous baring of her breasts in the caustic but wayward
S.O.B
. (81, Edwards); she gave a good, smart performance in
Victor/Victoria
(82, Edwards); but she could do nothing to save
The Man Who Loved Women
(83, Edwards) or the glorified home movie,
That’s Life
(86, Edwards). She worked pluckily as the violinist with multiple sclerosis in
Duet for One
(86, Andrei Konchalovsky), while overlooking the absence of talent or interest. She made
Our Sons
(91, John Erman) for TV.

She looked splendid at sixty-plus, but she had lost her voice and didn’t seem unduly interested in working. After all, she’s smart enough to know that she’s not really an actress—so she did pictures the way the Queen tours, smiling and waving to a lucky public, refusing to notice its shrinkage: with Marcello Mastroianni in
Cin Cin
(91, Gene Saks); with James Garner in
One Special Night
(99, Roger Young);
Relative Values
(00, Eric Styles); reunited with Christopher Plummer in the TV
On Golden Pond
(01, Ernest Thompson); the queen of somewhere or other in the startling hit
The Princess Diaries
(01, Garry Marshall); as Nanny in
Eloise at the Plaza
(03, Kevin Lima);
Eloise at Christmastime
(03, Kevin Lima);
The Princess Diaries 2
(04, Garry Marshall);
Shrek the Third
(07, Chris Miller).