The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (36 page)

Benny’s vaudeville career was interrupted but not broken by the First World War. MGM signed him when sound arrived, and he had a sketch in
The Hollywood Revue of 1929
(29, Charles Reisner) and a leading part in
Chasing Rainbows
(30, Reisner). But he did not grip the cinema public, and in 1932 he began his long radio career. He made a few movie shorts, and after two more features
—Mr. Broadway
(33, John Walker) and
Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round
(35, Ben Stoloff)—MGM put him in two more:
Broadway Melody of 1936
(35, Roy del Ruth) and
It’s in the Air
(35, Charles Reisner). But they then let him go to Paramount where, for a few years, he was rated as a star, even if the films were not too special:
The Big Broadcast of 1937
(36, Mitchell Leisen);
College Holiday
(36, Frank Tuttle);
Artists and Models
(37, Raoul Walsh);
Artists and Models Abroad
(38, Leisen);
Man About Town
(39, Mark Sandrich);
Buck Benny Rides Again
(40, Sandrich); and
Love Thy Neighbor
(40, Sandrich). He went to Fox for
Charley’s Aunt
(41, Archie Mayo) and then to United Artists for
To Be or Not to Be
(42, Ernst Lubitsch). Far beyond his ordinary range, this allowed Benny to play a ham Hamlet in Warsaw under the Nazis. It showed how much greater Benny’s talent had been than most of his films required.

But he was already slipping. After
George Washington Slept Here
(42, William Keighley), and a short,
The Meanest Man in the World
(43, Sidney Lanfield), the disaster of
The Horn Blows at Midnight
(45, Walsh) warned him off the movies. A guest part in
It’s in the Bag
(45, Richard Wallace) was the first of many woeful returns to the scene of loss—like a man who lost a dollar bill twenty-five years ago, but is still searching.

Robert Benton
, b. Waxahachie, Texas, 1932
1972:
Bad Company
. 1977:
The Late Show
. 1979:
Kramer vs. Kramer
. 1982:
Still of the Night
. 1984:
Places in the Heart
. 1987:
Nadine
. 1991:
Billy Bathgate
. 1994:
Nobody’s Fool
. 1998:
Twilight
. 2003:
The Human Stain
. 2007:
Feast of Love
.

Benton was the Texan on
Bonnie and Clyde
(67, Arthur Penn), the man who knew the area and the landscape where those outlaws had driven. He studied painting at the University of Texas at Austin, and then went on to Columbia after the army. As art director at
Esquire
magazine, he met the writer David Newman. They collaborated on articles and scripts and conceived
Bonnie and Clyde
for Truffaut or Godard before it found Warren Beatty and Arthur Penn.

Benton has other coscreenplay credits
—There Was a Crooked Man
(70, Joseph L. Mankiewicz);
What’s Up, Doc?
(72, Peter Bogdanovich); and
Superman
(78, Richard Donner).

As a director, his first two movies were unexpected and highly original, and they were marked by a sour regard for heroics. Subsequent pictures have become more conventional and sentimental.
Places in the Heart
and
Nadine
are good on Texas, but they are tepid works.
Still of the Night
was a shot at Hitchcock, but it seemed forced.
Kramer vs. Kramer
was a hit family story, well written and emphatically acted.
Billy Bathgate
was a famous flop, but it is a clever film with a script (by Tom Stoppard) that sharpens the E. L. Doctorow novel. The record suggests that Benton’s undoubted decency needs inspiring (or even bad) company if his work is to be out-of-the-ordinary.

All of Benton’s warmth and experience were on display in
Nobody’s Fool
, which is that rare thing—a model of American humanism. Taken from a Richard Russo novel, it dealt with modest, common lives, was beautifully shaped and played by a cast in which people like Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith seemed happy to have the chance to be character actors.
Twilight
was a touch too cute—benefit night for old-timers—but very enjoyable just the same. These were also films in which Benton managed to unlock something generally withheld in Paul Newman.

The Human Stain
was assaulted by most critics, yet it was a somber and very touching film, one that will be rediscovered eventually as close to a masterpiece. Equally,
Feast of Love
is one of the more impressive films about a place and its circle of life. Benton may be the rank humanist in American film, when the species is hard to identify.

Bruce Beresford
, b. Sydney, Australia, 1940
1972:
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
. 1974:
Barry McKenzie Holds His Own
. 1976:
Don’s Party
. 1977:
The Getting of Wisdom
. 1978:
Money Movers
. 1979:
Breaker Morant
. 1980:
The Club
. 1981:
Puberty Blues
. 1983:
Tender Mercies
. 1985:
King David; Crimes of the Heart; The Fringe Dwellers
. 1988: “Die Totestadt,” an episode from
Aria
. 1989:
Her Alibi; Driving Miss Daisy
. 1991:
Mister Johnson; Black Robe
. 1993:
Rich in Love
. 1994:
A Good Man in Africa; Silent Fall
. 1996:
Last Dance
. 1997:
Paradise Road
. 1999:
Sydney: A Story of a City (d); Double Jeopardy
. 2002:
Evelyn
. 2003:
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
(TV). 2006:
The Contract; Orpheus
(TV). 2009:
Mao’s Last Dancer
.

From Sydney University, Beresford went into advertising and thence to London. He spent two years in the mid-sixties in Nigeria working as a film editor, and in 1966 he got a post at the British Film Institute Production Board, where he administered funds. He began to direct features himself only on returning to Australia in 1971.

He shows what a fine line there can be today between struggling to stay in work and getting the laurel. Thus, in 1989 he was in charge of the stolid Tom Selleck–Paulina Porizkova comedy
Her Alibi
, and he helped get the best picture Oscar for
Driving Miss Daisy
. Of course, in the latter he was helped by Alfred Uhry’s cute play, by Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, by Zanuck’s force and determination, and by Hollywood’s susceptibility to feel-good liberalism. The picture did a cozy, unthreatening bundle, and next year the essentially nomadic, if not lost, Beresford turned in a Joyce Cary adaptation,
Mister Johnson
(surely helped by his time in Africa) and the startlingly severe
Black Robe
, as if to prove he was no one’s stooge.

Beresford has often had strong company: Barry Humphries and Nicholas Garland on the Barry McKenzie films; playwright David Williamson on
Don’s Party
and
The Club;
Robert Duvall and Horton Foote on
Tender Mercies
. But he is usually most interesting in Australia, or in out-of-the-way places and periods:
Breaker Morant
was that rare thing, a Boer War story, even if it ended up as an attack on British imperialism;
The Fringe Dwellers
was a return to aboriginal Australia; and
Black Robe
was a journey into savagery such as few people would have dared in the political correctness that hails American Indians as shame-making heroes.

Black Robe
may be Beresford’s most original picture.
Tender Mercies
, for me, is too commonplace to be interesting, despite its faith in ordinary lives as redeemed by towering acting. Beth Henley’s
Crimes of the Heart
claimed to be the authentic South, yet it felt as secure and fake as a poor play.
King David
is a genuine eccentricity, the sort of implausible project that seems likely to recur in Beresford’s zigzagging progress.

Beresford’s career is hard to predict:
Last Dance
had Sharon Stone on death row;
Double Jeopardy
had a story so weird I can’t even recall it, let alone repeat it. But
Paradise Road
was a worthy ensemble piece about women prisoners of the Japanese, with terrific performances from Glenn Close, Frances McDormand and Cate Blanchett (among others). He is more than versatile—he brings a fresh view to everything, as witness the emotional
Evelyn
’s Irishman and the charming mock epic of
Pancho Villa
, with Villa as a self-conscious celebrity.

Candice Bergen
, b. Beverly Hills, California, 1946
Candice Bergen has been in movies, and very social on the Hollywood scene, for over thirty years. She is smart, funny, and she has show business in the blood (or the grain—one of her childhood companions was Charlie McCarthy, for she was the daughter of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen). For a while, she was the companion to innovative producer Bert Schneider. She was in a few classy pictures, like
Carnal Knowledge
(71, Mike Nichols) and
The Group
(66, Sidney Lumet). But she was taken for granted as a pretty piece of female furnishing. No one noticed she could play comedy. Not even marriage to Louis Malle, in 1980, promised salvation.

She was the lesbian in
The Group;
with Steve McQueen in
The Sand Pebbles
(66, Robert Wise); as a pretentious fashion model in
Vivre pour Vivre
(67, Claude Lelouch);
The Magus
(68, Guy Green);
Getting Straight
(70, Richard Rush);
Soldier Blue
(70, Ralph Nelson);
Carnal Knowledge; The Hunting Party
(71, Don Medford);
T.R. Baskin
(71, Herbert Ross);
11 Harrowhouse
(74, Aram Avakian); and
Bite the Bullet
(75, Richard Brooks). There was a flare of humor in her entertaining duel with Sean Connery in
The Wind and the Lion
(75, John Milius). But there was nothing to be done with
The Domino Principle
(77, Stanley Kramer);
A Night Full of Rain
(78, Lina Wertmuller); or
Oliver’s Story
(78, John Korty).

But suddenly, in
Starting Over
(79, Alan J. Pakula), she was hilarious, not least when bursting into song, and she got a supporting actress nomination. She then did
Rich and Famous
(81, George Cukor)—but few noticed or saw the continuity of humor. By then, Bergen was one of the few American actresses fit for 1930s comedy.

In the eighties, as she neared the ominous age of forty, Bergen’s career declined. She was redundant as photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White (Bergen is herself a photographer) in
Gandhi
(82, Richard Attenborough), and she was stranded in
Stick
(85, Burt Reynolds). By then, she had nowhere to go but television: Guinevere in the awful
Arthur the King
(85, Clive Donner); quite believable in
Murder: By Reason of Insanity
(85, Anthony Page); and driven to play Sydney Biddle Barrows in
Mayflower Madam
(87, Lou Antonio).

Whereupon, magic happened. It’s not that
Murphy Brown
(88–onwards) was so great a show. But it was a showcase for Bergen’s wit and character. As Republican politicians blundered into challenging the show’s mild liberalism, so Murphy Brown became a figurehead. Bergen won Emmies in 1989 and 1990, and the show played its small part in the 1992 election. It would be a good deal more useful if someone now cast Bergen in a fine movie comedy of manners, something bigger than
Miss Congeniality
(00, Donald Petrie);
Sweet Home Alabama
(02, Andy Tennant);
View from the Top
(00, Bruno Barreto);
The In-Laws
(03, Andrew Fleming);
Sex and the City
(08, Michael Patrick King);
The Women
(08, Diane English);
Bride Wars
(09, Garry Winick).

Ingmar Bergman
, (1918–2007), b. Uppsala, Sweden
1945:
Kris/Crisis
. 1946:
Det Regnar pa var Kärlek/It Rains on Our Love
. 1947:
Skepp till Indialand/A Ship to India; Musik i Mörker/Night Is My Future
. 1948:
Hamnstad/Port of Call
. 1949:
Fängelse/Prison; Törst/Thirst; Till Glädje/To Joy
. 1950:
Sant Händer Inte Här/This Can’t Happen Here; Sommarlek/Summer Interlude/Illicit Interlude
. 1952:
Kvinnors Väntan/Waiting Women; Sommaren med Monika/Summer with Monika
. 1953:
Gycklarnas Afton/Sawdust and Tinsel
. 1954:
En Lektion i Karlek/A Lesson in Love
. 1955:
Kvinnodröm/Journey into Autumn; Sommarnattens Leende/Smiles of a Summer Night
. 1957:
Det Sjunde Inseglet/The Seventh Seal; Smultronstället/Wild Strawberries
. 1958:
Nära Livet/So Close to Life; Ansiktet/The Face
. 1959:
Jungfrukällan/The Virgin Spring
. 1960:
Djavulens Oga/The Devil’s Eye
. 1961:
Sasom i en Spegel/Through a Glass Darkly
. 1963:
Nattvards-gästerna/Winter Light; Tystnaden/The Silence
. 1964:
För Att Inte Tala Om Alla Dessa Kvinnor/Now About These Women
. 1966:
Persona
. 1967: “Daniel,” an episode from
Stimulantia
. 1968:
Vargtimmen/Hour of the Wolf; Skammen/Shame
. 1969:
Riten/The Rite
. 1970:
En Pasion/A Passion
. 1971:
Beröringen/The Touch
. 1972:
Viskingar och Rop/Cries and Whispers
. 1973:
Scener ur ett Aktenskap/Scenes from a Marriage
(for TV). 1974:
Trollflojten/The Magic Flute
. 1975:
Ansikte mot Ansikte/Face to Face
. 1978:
The Serpent’s Egg; Hostsonatem/Autumn Sonata
. 1979:
Farö-Dokument 79
(d). 1980:
Aus dem Leben der Marionetten/From the Life of the Marionettes
. 1982:
Fanny och Alexander/Fanny and Alexander
. 1983:
After the Rehearsal
(TV). 1986:
Dokument Fanny och Alexander
(d). 1992:
Markisinnan de Sade
(TV). 1995:
Sista Skriket
(TV). 1997:
Larmar och gör sig Till
(TV). 2000:
Bildmakarna
(TV). 2003:
Saraband
(TV).