90th Anniversary of
Montgomery Clift's birth


90º Aniversario del nacimiento de Montgomery Clift (1920-2010)

aaaaa TODA LA INFORMACIÓN SOBRE EL ACTOR MONTGOMERY CLIFT EN ESPAÑOL aaaaa

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28.2.10

Red River.- crítica (2)

Red River

Cover of VHS video tape of "Red River," which is a black-and-white film
Cover of VHS tape of "Red River," a black-and-white film
Grit and glint

By Carter B. Horsley

The non-nonsense swagger, good looks and long career of John Wayne made him the most famous male movie star of the 20th Century and a major icon of American culture.

He was the quintessential quiet but strong leading man who was given more to force than words. Widely imitated and parodied, Wayne's success was based on his persona as a "he-man hero" without peer. His early reputation was based mainly on his glamour and he achieved major stardom in "Stagecoach," a 1941 western, after about a decade of work mostly in minor westerns.

In this film, Wayne portrays Tom Dunson, a troubled, embittered and mean rancher who loses the respect on a cattle drive of his fellow cowboys and his adopted son, Matthew Garth, who is portrayed by Montgomery Clift in his screen debut. Wayne's portrayal of Dunson demonstrated that he could be a very good actor for he ages admirably in the film and his performance is memorable not only for its strength but also its subtlety.

While the movie is far from perfect, it is extremely interesting in its pairing of Wayne and Clift in the leading roles. Clift is quite wonderful. He is cocky, sensitive, tortured, romantic, headstrong, uncertain, fearful and respectful, and very expressive, all qualities that James Dean would embody a few years later in his brief but stunning career. Clift's persona is rather poetic whereas Wayne's is titanic and bold. Both are highly mannered but in very different ways.

Wayne is simple and brutish. His walk/saunter is that of a determined, possessed, focused man.

Clift is more dimensional. His hesitatations, ponderings and waverings are that of a sensitive, reflective, idealistic individual.

Their characters, however, are not black-and-white. Clift is agile with his gun and no coward. Wayne may not hesitate to shoot someone, but will honor them with a "reading" over their grave.

Many critics and reviewers have commented that the film's "love interests," initially Coleen Gray for Wayne and later Joanne Dru for Clift, slow the film's momentum. They are, however, necessary as Gray's death early in the film helps the viewer sympathize with Dunson's bitterness and lack of humor and Dru's appeal to Dunson to spare Matt's life after he has led a mutiny of Dunson's men and expelled him from the cattle drive is a quite remarkable and surprising scene in which her willingness to sacrifice her love of Matt by agreeing to give Dunson an heir is as startling as Dunson's request. Dru, a very beautiful brunette who would appear in other Westerns with Wayne, portrays a "pioneer" woman of formidable strength. She handles this scene very well and it is perhaps the finest in Wayne's career. When Matt first encounters Dru, she has been wounded in her right shoulder by an arrow during an attack by Indians on her wagon train. The scene is quite surreal as she asks Clift many personal questions while he is shooting at the attacking Indians. Many reviewers have scoffed at the scene's incongruous dialogue, but it is one of the film's surprises, which is needed because of its quite slow beginning. We take most of the clichés of the Western genre in stride and because this film used many as well as setting many the scenes with Dru are jolting, but they serve the purpose of making the drama much more interesting as well as giving a pre-politically correct culture a big dose of feminism.

Most critics and reviewers have been disappointed with the film's ending when Dru breaks up the "showdown" fight between Dunson and Matt with a long harangue about how much they love one another. Virtually all those critics and reviewers note that however much they are dismayed by this "happy" ending, the intensity of the film is not seriously impaired. To a large extent, they are right: Matt refuses Dunson's demand that he draw, but after being punched about he does fight back, although the viewer suspects that Matt would not kill Dunson under any circumstances and Dunson's march on foot through a herd of cattle suggests that nothing will dissuade him from revenging Matt's mutiny. In retrospect, however, the ending fits well with the scene in which Dru appealed to Dunson to spare Matt. Dunson has been humiliated and humbled by Matt, the presumptive heir to his empire. Dunson recognizes that Dru is a remarkable enough woman to ask her to have his child. He has raised Matt for about 15 years and clearly had come to love him.

Wayne's decision to relent after her harangue is really not all that surprising. One often sees the humor, if not futility, of anger at the moment of rage. It is one of the thin lines that usually makes truth stranger than fiction. A hero encounters fear. A villain discovers guilt, or remorse, or just tiredness. Anger needs to be spent somehow and time often is a fine cure and some things that appear ultimate and vital and uncompromisable sometimes are shocked in different perspectives.

The characters portrayed by Wayne, Clift and Dru are absorbing and interesting. We are fascinated by them and their unpredictability and their maturing. Our interest in them is also supported by its focus on people's often misplaced hope that other people can change their personality.

This epic Western film is about the first cattle drive in 1865 on the Chisholm Trail from Texas to Abilene. Like some of John Ford's westerns, it suffers some from the rather hokey singing that would be more appropriate for a children's campfire than the rigors of a real cattle drive, and one wonders why both directors resorted to such campiness in this genre. Presumably, such scenes were included for a bit of levity and relief from the more somber realities of the stories and perhaps to appeal to a wider "family" audience, but apart from establishing camaraderie, which is not unimportant, they detract from the sweep and impact of the stories.

The American mythologizing of the "pioneer" West goes back a long ways, but this film is one of the classics that defined the genre. "Westerns" would not begin to treat Native Americans with much respect for another couple of decades and their appeal has always been the primary notion of rugged individualism in a wild and awesome physical environment. Pure lyricism, of course, rarely made for good drama. Simple morality of the good guys and the bad guys did, even though life is more complex and this film, to its credit, focuses on those complexities to a good extent.


This film ranks 51st in Carter B. Horsley's Top 500 Sound Films and 245th in the Internet Movie Data Base Top 250 List.


En la web The city review aparece esta crítica de Red River (Río Rojo, 1946):

27.2.10

I Confess.- reportaje North of the border

El reportaje North of border (1953) cuenta cómo fue el rodaje en Quebec (Canadá) de I Confess (Yo confieso, 1953).

En este post recogí otras fotos de Montgomery Clift con Hitchcock ydel rodaje, como se sabe, las relaciones entre ellos no fueron buenas.

26.2.10

Ciné-Tele Revue.- 26 feb 1960

Revista francesa que dedica su portada a Elizabeth Taylor y tiene en su interior un reportaje sobre la película Suddenly, last summer (De repente el último verano) que se había estrenado en diciembre de1959.

Éstos son los datos de la revista:

Título: Ciné-Tele Revue
Ejemplar: nº 9
Fecha de edición: 26/02/1960 (tal día como hoy, hace 50 años)


25.2.10

Old Monty (10)

24.2.10

Descarga de películas

En Emule, Ares y otros programas P2P están las películas más conocidas pero como se sabe su descarga puede tardar. En el blog Jazzcineando, que recomiendo porque permite descargar películas clásicas, están las siguientes películas de Montgomery Clift:

* Los ángeles perdidos

* Vidas rebeldes

* El Desertor (descarga)

Ha sido una alegría encontrarme con esta última. En paréntesis he puesto el enlace directo de Megaupload.

23.2.10

Suddenly last summer.- on the set

Estas curiosas fotografías fueron captadas desde el exterior de los camerinos de Liz y Monty. Me imagino que eran una especie de roulettes ya que el rodaje se hizo en el estado de Kentucky. Lo interesante de estas fotos es que fueron captadas sin que ellos lo notarany muestran la enorme complicidad que les unía: estando cada uno en su cubículo sin verse, mantienen idénticas posturas (inclinados en la primera foto) e idénticas actividades (leyendo en la segunda foto). Una última curiosidad, si la primera foto hubiera sido tomada hoy día parecerían estar con sus iPhone, BlackBerry y demás. Ella parece limarse las uñas, y... ¿él?

22.2.10

The best plays of 1939-40: There shall be no night

Se trata de una obra escrita por el crítico y editor Burns Mantle y publicada en el mismo año de 1940. Recoge la obra en la que Montgomery Clift actuó junto al gran Alfred Lunt y su esposa Lynn Fontanne.

Esta es la información que acompaña al libro:

THE BEST PLAYS OF 1939-40 And The Year Book of The Drama In America edited by Mantle, Burns. Published by Dodd, Mead and Company, 1940. 524 pp. hardcover containing 10 b/w illustrations of 10 different plays during the 1939-40 theatre season. The actors and actresses in these illustrations are: Lynn Fontanne, Montgomery Clift, Alfred Lunt, Dorothy Stickney, Howard Lindsay, Monty Woolley, Carol Goodner, Elliot Nugent, Robert Scott, Gertrude Lawrence, Donald Cook, Walter Gilbert, Dorothy Gish, Thomas Chalmers, Julie Haydon, Charles de Sheim, and Eddie Dowling. The author discusses the theatre seasons in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Southern California. The plays contained in this book are: There Shall Be No Night, Key Largo, The World We Make, Life With Father, The Man Wh Came To Dinner, The Male Animal, The Time of Your life, Skylark, Margin For Error, Morning's At Seven. Also included are the Federal Theatre activities and a statistical summary.

Condition - book: ex-library copy from "Gimbels Circulating Library" glued to ffep, newspaper clipping about plays glued to inside of front board, label on spine is chipped, wrinkling to backstrap, frontispiece illustration present but detached from book, tanning to front and rear pastedowns and free endpapers.

21.2.10

The Search Cards Collection



Colección de 8 posters coloreados de la época de la película The Search (Los ángeles perdidos, 1948), con escenas muy conocidas de la misma.

20.2.10

Biography of Robert La Guardia / Biografía de Robert LaGuadia

Voy a transcribir la biografía de Robert LaGuardia. A diferencia de la de Patricia Bosworth (de la que extraigo varios pasajes o viviencias unificadas), seguiré el orden del libro. La edición la tengo en inglés porque como se sabe, no se ha traducido al español. Desconozco si llegó a Hispanoamérica pero aquí a España no.

Para darla a conocer a aquellas personas que no la han leído, voy a hacer el esfuerzo de traducirla. Primero lo haré como ejercicio de práctica y luego acudiré a Tradukka. La traducción tendrá errores sin duda, pero al menos podremos leerla y disfrutarla.

Por último, señalar que consta de 10 capítulos que por su extensión iré dividiendo.

18.2.10

Retrato (26)

En esta web han hecho este fotomontaje. Para ver la imagen a gran tamaño ver post.

16.2.10

Wonderful Monty!



Triple secuencia de la escena en el invernadero de I Confess (Yo Confieso, 52).

15.2.10

¡20.000 visitas!

Hemos recibido 20.00 visitas

12.2.10

From here to eternity.- serie tv

En 1979 se estrenó en televisión esta serie que es un remake de la emblemática película. En su reparto destaca Natalie Wood quien ganó un Globo de Oro por su interpretación de Karen Holmes. También actuaron una jovencísima Kim Basinger como Alma, Peter Boyle y Joe Pantoliano. El papel de Robert E. Lee Prewitt, nada fácil de interpretar dado el antecedente, recayó en el desconocido Steve Railsback.

Esta serie no llegó a estrenarse en España por lo que desconozco su calidad, no obstante viendo la carátula y por la época me imagino que no tuvo reparos en mostrar temas controvertidos pero no llegará a la calidad de la película.

Estos son los datos en Imdb.

11.2.10

9 fotos

Colección de 9 fotos de un Monty joven, algunas de estudio muy conocidas y otras no tanto, más personales. De arriba a abajo y de izquieda a derecha:

1.- Foto de estudio
2.- Foto de estudio (ver post)
3.- Esta foto nunca la he visto
4.- Foto del rodaje de Red River (ver post)
5.- Foto de estudio que acompaña a la nº 2
6.- Foto de estudio (ver post)
7.- Es la misma foto que la nº 2
8.- Foto de estudio de Red River
9.- Esta foto tampoco la he visto nunca. No sé a quién está saludando, parece un estreno.

10.2.10

The Story of Montgomery Clift

Narth es una asociación norteamericana para la investigación de terapias para la homosexualidad. No voy a hablar de ese tema, cito la web porque en ella vine un artículo sobre el actor Montgomery Clift de Linda Nicolosi.


The Story of Montgomery Clift

By Linda Nicolosi


Montgomery Clift

Montgomery (Monty) Clift was a broodingly handsome, classical actor who is considered to be one of the greatest screen stars of the Golden Age of film. He led a tormented life, dying prematurely after many years of self-destruction through drinking, drugs and a long string of affairs with men (as well as a few women).

An enormously attractive screen presence, Monty had large, expressive dark eyes, and portrayed a haunting vulnerability and sensitivity that was as much "who he was" onscreen as offscreen. His life story makes fascinating reading.

In Montgomery Clift: A Biography, author Patricia Bosworth describes Monty's father Bill as passive, good-natured, and absolutely adoring of his wife, Sunny. A very successful man in the business world, Bill nevertheless deferred in every way to this strong-willed, opinionated woman at home. "My father would do anything in the world to please Mother," Monty's sister Ethel said (p. 23). "She made everyone--including her husband--feel that no one with any brains could possibly disagree with her and still be a person of consequence" (p. 31).

Indeed, Sunny was known as a vibrantly attractive and intelligent woman. She was "energetic, sometimes venomous, always triumphant in any situation" (p. 284).

Sunny had been adopted as an infant into a family that apparently abused her, and she was never able to locate her birth parents. She had been told, however, that her bloodlines made her a "thoroughbred." Soon she became obsessed with tracking down her geneology, and she poured all her energy into it. Her primary goal in life, biographer Boswell says, was to raise her children as "the thoroughbreds they were" so they would never know the uncertain identity and insecurity she had suffered in her life.

When Sunny became pregnant in 1919, she told Bill she intended to raise their children "in the elegant, princely manner which they deserved." (p. 13) There were two boys (Monty and Brooks) and one girl (Ethel). ""Monty and the others were being raised as triplets, given identical haircuts...clothes, lessons, and responsibilities, regardless of age or sex."

Brooks, the tougher and more rebellious son, rebelled--fighting and talking back to his mother when he was told he must dress like his younger brother and sister. "I wanted to be myself,'' he explained later. Brooks (who grew up to be heterosexual) was married and divorced several times. However, "Monty appeared the most docile, the most obedient of the three children. He did precisely what he was told..." Biographer Bosworth notes that his "independent impulses, his drives, were curbed again and again" (p. 31) by his mother.

In spite of the intense pain the relationship brought him, Monty, his brother Brooks later recalled, "had a secretive relationship" of mutual specialness with their mother which he and his sister "never intruded upon." (p. 50). In contrast, Monty and his father "rarely communicated about anything" and in the morning, they would both read the paper while sitting at the breakfast table, "rarely exchanging a word." (p. 55)

Isolated from his male peers, the sensitive and gentle Monty also developed an intense closeness to his sister Ethel. "Throughout his life Monty relied on Sister for comfort and advice...Their insecurities made them inseparable. By the time they were seven they were sharing every secret, every fantasy" ( p. 26).

All three children complained that they were lonely because they weren't allowed to play with others in the neighborhood, but Sunny never explained why: she just forbade it. When Brooks later confronted his father Bill about their isolated childhood, Bill told him that he shouldn't feel bad about it -- it was for his own good:

"Everything she did for you she did because she believes you are thoroughbreds. If only I could convince you of your mother's greatness--she is a great, great woman. She wanted you to have every advantage--and all the love she never had." (p. 49)

"Be Happy For Me"

In the Clift family, there was no room for anyone but Sunny to vent anger or express opinions. "'Ma was always right.' If they started shouting at each other she would invariably correct them. She would tell them that her entire life was dedicated to, and sacrificed for, her children, so "the least they could do" was to behave and keep her happy.

Indeed, Sunny's happiness was understood to be essential to keeping the family together. Monty's father, on a business trip, described himself as "miserable" whenever he was away from his wife. He wrote his son a letter, reminding him who gave the Clift family its identity:

"Your mother is the heart of the Clift family. All our hopes and ambitions center around her. We love her better than all else, and we are ambitious because of her. She is the very lifeblood of the family..." (p. 38)

Sunny tutored the children at home; her plan was that the children "would be beautifully educated but they would have to associate only with each other, 'with their own kind.'" (p. 19)...Their father, who was often away from home, "came and went between 'deals in Manhattan and Chicago."

When they were permitted to play with other children, they could only be other boys and girls who were as "special" as Sunny considered her own children to be. A playmate of the Clift siblings in later years described "Sunny's overweening social ambition. She gushed over us [a wealthy family], in an almost desperate way. And she kept referring to her distinguished relatives, her aristocratic family..." (p. 28)

When the children were old enough to appreciate culture, Sunny took them to Europe for two years. Their father, says Clift's biographer, "had worked weekends and 14-hour-long days trying to given them the creature comforts Sunny had insisted were their right, by heritage." (p. 22) They stayed at the best hotels, but were always expected to keep to themselves.

Ethel said, "Mother's life was concerned with not only giving us every advantage, but seeing that everything was done for us...We were not subject to discipline or requirements to do for others." (p. 54)

It was not long before the Clift brothers soon began to be cruelly teased by other boys. At times, a "mob" of boys would chase them home on their bicycles.

Then, the stock market crash bankrupted the Clift family, and Bill Clift became deeply depressed. His wife, always strong through adversity, bolstered her husband and "gave me courage," Bill said, "when nobody else would." (p. 35) The children later recalled that both parents acted as if nothing was wrong--the children continued to "sleep on silk sheets" in the dingy room they rented, and no one talked about their truly dire circumstances.

Hazy, Uncertain Memories

"As an adult, Monty refused to discuss his childhood with anyone--not even his closest friends"(p. 35) and both his brother and sister reported a similar "amnesia." "Once they left home and began living their own lives," Monty's biographer said, "they blanked out much of those years."

Brooks noted that, "Psychologically we couldn't take the memories...so we forgot. But at the same time we were obsessed with our childhood. We'd refer to it among ourselves, but only among ourselves. Part of each of us desperately wanted to remember our past, and when we couldn't, it was frustrating. It caused us to weep, when we were drunk enough..." (p. 36).

"All three children felt profound anxieties they could not comprehend" as Sunny tried harder and harder to "cast everyone in their assigned roles, and deny their individual needs" (p. 38), says his biographer.

Acting As Release From A False Role

By the age of 12, Monty had found the one love of his life--acting. He became fascinated with the spectacle of the circus. He began to take a deep satisfaction in the fantasy situations and people he could create, and decided that he had truly found his calling. His brother Brooks said acting was the perfect release for Monty because when he played someone else, he was at last freed from his old role--the one created for him by his mother: "Now he [Monty] no longer had to live up to the image Sunny imagined for him," (p. 44) Brooks noted.

"You're Special, I'm Special"

Although Sunny was fiercely devoted to her children, on a deeper level, the relationship was evidently narcissistically driven--it was about her, and how the children made her feel about herself.

Returning from an acting job one time, Monty teased his father, and they began arguing. Instead of trying to make peace between them, his mother said, "Monty, dear, why are you doing this to me??" (p. 285). Says his biographer:

"The sound of that question brought back memories of his boyhood when every time he attempted to be independent--to make choices, decisions--she told him he was wrong and she was right; and when he disobeyed her anyway, she would cry, "Why are you doing this to me?" (p. 285)

Monty was 18 and working at an acting job when a fellow actor, Pat Collinge, noted that his male roommate had to move out and make space for Sunny to share his room when she visited him. "Everybody at the Guild thought it was rather odd," Collinge said, "for an 18-year-old boy to share his bedroom with his mother." (p. 58)v

Collinge noted of Sunny,

"I found her bewitching and charming, but a killer too. She stifled and repressed Monty by not allowing him to give vent to his enthusiasms or his deep needs.
It was odd how the characters in Dame Nature [the play he was acting in] reflected the characteristics of Monty and Sunny. In the play the mother is socially ambitious and domineering, and even when her son becomes a father, she still tries to make him wear short pants and play kiddy games in the nursery." (p. 58)

At 17, Monty went away for the summer but he received a phone call from his mother every day, when he always told her exactly what he was doing. She discouraged him from dating and told him to conserve his energy for his career.

It was not long before Monty began dating men. One of them described Monty as a "beautiful darling boy" who was "incapable of growing up." (p. 66) Monty slowly began to make a life apart from his mother. However, his closest lifelong friends (most notably, Elizabeth Taylor) were, like his mother, magnetic, strong-willed women with whom he became enmeshed in intense (though platonic) relationships. "As time passed, Monty slept with both men and women indiscriminately in an effort to discover his sexual preference, but his conflict remained obvious" (p. 67) says his biographer.

The rest of Montgomery Clift's life was marred by alcoholism and depression. The hostile-dependent relationships he developed with strong women caused him recurrent distress: "Some days he would threaten to stop seeing Elizabeth Taylor - then, the thought would make him burst into tears." (p. 369) He had a near-fatal car accident when he was driving home drunk from a party, which left him with permanent facial disfigurement.

The death of this brilliant and magnetic actor - in a tragic end, alone at age 45 in a hotel room--was said to be brought on by complications from his longtime drug use and alcoholism.

For Further Reading

On the life of Montgomery Clift:

Bosworth, Patricia (1978) Montgomery Clift: A Biography. N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

On the narcissistic family:

Nicolosi, Joseph. "Attachment Loss and Grief Work in Reparative Therapy,"
http://www.narth.com/docs/attachloss.html.

Nicolosi, Joseph, "The Meaning of Same-Sex Attraction,"
http://www.narth.com/docs/niconew.html.

Updated: 27 February 2008

9.2.10

The Montgomery Clift Blog en Facebook

Hace un mes aproximadamente, me he decidido a abrir en Facebook una página sobre este blog. Ya existían varias páginas y grupos pero no me gustan que parezca que fuera él, el que tuviera su web, como los famosos de hoy día. De igual modo que este blog no es un diario de Monty ni yo, que soy mujer, me siento como él, algo realmente imposible; tampoco quise abrir una página en Facebook con su nombre o dedicada a él.

Pero como otros tantos blogs, la página que he abierto en Facebook es un reflejo de los post que voy subiendo, así como las noticias y todas las novedades que haya relacionadas con Montgomery Clift. La persona que aparece como administradora de la página soy yo pero bajo el nick de Bessie Mae. Yo misma, tengo mi página en Facebook pero aparezco con foto y nombre real. No soy desde luego alguien conocido pero prefiero separar mi vida de mis aficiones.

La página que he abierto es un buen escaparate de mostrar las fotos que tengo sobre el actor. Es una colección de 4.000 fotos, puedo estar orgullosa de ser la mayor que existe en Internet, pero para evitar que las copien, pondré el logotiopo del blog a un tamaño mayor del que sale aquí. Os animo a visitar la página y sobre todo, muchas gracias a todos aquellos que se apuntan como fans.

Visitar The Montgomery Clift Blog en Facebook.

8.2.10

Hammacher Schlemmer

Como cuenta Nancy Walker, era uno de los establecimientos comerciales favoritos de Monty. Cuando lo he buscado en la red, me he llevado la sorpresa de que aún existen estos grandes almacenes. En realidad es toda una institución, fundados en 1848, en la wikipedia hay un artículo y en su web, hay un apartado dedicado especialmente a su store en Manhattan.

Se encuentra en la calle 57 entre Lexington y la Tercera Avenida.
147 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022, United States
(800) 421-9002

7.2.10

5 amigos

Gable, Marilyn, Monty, Thelma and Wallace (rodaron juntos The Misfits, 1961)

6.2.10

Monty inédito (12)

Esta fotografía no ha visto la luz hasta ahora en Internet. Fue tomada por el fotógrafo amateur Marcel Thomas. Algunas de sus fotografías, como ésta, fueron publicadas en un álbum de fotos en en Francia a mediados de los 9o pero con escasa difusión. Desconozco si el fotógrafo parisino tomó más instantáneas de Monty, bien porque este se encontraba de viaje o por rodajes como en esta ocasión.

Aquí aparece Montgomery Clift fumando durante el rodaje de The Young Lions (El baile de los malditos, 1957). La fotografía fue tomada en el conocido barrio parisino de Montmartre.

Es una foto muy espontánea donde aparece un Monty de lo más natural, diríase hasta con aspecto descuidado, por las profundas ojeras y la expresión somnolienta del rostro, posiblemente bajo efectos de barbitúricos. En las biografías se describe repetidamente ese estado de Montgomery Clift pero como luego lo vemos sonriente y guapo en las fotos difícilmente nos lo podíamos imaginar, pero con esta foto nos podemos hacer una idea de su estado.


Montgomery Clift poses in Paris during the shooting of The Young Lions (1957) in the Sacré-Coeur (Montmartre district). Marcel Thomas was a Parisian amateur photographer whose pictures were never published at the time they were taken. They were only published in the mid-1990's in a now rare French photography book. This picture comes from this book, as far as I know, it is was ever published.

4.2.10

Donde rodaba Monty

Muchas películas de Montgomery Clift fueron rodadas en Europa. De hecho puede considerarse uno de los actores norteamericanos de su época más europeros, pues aunque no era oriundo de aquí, se educó en la vieja Europa y como él mismo bromeaba, tenía poco de americano.

El hecho de que rodara en Europa, se debe a los numerosos roles de soldado que tuvo en su carrera pese a no realizar el servicio militar y por tanto no participar en la II Guera Mundial como muchas estrellas, otra paradoja de su vida.

En esta web, se localizan algunos sitios donde tuvo lugar el rodaje de sus películas. El caso más conocido es el de los barracones Schofield en Honolulú (Hawai) que el Pentágono puso a disposición del rodaje de From here to eternity (De aquí a la eternidad, 53).

Empezando por Red River (Río Rojo, 1948), rodado en Tucson, Arizona y pasando por Raintree County (El árbol de la vida, 1957), rodada en Kentucky a donde acudieron a ver a Monty sus parientes paternos del Sur. La web no sólo cita los lugares sino que se vale del famoso Google map para localizarlos.

http://www.famouslocations.com/film-movie-locations/where_was_Red_River_1948_filmed.htm

http://www.famouslocations.com/film-movie-locations/where_was_Operation_Raintree_1957_filmed.htm

* Montgomery Clift Filming Locations

3.2.10

Sesión de fotos (16): comentarios

Joanne Dru fue la primera pareja de Montgomery Clift en el cine, pero es sin duda la que menos se asocia con él. No es una actriz conocida y aunque hace bien su papel de Tess Millay en Red River (Río Rojo, 1948), siempre me pareció mayor (en realidad era 2 años más joven que Monty) y nada sexy. En cambio Monty despliega con ella toda su ternura y su romanticismo más encantador. Las fotos de estudio que le hicieron juntos dan prueba de ello. Aunque también diríase que es de las poca veces en que Monty aparece menos vulnerable.

Los datos de la última foto son éstos: Montgomery Clift and Joanne Dru share a romantic moment in the Howard Hawks western 'Red River'. (Photo by John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images). Aunque la fecha es totalmente incorrecta, no puede ser del 1 de enero de 1948 puesto que la película se rodó en 1946.

Ver
fotos.

Sesión de fotos (16): con Joanne Dru



Ver comentarios.

2.2.10

Photoplay.- feb 1950

Revista de cine que en su edición australiana de febrero de 1950 ofrecía un interesante reportaje sobre Montgomery Clift titulado "Tall, Dark and Different" (Alto, Moreno y Diferente).

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Datos de la revista:

(English Text)

Australian edition of "PHOTOPLAY" magazine, and very rare. Has a beautiful colour shot of Esther Williams on the cover. Dated February 1950. 72 pages.

Other features:
Humphrey Bogart gives some career advice to John Derek.
"Who will be your favourites for 1949?"
MONTGOMERY CLIFT is "Tall, Dark And Different"
Esther Williamns "Mermaid In Waiting"
Hymie Fink - Diary Of A Hollywood Photographer
Betty Grable "Blonde Bonanza"
Glenn Ford, wife Eleanor Powell and son Peter in 1950.
Lana Turner "Aboard The Snuffy" in the Bahamas.
June Allyson by Dick Powell.
Get together of stars for a Wanda Hendrix party (Ann Blyth, Mona Freeman, Edith Head, Vanessa Brown, Mary Hatcher).
The house that Zachary Scott built.
Sheila Graham names 12 great ladies of the screen.
Joan Crawford & Jane Wyman model Photoplay fashions.

The Misfits.- crítica de cine

Texto íntegro y original de la crítica que escribió Bosley Crowther del New York Times el 2 de febrero de 1961:


Gable and Monroe Star in script by Miller

By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: February 2, 1961

THERE is this to be said for the people that Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, et al, play in John Huston's new film, "The Misfits," which came to the Capitol yesterday: they are not what you might call status seekers or organization men. They are simply lowdown variations of the old-fashioned genus tramp.

They are nice tramps, it's true—chummy fellows and equally chummy girls, cowboys, garage mechanics and assorted divorcées, who happen to gravitate together in Reno, Nev., that toddling town, and soak up a little whisky before taking off to catch some mustangs in the hills. They are scatterbrained, whimsical, lonely and, in the case of the character of Miss Monroe, inclined to adore all living creatures and have a quivering revulsion to pain.

They are amusing people to be with, for a little while, anyhow. But they are shallow and inconsequential, and that is the dang-busted trouble with this film.

Right at the start, Arthur Miller, who wrote the original script, drops a hint on what is coming and the line that the film is going to take. "Cowboys," he has a jolly woman, played by Thelma Ritter, say, "are the last real men in the world, but they're as reliable as jackrabbits." And that's it.

Everyone in this film is unreliable, wild, slightly kookie. As William Saroyan once put it, "There's no foundation all the way down the line."

Mr. Gable is a leathery old cowboy with a realistic slant on most plain things, but even he has to go a little nutty and sentimental at the end. Eli Wallach as a rolling-stone mechanic is a bundle of impulses and appetites, sometimes very funny, sometimes repulsive and sad. Montgomery Clift as a vagrant rodeo rider is as slug-nutty as they come, equally, cavalier toward injuries and toward his gnawing loneliness for his Mom. And Miss Monroe—well, she is completely blank and unfathomable as a new divorcée who shed her husband because "you could touch him but he wasn't there."

Unfortunately for the film's structure, everything turns upon her—the congregation of the fellows, like a pack of dogs, the buildup of cross-purposed courtships and the sentimental backflip at the end. But there is really not much about her that is very exciting or interesting. Mr. Miller makes a pass at explanation. He has someone tell her: "When you smile, it's like the sun coming up."

Toward the end, something happens. The three fellows go into the hills to catch wild horses to sell for dog meat, and the divorcée goes along. The wrangling is vivid and thrilling and everyone is having a good time, until the woman discovers what the horses are being captured for. Then she kicks up such a ruckus—and Mr. Huston lets his cameras show so much of the pitiful plight of the creatures—that the screen is full of shock and the audience is left in breathless horror until she persuades Mr. Gable to let the horses go.

It has something to do with her sense of freedom. What, we wouldn't know.

So that's what's wrong with this picture. Characters and theme do not congeal. There is a lot of absorbing detail in it, but it doesn't add up to a point. Mr. Huston's direction is dynamic, inventive and colorful. Mr. Gable is ironically vital. (He died a few weèks after shooting was done.) Miss Ritter, James Barton and Estelle Winwood are amusing in very minor roles, and Alex North has provided some good theme music.

But the picture just doesn't come off.

Ver web.

1.2.10

Foto del mes (28)

Monty in disguise... with mustache!

En febrero de 1950, Monty viajó con los McCarthy a Europa y en Roma asistieron a un baile de disfraces. Esta fotos está tomada del documental "Hollywood The Rebels Montgomery Clift Part 11". Puede verse en youtube.
Su carrera comprende 17 títulos entre 1948 y 1966. Trabajó con los grandes directores (Hawks, Hitchcock, Stevens, Zinnemann, Kazan, Huston, Wyler) y las grandes estrellas (Lancaster, Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Hepburn, Brando, Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor especialmente) de entonces.
Su carrera comprende 17 títulos entre 1948 y 1966. Trabajó con los grandes directores (Hawks, Hitchcock, Stevens, Zinnemann, Kazan, Huston, Wyler) y las grandes estrellas (Lancaster, Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Hepburn, Brando, Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor especialmente) de entonces.
Su carrera comprende 17 títulos entre 1948 y 1966. Trabajó con los grandes directores (Hawks, Hitchcock, Stevens, Zinnemann, Kazan, Huston, Wyler) y las grandes estrellas (Lancaster, Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Hepburn, Brando, Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor especialmente) de entonces.
The Right Profile
Lyric
Say, where did I see this guy?
In red river?
Or a place in the sun?
Maybe the misfits?
Or from here to eternity?

Everybody say, is he all right?
And everybody say, whats he like?
Everybody say, he sure looks funny.
Thats...Montgomery Clift, honey!

New York, New York, New York, 42nd street
Hustlers rustle and pimps pimp the beat
Monty Clift is recognized at dawn
He aint got no shoes and his clothes are torn

I see a car smashed at night
Cut the applause and dim the light
Monty's face is broken on a wheel
Is he alive? can he still feel?

Everybody say, is he all right?
And everybody say, whats he like?
Everybody say, he sure looks funny.
Thats...Montgomery Clift, honey!

Nembutol numbs it all
But I prefer alcohol

He said go out and get me my old movie stills
Go out and get me another roll of pills
There I go again shaking, but I aint got the chills