I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead (21 page)

Conrad Binyon occasionally visited the Cheviot Hills home and got to
know Jack. “I always liked Jack due to his and my mutual interest in aviation
and flying,” recalled Binyon. “He gave me for Christmas a navigational
handwork E-6B military computer, and invited me out to their Cheviot
Hills home to swim in their pool and have lunch.” Binyon says he had no
idea that Jack had been or was an actor himself. “Jack never discussed his
status as an actor. In fact, I never knew much about it existing at all. I was
totally surprised when I saw him in a small role as the Army Captain on the
Berlin Express in the movie of the same name.” Their mutual interest in
aviation bonded Binyon and Jack, but Conrad doesn’t believe that Jack
himself was a pilot. “I figure he’d have told me if he had been licensed. I’m
thinking he perhaps may have taken lessons pursuing a license, because the
computer he gave me I could see had been used and perhaps had been his
at one time prior to his passing it on to me. Of course, if he had been
licensed and owned a plane he’d certainly taken me flying with him, for
that’s what most pilots love to do . . .”

Following the war, and while still under contract (though nonexclusive)
with MGM, Agnes signed with Warner Brothers. Her first role was in
producer Jerry Wald’s
film noir Dark Passage.
The film tells the story of
Vincent Parry (played by Humphrey Bogart) who is wrongly convicted of
murdering his wife and is sentenced to San Quentin. He escapes and is
taken in by a San Francisco artist named Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall). She
had followed his trial and believes in his innocence. By coincidence, Irene
and Vincent have a mutual acquaintance, Madge Rapf (Agnes), who had
testified against Vincent at his trial. Up to this time, Bogart is heard but not
seen since the camera point of view is seen through his eyes, but after
getting plastic surgery to change his appearance he emerges as Bogart.
Madge becomes hysterical because she believes that Vincent will kill her
for testifying against him. With his new face, Parry goes to see Madge,
introducing himself as a friend of her boyfriend’s. Madge flirts with Parry
— not knowing who he really is. But she gradually comes to recognize
something about him — “you remind me of someone,” she says to him —
perhaps his voice. Parry has found out information which links Madge to
the murder of his wife and a trumpet-playing friend, who was protecting
him, and tries to convince Madge to sign a paper admitting her guilt. She
tells Parry, “You won’t be able to prove anything because I won’t be there.”
With that she jumps out a window and falls to her death.

Agnes is magnificent. She is rotten to the core, more so than in any of
her previous films. She is also beautifully made up and wears fashionable
clothes. She is no repressed old maid here, but an experienced woman who
has used men all her life. She completely steals the film from the leads,
Bogart and Bacall. Her Warners contract paid her $2,500 per week and she
certainly earned her paycheck.

Her producer, Jerry Wald, was also impressed and expressed his admiration
in a letter on February 5, 1947: “We ran the first rough cut of
Dark Passage
yesterday. These few lines are to implore you to put me at the head of your
long line of fans. Despite the fact that you haven’t too many sides in the
film, the scenes you do have are without doubt the finest job of acting I’ve
seen on the screen or stage in years. You’re truly a great artist . . . Why
we haven’t worked together before is something beyond my powers of
comprehension, but in the future this must be changed. Just tell me
what parts you’d like to play, and you’ve got them. If there is any role that
you like of any pictures I’ve got coming up, for goodness sake, just say,
“That’s for me,” and you’ve got it. If there are some stories that you think
would be good screen vehicles for
you, please tell me about them. If
this note sounds fan-ish . . . it’s
meant to be . . . ” What an incredible letter from one of the leading
producers in Hollywood at
the time. He was as good as
his word. He employed her
in three more films, including
one which would earn Agnes
her third Academy Award
nomination.

While the film did well at the
box office, it didn’t get critical
raves. For instance, the
New
Republic
said it was, “so bad that
I worry about Humphrey
Bogart and Lauren Bacall.” But
Time
felt the film had an

“unusually good script and direction by Delmer Daves.” The review went
on to laud Agnes: “Daves knows how to break players effectively out of type
(Agnes Moorehead who usually plays embittered spinsters, does handsomely
in a sexy role).”

Shortly before filming
Dark Passage
Agnes was again asked to return to
Broadway, this time in a revival of Lillian Hellman’s classic play,
The
Children’s Hour.
The producer, Jane Broder, sent an urgent telegram to Agnes
with the news that Hellman herself would act as director. Agnes, though
flattered, had to turn the play down. “Present commitments make acceptance
impossible. If you have good new play for future please contact me.”

By this time Agnes was also making amends with Louella Parsons.
Louella still worked for the Hearst press, and still took her job of hounding
Orson Welles seriously. But as Agnes was establishing her own identity as
an actress, separate from Orson Welles’ Mercury players, Louella, like
Hedda Hopper, would begin to champion her. By November of 1945
Agnes was even attending cocktail parties in Louella’s honor.

Welles was in the east mounting a huge stage production of
Around the
World in 80 Days.
On March 22, 1946, Welles wrote to Agnes: “ . . . After
the opening of
Around the World
which I think is going to be wonderful, I
will be out there for some sort of picture. Nothing is definitely set, but one
of the things we are thinking of has a fine part for you. I don’t think,
however, that you should let it interfere with the scheduling of your year’s
commitments. I will certainly write again the moment I have anything
definite. All my love, always Orson.”

She joined Orson on one segment of his
Mercury Summer Theatre
that
summer in a half hour (!) version of
King Lear.
It would be their last major
radio program together. Agnes’ contract with MGM and Warner Brothers
as well as her radio work — which was extensive — kept her from accepting
Welles’ offer of Macbeth (in the pivotal role of Lady Macbeth) which was
staged in 1947, for Utah’s Centennial Celebration at University Theatre in
Salt Lake City. Welles set up this four-day engagement partly as a rehearsal
since he had signed with Republic to make a film version shortly thereafter.
Had Agnes accepted she would also have done the film, so it was a missed
opportunity for Agnes on two counts: one, to work with Welles again in
a film he directed
and
as his leading lady, and two, to appear in a
Shakespearean classic in one of the great female roles. Jeanette Nolan played
the part instead.

D
EAREST
A
GGIE
A
RE YOU FREE AN WILLING TO BE THE GREATEST
E
MILIA
IN THE HISTORY OF
O
THELLO
STOP W
EBEINGIN
P
ARIS IN ABOUT A MONTH
WIRE ME
H
OTEL
L
ANCASTER
A
LL MY LOVE ALWAYS
O
RSON
.

Othello
is one of Welles’ masterpieces, but it was also one of the films he
would shoot a few sequences here and there until he ran out of money, then
have to work in a film to raise more money and reassemble the cast again
to shoot more sequences. The film he invited Agnes to be in starting in
March 1949, and wasn’t released until 1952. Once again Agnes had to turn
Welles down due to other film and radio commitments.

Producer Walter Wanger (
Stagecoach, Foreign Correspondent
) made a deal
with Universal to film an adaptation of the 1888 Henry James novel,
The
Aspern Papers.
It is the story of an American publisher named Lewis who
searches for the love letters of the late Jeffrey Ashton, a poet who
disappeared decades earlier. He is told that Ashton’s one-time lover, Juliana,
now a weathered old woman of 105, is in possession of these letters. Jeffrey
assumes the false identity of a young writer from America in need of lodging.
He plans to steal the letters. At the house he meets Juliana’s niece, Tina
(in the original novel it is her sister), who tries to discourage Lewis from
staying in the house. The household staff tells Lewis that Tina is evil.
Juliana also tells him that she fears that Tina will kill her. Juliana tells Lewis
that she doesn’t have the love letters. They are in Tina’s possession, and that
the letters have apparently taken possession of Tina. They are the reason she
believes herself to be Juliana. She begs Lewis to get the letters back from
Tina. Lewis steals the letters from Tina’s room and is about to leave with
them himself when he hears an argument between Tina and Juliana. Juliana
admits she killed Jeffrey Ashton when he told her he was going to leave her.
A fire breaks out, Lewis is able to save Tina, who has fainted, but in the
process he drops the love letters and the letters are destroyed in the fire
and Juliana, who earlier told Lewis she would never leave the house alive,
is killed.

This was an ambitious story to film. For the part of Lewis, Wanger very
much wanted Rex Harrison or Charles Boyer, but both proved to be
unavailable. Finally, in a bit of offbeat casting, light comic leading man
Robert Cummings was signed for $15,000 per week. For Tina, Wanger cast
his beautiful and talented contract player, Susan Hayward. For the pivotal
role of the 105-year-old Juliana, Judith Anderson, who played the wicked
Mrs. Danvers in
Rebecca,
was considered. In the end Agnes was signed at
$5,000 per week.