The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (399 page)

Yet in the years before the war, Stewart was preeminently a diffident, wide-eyed, drawling innocent, a country boy who had wandered into a crazily sophisticated world. After a brief foray as a heavy—in
Rose Marie
(36, W. S. Van Dyke) and
After the Thin Man
(36, Van Dyke)—he settled down as a romantic lead and an honest crusader, thriving on grassroots virtues of honor and simplicity long forgotten by Hollywood’s lounge lizards.

Stewart had studied architecture at Princeton before he joined a theatrical company led by Joshua Logan and also including Henry Fonda. He worked steadily in the theatre until 1935 when he made his debut in
The Murder Man
(Tim Whelan) on an MGM contract. He was loaned to Universal for
Next Time We Love
(36, Edward H. Griffith), opposite Margaret Sullavan, and his own studio gave him supporting parts:
Wife vs. Secretary
(36, Clarence Brown);
Small Town Girl
(36, William Wellman); and
The Gorgeous Hussy
(36, Clarence Brown). He had the lead opposite Eleanor Powell and sang (with very thin voice) in
Born to Dance
(36, Roy del Ruth) and then played with Simone Simon in
Seventh Heaven
(37, Henry King). He had more support work in
The Last Gangster
(37, Edward Ludwig),
Navy Blue and Gold
(37, Sam Wood), and
Of Human Hearts
(38, Brown), before finding his place in romantic comedies:
Vivacious Lady
(38, George Stevens); as the Texan soldier who meets Margaret Sullavan in New York in
The Shopworn Angel
(38, H. C. Potter); and Frank Capra’s
You Can’t Take It With You
(38).

He followed these with
Made for Each Other
(39, John Cromwell);
It’s a Wonderful World
(39, Van Dyke); the classic early Stewart role, Jefferson Smith, in Capra’s
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
(39); the taciturn cowboy taming Dietrich in
Destry Rides Again
(39, George Marshall); two more clever pairings with Margaret Sullavan—a wise Lubitsch comedy,
The Shop Around the Corner
(40) and Frank Borzage’s
The Mortal Storm
(40)—one of cinema’s best two-shots is Sullavan reclining and inspecting the shining diffidence of a young Stewart; a rather generous best actor Oscar in
The Philadelphia Story
(40, George Cukor).

His popularity was undoubtedly enhanced by a distinguished war record in the air force—a record later invoked in Anthony Mann’s
Strategic Air Command
(55). After the war, Stewart left MGM and freelanced for several years: one of his favorite roles, George Bailey, in Capra’s
It’s a Wonderful Life
(46), a picture that caught the first hint of frenzy and gloom; Wellman’s
Magic Town
(47); the reporter in
Call Northside 777
(48, Henry Hathaway); and his first Hitchcock movie, the relentlessly interior
Rope
(48), playing a rather monotonous seeker-out of truth.

Briefly, his career faltered, but in 1950 he went to Universal to make
Winchester 73
(Anthony Mann) and to Fox for
Broken Arrow
(Delmer Daves). He then made two movies for Henry Koster that successfully reworked his shy charm:
Harvey
(50) and
No Highway
(51). But the Western—especially the unexpected intensity he had revealed in
Winchester 73
—now claimed him. After playing the clown in De Mille’s
The Greatest Show on Earth
(52), Stewart struck an innovatory contract with Universal whereby he took a percentage of his films’ profits.

It was this deal that allowed Stewart and Anthony Mann to make
Bend of the River
(52);
Thunder Bay
(53);
The Glenn Miller Story
(54); and
The Far Country
(54). Curiously,
The Naked Spur
, made with Mann in 1953, and looking like a Universal Western, is an MGM picture. These Westerns redefined Stewart’s character: he was now revealed as a tougher, more pained and selfish man, who was often made to suffer and put to a brutal test of courage and wounding. It was the more of an achievement since, as Glenn Miller, Stewart was as homely, sentimental, and appealing as ever.

In 1954, Hitchcock pounced on this new Stewart and put him in a wheelchair as the voyeur photographer in
Rear Window
(54), while in 1955, at Columbia, Mann and Stewart made another Western,
The Man from Laramie
, which dealt especially well with the effect of violence on Stewart. The scene in which Alex Nicol maims Stewart’s hand, and Stewart’s swooning reaction, introduce a new frankness about violence in American films. Hitchcock used him in the much simpler central role in
The Man Who Knew Too Much
(55) and Billy Wilder made an inexplicable failure with Stewart playing Lindbergh in
The Spirit of St. Louis
(57).

Despite every hint of the darker side of Stewart, Hitchcock’s
Vertigo
(58) was still a surprise. A masterpiece by any terms, Stewart’s portrayal of the detective who loses his nerve and then becomes entranced by the two forms of a mythic Kim Novak is frightening in its intensity: a far cry from a man who talked to rabbits.

But as if to assert versatility, Stewart then returned (with Novak) to middle-aged comedy in Richard Quine’s
Bell, Book and Candle
(58). Perhaps his last major role, and one played with comfortable fraudulence, was the country lawyer in Preminger’s
Anatomy of a Murder
(59). Thereafter, mannerism, laziness, and indifference set in, perhaps encouraged by John Ford, who tolerated a growing self-indulgence in
Two Rode Together
(61);
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
(62); as Wyatt Earp in
Cheyenne Autumn
(64). Otherwise, Stewart tried to revive his 1930 comedy character in some very dull movies and surrendered to knockabout Westerns that are sad indeed when one recalls the cold, laconic hero of Mann’s films:
How the West Was Won
(62, Hathaway);
Shenandoah
(65, Andrew V. McLaglen);
Firecreek
(67, Vincent McEveety);
Bandolero!
(68, McLaglen);
The Cheyenne Social Club
(70, Gene Kelly); and
Fools’ Parade
(71, McLaglen). Only Aldrich’s
The Flight of the Phoenix
(65) used Stewart honestly—as a harassed, elderly, and old-fashioned pilot in a crisis. All too briefly, he was compelled to tell John Wayne his negative prognosis in
The Shootist
(76, Don Siegel): a case of the doctor looking less hearty than the patient. Stewart was a very frail General Sternwood in the awful remake of
The Big Sleep
(78, Michael Winner), giving up the ghost in a film not worthy of him. But he looked fitter in
The Magic of Lassie
(78, Don Chaffey).

After that he made
Afurika Monogatari
(81, Susumu Hani) and
Right of Way
(83, George Schaefer), with Bette Davis; and he gave his quavery voice to Sherriff Wylie Burp in
American Tail: Fievel Goes West
(91, Phil Nibbelink). When he died,
Time
and Richard Corliss called him “A Wonderful Fella.” It was the world’s thought. And in time to come, the young Stewart may stand for the great America of the thirties and forties, when few doubted life’s prospect.

Mauritz Stiller
(1883–1928), b. Helsinki, Finland
1912:
Mor och Dotter; De Svarta Maskerna; Den Tyranniske Fastmannen
. 1913:
Vampyren; Nar Karleken Dodar; Barnet; Nar Larmklockan Ljuder; Den Moderna Suffragetten; Pa Livets Odesvagar; Den Okanda; Mannekangen; Livets Konflikter
. 1914:
Broderna; Nar svarmor regerar; Gransfolken; For sin karleks skull; Kammarjunkaren; Stormfageln; Skottet; Det Roda Tornet
. 1915:
Nar konstnarer alska; Lekkamraterna; Hans Hustrus forflutna; Dolken; Mastertjuven; Madame de Thebes
. 1916:
Hamnaren; Minlotsen; Hans Brollopsnatt; Lyckonalen; Karlek och Journalistik; Vingarna; Kampen om hans hjarta; Balettprimadonnan
. 1917:
Thomas Graals Basta Film; Alexander den store
. 1918:
Thomas Graals Basta Barn
. 1919:
Sangen om dem eldroda blomman; Herr Arne’s Pengar/Sir Arne’s Treasure
. 1920:
Fiskebyn; Erotikon
. 1921:
Johan; De Landsflyktige
. 1923:
Gunnar Hedes Saga
. 1924:
Gosta Berlings Saga/The Atonement of Gosta Berling
. 1926:
Hotel Imperial; The Temptress
(begun by Stiller, but completed by Fred Niblo). 1927:
The Woman on Trial
. 1928:
The Street of Sin
.

Stiller has been overshadowed by his own discovery, Greta Garbo. He chose her for her first big part in
The Atonement of Gosta Berling
, a film seen by Louis B. Mayer in 1925. It is not clear on exactly what terms Mayer invited its actress and director to Europe. MGM were not averse to Swedish talent: they were having some success with Victor Sjöström. Josef von Sternberg let it be known that he urged Stiller on Mayer and suggested that Garbo be brought along “in the luggage.” But the briefest survey of Mayer’s career emphasizes that he would have been more susceptible to Garbo’s talents than to Stiller’s. Events make it fairly clear that Stiller was the passenger. MGM never really employed him, and Mayer jealously guarded Garbo against her former Svengali. Garbo’s American debut,
The Torrent
, was assigned to Monta Bell, and Stiller pointedly neglected.
Hotel Imperial, The Woman on Trial
, and
The Street of Sin
were all made at Paramount, while
The Temptress
—Garbo’s second film—was quickly removed from Stiller’s hands. He returned to Sweden in rage and died within a year.

All of which makes it difficult to assess his contribution as a director. He was widely held to be one of the leading Swedish directors, matched only by Sjöström. Stiller worked in a variety of genres, and
Sir Arne’s Treasure
is a magnificent spectacle concerning Scottish mercenaries in a wintry, sixteenth-century Sweden. But his most characteristic vein was comedy—unusually sophisticated and often dealing with an artist figure. Thus the two Thomas Graal films are instances of the fusion of art and life, such as has preoccupied Bergman. While
Erotikon
, a story about the love life of a sculptor, has the sort of sexual interchange of
Smiles of a Summer Night
and
Now, About These Women
.

Dean Stockwell
, b. North Hollywood, California, 1936
With the TV series
Quantum Leap
and with his regular work as a supporting actor in movies, Dean Stockwell may never have been better known. Yet he has experienced so many stages and changes already—the piercing child; the beautiful yet not quite penetrating young lead; the wanderer, hippie, and biker; the realtor in New Mexico; and now, for a decade at least, the versatile, reliable, yet never quite predictable character actor who seems blessed to play men brushed by the wing of uncommon experience—as if they might once have had green hair. The child who was once the center of films has become a man content to be an outcast or an eccentric.

He is the son of actor Harry Stockwell, and the older brother of Guy Stockwell, and he was a steady movie child at Metro by the age of nine:
Anchors Aweigh
(45, George Sidney);
The Valley of Decision
(45, Tay Garnett);
The Green Years
(46, Victor Saville);
Home Sweet Homicide
(46, Lloyd Bacon);
The Mighty McGurk
(46, John Waters), with Wallace Beery;
The Arnelo Affair
(47, Arch Oboler);
Gentleman’s Agreement
(47, Elia Kazan);
The Romance of Rosy Ridge
(47, Roy Rowland);
Song of the Thin Man
(47, Edward Buzzell); rising to the great challenge of
The Boy with Green Hair
(48, Joseph Losey);
Deep Waters
(48, Henry King);
Down to the Sea in Ships
(49, Henry Hathaway); precociously aware of invalid psychology in
The Secret Garden
(49, Fred M. Wilcox), that masterpiece of child acting;
The Happy Years
(50, William Wellman); with Errol Flynn in
Kim
(50, Saville); very moving with Joel McCrea in
Stars in My Crown
(50, Jacques Tourneur) and
Cattle Drive
(51, Kurt Neumann).

He was away from the screen for several years and came back as a twenty-year-old:
Gun for a Coward
(56, Abner Biberman);
The Careless Years
(57, Arthur Hiller); with Bradford Dillman as Leopold and Loeb in
Compulsion
(59, Richard Fleischer); as the young D. H. Lawrence in
Sons and Lovers
(60, Jack Cardiff); and worthy of the exceptional cast as Eugene O’Neill’s alter ego in
Long Day’s Journey into Night
(62, Sidney Lumet).

Again, he stopped, and within a few years he was an available actor for a strange assortment of sixties dreams and delusions:
Rapture
(65, John Guillermin);
Psych-Out
(68, Richard Rush); as a warlock in
The Dunwich Horror
(70, Daniel Haller);
The Last Movie
(71, Dennis Hopper);
Paper Man
(71, Walter Grauman) for TV;
The Loners
(72, Sutton Roley);
Werewolf of Washington
(73, Milton Ginsberg); narrating
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer
(74, Thom Anderson);
Win, Place or Steal
(75, Richard Bailey);
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood
(75, Michael Winner);
Tracks
(76, Henry Jaglom); and
The Killing Affair
(77, Richard C. Sarafian).