The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (45 page)

His second picture is, as everyone says, a tribute to 1950s America, to the plains of North Texas, to late 1940s black-and-white photography, to Ben Johnson, to Hawks again, and to the nostalgia of
Ambersons
. But the real flavor of
The Last Picture Show
is French. Few American films take so many clearly defined characters and manage to like them all. It is something we know from Renoir, and in Bogdanovich it seems to be the first profound sign of character, the most fruitful area for development. Which is not to be ungrateful for the wonderful screwball comedy of
What’s Up, Doc?
But that again is in the Hawks style, though minus the sense of the dark in
Bringing Up Baby
. Nevertheless, to handle such set pieces as the car chase, to indulge oneself on top of a hotel with Streisand singing “As Time Goes By,” and, simply, to make Streisand so appealing were major achievements pulled off without strain.

Paper Moon
was perilously slight and charming, but sustained by its recreation of 1930s John Ford and by its affectionate recollection of rural America. Above all, it shows Bogdanovich’s boyish love for cinema, as witness that scene where the two O’Neals are in a diner while, across the street,
Steamboat Round the Bend
is playing at the Dream movie house.

Daisy Miller, At Long Last Love
, and
Nickelodeon
were all ingenious ventures but miscasting, lack of personal or stylistic conviction, and dwindling commercial confidence brought Bogdanovich to a crisis. Saddest of all was
Nickelodeon
, where even the historian’s loving sense of pioneering days yielded to a brittle smartness.

Bogdanovich is a friend; he made generous comments on the earlier editions of this book. And he has known difficult times of late.
They All Laughed
was a showcase for Dorothy Stratten, a
Playboy
model, and Bogdanovich’s beloved. When she was murdered, the director wrote a lovelorn book about her sad story (these are, approximately, the events of
Star 80
), and then dated and married Dorothy’s half-sister, Louise Hoogstraten, who had been a minor when Bogdanovich first met her. There was a storm of gossip surrounding these events, and not even a friend could argue that Bogdanovich emerged unsullied.

More to the point,
They All Laughed
had been a failure in which Ms. Stratten nowhere near eclipsed anyone’s memories of Cybill Shepherd, an actress whose fortunes would rise, gradually, after she and Bogdanovich broke up.
Mask
was not recognizable;
Illegally Yours
was another flop; and
Texasville
was badly recut by others. Around this time, there were some who hailed Bogdanovich’s finest, if inadvertent, contribution to modern movies in having provided the inspiration for
Irreconcilable Differences
(84, Charles Shyer), in which a Hollywood couple are sued for divorce by their ten-year-old daughter. Accordingly, some wondered if Bogdanovich’s decline had not dated from his loss of the advice and guidance of Polly Platt, his first wife.

Noises Off
had no commercial life, but it was a real comeback in that Bogdanovich mastered the wonderful Michael Frayn play and regained the speed, precision, and emotional vitality that had made
What’s Up, Doc?
one of the great farces of the modern era. There is hope.

In the nineties he fell upon harder times—there were bankruptcies, and he moved back to New York from Hollywood. But he responded well: he went back to writing, and published a long interview book with Orson Welles and a very lively and popular book of interviews with film people; he did more acting—there was a shrink’s shrink role on
The Sopranos
that cried out for more—and it was a reminder that he had begun as an actor. He also directed a good deal for television, and then made a theatrical comeback with a pleasant, if somewhat Christie-like mystery out of the Thomas Ince death. Whether his confidence is what it was is one question. But it was overconfidence that got him into a lot of trouble. He remains one of the best directors in America—if he can find the proper material and budgets—and a man persistently devoted to films and their world.

Richard Boleslavsky
(Ryszard Srzednicki Boleslavsky) (1889–1937), b. Warsaw, Poland
1918:
Khleb
(codirected with Boris Sushkevich). 1919:
Bohaterstwo Polskiego Skavto
. 1921:
Cud Nad Wisla
. 1930:
Treasure Girl; The Last of the Lone Wolf
. 1931:
The Gay Diplomat; Women Pursued
. 1933:
Rasputin and the Empress; Storm at Daybreak; Beauty for Sale
. 1934:
Men in White; Fugitive Lovers; Operator 13; The Painted Veil; Hollywood Party
(codirected with Allan Dwan and Roy Rowland). 1935:
Clive of India; Les Misérables; Metropolitan; O’Shaughnessy’s Boy
. 1936:
The Garden of Allah; Theodora Goes Wild; Three Godfathers
. 1937:
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
(codirected with George Fitzmaurice).

For ten years before the First World War, Boleslavsky was an actor at the Moscow Arts Theatre; indeed, he was later to write books on Stanislavsky’s teachings. He had acted in Russian films before he began to direct. During the Civil War he fought for the Poles and made a film about the war for them. He went to Germany and acted in
Die Gezeichneten
(22, Carl Dreyer) before going to America to direct on Broadway. His first work in the American cinema was directing the musical numbers in
The Grand Parade
(30, Fred Newmeyer). He directed a few films for Columbia and RKO and was then called to MGM to conduct all three Barrymores in
Rasputin and the Empress
, the source of a major court case involving Prince Yusapov. Stanislavsky’s method is hardly evident in Boleslavsky’s most characteristic work, in which melodramas, romance, and costume pieces predominate:
The Painted Veil
is Somerset Maugham’s novel with Garbo and Herbert Marshall;
Clive of India
was Ronald Colman;
Les Misérables
is the best version of Hugo’s novel, with Fredric March and Charles Laughton confronting each other; but most memorable is the folly de Selznick of
The Garden of Allah
, with Dietrich and Charles Boyer, and the comedy of
Theodora Goes Wild
, which probably owes a lot to writer Sidney Buchman and to Mary McCarthy’s original story.

Ward Bond
(1903–60), b. Denver, Colorado
Ward Bond was only fifty-seven when he died, yet he had apparently worked in something like two hundred films, to say nothing of the TV series
Wagon Train
, which he starred in from 1957 until his death, playing Seth Adams, the wagon master, father figure, and general dispenser of Western wisdom. Now, some unkind people will say that he sometimes gave the impression of being stuffed and strapped into the saddle some time before his official death. But that begins to take us into his strange career as boaster, bully, boozer, and member of the unwholesome John Ford gang. As such, there are many stories about Bond’s stupidity, his uncouthness, and his being the butt of jokes—and sadly these are more entertaining than many of the films he made. Which is not to say that Bond was a hopeless case: in
The Searchers
(56, John Ford), he notices the way Ethan’s sister-in-law handles his coat; and in
Gentleman Jim
(42, Raoul Walsh)—as John L. Sullivan—he brings a tear to the eye. All too often, however, the tears are in his own eyes first.

He was a footballer out of USC, recruited by Ford, and always ready for Papa’s call. But he worked all over the place, with or without mustache, gruff, grumpy, and someone who was likely far worse off camera:
Salute
(29, Ford);
The Big Trail
(30, Walsh);
Heroes for Sale
(33, William A. Wellman);
It Happened One Night
(34, Frank Capra);
Broadway Bill
(34, Capra);
Devil Dogs of the Air
(35, Lloyd Bacon);
Black Fury
(35, Michael Curtiz);
The Man Who Lived Twice
(36, Harry Lachman);
You Only Live Once
(37, Fritz Lang);
Dead End
(37, William Wyler);
Submarine Patrol
(38, Ford);
Made for Each Other
(39, John Cromwell);
Dodge City
(39, Curtis);
Young Mr. Lincoln
(39, Ford);
Drums Along the Mohawk
(39, Ford);
The Oklahoma Kid
(39, Bacon); a Yankee captain in
Gone With the Wind
(39, Victor Fleming).

He was a cop in
The Grapes of Wrath
(40, Ford); a seaman in
The Long Voyage Home
(40, Ford);
The Mortal Storm
(40, Frank Borzage);
Virginia City
(40, Curtiz);
Kit Carson
(40, George B. Seitz);
Santa Fe Trail
(40, Curtiz);
Tobacco Road
(41, Ford);
Sergeant York
(41, Howard Hawks);
Manpower
(41, Walsh);
The Shepherd of the Hills
(41, Henry Hathaway);
The Maltese Falcon
(41, John Huston);
Swamp Water
(41, Jean Renoir);
Ten Gentlemen from West Point
(42, Hathaway);
A Guy Named Joe
(43, Fleming); the lead in
Hitler—Dead or Alive
(43, Nick Grinde);
They Came to Blow Up America
(43, Edward Ludwig);
Tall in the Saddle
(44, Edwin L. Marin);
The Fighting Sullivans
(44, Bacon), about brothers in the war: Bond did not enlist;
Home in Indiana
(44, Hathaway); Boats Mulcahey in
They Were Expendable
(45, Ford);
Canyon Passage
(46, Jacques Tourneur).

He was Bert, the cop, in
It’s a Wonderful Life
(46, Capra); Morgan Earp in
My Darling Clementine
(46, Ford); El Gringo in
The Fugitive
(47, Ford);
Unconquered
(47, Cecil B. DeMille); O’Rourke in
Fort Apache
(47, Ford);
Tap Roots
(48, George Marshall);
Joan of Arc
(48, Fleming); Perley “Buck” Sweet in
3 Godfathers
(48, Ford);
Riding High
(50, Capra);
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
(50, Gordon Douglas); Elder Wiggs in
Wagonmaster
(50, Ford);
Operation Pacific
(51, George Waggner);
The Great Missouri Raid
(50, Douglas);
Only the Valiant
(51, Douglas); Father Peter Lonergan in
The Quiet Man
(52, Ford);
On Dangerous Ground
(52, Nicholas Ray);
Blowing Wild
(53, Hugo Fregonese);
Hondo
(54, John Farrow);
Johnny Guitar
(54, Ray);
The Long Gray Line
(55, Ford);
Mister Roberts
(55, Ford and Mervyn LeRoy);
The Halliday Brand
(57, Joseph H. Lewis); as John Dodge, a Ford-like movie director, in
The Wings of Eagles
(57, Ford); and leading the wagon train in
Rio Bravo
(59, Hawks).

Beulah Bondi
(Bondy) (1892–1981), b. Chicago
She was a stage actress throughout the 1920s, without getting much attention until she won the part of Emma Jones in Elmer Rice’s
Street Scene
. When that was filmed, King Vidor took her on in his cast and reckoned her one of the finest actresses he’d worked with. With absolute ease, she could be homemaker or harridan, good witch or bad—though she is always more interesting when benevolent. Over the years, she was mother to just about every male star around—she actually mothered Jimmy Stewart four times. She was nominated twice for supporting actress but never won. She felt no grievance—except over not getting Ma Joad in
The Grapes of Wrath
. Second the emotion.

After
Street Scene
, she had a bit in
Arrowsmith
(31, John Ford); she was Mrs. Davidson in
Rain
(32, Lewis Milestone);
The Stranger’s Return
(33, Vidor);
Christopher Bean
(33, Sam Wood);
Two Alone
(34, Elliott Nugent);
Registered Nurse
(34, Robert Florey);
Finishing School
(34, George Nichols Jr. and Wanda Tuchock);
Ready for Love
(34, Marion Gering);
The Good Fairy
(35, William Wyler);
The Invisible Ray
(36, Lambert Hillyer);
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
(36, Henry Hathaway);
The Moon’s Our Home
(36, William A. Seiter);
Hearts Divided
(36, Frank Borzage);
The Gorgeous Hussy
(36, Clarence Brown)—for which she got the first of her nominations (losing to Gale Sondergaard in
Anthony Adverse
).

It was now she made her greatest film—
Make Way for Tomorrow
(37, Leo McCarey), in which elderly parents are dumped by their children. It was clear that Bondi had elected to play older than her real age: Victor Moore, her husband in the film, was sixty-one but Bondi was only forty-five. It would be decades before the world caught up with that film.

Bondi was now in her richest years:
Maid of Salem
(37, Frank Lloyd);
The Buccaneer
(38, Cecil B. DeMille);
Of Human Hearts
(38, Brown), and another nomination, this time losing to Fay Bainter in
Jezebel; Vivacious Lady
(38, George Stevens);
The Sisters
(38, Anatole Litvak);
On Borrowed Time
(39, Harold S. Bucquet);
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
(39, Frank Capra); Fred MacMurray’s mom in
Remember the Night
(40, Mitchell Leisen);
Our Town
(40, Wood); as Miss Oliver, the woman from the adoption agency, in
Penny Serenade
(41, Stevens);
The Shepherd of the Hills
(41, Hathaway);
One Foot in Heaven
(41, Irving Rapper);
Watch on the Rhine
(43, Herman Shumlin);
The Very Thought of You
(44, Delmer Daves);
And Now Tomorrow
(44, Irving Pichel).