Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Hollywood Beauty Linda Darnell and the American Dream by Ronald L. Davis Hollywood Beauty: Linda Darnell and the American Dream by Ronald L. Davis. Actor (16-Oct-1923 — 10-Apr-1965) SUBJECT OF BOOKS. Ronald L. Davis . Hollywood Beauty: Linda Darnell and the American Dream . University of Oklahoma Press. 1991 . 256pp. AUTHORITIES. Below are references indicating presence of this name in another database or other reference material. Most of the sources listed are encyclopedic in nature but might be limited to a specific field, such as musicians or film directors. A lack of listings here does not indicate unimportance -- we are nowhere near finished with this portion of the project -- though if many are shown it does indicate a wide recognition of this individual. HOLLYWOOD BEAUTY: Linda Darnell and the American Dream. Warm, richly researched life of dark-haired, limpid-eyed Linda Darnell, who made her first picture at 15 playing an adult and seemingly kept her face-in-the-twilight flawlessness fresh forever. Darnell was the daughter of hard-drinking, part-Cherokee Pearl Brown Darnell, who was set like steel on making her daughter a movie star. Even as a child, Darnell was so forbiddingly beautiful that she seemed set aside by nature and had few friends. Mother had her out singing and dancing all over Dallas and--though the child did neither well--winning prizes largely on sheer looks. A screen test at 15 eventually landed her the lead in Hotel for Women (1939), and her third picture, StarDust (1940), was autobiographical, about her discovery by Hollywood. Still in her teens, she played against her idol, Tyrone Power, making some of her best films with him while going to school on the Fox lot. Whether this forced bloom was the cause or not, she never had a menstrual period throughout her life, and felt her beauty was a fraud. Her first husband, a 42-year-old cameraman she married at 19, taught her to knock back whiskey and by her early 20s she was an alcoholic, as tough and hard-swearing as her outrageous mother. Her greatest successes were Forever Amber, A Letter to Three Wives, and Preston Sturgess's original Unfaithfully Yours. Her big love was for Joseph L. Manckiewicz, who wrote and directed her best work--a six-year affair, although Joe was married, as was Linda. By 31, she'd been cast aside by Hollywood. She spent her last decade in ever more desperate show-biz turns, went broke, never rose above the bottle battle, died in a housefire at 41 just after watching a midnight rerun of StarDust on TV. Well done, quite believable, in some ways a model celebrity bio in its method, although the writing is not distinguished and any study of Darnell's acting talents-limited though they were--is scanted. Linda Darnell: Hollywood Beauty. Linda Darnell is best remembered as one of the most beautiful women to grace the movies in the '40s and '50s, yet a closer look at her career suggests she was much more than that. The underrated Darnell was talented as both a dramatic actress and a comedienne, and her list of credits is one any actress would envy. Darnell starred in every kind of movie, including film noir, Westerns, swashbucklers, comedies, musicals, and dramas; some of her films are among the very finest titles in American cinematic history. Linda Darnell was born Monetta Eloyse Darnell on October 16, 1923, in Dallas, Texas. Monetta's mother groomed her daughter for stardom from her earliest childhood, and Monetta was first brought to Hollywood by a Fox talent scout when she was just 14. Fox found Monetta too mature in appearance to be a child actress but too young to play adult roles, so she was sent home to Texas for another year. In April 1939 15-year-old Monetta returned to Hollywood and went under contract to 20th Century-Fox, where she promptly began filming a starring role in her first movie, Hotel for Women (1939). That same year she was still just 15 when she starred as the leading lady opposite Tyrone Power in Day-Time Wife (1939). Darnell later recalled her embarrassment when one minute Power would be romancing her in front of the cameras, and then she'd be interrupted to work on her school lessons. Power, who would make three more films with Darnell, was kind to the young girl and when she became nervous and blew takes, he would muff lines himself and claim the bad takes were his fault. Darnell started out at the top, in leading roles, and became a star almost literally overnight. She appeared in over 40 films, and she also did occasional guest roles on TV series in the late '50s and early '60s. Off the screen, Darnell had three failed marriages. Most tragically, she died in a house fire on April 10, 1965; she was just 41 years old. Darnell was survived by her daughter Lola. The University of Oklahoma Press published a fine biography of Darnell, Hollywood Beauty: Linda Darnell and the American Dream by Ronald L. Davis. Davis's book includes a great deal of original primary source research and is highly recommended. Some important Darnell films, including the Jerome Kern musical Centennial Summer (1946) and her famous costume drama Forever Amber (1947), are not yet available on DVD. Here are some key Darnell films which can be seen on DVD; as can be seen below, she worked with many of the American cinema's greatest directors and had an enviable film career. The Mark of Zorro (1940) - One of the greatest swashbucklers ever made, and a favorite that I never tire of watching, this was the best of Darnell's four films with Tyrone Power. She was just 16 when she starred in it; director Rouben Mamoulian was quoted by Linda's biographer as saying 'She was like spring, young, sweet, and innocent.' Brigham Young (1940) - Another movie the 16-year-old Darnell made with Tyrone Power, this is a good rather than great film, but it's a personal favorite because Power and Darnell are so appealing together. The rugged locations in Lone Pine, California, and Kanab, Utah, add a great deal to the movie's dramatic power. Directed by Henry Hathaway, who said of Linda, 'A sweeter girl never lived.' It Happened Tomorrow (1944) - An absolutely charming and funny comedy-fantasy directed by Rene Clair (I Married a Witch). Darnell was well-teamed with Dick Powell, who mysteriously receives newspapers predicting the next day's news. I wish they had made more films together. Hangover Square (1945) - A sumptuously produced Victorian murder melodrama directed by John Brahm, with Darnell as a music hall floozy involved with mentally disturbed composer Laird Cregar. Fallen Angel (1945) - One of my fall-time favorite film noir titles, and one of Darnell's best performances, under the direction of Otto Preminger. She plays Stella, a tough waitress lusted after by stranger-in-town Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews). Stella wants to marry money, and the broke Eric comes up with a plan to persuade Stella to marry him -- but his convoluted plot involves him first marrying shy, wealthy June (Alice Faye). Anna and the King of Siam (1946) - Darnell plays Tuptim in the excellent original dramatic version of the story which would later become The King and I (1956). Irene Dunne stars as 'Mrs. Anna' and Rex Harrison as the King, directed by John Cromwell. Darnell's death scene is so disturbing I've only been able to watch this movie once, especially as it foreshadows Darnell's tragic off-screen death. My Darling Clementine (1946) - Darnell plays tough saloon girl Chihuahua in director John Ford's great American classic, which also stars Henry Fonda and Victor Mature. She more than held her own working with Ford and his excellent cast. (Still from The Walls of Jericho, 1948 with Cornel Wilde and Kirk Douglas which is not yet on DVD) Unfaithfully Yours (1948) - Darnell is absolutely delightful as the bewildered wife of a jealous conductor (Rex Harrison) in this dark Preston Sturges comedy. A Letter to Three Wives (1949) - This classic comedy-drama, written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, might be Darnell's all-time best performance. She plays Lora Mae, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who wants financial security and marries rough-hewn but wealthy Porter Hollingsway (Paul Douglas), only to eventually realize she actually loves the big lug. The 'beauty and the beast' pairing of Darnell and Douglas works very well, and they were teamed again in Everybody Does It (1949) and The Guy Who Came Back (1951). No Way Out (1950) - This is another Mankiewicz film which is the only film on the list I haven't yet seen myself, but I include it because of its fine reputation. Darnell stars with Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier in a crime film which tackles racial issues. Zero Hour! (1957) - Darnell was reunited with her Fallen Angel costar Dana Andrews in this classic airplane disaster film, costarring Sterling Hayden. The actors play it straight, but much of the unforgettable dialogue was used 'as is' in the comedy spoof Airplane! (1980). Zero Hour! is a camp classic which causes the viewer to chuckle - yet the actors somehow emerge with their dignity intact. Directed by Hall Bartlett. Laura Grieve is a lifelong film enthusiast whose thoughts on classic films, Disney, and other topics can be found at Laura's Miscellaneous Musings, established in 2005. Hollywood Beauty: Linda Darnell and the American Dream (Paperback) Driven by a stage mother to become rich and Famous, but unable to cope with the career she had longed for as a child, Darnell soon was caught in a downward spiral of drinking, failed marriages, and exploitive relationships. By her early twenties she was an alcoholic, hardened by a life in which beautiful women were chattel, and by the time of her death at age forty- one, she was struggling for recognition in the industry that once had called her its ""glory girl."" Hollywood Beauty begins in the Southwest during the Depression, when Pearl Darnell became obsessed by the glitter of the movie world that would dominate her children's lives. We follow Linda's path from her Texas childhood and first public success-during the state centennial, in 1936- through her contract work with Twentieth Century-Fox in the heyday of the big-studio system. Film historian Ronald L. Davis documents Darnell's discovery and marriages, the adoption of her daughter, the marking of many well-known films, and her emotional difficulties, leading up to her tragic death by fire. This is the story of a native teenager from a dysfunctional middle-class family thrust into the golden age of Hollywood. Hollywood Beauty examines America's public worship of movie stars and superficial success-its motives and consequences-and the addiction to escapism that this worship represents. Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press ISBN: 9780806133300 Number of pages: 256 Weight: 340 g Dimensions: 229 x 152 x 15 mm. Seventy-Two Years On: The Under-looked Legacy and Message of ‘A Letter to Three Wives’ I can’t tell you what it is about this movie that makes it so special to me. The writing? Of course. The characters? Absolutely. Linda Darnell? Most definitely. When I first watched this film in middle school, I was blown away and the film left a lasting imprint in my mind. With that being said, after every rewatch since, it slowly made its way to being a favorite (don’t trust me? check my Letterboxd). So, on its 72nd anniversary, here’s a long overdue review and analysis of this wonderful film, and hopefully this will help rectify it’s grossly underappreciated legacy. On January 20, 1949, A Letter to Three Wives premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The film, written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, is one that both challenged and impressed moviegoers’ and critics’ minds — and proved to be his big break in Hollywood. Famed New York Times critic Bosley Crowther called the film — and its ending — “satisfactory,” that the film contained “pretty good wisdom and advice…The wisdom, tucked off in corners of this tri-paneled comedy-romance, is that love is a volatile something which can quickly evaporate unless it is constantly guarded with understanding and care. And the advice, angled mainly to the ladies, is never to speak harsh words (or such) to their true-loving husbands who may leave them and never return” (Crowther). Ultimately winning two Oscars for both his screenplay and his directing, Mankiewicz created a masterpiece of film, and the ensemble certainly aided it. With the powerhouse talents by the likes of Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas (though, this feeling does not conflate with him as a person), and of course, the lovely Linda Darnell, this film remains indelible in the minds of film lovers, including myself. For those who haven’t seen this film and are not sure how Crowther’s stated “wisdom” fits in this narrative, allow me to elaborate. The setting is New York in May, 1948. We open with a view of this unnamed, fictitious town just 28 minutes from the big city: its train station, its main street, and a lovely neighborhood of “the exclusive.” We’re guided by a woman’s sultry voice, who we later find out is a notorious Addie Ross (Celeste Holm), and through her guidance we meet three of her “dearest friends”: Deborah Bishop (Crain), Rita Phipps (Sothern), and Lora Mae Hollingsway (Darnell) — all married. The three ladies are chaperoning at the Settlement House Picnic, filled with children but lacking of any phone. Just as their about to embark on the boat for the picnic, a letter is delivered to them written by dear Addie. She is running away, much to their amusement, but not without a nice surprise; she’s running away with one of their husbands. As the panic starts to sink in the minds of these three women, they all gaze longingly at the phone by the docking station as the boat starts to make its journey to the picnic site. As the ladies’ minds wander and worry, we become more involved in the the not-so-blissful side of each of their marriages, which the wives fear would lead to their beloved husbands running away with another woman, especially with a woman like Addie. She permeates herself both by narration and by her involvement with the husbands in each story, further accenting each wives’ faults within the supposed sanctity of their marriages. ( l. to r.) Rita Phipps, holding Addie’s letter, Lora Mae Hollingsway, and Deborah Bishop all stare at the distancing phone booth that would answer their collective burning question: is it him? Each marriage, although all unique, face a festering issue that they all have yet to resolve. Debby can’t trust her husband to love her for all her faults from her poor upbringing that is so painfully obvious when out with his friends in the posh town he grew up in, especially his oldest and dearest friend, Addie Ross. Rita is far too busy trying to help her husband, high school English teacher George, land a better job, as his current profession makes far less money than her radio-writing job. She fails to take into account, however, that he has a life of his own, passions of his own, and on the night she brings the bosses home, that he even has a birthday — which Addie doesn’t forget. Lora Mae and her husband Porter are probably the worst off of the bunch; originally a shopgirl at his department store looking for a better life with a richer man, even after three years of marriage, Porter still believes that his wife is only after his money, and with that mindset, she feels he treats her as subhuman, “a great big act,” when all she really wants and has wanted this whole time is to be treated like a woman, to be treated in the way he treats Addie Ross — in a silver frame on a piano, to be adored. Each flashback sheds an unsavory light into the relationships of each wife, and although the end provides a sigh of relief and a new outlook on their lives as married women, each lady had to undergo a hard lesson and face the awful truth that they weren’t really experiencing a life of domestic bliss. Although each wife and each marriage, in my mind, are uniquely wonderful and important, my favorite of the ensemble has to be Lora Mae. Although I’m greatly biased due to my love for Linda Darnell, I truly think her character provides the most color, the most earthiness out of any of the three main women. Although we first meet her on the boat ride to the picnic, we are first really introduced to her character in Debby’s flashback when the gang are all together at the country club, the night Debby was introduced to the society of the new yuppy town she now has to call home. Right away, our first glimpse into Lora Mae and her husband is that of disdain and contempt for each other, calling out on each other’s faults and faux pas. We later learn more about Lora Mae in her own flashback: a poor girl who lives right next to the train tracks, far away from the preppy town Rita, George, Brad, and Porter grew up in and have lived their whole lives. Lora Mae is headstrong, tenacious, and ready to make a statement on her first date with Porter. Wearing a lovely black dress with her black tresses framing her sultry face, she’s all ready to go once they hear Porter’s car horn not once, but three times once he arrives at the Finney residence. She waits patiently, while her mother, sister, and family friend, Sadie, all ask her what she’s even waiting for. Then, the doorbell rings. “That’s what I was waiting for,” she states. “If anyone wants me, he can come in and get me, this ain’t a drive-in.” From that night on, their rather bumpy relationship unfolds, but eventually grinds to a screeching halt. Porter is bewitched by her, but believes he can win her over with a fat raise and expensive gifts. All Lora Mae really wants, though, is to settle down. When Porter refuses and continues to treat her like a toy, she takes it upon herself to end the relationship; if he doesn’t treat her like a woman, she just won’t have it — she quits her job… and quits Porter. Time passes since then, and eventually on New Year’s Eve, Porter makes a not-so-gallant entrance back into her life, trying to persuade her to come back. When she doesn’t budge, he bites the bullet and finally asks her to marry him, which she agrees. They kiss to seal the deal, and when her mother walks in to declare she’s heading of to bingo for the night, she comically collapses to the floor at the sudden news. Linda Darnell’s expert portrayal as the stubborn Lora Mae is considered one of her best roles, her “tour de force,” as biographer Ronald Davis states. Although she began a six-year-long extramarital affair with Mankiewicz during filming, whom she called the love of her life, she certainly began a love affair with the fabulous script, and the critics lapped it up. “Linda Darnell suddenly emerges as an actress after years as a face and figure,” Theatre Arts heralded (Davis 109, 113). “Easily the best part of this picture, this episode reveals a new Darnell, a skillful actress in addition to a pretty face,” declared Lew Sheaffer of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Sheaffer, 29). Linda was immensely proud of her role, and since her prior big-budget film Forever Amber was undoubtedly a flop, she was happier than ever (Davis 113). Linda, Ann Sothern, cinematographer Arthur C. Miller, and Joe Mankiewicz on set in upstate New York. Touching back on the script, it’s easy to see why Mankiewicz won the Academy Award for his work. Adapted as “A Letter to Four Wives” by Vera Caspary from the Cosmopolitan story “A Letter to Five Wives” by John Klempner, Mankiewicz, in addition to cutting out two wives for fear of length (Mackey, 29), decided to cut a little deeper, to attack society’s notions of marriage and gender norms. While providing witty dialogue, in each scintillating line lays a deeper meaning, a thought-provoking message about the true meaning of marriage, what lays behind the curtain of apparent domestic bliss — that’s where Addie comes in. Although in Five Wives we do actually see and meet the wife who steals the husband, in Three Wives , we don’t. It’s almost as if Addie isn’t a real person, rather she’s merely a figure to represent the insecurity of their marriages, an omnipresent voice and presence that we never fully witness, adding to the stress and anxiety each woman feels. All the men see her, know her, stay in touch with her, and love her. The women all hate her, even though they regard her as a friend. Addie’s little stunt is the tipping point of their “friendship,” and ultimately, the states of the other wives’ marriages. They manifest their marital anxieties and troubles without ever properly addressing them, bubbling and bubbling until it reaches the boiling point: the fear of losing what they hold most dear, without them even realizing it. The fact that the news came at the worst possible time, away from their only solution to the problem — the telephone — these ladies are stranded; they waited too long and now they’re stuck worrying about the mess. That’s the problem with waiting for anything to boil: even after you wait and wait, when you least expect it, the bowl overflows. I personally have never been married, so I can’t begin to fathom all of the intricacies of holy matrimony, and while the film may be a melodramatic view of this institution, I firmly believe that there is more to the message than just to “trust and love your spouse,” that the “wisdom” Crowther refers to in his review is far greater than what lies at the surface. I think in any sort of relationship, there has to be a level of transparency, of understanding from both parties. Each person must listen and respect one another, and to the best of their abilities, try to be their biggest cheerleader. Within the Bishop marriage, Debby must learn that Brad truly does love her, despite her farmer’s daughter background, despite not being wellbred like him and his friends, and while the film doesn’t show too much of his insecurities, he must learn to really listen to his wife when she is in a crisis, not to just say “you look wonderful” and move on. Within the Phipps’ marriage, Rita needs to listen to her husband and what he truly wants to do with his life, no matter how unequal the pay might be. George, on the other hand, must learn to accept his wife as she changes, and although she may go a bit nuts sometimes, he shouldn’t just wish for his old wife back. Finally, within the ever-so-problematic Hollingsway union, both Porter and Lora Mae have to learn to respect each other and communicate, not just simply bicker and complain about each other’s faults. They must learn to pick their battles, and to acquiesce and concede when necessary. Although not the kindest gesture of friendship at face value, perhaps Addie was well aware of how messed up their marriages really were, and wanted to teach her “dearest friends” a valuable lesson. And with that, “heigh-ho. Good night, everybody.” Sources: Crowther, Bosley. “’A Letter to Three Wives’ Opens at Music Hall — ‘Man From Colorado’ at Capitol.” New York TImes , 21 Jan. 1949. Davis, Ronald L. Hollywood Beauty: Linda Darnell and the American Dream . University of Oklahoma Press, 1990. Mackey, Joseph. “Underprivileged Kids Have Giant Funfest Working in New Film.” The Indianapolis Star , 18 July 1948, p. 29. Sheaffer, Lew. Review of ‘A Letter to Three Wives’ Is Expertly Delivered by Many Hands, Review of A Letter to Three Wives . The Brooklyn Daily Eagle , 1949, p. 29.