New Orleans Review Summer /Fall 1983 Editors John Biguenet, Art and Literature Bruce Henricksen, Theory and Criticism John Mosier, Film, General Editor Executive Assistant to General Editor Sarah Elizabeth Spain Design Vilma Pesciallo Contributing Editor Raymond McGowan Founding Editor Miller Williams Advisory Editors Doris Betts Joseph Fichter, S.J. Dawson Gaillard Alexis Gonzales, F.S.C. John Irwin Wesley Morris Walker Percy Herman Rapaport Robert Scholes Marcus Smith Miller Williams The New Orleans Review is published by Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, United States. Copyright ©1983 by Loyola University. Critical essays relating to film or literature of up to ten thousand words should be prepared to conform with MLA guidelines and sent to the appropriate editor, together with a stamped, self­ addressed envelope. The address is New Orleans Review, Box 195, Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118. Fiction, poetry, photography or related artwork should be sent to the Art and Literature Editor. A stamped, self-addr~ssed envelope should be enclosed. Reasonable care is taken in the handling of material, but no responsibility is assumed for the loss of unsolicited material. Accepted manuscripts are the property of the NOR. The New Orleans Review is published in February, May, August and November. Annual Subscription Rate: Institutions $20.00, Individuals $15.00, Foreign Subscribers $30.00. Contents listed in the PMLA Bibliography and the Index of American Periodical Verse. US ISSN 0028-6400. THE MANY-SPLENDORED ACTOR: AN INTERVIEW WITH JIMMY STEWART Conducted by Neil P. Hurley, 5./. INTRODUCTION n August 17, 1981 Loyola alumna, Melissa meet in the real Jimmy Stewart is what you get OClare, and I were privileged to have a one hour enlarged and enhanced in the movie theatre - a interview with the now legendary Hollywood star, disarming, winning, amiable man with an infectious James Stewart, in his Beverly Hills home. Following smile, g~ntle manners and that chief "Stewart-ism" the taped session which is printed here, the exuber­ - the halting speech with its suspenseful hesitations ant Melissa turned to me on the steps of the simple incandescent with burning sincerity. Tudor home of the Stewarts and remarked with a Jimmy Stewart is a natural actor - like Gable, mixture of awe and personal gratitude: "Father, I'll Tracy and Cagney - so irrepressibly convincing never forget this as long as I live. He was great!" in presence and performance that you tend to over­ Meeting stars can lead to an "off-screen" experience look how supremely good an actor each is and how which de-mystifies what one is used to seeing on hard the acting craft is. Let me- for the sake of the the screen. In Jimmy Stewart's case, the charisma reader - roll my many celluloid memories of is there- without the make-up, the flattering play Stewart roles as if they were a mosaic of moments of light and shadow and the 40 foot magnification, pieced together in one lengthy movie. For using this all of which contribute to movie magic and star fictional stratagem, one sees the compleat actor, appeal. Despite the absence of that curious Jimmy Stewart, a man capable of a range, a depth chemistry of continuous celluloid frames, what you and a subtle variety for which he has not been given NEIL HURLEY, S.J. 5 due credit. In the shadow of the stereotypical screen persona as a serious actor. Adapted from a Stewart persona is another, more hidden, Stewart play based on the notorious Leopold-leob "thrill­ - a strong rebellious type which does not contra­ murders" of the 1920's, Rope starred Stewart as a dict, but rather complements, that whimsical "man­ college professor who influenced the playboy­ child" innocent we have come to love and accept murderers through his teachings of amoral, Nietzsche­ as - together with Gary Cooper - the quintes­ like principles. This unusual movie was shot con­ sential "common man" embodying all the best traits tinuously in sequence as if it were a photoplay. (The of goodwill, generosity and gentleness to be found accompanying interview casts light on the in America. mechanics of shooting this truly unique and rarely­ Stewart began his career on the stage with the viewed film.) In Malaya (1950), an unscrupulous, University Players (Josh Logan, Henry Fonda, rather unlikeable Jimmy Stewart gives no quarter Margaret Sullavan, Arlene Francis and Martin in his scenes with Spencer Tracy, known for Gabel). He was a contract player in the large stable "knocking off the screen" rival actors. of M-G-M's stable of actors. Ironically, some of his In 1950 Stewart began an association with earliest roles featured Stewart as a villain - a Anthony Mann, a fine director of Westerns. The renegade brother of Jeannette MacDonald in the film, Winchester 73, picked up the threads of Destry operetta, Rose Marie (1936), and a killer in After Rides Again (1939), a Western spoof in which the Thin Man (1936). His image, changed with his Stewart did a broad caricature of a frontiersman role as a midshipman in Navy, Blue and Gold opposite Marlene Dietrich who, in her smoky voice, (1937), Frank Capra was impressed with the sang: "See what the boys in the backroom will have, gangling star, seeing great potentialities for selfless and tell 'em that I'll have the same." A new facet roles as a willing "auto-victim" to subvert evil forces of the Stewart persona emerged with his Western threatening community and the democratic system. roles: Broken Arrow (1950), Bend of the River Stewart admits that his roles in You Can't Take It (1952), Carbine Williams (1952), The Naked Spur with You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's (1953), The Man from Laramie (1955) and three a Wonderful Life helped his career greatly. John Ford vehicles: Two Rode Together (1961), The His career was interrupted by World War II; he Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and served for four years as an army pilot, leading men Cheyenne Autumn (1964). on combat missions in the European Theatre of It is an assumption - unexamined and purely operations. Following his discharge, he forbade the gratuitous - that Jimmy Stewart invariably plays studio publicity departments to exploit his himself. That he does often as, for example, in his accomplishments as a patriot and decorated hero roles in It's a Wonderful Life, Harvey and Cecil for the sake of box office appeal. The celebrated DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth. A closer modesty of James Stewart, the actor, is not cosmetic study of Stewart's filmology will demonstrate that but bone-deep. he is capable of great passion, inner torment and The return to Hollywood meant adaptation to self-doubt. Hitchcock recognized this darker, more new circumstances; gone was the mood of Franklin troubled side to Stewart's persona and played him D. Roosevelt's New Deal. The American audience against type - the professor-accomplice in Rope, was more sophisticated, having seen films which the voyeuristic "wheel chair-ridden" photographer featured more violence and relaxed sexual standards in Rear Window, the anxiety-lashed father of the of conduct than in 1941 when Stewart made the kidnapped child in The Man Who Knew Too Much. fluffy Pot of Gold. Two of his films failed Add to this the bravura performance of Vertigo commercially: Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and, later, Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder, and William Wellman's Magic Town (1947). and one revises the conventional image we have of However, Stewart succeeded in accommodating Stewart - not false, merely incomplete. Frank himself to the new genre - the "black-thriller" Capra saw this other side of Stewart and brought (known in French as the film nair). Stewart it out in the final scenes of Mr. Smith Goes to presented a new character, a tight-lipped "no-non­ Washington and It's a Wonderful Life. These scenes sense" reporter out to prove the innocence of a rank with the finest in Stewart's career- yes, even falsely-accused man. As a popular TV rerun, the in the annals of Hollywood acting. film holds up well today: Lee J. Cobb, Thelma Audiences remember Stewart as the quiet, un­ Ritter and Richard Conte help Stewart to give the troubled country boy fighting "big city" political film durable "legs." machines and unpatriotic movements or romancing Hitchcock's Rope (1948) confirmed Stewart's new attractive women in a "golly, gee whiz" manner. 6 NEW ORLEANS REVIEW These are certainly unforgettable "bits of time," to as long as film classics are shown in revival, reruns use the phrase that Jimmy Stewart has coined to and retrospectives. describe the arbitrary workings of memory. We do recall in a selective fashion scenes which, though Mr. Stewart, when you first came to Hollywood, part of a seamless movie plot, become unstiched in you began to work for the large studios, MGM in our subjective memory-bank and stick there as particular. Could you say a word about your highlights, pushing into the shadows of oblivion experience there? We would also like to know about other scenes and bits of celluloid. Among my "bits your experiences with directors: over your long of time" relating to James Stewart's performances career you have worked with Lubitsch, DeMille, are the typical ones of the playful, ear-pulling, Capra, Hitchcock, Ford, Wellman, Wilder, and gulling and gagging innocent. But alongside of these King Vidor. are other memorable "snatches" of Stewart-on­ I came to Hollywood in 1935 as a contract player; screen, various instances of that diamond-hard, MGM probably had the biggest list of such players tousled-haired Stewart who resists and resents in town.