Elia Kazan Films

[ChiO]

Could the jaw-dropping chaos that is Elia Kazan's The Arrangement (1969) be near the end of that list?

You betcha by golly! (And the last of his films that I've seen.)

I do enjoy most of Kazan's movies, though, as a general proposition, they don't make my heart flutter.

And I like his ex-spouse's movie, WANDA (Barbara Loden 1970), more than any of his.

[Robert Regan]

Wow! I never would have thought that this thread would have covered so many diverse ideas. Everyone here has so clearly given a lot of thought to the films, filmmakers, and actors under discussion, as well as some of the larger issues dealt with on the screen.

ChiO, I also think that Crossfire is a better movie than Gentlemen's Agreement, but the strength of the Kazan film is how it deals with the pervasiveness of prejudice and discrimination, not just in the "restricted" clubs and hotels (in Lolita, Nabokov pointed out the meaning of the phrase "close to churches" in hotel advertising), but the quieter everyday sort among "good' people. This was admirably captured by Dorothy McGuire's character, a likable, even admirable person.

In Crossfire the hateful prejudice is not really central to the story. It is the MacGuffin, like the uranium in Notorious. Notably, in the Richard Brooks novel that provided the source for Edward Dmytryk's movie, the victim is not a Jew, but a homosexual. This interchangeability of targets of discrimination was common in Hollywood during this time. The troubled G.I. in Home of the Brave on the stage was a Jew. For the movie, the character was transformed into a Negro, probably I have always suspected, to avoid a hook-nosed stereotype that would remind the audience of his outsider status. The upside of this change was to give a good part to the talented and handsome James Edwards who paved the way for Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte. In short, ChiO, Gentlemen's Agreement was more "about" anti-semitism than Crossfire.

Wendy, you're absolutely right about Brando's troubled off-screen life and his apparently deliberate destruction of his good looks (not the only man in movies to do this). Like most artists, he put the best of himself, at least most of the time, into his work.

Alison, Brando's use of accents was sometimes, not surprisingly, eccentric. Some of the German emphases he used on English words in The Young Lions distracted from the lines. And seven years after Mutiny of the Bounty, he revived the "foppishness" for his British character in Burn. Was he showing a prejudice towards English men?

And speaking of the positive image of Gregory Peck you describe, he did have a darker side (don't we all?) which was rarely shown on screen. One of his most moving performances was in the 1970 I Walk the Line, admirably directed by John Frankenheimer. He plays a Southern sheriff, a good man whose life and marriage to Estelle Parsons lack something that he needs. Who could blame him for falling head-over-heels for moonshiner's daughter Tuesday Weld? Not I. If you haven't seen this one, watch for it. A great actor, perhaps no longer "fashionable", but at the height of his powers. Weld, Parson, and Ralph Meeker are also excellent, and the beautiful photography is accompanied by, guess who, Johnny Cash.

Theresa, your mention of the Clydesdales took me way back to the late forties and early fifties! There was an Anheuser-Busch warehouse just down the street from where we lived (okay, not the best part of Newark NJ, but it was close a lot of movie theatres that I could walk to), and a couple times a year those magnificent horses, pulling their huge wagonload of beer, would be right there on our street, an impressive sight I will never forget.

Well, folks, since you have recently been getting some samples of my Lost Women of Hollywood project, ChiO's mention of Mr. Kazan's tragic wife Barbara Loden inspires me to present this for your consideration:

BARBARA LODEN (1932-1980) is not unfamiliar to most cinephiles today; in fact, she has a page on Mubi which also contains virtually her entire filmography. As a performer, she can be seen in two films directed by Elia Kazan whom she later married. As a director and writer, her reputation has recently been enhanced by the dvd release of her only feature film, Wanda. So, you may ask, is Barbara Loden really a Lost Woman of Hollywood? Yes, she is. A career of tremendous promise thwarted by, perhaps, personal factors, an unwelcome ambition, and ultimately, a premature death, places her squarely among those of talent unfulfilled. She arrived in New York in the early fifties, did some magazine modeling, danced in the chorus of the Copacabana, was a regular on television’s well-remembered Ernie Kovacs Show, and worked frequently on the stage for nearly thirty years. Her first film role, in Wild River, was small but effective, and Kazan gave her a larger part in Splendor in the Grass and recruited her into the Lincoln Center theatre company that he directed. This provided her with the role that brought her the most acclaim, Maggie in Arthur Miller’s After the Fall, a character based on the playwright’s former wife, the late Marilyn Monroe (and what might she have achieved in her maturity?). Loden and Kazan were married in 1967 and, she was cast in Frank Perry’s The Swimmer. However, the producer-star, Burt Lancaster was displeased with her single important scene (some say she dominated it) and ordered a retake with Janice Rule in the part. Perry, to his credit, refused to shoot this and was replaced by Sidney Pollack. After Loden’s first leading role on film opposite newcomer Burt Reynolds in Fade-In directed by Alan Smithee (a frequently used Hollywood pseudonym), she seemed to have retired. She had, however been writing a script for some years, and she was able to set up an independent production in 1970, when independent was indeed independent. She would direct and play the leading role in Wanda, shot in 16mm with a minimal crew. Barely exhibited in the US and receiving but a handful of positive notices, the film disappeared for some years. In his memoirs, Kazan is diffident about his wife’s work; on the one hand, he claims to have written much of her script and, on the other hand, expresses doubt that she had the ability to be a director. In the seventies, Loden wrote and directed two educational shorts, directed and acted off-Broadway, and taught an acting class. She was preparing an adaptation of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (later filmed twice by others) when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1978. Two years later, it spread to her liver and Barbara Loden, only in her forties, died. Among her papers, Kazan found piles of scripts she had written.

[RedRiver]

One of his most moving performances was in the 1970 I Walk the Line

I heard that was good. I'd like to see it. Pretty sure I'd like the music!

Brando's use of accents was sometimes, not surprisingly, eccentric

As an amateur actor, I've been known to take some liberties myself. "Kind of a Celtic, Slavic, northern Germanic thing!" Um...OK!

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm going to look out for both Walk The Line and Wanda. What sad ending to the life of a promising director. Here's a question to anyone who read Kazan's book or knows about him. it's kind of peeping out between some of the things that have been said about him, like claiming some credit for his wife's work and offering up names to the Mccarthy hearings. Do you see him as a sympathetic character a victim of circumstance ie the naming of names. Is he a man who needed to take a bit of credit for his wife's work? Why would he do that?

What everyone has chipped in about Brando is very much what I feel about him. He had a tremendous talent but I'd never thought about him being hampered by his looks, he's perhaps one of the handsomest and most distinctive of screen actors but I've never thought of it as a problem. I suppose I'm looking at him backwards if you will, he was the fat man crying in court trying to help his son before I saw any of his films. He had a lot of demons to deal with but all the plaudits and awards he got didn't help him. I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted any of us to pity him but I do.

[ChiO]

Do you see him as a sympathetic character a victim of circumstance ie the naming of names

If Kazan is a sympathetic character or a mere victim of circumstances, then what is Edward Dmytryk?

In my view, it was a moment of weakness (and he apparently had other such moments vis-a-vis Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe and Barbara Loden) by an extremely talented person that is understandable and not irrational, but that does not make him sympathetic or a victim. It's nice to think that I would have acted differently than Kazan under the circumstances, but I doubt that I would have. It's tough to take a principled stand that could cost one one's film career. And I, too, would be neither sympathetic nor a victim.

Forgive him? Sure. We're all weak in some way and generally worthy of forgiveness. Feel sorry for him because of his actions? No.

P.S. Kazan didn't name names at the McCarthy hearings. It was at the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), which preceded the McCarthy hearings. Unless one wishes to be picky and say that he didn't name names; he merely confirmed them.

[JackFavell]

Wow you said that so well, ChiO! Those are my feelings about Kazan almost exactly. May I take credit for your post?

No I don't feel sorry for him and would I forgive him being human? Of course. Yes, I think he might have wanted to take credit for his wife's work, to be where he was is to self promote a bit...which is not particularly admirable, but he did 'discover' her.

[ChiO]

You can have Kazan if I get LINCOLN.

[JackFavell]

I'm getting the better deal.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm glad you've said what you both did about Kazan because that's the impression I formed of him but then others have different opinions, I've read Arthur Miller's (who has reason to be biased) for one and others but I'm inclined to think like the both of you. Plus we might have lost some great movies had he not acted as he did.

[RedRiver]

We do what we have to do. I neither condone nor condemn.

[ChiO]

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.