CHARLES BOYER

[moira finnie]

Oh, thank you Wendy. I'll put on my yellow slicker, close the shutters, fill the bathtub with drinking water, fire up the coleman lantern and start to watch it!! Even this poster looks as though it has been through a hurricane.

[JackFavell]

Poor Boyer, doomed to work on board sinking ships and hurricanes.

I had a friend from my theatre days who lived through the '38 hurricane. she said that they didn't know it was coming of course, so they let school out as the brunt of the hurricane hit here in CT. She and her classmates walked home from school! On the way she saw an apartment house with the front wall ripped off of it, and the people still inside like little dolls in a dollhouse. At the time I knew her, she was one of those older women who still look very pixie-ish, and I could tell by the way she told the story that the girls really did not have much fear of the weather at the time. Her sense of wonderment was very apparent - it was an odd, but magical experience for her.

[JackFavell]

Oh, my, that Lucy episode was wonderful! Thanks MissG.

Now on to the hurricane.

[MissGoddess]

Wow, I never even heard of WHEN TOMORROW COMES; I'm glad it's on YouTube!
Thanks, Ladies!

[moira finnie]

Look at this other rarity! Together Again (1944) with Boyer and Irene Dunne
[youtube][/youtube]

Gotta get back to the hurricane too.

[charliechaplinfan]

Well, I know what I'm doing tonight. Is there a way to download the excerpts from Youtube and keep them on a DVD. I can't resist Tomorrow Never Comes after reading about it in the biography.

Thanks for that clip of Liliom Moira, I watched it again and on second viewing was far more enchanted than the first time. I really think the only reason I didn't take to it the firsttime was my own preconception of what Charles Boyer was on screen and a T-shirt carnival worker and a hooligan to boot was not one ofthem. On second viewing it made me realise just how good an actor he was. Another thing mentioned in the biography was that he collected films to watch on his own projecter,the only one of his own he had was Liliom.

I've not seen the I Love Lucy episode yet, another pleasure to be viewed tonight.

[JackFavell]

More Charles and Pat:

[mongoII]

I've always admired the fact that a great lover like Charles Boyer was devoted to his wife Pat for life. You can imagine the many women who had a crush on him and to no avail.
It's a shame he lost his only son to suicide. He didn't deserve that.
And when the love of his life past away, it was just too much for him and he decided to join her.
A love story made in heaven.

[moira finnie]

Well, I know what I'm doing tonight. Is there a way to download the excerpts from Youtube and keep them on a DVD. I can't resist Tomorrow Never Comes after reading about it in the biography.

You can download youtube clips using very simple software such as youtube downloader, which you can check out here at Cnet. I've also sent you a pm about this which may help a little.


Arriving at Termini Station at Rome in 1957 with 13 year old Michael Charles Boyer.

One other thing occurred to me after seeing Mongo's comments and the pictures of Pat Patterson Boyer. I hope that you don't mind my bringing this up since it has always saddened me that Boyer played so many characters who were suicides (I won't enumerate them here in order to preserve the element of discovery for those who may not have seen his films). I suspect that he may have been drawn to them in part because of his philosophical nature as much as their inherent drama. That this was ultimately the path he chose at the end may not really be all that surprising, especially since Boyer was seriously ill himself at the time of his wife's death.

Years ago at a summer cottage on a rainy day, I found myself reading Mia Farrow's memoir What Falls Away. I successfully avoided all the parts of the book dealing with Woody Allen and Frank Sinatra's more mercurial moments, but, as is often the case in actor's autobiographies, loved her descriptions of her childhood and complex family.

Mia Farrow had a gift for resurrecting the sensitive, shy girl she once was on the page, as she tried to figure out her parents (John Farrow and Maureen O'Sullivan), and make sense of being born into materialistic Hollywood, even though her own nature and her parent's individual contradictions told her such surface pleasures were not to be counted on. One ally she made as a youngster of about nine or ten was Charles Boyer, who was her neighbor in the fifties. Unaware of the fact that he was a famous actor, she and Boyer used to go for walks together. The actor and the girl were mostly silent, except when he would patiently tell the shy girl about the birds, flowers and plant life they spied in their lush neighborhood. Mia had little contact with Pat Boyer who impressed her as rather high strung. Farrow had a mild crush on Boyer's young son, Michael, who was slightly older than her, but often found herself confiding her troubles and hopes in Charles during their quiet walks.

While I apologize that I cannot remember the parts about Boyer verbatim, and a copy of the book is not at hand, here is the gist of what is pertinent about Boyer: One day, out of the blue, as they were walking along on one of their little hikes, Boyer turned to Mia, grasped her by the shoulders and said "I suspect that you will not have an easy life, but you will have a challenging and interesting time. It is important that you remember who you are at this moment." [I'll try to look this up at the library next time I'm there to correct this]. She always remembered his seriousness and concern when he said this to her. Years later, in 1965, when Michael Boyer, reportedly upset over an argument with his girlfriend, killed himself at 21, Farrow went back to visit the Boyers. She did not remember seeing Mrs. Boyer, but vividly recalled going into a darkened room with the shades drawn to tell Charles how sorry she was that this tragedy had happened. Her account described a man whose spirit had been extinguished like the flame from a candle. It was heartbreaking and unforgettable, especially since he was an only child.

I hope that he found release and peace at the end. He was a magnificent actor, growing better as he got older, and I've always loved the sequence from Fanny (1960) when his son (Horst Buchholz) is trying to say goodbye without telling his father (Boyer) that he is shipping out to sea. Haltingly, almost sensing that his child is trying to tell him something important, Boyer's Maurice pauses on the stairs and tries to tell his son how much he loves him. I never knew that Boyer had a son or would experience such a loss years after this movie, but Boyer didn't seem to be acting in this scene.

[charliechaplinfan]

Every time I log back on there is a wealth of new posts about Charles Boyer. It's lovely to read and to gaze on the pictures.

Just going off the biography which is the only thing I have ever read about him, Pat was completely opposite to him, outgoing and warm whereas he was more withdrawn and shy. He was devoted to her, it's not often you get a true love story coming out of a biography of a major star but this it surely was and I could understand his suicide, it suited the man and the way he lived. His treatment of Pat in her illness showed remarkable love, she didn't know and noone was to tell her, she thought she had a cureable disease, she died without knowing what ailed her. Why such a good man should have to live through the suicide of a son, something like that must kick the stuffing out of anyone. It's the only thing about reading his biography, I didn't want to get to the end.

I'm glad you've quoted Mia Farrow Moira, even if it isn't verbatim I'm sure you've imparted the feeling and sentiment of her words. What a nice man.

I just get the feeling that I would love to sit down with him and have him impart his words of wisdom.

Well now I'm off to follow those youtube links.

[JackFavell]

Moira, thank you so much for the Mia Farrow story. This adds so much, it helps us to figure out the character of the man.

May I ask for a copy of the youtube PM on the downloader, if it isn't too wearing for you?

[charliechaplinfan]

I can't tell you what a good evening I've had. First I watched the I Love Lucy episode, this one beats the John Wayne was, it's great how the big stars allow Lucy to take the rise out of their onscreen personas. I didn't imagine there would be this side to Charles Boyer, he's a natural comedian.

Then I saw When Tomorrow Comes and successfully managed to get it onto my hard drive, thanks Moira. It's so unashamedly romantic, despite Irene singing that try as I might I can never get to like much as want to. I think Charles Boyer softens Irene Dunne, I prefer the persona of a waitress for her than other roles she's played, she's really good and they are apowerful screen couple. She's a bit mixed up demanding to go home, there's a storm outside, I'd have cuddled up in front of the fire.

Irene Dunne was his favorite of all his costars, he got on with them all but got on with Irene like a house on fire.

I came across a horrible comment about Boyer by Bette Davis, she's known for her acid tongue. Why feel the need for trashing another performer, especially one who is too charming to ever say anything in the least bit detrimental about her.

[Professional Tourist]

.

[moira finnie]

Thank you so much for posting that account from Agnes Moorehead, PT. I am glad that it may not have been a suicide. I can't imagine anything worse for a parent. Knowing of Moorehead's deep spiritual beliefs, I suspect that she may have been of great comfort to her friend and colleague and his wife.

I love this picture of Boyer with Agnes, Charles Laughton and Cedric Hardwicke waltzing down a London street during their tour of Don Juan in Hell in 1951. CB and Aggie look as though they are laughing at something real--not just yukking it up for the camera. HIs speaking voice was wonderful on the recordings I've listened to of Shaw's Don Juan in Hell.
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CCfan, I wouldn't worry too much about any venom Bette Davis may have spat about Boyer. She reportedly did not recognize him when he first arrived on the set of All This and Heaven Too because he was without his toupee, had a tummy and was not very tall or the center of attention. Thinking he was an intruder or someone from the front office, she tried to have him removed from the set! (Also, there are some pretty scurrilous bios of Davis floating around, which I wouldn't trust for veracity).

She said lots of needlessly mean things about Errol Flynn too, and later regretted them very much (when she finally saw The Private Life of Elizabeth and Essex again, she suddenly realized he "was not just a pretty face, but was damn good." Duh!) It all seemed to stem from her sometimes monstrous insecurity, a sad feature of some very great talents. Boyer understood that his image was useful, but he didn't seem to have any vanity about his being bald, short and a bit paunchy. All he had was a world class talent and the gift to spin some essentially prosaic scripts into something human, poetic and memorable.

[charliechaplinfan]

PT, thanks for posting that, his biography wasn't entirely clear on the matter, I liked the fact that it wasn't dwelled upon in the book, I was unsure as to whether it was suicide or an accident. I hope they got what comfort they could from that fact. How devasting for such a close little family, he was everything to his parents. Boyer was working with Ingrid Bergman when Michael was born, she talks about his pride in her biography.

Thanks for posting the pictures of Pat. They drove to Arizona 22 days after meeting, still discussing the pros and cons of marriage and agreeing to go with the other if work came up. Soon after marriage Pat discovered that he was more traditional than that and when her career failed to light she was happy being Mrs Boyer and who could blame her.

Moira, thanks for shedding light on Bette's comments. I was surprised, I know she had an acid tongue and Errol Flynn had been the victim of it, not like he cared. Bette had great respect for actors who cared about their craft anf Boyer was surely in this category. Her comment was regarding his appearance, needing lifts in his shoes, a wig and a corset. She said that he must have looked like a Pilsbury Dough boy without them. A nasty comment.

I loved the Lucy episode, I've been chuckling all day. Despite reading comments about how he hated the line 'Come With me to the Kasbah' he realised what his screen image was and happily ridiculed it, kissing Lucy's arm and curling his lip. It's hilarious. I've seen the episode with John Wayne and the one with Richard Widmark, are there any other worth watching with film stars in?

When Tomorrow Comes was a lovely film, who amongst the ladies present would not want to use Charles Boyer as a pillow. Lucky Pat.