The Silver Screen Oasis

Since DVD rental services have made it possible to revisit movies from the past, I've managed to catch most of the films I'd read about in biographies of the big stars and cinema books. As my viewing got more varied there was one actor that I kept coming across, after all he'd starred with some of the big stars, Carole Lombard, Norma Shearer, Garbo, Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, Claudette Colbert, Veronica Lake, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Myrna Loy. I was looking at their films and kept coming across this rather prolific and rather good actor, no he's better than a good actor, I think he's one of the most natural on screen presences.

As far as I know there are no biographies of him, he didn't have an exciting tabloid life, he was married twice, a brief first marriage and a long standing marriage to Florence Eldridge. No scandal that I know of ever attached itself to him. Is this why he isn't accorded his proper place amongst the Spencer Tracy's and Gary Cooper's of his day, with whom he shares the distinction of earning two best actor Oscars.

Yet his performances are first rate. Some of my favorites.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for me is the best version of this oft filmed book.
Death Takes a Holiday - the whole film just tickles me
Design for Living - so naughty yet so nice, there's not many men who can rival a young Cooper convincingly
Sign of the Cross - I'm not sure he suits period costumes and wigs but I do believe him when he joins Mercia
Nothing Sacred - It's Carole's film but he holds his own
A Star is Born - a very different performance from James Mason's but equally good.
So Ends Our Night - moving

He's one of my favorite actors from the precode era, knowing a film with him in, even with a tiny budget is always worth watching. The only two performances I've thought him unsuitable for are Vronsky in Anna Karenina and Bothwell in Mary of Scotland which was a film I struggled with for a variety of reasons.

I've yet to see his performances in The Best Years of Our Lives and Inherit the Wind amongst others.

I know Moira and Fernando are fans and would be far more eloquent than me in what they like about Frederic March. I just thought it was time we got a thread up and running for Frederic March.

He could handle light comedy and heavy drama with equal apblomb. I found some quotes on the imdb, they show how balanced he was for a successful performer. No angst ridden actor was he, I love what he says about Garbo.

Keep interested in others; keep interested in the wide and wonderful world. Then in a spiritual sense you will always be young.

I liked the name Frederick Bickel and I wish now I had left it as it was. After all, Theodore Bikel, whose name was similar though spelled differently, didn't change his, and he did all right.

Co-starring with [Greta Garbo] hardly constituted an introduction.

[commenting on the fact that he and Wallace Beery, who both won Best Actor Oscars for 1931-32 due to a tie, had recently adopted children] It seems a little odd that we were both given awards for the best male performance of the year.

Stardom is just an uneasy seat on top of a tricky toboggan. Being a star is merely perching at the head of the downgrade. A competent featured player can last a lifetime. A star, a year or two. There's all that agony of finding suitable stories, keeping in character, maintaining illusion. Then the undignified position of hanging on while your popularity is declining.

I have earnestly endeavored to perform my own share without fuss or temperament. An actor has no more right to be temperamental than a bank clerk. Possibly a very sane bringing up as a child has helped me to retain my sense of proportion in these matters.

[on Joan Crawford] She was a nice person, but a real movie star. She even brought her own music to the set [of The Gay Mrs. Trexel (1940)] - a whole entourage, a violinist and a pianist to play her favorite songs, to get her into the proper mood for the scenes.

Actually, I was not overwhelmed by [Greta Garbo's] beauty. I think at that time women were more attracted to her than men.

You must see The Eagle and the Hawk from 1933, now available on DVD. March plays a World War I pilot who comes completely undone by his experiences. Cary Grant also has an important early role in this movie, but it's really March who makes the indelible impression.

I haven't seen Death Takes a Holiday for years...but I remember just loving it. I would also like to see him doing John Barrymore in The Royal Family again. I remember thinking it was hysterical.

My favorites are:

A Star Is Born - this one breaks my heart and is by far my favorite of his performances

Best Years of Our Lives (he is so fantastic in this one, rather normal and unexciting at first glance, but with deep, deep underlying stuff going on the more you view it.)

The Barretts of WImpole Street - he charms you completely, but has that laughing knowledge of himself, his tendency to bluster and go overboard, that makes him very endearing.

Nothing Sacred

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Seven Days in May

The Desperate Hours

If I had seen the other two early films recently, they would probably hit the top of my favorite March films list.

Hard to beat March in Best Years, but then that film has a lot of personal best performances.

Love March, too, in I Married a Witch, among others already mentioned.

OK, all you knowledgeable people out there: Wasn't it Frederic March that GG couldn't stand, and she ate raw onions just before their love scenes? I know she did that to someone, and I'm thinking FM.

Ha ha! Oh, lordy! the poor guy!

He's October's Star of the Month on TCM!

I adore Fredric March! One of my favorites that doesn't get aired a great deal, The Affairs of Cellini. Yep, it's a period piece set in the 16th Century. March plays a sculptor wooing a Duchess. March is very charming and beguiling in it.

Jack! Say it isn't so! Where's Ben??????

I have yet to see a Fredric March film which I haven't liked!

Arguably his all-time best performance is in "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946), one of the best films ever made by genius Willy Wyler; so honest, human and moving, that it is difficult to top. I could see it millions of times.

Of his early performance the John Barrymore character he plays in the superb "The Royal Family of Broadway" (1930) is priceless; such timing, such charm and talent.

"Design for Living" is also one of my favorites; so Pre-Code, deliciously naughty and sexy film. It may not be not faithful to Coward but it's an original Lubitsch and that's enough for me.

Mamoulian's "We Live Again" (1934) is another unfairly underrated romantic film. His chemistry with the lovely Anna Sten is great.

"Death Takes a Holiday" (1934), another grand film. Who else but Fredric March could have made the role of death so believable and meaningful and given such depth to it...Fredric March blends perfectly in his persona the qualities of a star and a skilled stage actor. Even in adventure films such as "The Buccaneer" (1938) and "Anthony Adverse" (1936) he shines...He might well be second only to Cary Grant in my book!

By the way, afilm of his I must see is "Laughter" (1930) opposite Nancy Carroll. I've read it's superb! Anyone has seen it? I'm also curious about Goulding's "The Night Angel" (1931), notwithstanding that I've read it is a dud. There's always something worthile in Fredric March film...

knitty,

I needed to girl it up a little. I feel terrible about it. Don't worry. Ben will be back, probably sooner, rather than later. Hey.....wait a minute..... how long have you had Ben as your avatar? !!!

see what I found------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


WOOO HOOOOO

Ha ha! That's priceless! My girl's looking at your avatar.....