Eva Marie Saint

Eva Marie Saint is perfect as the sleek, ice cool blonde Eve Kendall in Hitchcock's NORTH BY NORTHWEST in 1959 - I like her poised glamour and those individual line readings, a Hitchcock blonde in fact to equal Grace Kelly. She was already a serious actress before and after her Hitch experience. One of those new girls of the 1950s- like Lee Remick, Shirley McLaine, Joanne Woodward, Carroll Baker and the grown-up Natalie Wood - she was already 30 by the time of her first film ON THE WATERFRONT  (right, on the cover of the first issue of "Films and Filming" in 1954). Like Lee Remick in A FACE IN THE CROWD in 1957, its quite an introduction to cinema. She got on with Hitchcock very well, as they created the perfect look for the poised Kendall - even when dangling off Mount Rushmore wearing white gloves! She hosts the "making of..." documentary on the NORTHWEST dvd/blu-ray and is very interesting on its making and working with Hitch - see other posts at Saint label. 

She was in Preminger's EXODUS next, and was again perfect as Echo O'Brien "the old maid from Toledo" in Frankenheimer's ALL FALL DOWN in 1962, from a book I liked by James Leo Herlihy (author of MIDNIGHT COWBOY). Minnelli's THE SANDPIPER rather wasted her in 1965 as the Burtons took centre stage, but she is marvellous too in LOVING in 1970 with George Segal. She even did a Bob Hope comedy - THAT CERTAIN FEELING in 1956. Its been an extensive career co-starring with the likes of Brando, Newman, Clift, Beatty as well as Cary Grant, with 78 credits listed at IMDB and she is still going now at over 90! A real veteran. 

6 lesser-known '60s dramas + a treat ...

Following on from the lesser-known '50s dramas (see below), lets turn to the '60s: 

SONS AND LOVERS. D.H. Lawrence seems back in vogue again, with that new underwhelming BBC version of LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER screened recently, and the BFI are screening a restored WOMEN IN LOVE at the forthcoming London Film Festival, but the only version I know of his monumental novel SONS AND LOVERS is this 1960 version directed by Jack Cardiff, with great CinemaScope black and white images of those Nottingham coal pit communities by Freddie Francis, and co-scripted by Gavin Lambert. 

Young American actor Dean Stockwell plays Paul Morel the sensitive lead trying to become a writer, but the film is dominated by two great performances from Wendy Hiller and his fiercely protective if domineering mother and Trevor Howard as her embittered husband, a coal miner. Their battles form the backbone of the film, as Paul tries to establish his independence and his relationships with with pious Miriam (Heather Sears) and the worldly older married woman Clara Dawes (Mary Ure). It may be rather forgotten now, but was a ‘prestige’ picture (one of 20^th Century Fox’s literary classics little seen now) and was nominated for seven Academy Awards including best film and best director.

ALL FALL DOWN. Another pair of embattled parents (Karl Malden and Angela Lansbury as Ralph and Annabel) feature in John Frankenheimer’s lyrical 1962 drama scripted by William Inge from a book I loved at the time; James’s Leo Herlihy’s novel about 16 year old Clint (Brandon De Wilde) who idolises his wastrel older brother Berry-Berry (Warren Beatty in one of his early eye-catching roles) . I was 16 myself and identified totally with Clint, as we see him initially in Key West in Florida tracking down his brother, who finally comes home for Christmas. This is an amusing sequence as Ralph brings home three tramps for the festive season, to spite Annabel's plans, but she soon manoeuvres them out of the house, aided by some dollar bills. 

The arrival of Echo O’Brien, the “old maid from Toledo” (Eva Marie Saint in another stunning performance) upsets the balance of the house, Clint becomes infatuated with her but she and Berry-Berry embark on a doomed romance and she gets pregnant, but he cannot handle the responsibility and reverts of his mean nature beating up women, as Clint finally sees how shallow and empty and hate-filled he is. I have written about this here before, as per the labels. It remains a pleasure from that good year for Frankenheimer – he also turned out THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ that year. De Wilde also had a good role in HUD the following year, but died in a traffic accident when 30 in 1972. Gay writer Herlihy went on to write "Midnight Cowboy" and did some acting too, he appears with Jean Seberg (see below) in the 1963 IN THE FRENCH STYLE, another favourite.

REACH FOR GLORY. Another book I loved back then when 16 in 1962 was “The Custard Boys” by John Rae, which was a highly-regarded novel about British teenagers in wartime. This is what I wrote back in 2011:

Hardly ever seen now, Philip Leacock's 1962 film REACH FOR GLORY is the film version of a highly praised 1960 novel "The Custard Boys" by John Rae, a headteacher at Westminster College. The blurb said: "During World War II, teenage boys in a small English town are consumed with jingoism and brutal war games, hoping dearly that the war won't end before they can fight in it. John, one of the younger members, is increasingly torn between these peer group values and his deepening homoerotic friendship with Mark, a gentle Jewish refugee whom his gang has ostracized as a sissy and a coward." It is rather suggestive of LORD OF THE FLIES, leading as it does to tragedy, and starts with the boys chasing and killing a cat. The main adults are the estimable Harry Andrews and Kay Walsh as hero John Curlew's parents, and Michael Anderson as Lewis Craig, the bullying leader of the gang, as the boys are encouraged in their war games, but love and affection are very suspect - life during wartime! 
The worst thing here is to be a coward, as John realises, coping with his blustering father (Andrews) and his deepening friendship with the Jewish boy Mark Stein. But there is a real bullet among the blanks in their training exercises …

Leacock was a very prolific director, very good with children, who in the '50s directed films like THE SPANISH GARDENER [review at Dirk Bogarde label], and later went on to a successful career in American television with the likes of THE WALTONS, DYNASTY and FALCON CREST. This though is a nice small little back and white film, and an early 'gay interest' title, which I managed to catch once as a supporting feature, but have now got a dvd copy. It's been well worth the wait.

THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES & I WAS HAPPY HERE:

Two perfect mid-60s British black and white romantic dramas set in Ireland - both from Edna O'Brien stories, and both directed by Desmond Davis are 1964's THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES and I WAS HAPPY HERE in 1966, starring Sarah Miles (a world away from her other overblown Irish romance for David Lean). I have written about these here before (Sarah, Rita, Edna O'Brien, Ireland labels). They do though make a perfect double bill. O'Brien's theme in both is the passage of love as her Irish country girls love and lose and set up new lives in London.

This was very relevant for me being Irish and new in London too then, as Miles' Cass goes back to her Irish village [Liscanor and Lahinch in Co Clare, where Cyril Cusack runs the hotel she used to work at, and which is closed for the winter, and Marie Kean presides over the local pub] while Rita and Lynn (wonderful as the feckless Baba) have their adventures in '60s Dublin as Tush is romanced by wordly older man Peter Finch (sterling, as ever); Marie Kean is his housekeeper, handy with a rifle. It ends with the girls on the night ferry from Dun Laoghaire to England - a trip I did myself many times - and shows us Rita's new life in London - she works at the WH Smith shop in Notting Hill Gate just across from the Classic Cinema (above) - an old haunt of mine! whereas Sarah also ends up wiser as her boorish husband comes to reclaim her, and her fisherman lover has found a new love .... both are perfect small films that pays re-viewing. I particularly liked Sarah's london bedsit with its great view of that '60s icon The Post Office Tower. Sarah went on to Antonioni's BLOW-UP (which according to her memoirs was not a happy experience for her) and then back to Ireland - Kerry this time - for the protracted shoot on RYAN'S DAUGHTER, released in 1970. Rita had the smash hit of Lester's THE KNACK among others, and she and Lynn teamed again to great comic effect in Desmond Davis's SMASHING TIME, great fun in 1968,as per reviews at labels. See Sarah and Rita labels for more on these treats. 

SANDRA or OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS. Visconti's operatic melodrama from 1965, VAGHE STELLE D'ORSA (its from a poem) or OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS or simply SANDRA - which I have written about here before [Visconti, Cardinale, Sorel, Craig labels]. 

It is a small film in the Visconti canon, overshadowed by those big operatic productions like ROCCO, THE LEOPARD, THE DAMNED, DEATH IN VENICE or LUDWIG. I first saw it when I was 19 in 1965 and then it became unobtainable for a long time. It was great to catch up with it again last year, and it was as powerful as I remembered. The stunning black and white photography by Armando Nannuzzi show Claudia Cardinale at her zenith, along with Jean Sorel as her brother and English actor Michael Craig as her husband.

Sandra and her husband return to the family home, one of those sprawling Italian mansions, in the Etruscan city of Volterra, where family secrets are slowly uncovered, as Sandra has to confront her brother who wants to resume their once-incestous relationship, her mentally ill mother and the crumbling estate and the secret about their father and the war ... Visconti builds it to a powerful climax,and the images still resonate. Good to see this back in circulation again, it is certainly one to seek out and keep.

And now, after all these moody black and white dramas, a burst of sunshine and colour and romance as we head off to the South of France, for a delicious mid-60s romantic drama/thriller, of the old school.

MOMENT TO MOMENT in 1966 is a glossy romantic thriller by old hand Mervyn Le Roy (his last film) set in the South of France and is a fabulous treat to see now at this remove. It was part of a double-bill on release initially.

The first half is lushly romantic as Jean Seberg drives around Nice in her snazzy red sports car, sporting a Yves St Laurent wardrobe that would still be the height of chic today - she is a bored wife whose (dull) husband Arthur Hill is away on business, and she gets romantically involved [as one does] with a naval officer on the loose - Sean Garrison, a bit wooden but does what is required of him, ie - he fills out his uniform nicely. Jean resists at first but ... add in Honor Blackman [just after her stint as Pussy Galore with James Bond] as the mantrap next door and the stage is set for some fireworks.

Then it turns into a Chabrol-like thriller with a missing body, police on the prowl, the return of the husband and the missing body (very much alive).  It is though all nicely worked out, a lot of it studio bound, but nice locations too. Jean is perfect here and its a perfect mid'60s treat. Great Henry Mancini score too .... it deserves to be much better known and would be a much better chick flick now than some of the current examples. There is a lovely moment at the well-known Colombe D'Or restaurant (still going strong at St-Paul-de-Vence - I read a recommendtion on it last week) with the doves flying into the sun .... perfectly romantic then with a few Hitchcockian twists and Seberg is in her lovely prime here. What's not to like? My pal Jerry loves it as well and thanks to him for sourcing a copy. 

Hitchcock on ....

Dressing Eva Marie Saint for NORTH BY NORTHWEST:

Pearls of wisdom from Alfred:
"Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more the excitement. Audiences are more enjoyably scared when they think about rather than see mayhem.
The conventional big-bosomed blonde is not mysterious. 
Audiences like romance with their mystery. They always want to know "where does the girl fit in?"
Movie titles, like women, should be easy to remember without being familiar. 
The perfect "woman of mystery" is one who is blonde, subtle and Nordic, like Eva Marie Saint. How to achieve this mystery? By what she says, by the way she dresses, and by her actions. 

"I suggested she be dressed in a basic black suit (with a simple emerald pendant) to intimate her relationship with Mason; in a heavy silk black cocktail dress subtly imprinted with wine red flowers in scenes where she deceives Cary; in a charcoal brown, full-skirted jersey and burnt-orange burlap outfit in the scenes of action.

The intention was that she be dressed brightly while the mood of the scene was subdued - and quietly while the mood was exciting. A simple matter of contrasts. After all, she plays a woman of mystery - and no woman is a mystery unless she keeps people guessing."

From a 1959 interview in  "Films & Filming".

Well, we knew Hitch loved dressing up his leading ladies - Janet Leigh as Marion Crane had to make do with shop clothes a secretary would buy, but Hitch must have had a lot of fun dressing his new discovery Tippi Hedren for THE BIRDS (that famous green suit!) and MARNIE. He and Saint had a lot of fun creating the sleek look for Eve Kendall. Below: Eva dressed for the climax of NBNW in that fabulous house created for the film, right by Mount Rushmore! 

Forgotten '60s movies: 36 Hours

36 HOURS, 1965. 1944. US army officer Major Pike (James Garner) attends a vital meeting in Lisbon days before the D-day landings in Normandy, so he is one of the few people who know the plans for the invasion. The Germans who have been following him know he knows and manage to kidnap him .... the drugged Garner eventually wakes up in a US military hospital in Bavaria, Germany, in the company of Anna, his nurse, and he is astounded to find it is 6 years later in 1950, and that the war is over, Germany lost, and he has had amnesia for years with frequent blackouts when he does not remember anything. He is a resident of the base, with his family photos and objects he had with him on display. He stares at himself in the mirror in astonishment, as he indeed looks older. He checks the newspapers provided and listens to the radio, yes indeed it is 1950 and the war is long over. Anna proves helpful and Rod Taylor as Major Gerber the officer in charge of his case also aids his memory along, asking him to remember what he can of his last movements. Garner can remember that meeting he attended and the invasion details at the various Normandy beaches which he recites in detail, but does not mention the date. His new friends do not rush him but will talk again later .....

Then eating his dinner he spills some salt which aggravates that paper cut which nicked his finger at that meeting in Lisbon when he touched the edge of a map ....... that couldn't be still there after 6 years, could it? Suddenly the scales fall from his eyes - he forces Anna to tell him the real date and realises how he has been duped. Taylor masterminds this operation where people with information are led to believe they are in an Amercan hospital, all carefully faked, with everyone speaking perfect English. Anna is a former concentration camp victim who has been chosen on account of her perfect English and she is so desperate not to be returned there that she will do anything to avoid that - this is another perfect role for Eva Marie Saint, while Garner and  Taylor - those amaible '60s leading men - are ideal here too. Taylor is the good German, dedicated to his case records and research methods, exasperated with his superiors, like the hissable villain Werner Peters who is waiting for Gerber's scheme to fail, so he can use his torture methods to get the information on D-day, which the Germans think will be at Calais.,and they only have 36 hours to get the vital information ...

Pike and Anna go on the run, aided by Gerber, now under arrest - will they get to the border in time, however the villain catches up with them but there is a neat resolution, and Anna  is finally able to cry again - her tears had all been used up at the concentration camp. There is no romance as such between Pike and Anna but its a nice conclusion. This is a fascinating little thriller, in black and white widescreen,  from the Perlberg-Seaton production team (like their 1962 THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR)., scripted and directed by /George Seaton from a Roald Dahl story, score by Dimitri Tompkin, starring three people we like. The film though was tossed away here in the UK as a supporting feature, which is where I previously saw it, back in 1965. Its still quite engrossing and entertaining..

Echo O'Brien - "the old maid from Toledo"

ALL FALL DOWN was a novel I discovered when I was 16 back in that great year 1962. (I still have a copy, inscribed by my Australian penfriend, Garry Kendall, which he gave me in 1969, as I had lost mine).  It's central character is Clint, a teenger who was just like myself, living with his parents  - he was in Cleveland, Ohio, I was in County Kerry, Ireland, but apart from that we seemed very similar. Clint hero-worshipped his older brother Berry Berry, and noted all the pecularities and conversations between his parents, Annabel and Ralph. It starts with Clint in Key West, Florida hoping to find drifter Berry Berry, then its back to Cleveland where  Annabel's friend, Echo O'Brien comes to visit from Toledo, in her lovingly restored old car. Clint falls for Echo who loves him like her kid brother, Berry Berry turns up and he and Echo fall in love, but he turns out to be a worthless heel, she knows it can't last, and she is pregnant .... there is an automobile crash. Clint confronts his brother (who has a history of beating up and abusing women) whom he is finally able to walk away from.

Its a nicely told story, by James Leo Herlihy (who also wrote MIDNIGHT COWBOY, another good novel before it was a film, and also some short stories, he was gay and also a part time actor (he plays the man Jean Seberg is settling down with at the end of IN THE FRENCH STYLE, in 1963. Herlihy who was also a teacher, committed suicide in 1993, aged 66. 

ALL FALL DOWN, as per my other posts on it, at 1962 label, made a terrific film, tender and lyrical, one of the great black and white early '60s films, and scripted by William Inge - it was certainly in keeping with his territory and themes - and one of 3 John Frankenheimer turned out that year (THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ were quite significant too!), it was Frankenheimer's great period (SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, THE TRAIN, and others followed) and he assembled a great cast: Angela Lansbury and Karl Malden as the parents, Warren Beatty in his youthful prime as Berry Berry (after SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS and THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE), young Brandon de Wilde as Clint (he had already appeared in the fim of Herhihy's play BLUE JEANS in 1959) and went on to HUD and others, before his untimely death in 1972 aged 30, see De Wilde label) - and Eva Marie Saint luminous as Echo.

Saint, 90 this year and still working, is one of those fascinating actresses who began in the '50s, along with Lee Remick and Joanne Woodward and the maturing Natalie Wood - there was Shirley McLaine too. Saint was already 30 by the time of her debut in ON THE WATERFRONT in 1954 (others, like Jean Simmons and Sophia Loren who began as teenagers had already clocked up a decade of stardom by that age...). She is in RAINTREE COUNTY and possibly the slinkiest Hitchcock blonde of all, as duplicitious Eve Kendall in NORTH BY NORTHWEST (above) in 1959, ideally paired with Cary Grant. She got on with Hitch very well, as she recounts in the documentary on its making which she hosted. Later roles included EXODUS, and back with Frankenheimer for GRAND PRIX in 1966, and 36 HOURS and LOVING in 1970. 

She is just perfect as Echo, a glamorous spinster finding love for the first, and last, time ... her scenes with Beatty and De Wilde are marvellous, Lansbury and Malden are note perfect too as the warring parents - particularly that Christmas when Ralph brings the 3 tramps home and Annabel craftily manoeuvres them out ... Annabel is the typical Inge over-bearing mother and led to Lansbury's monster mother in MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, despite being just 3 years older than 'son' Laurence Harvey! 

ALL FALL DOWN may be seen from Client's point of view, but it is Eva Marie who is the still centre of the film with her perfect portrayal of Echo, the woman finding and losing love. It is another great 1962 female performance, in that great year for them (when Lee Remick lost for DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES in competition against Bancroft, Davis, Geraldine Page and Katharine Hepburn - Jeanne Moreau was not nominated either for her JULES ET JIM ... Looking at ALL FALL DOWN now it is still engrossing and fits in with those dramas of the '50s and '60s, and captures that era perfectly (like those other 1962 favourites THE CHAPMAN REPORT and ADVISE AND CONSENT, and it remains one of Eva Marie Saint's best roles. Beatty too is mesmerising here, like he was in LILITH and MICKEY ONE, before BONNIE AND CLYDE came calling ...

The Look of 1959

I have been meaning to get around to 1959, for me one of the best movie years ever, and a key year for me, being 13 at the time - going to the movies and reading the movie magazines of the time, back in my small town in Ireland. 1959 was as important as THE great movie year 1939, and also 1960 and 1962, for me. The big hitters of the year are too well known to go over again - BEN HUR, SOME LIKE IT HOT, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, THE NUN'S STORY, ON THE BEACH, RIO BRAVO, IMITATION OF LIFE, etc .... I want instead to concentrate on "the look" of a few particular favourites: NORTH BY NORTHWEST, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, A SUMMER PLACE .... also westerns like Cooper's THE HANGING TREE by Delmer Daves and THEY CAME TO CORDURA by Rossen, THESE THOUSAND HILLS where Lee Remick is so touching as the "saloon girl" and Loren has to choose soldier Tab Hunter or her rich protector George Sanders in Lumet's THAT KIND OF WOMAN, while Anthony Quinn woos her in THE BLACK ORCHID.



What I particularly like about NORTH BY NORTHWEST is that view it creates of America going about its business at railway stations, on trains, tourist attractions like Mount Rushmore, art galleries, hotels etc as our hapless George Kaplan (Grant) flees across country .... and of course that amazing house - a mid century modern dream - created for the film's climax when Cary drops down the matchbook to warn Eve Kendall that they (Mason and Landau) are on to her.



There is also of course the Frank Lloyd Wright style house in A SUMMER PLACE, Delmer Daves' enormous hit from the Sloane Wilson novel (I remember getting the paperback...) which cemented Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue as the teen favourites - Sandra was soon GIDGET, while Troy had that run of successful Daves sudsers like PARRISH, SUSAN SLADE, ROME ADVENTURE (LOVERS MUST LEARN) - more on those soon. For a while though, Troy with the blond hair and the red windcheater and the white shorts was almost as iconic as James Dean in his red jacket and jeans. Troy was also the nasty boyfriend who beats up Susan Kohner passing for white in IMITATION OF LIFE, Sirk's farewell and still the sudser to beat them all.


THE BEST OF EVERYTHING remains a delirious treat too (more on it at Joan Crawford, Jean Negulesco, 50s, Trash labels). Joan is specially billed "and Joan Crawford as Amanda Farrow", as we follow the 3 girls Hope Lange, Suzy Parker and Diane Baker - it should have been 4 as in Rona Jaffe's bestseller, but they made it 3 in keeping with Fox's other films, usually by Jean Negulesco, as here) so Martha Hyer is practically snipped out of the film. It has the look to perfection of offices in the late 50s - the look that MAD MEN aspires to now - where Joan/Amanda terrorises the typing pool and good girls worry about going too far (Baker), or falling for heels (Baker/Parker) or becoming a married man's mistress (Lange). I love that opening as the camera sweeps over Manhattan and all those girls going to work, as Hope emerges from the subway and the breeze blows up her little bolero jacket showing the lining underneath, as she fixes her hat while wearing her white gloves - which Eve Kendall of course wears as she dangles from Mount Rushmore in N BY NW...



In black and white too we have Lee Remick as the over-heated army wife in ANATOMY OF A MURDER, while Elizabeth Taylor has that white almost transparent bathing suit for her role as 'bait' in SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, and that nice summer dress for the climax as she screams out what happened to Sebastian last summer ... SUMMER was actually filmed in England, where the look was perfectly captured in films like I'M ALRIGHT JACK and ROOM AT THE TOP and Losey's BLIND DATE, and EXPRESSO BONGO, and thrillers like TIGER BAY and NORTHWEST FRONTIER, or THE JOURNEY and SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL.  Filmed in 1959 for 1960 release was Donen's comedy ONCE MORE WITH FEELING with Kay Kendall and Yul Brynner, Kay was dressed by Balmain in black and white costumes to reflect 1960 style but she died in September '59 three months after filming completed, before the film's release ...

Over in Europe though the new decade was limbering up with those seizing-the-moment films like Truffaut's THE 400 BLOWS, Clement's PLEIN SOLEIL, Bolognini's LA NOTTE BRAVA, Mocky's LES DRAGUEURS, Chabrol's LES COUSINS, Franju's EYES WITHOUT A FACE, Dassin's LA LOI, the Russian BALLAD OF A SOLDIER and THE LETTER NOT SENT, Brazil's BLACK ORPHEUS, while Fellini and Antonioni were filming L'AVVENTURA and LA DOLCE VITA, while Hitch rushed out his cheapie PSYCHO ... but that's 1960!
Also, of course were those films set in the new suburbs sprouting up then: Fox's NO DOWN PAYMENT in 1957 with their roster of contract players (Jeffrey Hunter, Joanne Woodward etc) (Jeff Hunter label), and Richard Quine's 1960 saga of adultery in those new suburbs architect Kirk Douglas is building in STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET (Kim Novak label).