Silver Stud Sunday

In living color.

Walk On The Wild Side

Dana Andrews, Vivien Leigh and Peter Finch prepare to leave London to film on location in Ceylon, January 26, 1953

"Vivien Leigh is in Hollywood to complete her role in Elephant Walk, for which exteriors were filmed in Ceylon. When I saw her on the set, she was happily poring over a 10-page handwritten letter from her husband, Laurence Olivier..." -- Bob Thomas' column, March 6, 1953

"Vivien Leigh is dropping out of the movie Elephant Walk, and will return to England...Her studio said yesterday she was quitting the picture because of an acute nervous breakdown." -- Associated Press, March 18, 1953

Covered by a sheet, Vivien Leigh is carried aboard a plane on a stretcher, following her breakdown in Los Angeles, March 18, 1953

"If you want to take pictures of Miss Leigh, please don't get too close to her. I would appreciate it if none of you attempted to question her. She is ill. She might get frightened." -- Laurence Olivier to the assemblage of press meeting their airplane, March 19, 1953

"Screen star Vivien Leigh, hysterical when she boarded a plane in New York yesterday, stepped blithely out of it today, smiling happily...Somewhere over the Atlantic, she had made a remarkable -- if only temporary -- recovery from a nervous breakdown...Weeping hysterically, Miss Leigh had been put on the plane in New York's Idewild International Airport yesterday by Laurence Olivier and their friend, Danny Kaye..." -- Robert Musel for the United Press, March 20, 1953

Original wire photo caption: "3/19/53...Smiling, though obviously ill, actress Vivien Leigh is pictured with husband Sir Laurence Olivier on arrival in New York today from Los Angeles, en route to London. Suffering from a 'complete nervous breakdown,' the actress was carried into her plane last night on a stretcher."

"There will be two stars playing the same role now that Liz Taylor is in and Vivien Leigh is out of Elephant Walk...The studio will use many of Vivien's long shots, filmed in India." -- Erskine Johnson's column, March 31, 1953

"Elizabeth Taylor's poodle haircut was a real headache when she suddenly replaced Vivien Leigh in Elephant Walk. She had to have longer locks to match up with the Ceylon long shots of Vivien. She'll virtually be wearing a wig. Also, she is heavier than Vivien..." -- Harrison Carroll's column, March 31, 1953

"Elizabeth Taylor, according to producer Irving Ascher, is just right in all three dimensions -- bust, waist and hips -- for the camera in Elephant Walk. She has lost 30 pounds..." -- Erskine Johnson's column, May 9, 1953

Elizabeth Taylor in Elephant Walk (Paramount, 1954)

"If bad beginnings make for good endings, Elephant Walk should be the best picture of all time. Elizabeth Taylor has just one more day of shooting to finish, but the doctors don't know when she will be able to leave the hospital. The bit of flint that lodged in her eye during a storm scene on the set was rusty. The injury is not only very painful, but her face is badly swollen." -- Louella Parsons' column, May 14, 1953

"Elizabeth Taylor, recovered from an eye operation, revealed today she nearly lost the sight of one of her famous orbs...'You can still see the sear -- a fraction from the retina. If it had been a hair's width to the right, I wouldn't be able to see.'" -- Aline Mosby's column, June 5, 1953

Elizabeth Taylor in Elephant Walk (Paramount, 1954)

"You mustn't blame the elephants...I hope Elizabeth Taylor is very good in the part." -- Vivien Leigh to the United Press, July 18, 1953

Elizabeth Taylor in Elephant Walk (Paramount, 1954)

Pretty is as Pretty Does

And sometimes we like it pretty rough.

The Face in the Misty Light

Gorgeous Gene Tierney was, of course, the titular goddess of Laura (1944) and the Johnny Mercer/David Raskin song the film inspired; but for all of Miss Tierney's hypnotizing charm, we can't help but be completely disarmed by Dana Andrews everytime we watch it.

Andrews' biography reads like fantasy fodder: a Mississippi farm boy discovered while working as a gas pump jockey; a ruggedly handsome hunk with a sensitive side -- he even studied opera! During the 1940's, he was a major star, appearing in at least three films considered among the best of the decade; besides Laura, he also starred in The Ox Bow Incident (1943) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). He appeared with the biggest names of the day, from Tierney to Susan Hayward; Linda Darnell to Joan Crawford.


FALLEN ANGEL (1945)


DAISY KENYON (1947)

By the 1950's, however, Andrews' fortunes had dipped drastically; his worsening alcoholism led to scandal and near-fatal accidents. Stories abound of Andrews becoming so inebriated at his favorite watering holes, that he would have to crawl out on his hands and knees, so unable was he to walk or stand. Not surprisingly, such excesses affected his work, and Andrews was demoted to B-films and supporting roles; while he continued to work fairly steadily through the 1960's, his star was a dim shadow of the leading man luster he had enjoyed in his heyday. Andrews became sober in 1968, and bravely became one of the first celebrities to put a public face on the disease when he appeared in a series of Public Service Announcements endorsing Alcoholics Anonymous.

Dana Andrews should be remembered today as the big movie star he undoubtedly was during his brief stay at the top of Hollywood's heap, and as a courageous gentleman who faced his demons in a very public way, at a time when it was neither commonplace nor fashionable.