The Misfortune of Montgomery Clift

The men in Tennessee Williams' work never seem to elicit the same sort of fervor as his female characters. And with such indelible women as Blanche DuBois, Amanda Wingfield, and Maggie the Cat, among others, it's easy to see how their male counterparts tend to get overshadowed by such towering creations. Especially when they've been brought to life by such sublime actresses as Vivien Leigh, Cate Blanchett, Jessica Lange, Cherry Jones, Elizabeth Taylor, and Scarlett Johansson. There are exceptions, of course, Stanley Kowalski immediately comes to mind, but outside of Brando's performance do you ever hear him mentioned in quite the same way as that play's ladies? Even at the most recent production of The Glass Menagerie on Broadway in which Zachary Quinto's performance as Tennessee Williams stand-in, Tom, gained some of the play's best reviews, he still found himself as the odd man out when it came to Tony recognition. Once again upstaged by the Williams women.

For this week's edition of Hit Me With Your Best Shot from Nathaniel at The Film Experience we took on the film adaptation of a Tennessee Williams One-Act that became the gonzo Southern Gothic melodrama Suddenly, Last Summer. You name it, this movie's got it - cannibals, predatory gays, lobotomies, suggestive swimwear, and a couple of Oscar-nominated performances from two of Classic Hollywood's finest actresses (domineering Katharine Hepburn as the WASP-iest Southern Grand Dame ever to grace the screen and the buxom Elizabeth Taylor going off the deep end magnificently) that perpetuate the long-standing Williams womanly tradition. But as campy and delicious as those two turns were, I kept getting drawn into the sad eyes of Montgomery Clift as the observant Dr. Cukrowicz. Not necessarily for the performance he was giving (because those ladies were overpowering him) but because Monty himself suddenly seemed like one of Willimas' women - so lost and fragile. As delicate as Laura in Glass Menagerie, capable of breaking at any moment.

There had always been something softer about Montgomery Clift. Beneath the manly visage of the star, there was always a haunted quality and a femininity married to his masculinity. But after the car crash that almost left him for dead (saved only by kindred spirit Elizabeth Taylor - who certainly knew about suffering. Husband Mike Todd died just before filming of this movie, allowing her to access a well of emotions for her impassioned monologues), Clift seemed to become a shell of himself. Retreating into alcohol and drugs to numb the pain, it has been noted that his life after the accident was the longest suicide in Hollywood history.

He was such a liability that he couldn't even get insured for the film's production. He only appeared in it at the insistence of Taylor, who used her power as the biggest box office draw to secure Monty a job. And as the two actresses spend most of the film in elaborate soliloquies, Monty silently listens, taking in what they say but not completely registering entirely what is happening around him.

After he meets Hepburn's Violet Venable in her late son Sebastian's primitive jungle (complete with Venus Fly Trap, naturally), she goes on and on about her poet son and as she describes him, Monty begins to become the stand-in for him. We never once see Sebastian's face, even during Catherine's flashback as to what happened and perhaps because Monty was also gay in real-life, the connection seems natural. When the truth is learned and Violet suddenly seems to be the one to lose her own mind, she even mistakes Monty's doctor to be her dead son. Not to say that Monty was devoured by a pack of ravenous boys as Sebastian was, but he was devoured just the same.

Right before Monty leaves the house on his first visit, he and Violet stop in front of a statue of the Angel of Death, a macabre yet grotesquely beautiful winged skeleton. Violet looks out over the prehistoric plants that populate the setting,

"Millions of years ago, dinosaurs fed on the leaves of these trees. They were vegetarians. That's why they became extinct. They were just too gentle for their size. Then the carnivores, the ones that eat flesh - the killers - inherited the earth. But then they always do, don't they..."

Monty is left alone looking bewildered (but after a half an hour of Hepburn's rants on birds of death, fly-eating plants, and a mother/son relationship that seems a little too close for comfort, bewildered is probably putting it mildly). Even though her words are about her son and foreshadow the fate of Sebastian, it's hard not to read into it in regards to Monty's own life. Monty's own demons were carnivorous, chasing him the way the wild pack would Sebastian, and as the grinning skull looks down on the actor, foreshadowing his own untimely demise, it was not the character in the film that looked adrift, but the actor himself. He would only live another 7 years after this film was made, finally unable to outrun his own demons. Perhaps he never stood a chance to begin with. Like a Tennessee Williams heroine, he was too gentle for this world.

A Spinster Cinderella Story

What is about vacationing in another country that makes you feel that anything could happen? There's an air of mysterious possibility and uncertainty. Perhaps the idea that you are far away from home, far  from anyone who knows who you are, gives you the opportunity to start anew. You can shed your past,  take advantage of the present, and become the person you've always wanted to be. This promise of escape and spirit of unknown adventure is perfectly captured in David Lean's 1955 film, Summertime. Set in Venice and filmed entirely on location (the Venetian authorities worried that filming during its peak tourist season would cut into revenue, so Lean and the studio donated a large sum of money toward the restoration of St. Mark's Basilica), the film stars four-time Best Actress Oscar winner (one of her 12 nominations came from this movie), Katharine Hepburn, as American Jane Hudson. An unmarried, middle-aged, elementary school secretary from Ohio, she has saved up for years to come to Venice to experience a dream vacation. Her Summer Holiday in the romantic Italian city is the subject of this week's Hit Me With Your Best Shot from Nathaniel at The Film Experience.

Jane arrives in the city, with her camera in hand, eager for excitement. Her life back home in America, while not unpleasant, is certainly not the one she envisioned. She is determined to make the most of Venice ("Like it? I've got to! I've come such a long way..."). And the way Lean's camera lingers over shots of the city– letting us soak it all in, willing us to fall in love with it–we, like Jane, can't help but see the beauty of the place. Tourism in the city doubled after the film was released. Lean himself was so enchanted with the city that he made it his second home. I mean, just look at the view from Jane's window in the hotel she's staying:

She is so moved by it, that she tells the hotel proprietress, "Grazie...For THIS" as she extends her hand over the whole of the city. So much of the film is sunlit shots of gorgeous Venetian sites that the city becomes a character unto itself. Any one of them a picture postcard for best shot. But the shot I've chosen isn't one of the city itself, but one that represents all that the city promised for Jane–a wish come true. Just maybe not the way she imagined.

Among the most gorgeous cities in the world, she soon finds herself feeling alone. Even the most beautiful of places can become lonely without someone to share in your happiness. Hepburn does a wonderful job of conveying Jane's loneliness. Depression can come across as dull on screen or worse, self-pitying (I'm looking at you Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love), but we never feel that Jane feels sorry for herself. Hepburn still gives her a spark that hope is not lost, it's just tinged with a bit of disappointment. 

She soon meets a handsome Italian shopkeeper who starts to take an interest in her. Reluctant at first (you can sense that Jane has been hurt by love before), she resists his advances. But soon finds herself thinking of him and the two begin to spend time together. It rejuvenates Jane who finds herself wandering the city without her camera and getting make-overs! (I do love in the make-over scene that we see her getting her hair done, but it ends up looking exactly as it did before. A part of her still can't let go...) She soon faces reality when she discovers that the man is married with children. He tells her that he is separated and after a verbal brawl, she discovers that the connection is too strong to give him up completely. She knows it can't last, but is willing to live for the moment and give into a passion she might not normally have surrendered to. As she gives in to his advances, fireworks light up the sky and she drops a single shoe on the balcony. It becomes a symbol of her fairy tale. Like Cinderella, the magic might all end at midnight, but right now she is apart of it. It won't end in happily ever after, but the memory of the moment will last her a lifetime: