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April 24, 2008
Douglas Sirk Directs Linda Darnell or What They Don't Teach You in Film School
Linda Darnell, studio portrait. Scan courtesy of Dr. Macro.
I've had the pleasure of working with some of the best directors in Hollywood. On location and in the studio it's always fascinating to collaborate with gifted directors and then sit back and watch as the actors breathe life into my pages.
I've worked with directors who act as Freudian psychologists to elicit the proper emotions from actors. I've also seen directors who are more results oriented. They tend to block the actors—deeply choreographing their movements—thus adding depth to surface performances so that they carry the proper emotional weight. Hey, whatever works, especially in television where shooting schedules are tight and the margin for error is close to zero. I've witnessed directors who bully actors into submission in order to get what they want. And I've seen directors who will sit down with their actors and spend endless hours discussing, analyzing, and torturing character and back story in order to excavate the core of the character's soul.
Getting a great performance is a mysterious process. There is a synergy at work among film craftspeople that is impossible to define or capture in a bottle.
George Stevens, an often great director, was known for shooting endless takes of a single scene, but never explaining to his actors what was wrong with the previous takes or what he was looking for. Joan Fontaine, in her autobiography, No Bed of Roses reports Stevens saying: “I don't know what's wrong. Let's shoot it again.”
Sometimes, Stevens would stop filming and go off all by himself, walk around in circles, or just stare into space.
Fontaine informs us that it was the great Carole Lombard who solved the mystery of what the legendary director was thinking during these breaks: “You know what that s.o.b. is thinking about when he's in one of his trances? Not a f****ng thing!”
Which brings us to director Douglas Sirk and actress Linda Darnell (1923-1965).
Director Douglas Sirk. His cycle of lush melodramas were reviled by reviewers during his lifetime but declared masterpieces by a new generation of hip post-modern scribes. Lesson: Film reviewers are, with rare exceptions, slaves to political and cultural fashions—usually left wing. They scrawl film reviews that are, at the core, glorified fashion blurbs. Don't trust them. Trust your eyes and your heart. And, yes, Seraphic Secret.
Sirk, a stridently anti-Nazi German emigre to Hollywood—his wife was Jewish—is best known for several stylish and lush melodramas that achieved cult status in the 70's. When they were released in the 50's, the critics savaged them, dismissing the popular and profitable pictures as hokey “women's films.”
In truth, Sirk's cycle of melodramas are not masterpieces, but they are fine movies and Sirk was a solid talent who was able to draw consistently powerful performances from his actors. Rock Hudson turns in the best performances of his career in three of Sirk's films. Seraphic Secret recommends: Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, and watch Sandra Dee earn her acting chops opposite a finely tuned Lana Turner in Imitation of Life.
Linda Darnell, real name Monetta Darnell, a stunning small town Texas beauty, was hounded into Hollywood by a crazed, alcoholic mother who was determined that her daughter achieve what she never could.
Interpolation
There is a special place in hell for stage mothers. There is no forgiveness for these selfish and greedy parents.
End Interpolation
Darnell came to Hollywood—with a beloved pet chicken hidden in a suitcase—when she was just fifteen years old, after being spotted by a Fox talent scout. She clawed her way to the top, and when she starred opposite Tyrone Power in Blood and Sand, Darnell became a genuine Hollywood star.
But personal problems—a parasitic family, a penchant for abusive men, and, yup, booze—yanked Darnell into a stunning and ugly downward spiral.
In 1944, when Darnell was working with Sirk, she was battling a weight problem, felt underappreciated by her studio boss Darryl Zanuck, her marriage was on the rocks, and her tyrannical mother was constantly demanding money.
George Sanders and Linda Darnell in Summer Storm, 1944.
Always fragile, lacking in self-esteem, Darnell was acting in Summer Storm, an adaptation of an Ibsen play, a role she fought for. But Darnell was falling apart as the camera's merciless gaze bore down on her.
Ronald L. Davis reports the following in his sympathetic but clear-eyed biography of the tragic actress, Hollywood Beauty: Linda Darnell and the American Dream.
Scheduled for release through United Artists, Summer Storm was directed by Douglas Sirk. Filming began in the spring of 1944, with The Wicked and the Weak as a working title. Linda got on well with Sirk, although things didn't always progress smoothly. One particularly bad day, the director had shot sixteen takes of an important scene in a greenhouse. Linda grew tired, embarrassed, and was almost in tears.
Finally, Sirk ordered, “Everybody take a breather.”
Putting his arm around Linda's shoulder, he said, “Now I want you to relax.”
Suddenly he yanked her across his knee and spanked her hard.
“Now you go out there and do that scene right!” he snapped.
The spanking so shocked and infuriated her that she went back on the set and made the scene one of the best in the picture. “After that, Sirk and I got along better than ever,” she said.
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Posted by Robert J. Avrech at April 24, 2008 08:45 AM
Comments
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“You know what that s.o.b. is thinking about when he's in one of his trances? Not a f****ng thing!”
As someone who talks too much, I love stories like that. I have often maintained that the "silent types" are not always being introspective. Sometimes, they're just blank.
Silent types with tattoos -- even more so.
Posted by: Jake at April 24, 2008 11:02 AM
Jake:
You do not talk too much. No way. And when you do talk, you make us smile.
Tattoos, on the other hand, make us cringe in fear. Silent types or talkies. We fear ink having spent so much time researching criminals in prisons.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 24, 2008 02:28 PM
I loved watching Imitation of Life when I was a kid. I was so fascinated with Lana Turner's beauty. (really kind of horrible acting...but beautiful!)
Posted by: cruisin-mom at April 25, 2008 07:47 AM
Cruisin' Mom:
“Imitation of Life” is a heck of a film. I think Lana gives a pretty darn good performance. Of course, her best role and performance was in “Postman Always Rings Twice.”
Oh man, that white turban and outfit she wears when Garfield first meets her.
Sigh...
BTW, that white outfit actually saved the picture from the censor's scary scissors!
But that was before her life became a seven ring circus.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at April 25, 2008 07:59 AM
Well, I guess horrible is an unfair word. Just different from what you see today (not that that's necessarily a good thing!)...I think the performance of the "maid's" daughter is really the best in the movie. And yes, that outfit...gorgeous (was it cut on the bias?!)
Posted by: cruisin-mom at April 25, 2008 08:08 AM
Cruisin' Mom:
Jean Louis designed Lana's gowns and yes, he always cut on the bias to emphasize her tiny waist and ample bosom.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at April 25, 2008 08:17 AM
Robert...you crack me up! I KNEW YOU WOULD KNOW THAT!!!
Posted by: cruisin-mom at April 25, 2008 09:29 AM
Cruisin' Mom:
Aw shucks, it's what I do M'am.
You may now send babke to Casa Avrech—well, after Pesach.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at April 25, 2008 09:33 AM