Jennifer Jones, the early years and 'years at the top'
Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 3:00PM HAPPY JENNIFER JONES CENTENNIAL!
Paolo wasn't kidding when he said that the Centennial of Jennifer Jones (that's today!) would be a challenge. Though we usually have some buy-in for centennials literally no one else on Team TFE volunteered for this one so it'll be short. But I'll do one or two pictures. i'm annoyed that I can't do Duel in the Sun (1946), which I've never seen, but I can't find it to stream. Actually easy availability is how I came up with your choices. So vote and tell me which of these films you most want to discuss:
But before we get there, and overview of her career.
And the eternal question: How long can any given star can stay at 'the top' from Old Hollywood to the right now...
Jennifer Jones had a meteoric rise in Hollywood and stayed on the A list for about 12 years (in JJ's case that's roughly from The Song of Bernadette, for which she won Best Actress, through her last Oscar nomination in 'yellowface' in the Eurasian romantic drama Love is a Many-Splendored Thing).
Despite radical changes in Hollywood over the past 75 years, has the expiration date on superstardom changed all that much? One might argue no. This is highly subjective of course depending on how you view 'time at the top' but the biggest stars seem to get about 10 years, give or take a few years depending on their luck, their choices, and their ages when they break through to worldwide fandom. Though sometimes after a comeback they reign again. (Consider some example from Jones's era to the now: Taylor: 50-67; Wood: 55-65; Andrews: 64-70; Dunaway: 67-81; Fonda: 68-81; Keaton: 74-87; Spacek: 76-86; Field: 77-89; Meryl: 78-90/06-14; Hawn: 80-92; Kathleen 84-91; Michelle: 87-00; Sarandon: 88-96; Jodie: 88-97; Julia: 89-01; Sandra: 94-02; Michelle: 87-00; Sarandon: 88-96; Jodie: 88-97; Stone: 92-96; Bassett: 93-98; Bullock: 94-02/09-13; Kidman: 95-05; Berry: 98-04; Angelina: 99-09; Reese: 01-10; Hathaway: 04-12; Lawrence: 10-???). The lucky or committed ones get long careers thereafter though they are never quite again THE stars of the day if you know what I mean -- except in highly unusual circumstances. You could argue that it's better never to be right at the top and just fly perpetually under that peak as one of the stars of an era but not perhaps a definitive one. One could argue that Cate Blanchett and Saoirse Ronan are two examples of the kind of stars who might never peak because are they ever really the stars of a moment? They can just go on being well-received with lots of mini-peaks! But again, this is highly highly subjective. It's just a meaty discussion topic for we, the actressexuals.
A quick run through of Jennifer Jones career if you're unfamiliar...
Dick Tracy's G-Men. Jennifer Jones went by "Phyllis Isley" (her real name) then
1919 - Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on this very day 100 years ago.
1939-1942 Marries fellow actor Robert Walker (who plays her doomed soldier lover in Since You Went Away and had his most enduring role right before his death in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train) and debuts in pictures as "Phyllis Isley". Meets David O. Selznick to audition for Gone With the Wind (loses the part of course - we all know who played Scarlett). She has two children with Walker, one of whom becomes an actor Robert Walker Jr
A Best Actress winner by the age of 25 for "Song of Bernadette"
1943 The Song of Bernadette makes her a superstar and functions also as a film debut, if you will, since she wasn't really noticed before it and also working under a different name. Now she is JENNIFER JONES, an instant star.
1944-1946 The Academy becomes obsessed (as they sometimes do - hi, Amy Adams) and gives her three more consecutive Oscar nominations (Since You Went Away, Love Letters, and Duel in the Sun). She divorces Walker having begun an affair with movie mogul David O. Selznick
1947-1954 Jones marries Selznick while churning out more pictures, most notably Madame Bovary, Ruby Gentry, Beat the Devil, and Indiscretions of an American Housewife.
1955 It's arguably the end of her reign as an A lister with one last hit, the interracial romance Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) in which she played a half-Asian woman (white stars playing other ethnicites being the norm back in Old Hollywood... and Jones was nominated both times she did this - see also: Duel in the Sun).
From left to right: Song of Bernadette, Duel in the Sun, Carrie, Beat the Devil, Indiscretions, Love is..., Cult of the Damned, and The Towering Inferno
1956-1965 Works intermittently but without as much success until her husband Selznick's death after which she basically retires.
1966-1974 She makes only three more pictures: The Idol, Cult of the Damned (also known as "Angel Angel Down We Go") and The Towering Inferno, the all-star disaster picture that gives her one final hurrah with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress at 55 years of age but the Academy, long since over their crush, passes her by.
2009 Dies at age 90, after 35 years outside the spotlight, which is surely one of the reasons she's less well known today than other stars of her stature from Old Hollywood.
Reader Comments (30)
I'm not surprised there aren't a lot of takers for a Jennifer Jones tribute. Considering her success at her peak, she isn't one of the actresses of the era that gets a lot of passionate support. When great actresses of the Golden Years are listed, how often is she seen on the list?
It could be the sense that her career was engineered by her husband, sometimes putting her into ill-suited roles that were viewed as "prestige" projects. It could be the way she largely disappeared from the public eye after her last film. I recall one of her rare later public moments when she presented at the Oscars in the Eighties and she was literally shaking with nerves. She must have been very shy. I know Jean Arthur could be described the same way as a person, but her distinctive qualities as an actress have given her an enduring appeal that Jones doesn't really have.
Wasn't she part of an Oscar winners line up in the late 90's.
markgordonuk - I know she was in the 2003 ceremony, not sure if in the late 90's as well.
Her career is similar to that of Norma Shearer - with the death of their husbands / producers they seem to have lost interest in stardom and acting. She was once called a "soft Vivien Leigh". Duel in The Sun is the kind of movie only possible in the era of the great studios - in it, ridicule and sublime go hand in hand and it is always surprising the "cool guy" Gregory Peck as the evil brother.
Chastain 2011-2012
Unfortunate to hear that no one volunteered for this centennial. It kinda reflects how Jones is indeed less well known today than other big stars of the time... And I go along, for I haven't seen much of her work. The first time I became aware of her was actually while watching the video of the last time the Oscars did that big reunion of past winners, which was in 2003. She was there and the title The Song of Bernadette stuck with me. To this day I've only seen one of her films, Portrait of Jennie, and I didn't watch it because of her... But I liked her enough to go read about her and that's when I found out about all her success, and that she won the Oscar on the day of her 25th birthday, which is so awesome! Looking at Jones' case and many others, I agree that it's preferable to never be right at the top, never have a definitive peak, never be The Superstar. It's much more desirable to be a Blanchett, one of the big stars, with "lots of mini-peaks"!
Thank you so very much, Nathaniel. Jennifer is my favorite actress so this day is very important to me. I voted for Love Letters, a lovely atmospheric noir written by Ayn Rand. Jennifer is quite bewitching in this role. She isn’t well known for the reasons you mention, which is a terrible shame. She had her own special magic. Thank you for an enchanting tribute to a beautiful star who deserves to be remembered.
I’d add Sandra Bullock 2009-2019 (from Mega hit Blind Side to Bird Box, going through another mega hit Gravity).
Isaac -- wow, shade to our lovely Chastain! so mean.
everyone -- i know she presented once in the 1980s at the Oscars.
The brunettes always better in b & w pictures - technicolor was made for red and blondes. Where did these guys find so many doll-faced actresses ?
Some of Meryl's best work was 1995-2003. Bridges of Madison County, The Hours, Adaptation, Angels in America. Can't skip that.
indiscretion of an american wife
costarring montgomery clift
directed by vittorio de sica
screenplay by truman capote
costumes by christian dior
how is anybody voting for anything else?!?
Nathaniel—Jennifer presented the cinematography Oscar to Chris Menges for The Mission in 87. She was very nervous. She was introduced with a lovely montage.
I love classic films, but I must admit aside from "Song of Bernadette" and "Towering Inferno" I haven't seen any other Jennifer Jones films. I don't currently subscribe to TCM, and I feel the loss whenever I want to see anything from before the eighties. I'm sorry that someone of Jennifer Jones stature has largely been forgotten.
Your point about sustaining a career as an actress is well made.
Life at the top is usually 10 years and then it's character roles in ensemble productions if an actress is lucky. Being able to work either Vegas or Broadway is an advantage that Shirley Maclaine, and Glenn Close have had. And Netflix/HBO peak TV has helped Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.
But in the end, only more female writers will really change that equation.
It's a bit icky now, nut her Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing performance is really quite beautiful.
Jennifer jones is one of my favorites and an expert in a genre that stayed in the past: the melodrama. Always a warm presence in the movies. Her Madame Bovary is a dazzle. I think her association with Selznick may have closed some doors and destroyed a few bridges, since her husband (a very prestigious man) was not much loved by his colleagues, including people who worked with him.
Jones was quite talented but her forgotten status is a result of many things beyond her control, unfortunately. Unlike her contemporaries, her film output is less, so there are few films to watch and appreciate. she also unfairly gained a reputation being the mistress and then wife of Zelznick. She also retired early. As Nathaniel noted, 35 years passed between her last film and her death. If you are not in the spotlight the public tends to forget you. I agree with Brookesboy that her performance in Love Letters was great but I voted for Love is... since it seems to be the more famous and accessible of the films.
PS- I would say the male version of the forgotten star is Paul Muni. He was getting nominations left and right at the peak of his career. Have there been any writings on him?
PPS- Fat City is on TCM this Monday if anyone wants to watch for the smackdown.
brandz --- oh, meryl had some great stuff in the second act of her career... but she wasn't "on top" anymore as it were. It took Prada to restore her to that 'favorite person of the public / constantly being cast and talked about' status that she had in the late 70s and 80s. I'm really only talking about 'peak star status'... not worth. Obviously a lot of these women had great perforrmances outside of the years mentioned.
ladyedith -- i think her lack of classic films is the ultimate in destroying awareness of her actually. none of her films are really watched today the way at least one are two are by her contemporaries like bergman, davis, crawford, taylor, etcetera.
It's a pity she was not nom for her best roles, Cluny Brown n Madame Bovary!
She's charming n funny n lovely in Cluny Brown! Shame tt she was nom for Duel in the Sun released the same yr, instead.
Jones is imo a limited actress. She sparkles in a few good roles but oso churned out as many duds, most o them produced by Selznick. He spared no expenses n was a total control freak.
He ruined Gone to Earth n Indiscretions w his incessant n unnecessary demands n reshoots, n sabotaged his wife's career.
I tink the decline o her career was in most parts due to the bad rep/ ill wills generated by Selznick!
Jones was oso not endearing herself w her diva behavior on set o Love is a Many Splendored Thing.
I do appreciate any actress from the 59s. They seemed to have better roles & always seemed more talented than 50% of the ‘stars’ we have today.
Beat the Devil is probably a classic, but the streaming version I saw on Amazon was unrestored and a murky mess. But Jones is great in it.
Interesting article and very on point about the length at the top. Even a titan like Bette Davis only had about 13 years at the very peak, Crawford's seemed longer but she had a couple of valleys in between her super highs.
With Jones she was tied in her success to Selznick but not totally reliant on him because like all his contract stars he would loan her out for other projects but considering the films she elected to star in after his death she was no judge of material. Add into that the fact that she was almost cripplingly shy and emotionally fragile, a trait sadly passed on to her daughter with Selznick-Mary Jennifer who jumped to her death at 21, and it's not surprising that she withdrew from public view. Also she wed the phenomenally wealthy Norton Simon after Selznick's death and she had no need to chase the spotlight.
That's a rough lot of choices. I voted for the only one I thought was a decent film-Love Letters. I'm no fan of hers but I hope she's spared the indignity of having the demeaning Angel, Angel Down We Go viewed any more than it needs to be. It's complete garbage. Thank goodness she accepted the role in The Towering Inferno and was able to close out her career with a decent film and a hit and not have something tawdry as a capper as Crawford did with Trog or Veronica Lake with Flesh Feast.
My God, she's charismatic and talented; just see what she did with that almost-nothing-role in The Towering Inferno! Certainly she helped Fred Astaire with his deserved nomination as supporting actor! And should have been nominated too! (Maybe the fact that he, having zero nomination - with a great career and amazing movies on his shoulders - while she, already a winner with a score of five nominations must have influenced).
Nathaniel, I agree 100%, you can be a screen actor in just a few films, and if they are screened as often as "His Girl Friday" or "The Women" - then you are Rosalind Russell, and are remembered and best of all discovered by new generations.
It really helps to be in a classic movie that network and cable tv repeat regularly.
It's a shame that Jennifer Jones is not discussed anymore, because I think she does have a strong filmography if we consider the first decade of her career (1943-1953). During that time, she worked with :
Henry King, who directed her in The Song of Bernadette, in my opinion a very good film, thanks to its captivating screenplay that perfectly balances the two main points of view, with the jealous nun who doubts her own faith and the skeptical atheist.
John Cromwell who assembled an exciting cast around her (Colbert, McDaniel, Moorehead, Walker, Woolley...) and created a beautiful drama with the help of a grand score from Max Steiner and a magnificent cinematography (the train station) !
Ernst Lubitsch, whose Cluny Brown is not his peak, but still, Jennifer Jones worked with Lubitsch (!), in a duet with Charles Boyer.
King Vidor in a magnificent mess, Duel in the Sun, which gave her the opportunity to star opposite Lillian Gish in superb Technicolor shots.
Vincente Minnelli, with a good adaptation of Madame Bovary, in which Jones gave her best performance from the 1940's.
William Wyler, in one of his most underrated films, Carrie, containing what is, maybe, Laurence Olivier's best performance in a movie.
John Huston in an horrendous failure, Beat the Devil, in which Jones is casted against type. And believe it or not, she's incredibly good in it.
And finally, William Dieterle, who created marvelous and atmospheric pictures such as Love Letters (with beautiful images of London and strange houses in the countryside), and especially Portrait of Jennie, by far the best movie Jones ever starred in, with crepuscular shots of New York driving to a spectacular sea storm. The mystery is not as fascinating as Vertigo, but it was made ten years earlier and it remains, to me, one of the most exciting pictures of 1948.
I never cared for her other films from the 1950's. But her filmography shows that Jennifer Jones is a very peculiar actress to me : I enjoy her movies tremendously and consider them as classics, but I simply don't like her as a performer. As best, she's fine in Carrie, Cluny Brown and Since You Went Away, while being overshadowed by her costars, and a little bit boring in Bernadette, but at worst, she's really bad in Love Letters, Duel in the Sun or Ruby Gentry. Nevertheless her performances in Madame Bovary and especially Beat the Devil were pleasant surprises to me. And she's obviously the MVP of The Towering Inferno but she's lucky to play the only character we can relate to.
That being said, I do believe that her films from the 1940's deserve to be more talked about, but I understand that some of the other women who peaked in Hollywood at that time have more enduring classics on their resumes (Leigh and De Havilland with Gone with the Wind, Fontaine with Rebecca and Letter from an Unknown Woman, Bergman with Casablanca, Gaslight and Notorious, Wyman with the ultimate Douglas Sirk's movie, etc).
Sadly, for many of us, the only memories we actually have of Jennifer Jones is from her 1998 and 2003 Oscars appearances, heavily made up with dark black hair and a string of pearls around her neck both times. But her own struggles with mental health and her advocacy for others with the Jennifer Jones Simon Foundation For Mental Health and Education are what should be much stronger aspects of her legacy. And interestingly, she had two close calls for famous Oscar winning roles: Georgie Elgin in The Country Girl (she was Bing Crosby's first choice, but had to drop out of consideration once she became pregnant) and Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment (she bought the rights to the novel with the intention of starring in the film, but James Brooks ultimately took control of the project and told her that she was too old for the part).
"Duel in the Sun" is a great example of Hollywood camp. Over produced like an epic by David O Selznick as vehicle for Jones playing a hot Latina in brown face who makes Gregory Peck go mad with lust. The over the top climax is cinema at its most absurd and romantic. Almodovar loves this movie for a reason
When I read about ‘yellowface’ for films like Duel & Love Is-I’m glad that it’s stated that ‘that’s how it was done in those days.’ Make me glad that I collect movies because I dread a future society that would forbid showing those 2 films (or Swing Time, Babes on Broadway, The Jazz Singer) ecause they offend people.
I wrote an post on my blog earlier this year for Madame Bovary, if you would like to use it, Nathaniel...
Rick
@ Nathaniei R:
Some might argue that 'Angels in America' alone brought back peak status to Streep!