Monty @ 100: The absolutely bonkers "Suddenly, Last Summer"

Team Experience is watching ever Montgomery Clift film for his Centennial

by Mark Brinkerhoff

Much has been written at The Film Experience about Tennessee William’s one-act play-turned-wild-ass movie (including again here, just last week), though with Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn going head-to-head, how can you not? But generally un(der)discussed among the trio of stars of Joe Mankiewicz’s 1959 film, adapted by Gore Vidal of all writers, is the by-that-time uninsurable Montgomery Clift.   

Reuniting onscreen for the third (and final) time with Taylor, his closest friend in real life (who, in fact, made it possible for him to appear alongside her by resolutely refusing to do the film otherwise), Clift gallantly cedes the floor to his co-star...

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Monty @ 100: The martyrdom of "Lonelyhearts"

by Cláudio Alves

For the first half of his career, Montgomery Clift typified an image of restless youth and tragic beauty onscreen. Many of his early films found Clift playing young traumatized soldiers or men embroiled in doomed romance, lively characters whose nervous energy electrified the frame. The second era of Monty films, starting with 1957's Raintree County, saw a transformation of his persona. Nathaniel previously explored some inklings of masochism in the narratives of From Here to Eternity and The Young Lions, but Clift's next few projects solidified him as a paragon of cinematic suffering.

Perhaps no project better encapsulates the idea of Montgomery Clift as a saint-like figure, a martyr, than the Vincent J. Donehue's 1958 film Lonelyhearts…

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Monty @ 100: Duet (or not) with Brando in "The Young Lions"

by Nathaniel R

Though Montgomery Clift rubbed some early co-stars the wrong way, "difficult" reputations in Hollywood never tell the full story. Clift also had friends in Hollywood and some loyal and famous ones like Liz Taylor who saved his career with a three picture deal (starting with Raintree County). Marlon Brando was another, though their relationship was far more volatile. Brando initially idolized Clift and eventually became his rival for both roles and status as the actor of their generation. Though they had never acted together, they travelled in the same New York artistic circles and became friends (and very briefly lovers) in the 1940s.

Brando was four years younger than Clift and had followed in his footsteps to fame...

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Monty @ 100: Friendship, Tragedy and "Raintree County"

by Cláudio Alves

Montgomery Clift's legacy is as defined by tragedy as it is by acting glory. Robert Lewis, his teacher at the famed Actors Studio, would famously describe Monty's downfall as "the longest suicide in Hollywood history". Until now, this centennial celebration has mostly avoided gossip and the dark shadow of doom clouding over the actor's biography. However, as we arrive at his ninth feature, the context of what was happening off-screen is too important to be dismissed…

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Monty @ 100: Stardom's Peak in "From Here To Eternity"

by Nathaniel R

Calling your picture From Here To Eternity, even if that's the name of the book its based on, is a major flex and a tempting of fate. How to live up to the title? 1950s and 1960s movies did this frequently, of course, in their battle against the looming threat of television. Screens got bigger and wider and the studio system was, if already mortally wounded, still working hard at making their movie stars iconic. Titles like Giant, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Greatest Show on Earth, frequently dared to proclaim their epic-ness, and if the titles weren't size-conscious, why not add an exclamation point a la Oliver!, Hello, Dolly!, Viva Zapata! or I Want To Live!  In this lust for enormous movies, From Here To Eternity stands out, not just for living up to its promise and being eminently swoon-worthy but for its relative modesty -- capturing something grandiose merely by inhabiting the sealed world and social lives of soldiers and their women on the brink of cataclysmic change. It might have been mere soap opera without the skillful direction of Fred Zinneman and the simple fact that the stars themselves were monumental.

Chief among them was Montgomery Clift, scoring his third Best Actor nomination with his eighth film...

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