Monty @ 100: "The Heiress"

by Camila Henriques

Montgomery Clift achieved greatness early in his career. Just one year into the Hollywood industry, he was tapped to co-star in a period drama by William Wyler, who was still riding the waves of the second of his three best directing Oscars, for 1946’s The Best Years of Our Lives. It was the combination of a very particular brand of acting and heartthrob looks that made Clift a star, and that mix is undoubtedly present in The Heiress.

Cemented in Hollywood history as the film that garnered Olivia de Havilland a second well-deserved Oscar, The Heiress also arguably introduced Monty as the romantic (or not) lead...

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Monty @ 100: Instant Stardom & Queer Masculinity in "Red River"

by Nathaniel R

I watched myself in Red River and I knew I was going to be famous, so I decided I would get drunk anonymously one last time."
- Montgomery Clift to the novelist James Jones (From Here to Eternity)

Cliff is an arrogant little bastard."
- John Wayne to a Life Magazine reporter.

While The Search (1948) was the first chance for moviegoers to see the rising actor Montgomery Clift on the screen, it was actually the second movie the young actor shot. His trial run in Hollywood came shortly before his 26th birthday, as he ditched Broadway to head to the Arizona desert for a John Wayne western. The film was Howard Hawks' Red River. It's possible that Hollywood didn't know that the film would prove to be a sensation with audiences, but word quickly spread that Wayne's debut co-star would.

By most accounts John Wayne and Montgomery Clift didn't get along but sometimes that works for a picture rather than against it...

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Clift @100: Monty arrives in "The Search"

by Eric Blume

We’re celebrating actor Montgomery Clift’s centennial here at TFE with a staff-wide observance of every single one of his films.  I’m the lucky bastard who gets to launch this exciting series with his first released film, 1948’s The Search.  

Director Fred Zinnemann crafted a film that holds up surprisingly well at age 72.  Sure, you have to muddle through some stilted expository voice-over and some now-dated narrative conventions, but this film’s emotional power still taps primal feelings and has an incredible payoff.  It’s a Hollywood film through and through, but Zinnemann shows extraordinary restraint and intelligence, keeping his focus on his young actor, and the American cheerleading to a minimum...

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Monty Clift Centennial Maxi-Series

by Nathaniel R

We've been wanting to do this for years and the perfect occasion finally presents itself. Team Experience will be celebrating the late great Montgomery Clift every evening in the first half of October for what would have been his 100th birthday on October 17th, 2020...

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The Furniture: Olivia de Havilland Embroiders Her Fate

Daniel Walber's series on Production Design. Click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

Olivia de Havilland was in nine films that were nominated for the Oscar for Best Production Design. It’s not the record, but it’s quite something. I’ve covered three of them: Hold Back the Dawn, My Cousin Rachel and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. But none of those actually won the award, so I still have some work to do. I haven’t got time for Gone with the Wind, and The Adventures of Robin Hood can wait a few weeks until our 1938 celebration, so I dove into The Heiress.

I hope you’re ready to think deeply about embroidery.

Granted, I’m not entirely sure director William Wyler was thinking deeply about his protagonist’s favorite pastime. The emphasis on Catherine Sloper’s (de Havilland) stitching can feel like little more than shorthand for “spinster” status. And the mid-19th century was a high point for this association, as embroidery was a standard part of the girls’ school curriculum.

Dr. Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson) sent Catherine to the finest boarding schools, where she would have learned the art of the sampler from an unmarried teacher. The end of the film bluntly zooms in on one of these stitched alphabets, which in this context might as well read “OLD MAID”...

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