FREDRIC MARCH

[JackFavell]

I do remember reading that he was an inveterate pincher.... Claudette Colbert couldn't abide doing promotional stills with him, because they inevitably would pose March with his hand behind her rear, and she would have to sit still and even smile, while he fumbled around back there.

[charliechaplinfan]

Ah well, it was probably a case of whilst the cat's away, the mouse will play.

Ha, ha, that's funny, I hadn't heard that about Claudette Colbert. Did they make any other films together apart from The Sign of the Cross? I can't believe how much makeup they made him wear in The Sign of the Cross and a curly wig too. It was very becoming although his costumes were a little too revealing for my tastes, too much thigh. I don't think Charles laughton would have had to bend down very far they were that short. I think Claudette looked lovely in her costume.

This is probably what he meant when he said 'Costarring with Garbo did not constitute an introduction'. Could anyone imagine anyone doing something like that to Garbo.

Claudette's hair is very dark in the other snap, perhaps too dark. I wonder when that was taken.

Good news, my copy of The Best Years of Our Lives arrived today. Hopefully it will be this evenings viewing.

[JackFavell]

Oooh, I can;t wait till you watch the whole thing and report back to us. It's such a great movie. I get a lump in my throat at about scene 2 that stays till the end and I am bawling like a baby.

[Jezebel38]

BTW, Ina Claire is the princess (countess?) in Garbo's Ninotchka. She was very pretty, plays a fairly unpleasant person in this. Seems like there was a backstory to her and one of the co-stars, of course I've slept since I read it, so who knows.

Ina Claire married Garbo's ex-squeeze John Gilbert, a fairly short time after Garbo had dumped him - I imagine that is the backstory you have in mind.

[charliechaplinfan]

Jack, The Best Years of Our Lives is the most heartrending movie I have ever watched. I loved it, I'm going to look to see if it has it's own thread, it must have surely? If not I'll create one, I was blown away. Heavens only knows what the impact on the audience of the time was.

[knitwit45]

I am SO glad you enjoyed it. It is, as I said, one of my MOST favorite movies. Everyone in it is perfect, from Homer's parents forward.

Weren't those 2 scenes I mentioned killers? I heard somewhere (probably when this movie was featured last on TCM) about the focus on Dana Andrews and Fredric March during the telephone call, and it is an incredible moment in the movie. I'll be waiting to read your thoughts on this one!

Nancy

[charliechaplinfan]

Nancy, I know you've seen my comments about TBYOOL. I truly adored the film.

I've carried on with my Fredric March viewing, I do have the tendency to get sidetracked when I like an actor or director. Well tonight I watched Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, thought I might as well see both of his Oscar winning performances, back to back so to speak. I've written about it more fully on the silents thread. I've watched it before, I love it for it's precode daring, it feels modern. One thing I noticed, as Dr Jekyll, Fredric March is very handsome and I'd just been concentrating on his acting

[intothenitrate]

Hey you guys, I missed you. I've been on a super hero bender--got the bug watching the Justice League cartoon with my kids, and then had to watch all the episodes I could get my hands on. This was followed by a Wonder Woman TV show chaser. But that's a different blog now isn't it?

Last night I was looking at the comments on the "most annoying actors/actresses" thread and March came up more than once. I might have felt that way about him initially myself, but my opinion has completely turned around in the last year or so.

I can't remember which film (or which viewing of which film) it was that turned me around--maybe it was Nothing Sacred--but my observation was this: I think March is working in two registers. That is, he sometimes comes off like a smug prick playing a role. That's what draws the disdain. But as the thirties wore on and into the forties, I get the sense that he was a decent, highly aware man playing a smug prick who was playing a role.

And CCFan, I'm so glad you finally got to see The Best Years of Our Lives. Sublime, isn't it? I heard that the man who played Homer wasn't a trained actor at all, but an actual disabled vet. It says something about Wyler, being able to fit him into such a high-powered ensemble with us being none the wiser.

In addition to all the stellar performances already mentioned, I have to give it up for Hoagy Charmichael. He's like the touchstone of warmth and understanding in the picture. So natural.

[JackFavell]

I adore Hoagy Carmichael!

[knitwit45]

Jackie, this is getting ridiculous! I love Hoagy, he always added so much to any film. Wonder if he really was that laid back, he just makes you feel warm and fuzzy, doesn't he?

[JackFavell]

Well, now, great minds (and hearts) think alike! Isn't he so wonderful?

I obviously need a warm fuzzy man in my life....

[charliechaplinfan]

Personally I've always liked March's work, although many don't. I think you might have hit the nail on the head pvitari regarding those who don't like him. Some of his earlier roles are a little one dimensional but he manages to inject every role with more than I feel many actors of his era would have. I'd read somewhere than he wanted to be a consumate actor first and star second, I think he achieved that. I wonder if he acted in movies only to afford to finance the plays he and Florence wanted to do on the stage. He seems like a man with scruples (apart from the wandering hands!)

[charliechaplinfan]

I don't think I will top TBYOOL but over the past couple of days I've rewatched Merrily We Go To Hell and I Married a Witch. I love the way the issues are handled in Merrily We Go To Hell, I'm more and more taken with Sylvia Sidney. I like the whimsy of I Married A Witch, apparently Veronica Lake and Fredric March detested one another but it doesn't show.

[moira finnie]

Just in case we entertained the thought that we ever really mellow, I thought someone might get a kick out of this story. I was reading Hume Cronyn's autobiography, A Terrible Liar, A Memoir (it's very interesting) when I came across his account of visiting his friend, Fredric March, when he was dying in the hospital in 1975.

After visiting with March, Cronyn went down the hall to pay his respects to March's wife of 48 years, Florence Eldridge. He found her fuming, mumbling something like "How dare he? How could he? That reprobate!" Florence's blood pressure must have been pretty high because she was so mad at her husband, she could hardly speak, but finally explained to Hume that she had been filling her time at the hospital by reading a biography in which Fred's co-star in Death Takes a Holiday (1934), Evelyn Venable described trying to elude the hands of "dear Fred" as Cronyn described him. In her autobiography, Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister, Evelyn Keyes also cited Fredric March's attempts to "comfort" his very young co-star on the set of The Buccaneer. Despite these peccadilloes, Fred and Florence remained married, raised two children and appear to have loved one another despite everything. Most frustrating of all, Mrs. March couldn't very well barge into his hospital room and read him the riot act for some girl he'd made a pass at forty years ago, could she?

I also wanted to share two brief interviews with Fredric March and Florence Eldridge, both completed within two years of March's death at age 77. The first one is here:

FREDRIC MARCH GAVE US THE BEST YEARS OF HIS LIFE

The second interview is an audio snippet that makes me wish that the Conn. NPR station would post more of it:

The Connecticut Basement Tapes Project: Fredric March

[charliechaplinfan]

Thank you for the articles Moira, there's not much out there in terms of written material, it's great to be able to read and listen to these articles.

I do so much like him as an actor. Do you believe Hume Croyn's version? It's so well documented about his wandering hands that you think she might have found out about it in the intervening time, an unfortunate time to find out when he was dying, I hope she came to terms with it. In the written interview they both come through, a couple, supporting his career with hers fitting in around his, so much respect and shared views and he knows he was lucky to have her. Florence Eldridge reminds me of my grandma, even at a relatively young age, she looked middle aged, it was common in those days, whereas Fredric March aged quite well.