|
|
 |
|
ELIA KAZAN 1909-2003 |
 |
When it came to actors,
nobody did it better
of TheColumnists.com
Though I'm a lifelong disciple of Alfred Hitchcock,
no movie director excited me more in my youth than the amazing
Elia Kazan, who died last week at age 94.
I didn't know it at the
time, but Kazan was bringing a new era of naturalism to the movie
screen in the years after World War II. All I knew then was that
his films, such as "On the Waterfront" and "East
of Eden" were uniquely realistic and the characters in them
seemed to be real people instead of actors. The truth is he changed
the face of Hollywood movies forever by creating a new kind of
picture in which antiquated personality-based acting styles gave
way to new techniques that stressed honesty and realism.
Kazan was, in my opinion, the greatest director of actors Hollywood
had ever seen. Over the years, I've interviewed dozens of actors
who worked with Kazan. They almost universally cited him as the
director who got the very best performances out of them, often
by spending time with them and gently talking them through their
preparations of their characters.
The result often was great glory for actors--and lots of awards. In Kazan's first picture as a director, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1945), the veteran actor James Dunn earned the best supporting actor Oscar. Two years later, Kazan won his first directing Oscar for "Gentleman's Agreement," which also was named Best Picture of 1947. In that film, another veteran actor, Celeste Holm, won the Supporting Actress Oscar.
Others who won Oscars under
Kazan's direction were Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter
for "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951); Anthony Quinn
for "Viva Zapata" (1952), Marlon Brando and Eva Marie
Saint for "On the Waterfront" (1954) and Jo Van Fleet
for "East of Eden" (1955).
Those who were nominated for Oscars under Kazan's direction,
but didn't win that year were: Gregory Peck and Dorothy McGuire
for "Gentleman's Agreement," Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore
and Ethel Waters for "Pinky" (1949), Marlon Brando
for "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Viva Zapata,"
Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Rod Steiger for "On the Waterfront,"
James Dean for "East of Eden," Carroll Baker and Mildred
Dunnock for "Baby Doll" (1956) and Natalie Wood for
"Splendor in the Grass" (1961).
 |
 |
|
|
"He made more stars
during that period than anyone I know," Karl Malden told
me in a 1993 interview.
Malden recalled that Kazan had an uncanny way of seeing potential
in people to play roles nobody else would even consider for a
part. He cited the example of Carroll Baker, who Kazan made a
star by casting her in "Baby Doll," the film version
of a Tennessee Williams play about a "big, fat, sloppy kind
of girl" Malden always thought should look like Maureen
Stapleton.
Malden said, "He took
a gal who was all wrong for the part--Carroll Baker. But he knew
that, psychologically, the inner quality of what that girl had
was right."
He also remembered that Kazan had a hangup about filming in color,
which he thought was wrong for the realistic sort of pictures
he was making. But when Warner Bros. assigned him to direct "East
of Eden," they insisted it be shot in color.
"He said he didn't know a damned thing about color and how to set it up," Malden said. "On the top floor of his home, he had an office. I was in there one day and saw he had an easel and paints. He was coloring and matching paints until he found out how he thought the picture ought to look."
Malden believes Kazan was permanently damaged by the antagonism he faced in the Hollywood community, even from old friends, when he decided to testify after the House Un-American Activities Committee summoned him to answer questions about communists in the film industry. Kazan had flirted with the communist party during his formulative years with the Group Theatre in New York, but had rejected that philosophy. He was warned by the right wingers supporting Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-communism crusade that he would be blacklisted, finished in Hollywood if he didn't testify.
Kazan didn't want to lose his career defending a philosophy he hated and people he didn't associate with anymore. When he testified, he named only those people who had been "outed" by others earlier and already were blacklisted. Still, many people despised him for "ratting out" former associates.
Malden told me that Kazan suffered greatly from charges that "On the Waterfront" was his defense for testifying. (The leading character in the movie testifies against labor racketeers.) During that 1993 interview, Malden told me Kazan was in Hollywood at that time, trying to raise money for a new movie, but nobody would touch his project.
"He's the best director I ever worked for in theater or film," Malden said. "He understands everything that happens in front of the camera."
In contrast, Rod Steiger retained his respect for Kazan as a director, but never forgave him for testifying against his former colleagues. He never worked for Kazan again.
"I had a friend who committed suicide over being blacklisted," Steiger told me in a 1991 interview. "I could never look (Kazan) in the eye again."
For a movie director, Kazan
had a rather short career--just 31 years. He had not made a film
since "The Last Tycoon" in 1976. Steven Spielberg,
who was nearly 50 years younger than Kazan, already has had a
longer career directing movies.
But Kazan was revolutionizing the Broadway theater at the same
time he was establishing his name as a movie director--staging
several immortal American plays, including Arthur Miller's "Death
of A Salesman" and Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar
Named Desire."
Before his directing career was over, Kazan also established himself as a major success in yet another branch of the arts--the literary world. He wrote seveal best-selling novels, including "The Arrangement," which he adapted for the screen in 1969.
Eva Marie Saint, who won the Oscar in Kazan's "On the Waterfront," her first film, told me she felt Kazan had given up the movies in favor of a new creative drive. "He wants to write," she said. "That's what he wants to do with his life now."
Kazan's most personal work as a writer was "America, America," the true story of his uncle's immigration to America from Greece. He filmed it in 1963 and it was nominated for Best Picture. Kazan also was nominated for writing and directing Oscars, but didn't win.
In retrospect, Kazan's greatest film clearly was "On the Waterfront," which earned him his second directing Oscar and was named Best Picture of 1954. Among my other favorites: "Gentleman's Agreement," a still powerful indictment of anti-Semitism; "Sea of Grass" (1947), a grand western drama with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn; "East of Eden," the film that made James Dean a star; "A Face in the Crowd" (1957), which proved comedian Andy Griffith was a first-rate dramatic actor; and most especially "Splendor in the Grass," the most heartbreaking romantic film I've ever seen, with the best performances Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood ever gave.
For those who also want to partake of the truly unusual, I cheerfully suggest you track down "City for Conquest," the 1940 James Cagney picture in which Kazan made his movie debut...as an actor! He wasn't bad, although I don't think he ever was going to be any threat to the leading men of his day.
In the final analysis of his career, I think it's best to forget about Kazan's decision to testify at the HUAC hearings just the way I think it's best to forget about the far right politics of beloved actors like John Wayne and Charlton Heston, the leftist politics of Paul Robeson and Charles Chaplin or the sexual hijinks of action heroes like Errol Flynn.
Kazan was one of the greatest directors of the 20th century and his films already have survived the test of time.
©2003 by Ron Miller.
You
can comment on this column online. Please address your message
to either "The Editors" or Ron Miller. To send an email,
click here: talkback@thecolumnists.com
| Home | About Us | Archives | Talkback | Shopping Mall |