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Ava Gardner #1
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The Spectator
AVA GARDNER by Lee Server Bloomsbury, £20, pp. 550 ISBN 0747565473 . £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655
Why are we so interested in biographies of the old film stars? I don't think our children will be. I can't see them reading 550 pages, the length of this book, about the lives of far better actors like George Clooney or Gwyneth Paltrow. But then we don't see the stars as actors. For that period straddling the middle of the last century we really came to believe the old gods were back.
This illusion was the achievement of the Hollywood studios, in particular of the Eastern European Jews who ran them, and were some of the most appalling human beings who have ever walked the earth.
According to Lee Server, L. B. Mayer of MGM 'routinely' groped the breasts of the adolescent Judy Garland, and Arthur Freed, the producer of The Wizard of Oz, exposed himself to the 12-year-old Shirley Temple.
But we knew none of this; all we knew was that after an absence of 1,000 years the gods were amongst us again.
Like the gods they lived apart, appearing to us, like them, as visions of heroism and loveliness, in their case in films. The irony is that off-stage they also behaved like the gods:
they drank, they quarrelled, and they humped (the teenage midget Mickey Rooney, who seems to have had a gift for alliteration, revealing of his affair with Norma Shearer, Thalberg's middle-aged widow, that 'she was hotter than a half****ed fox in a forest fire'). But the studio's publicists managed to keep all this from us, which is why these biographies are so fascinating. Asgard was a mad place. Still the men behind the gods had done their work well:
the creatures they chose and moulded were fascinating in themselves.
I remember that great 20th-century thinker Burt Lancaster telling me, 'When a man's face is nine feet across in close-up he has to have ... something.' Lancaster was explaining the difference between actors and film stars, in the intervals between explaining such diverse topics as the Risorgimento and transsexuality ('That's when you have a ****. And balls. And you don't want 'em.'). But there was something else apart from their nine-foot faces which made the stars fascinating, and gives their biographies, particularly those of the women, such a dying fall: unlike the gods, they grew old.
Burt, who had something to say on most things, had something to say on this as well.
'These old dames, they go on. They're 50, they're fading. They can't cope. They sit in make-up chairs for five hours, with straps holding their faces up.' After which there is just the withdrawal from public life, the darkened rooms, the small dogs walked at midnight, the booze, and the silence. Which, more or less, is the story of Ava Gardner.
It starts when, a farmer's daughter from the mid-West, she was discovered at 17 by a talent scout who saw her picture in the window of a small-town photographer's shop.
It ends with booze and small dogs in the exile of a South Kensington flat, all directors and publicists and lovers fallen away, especially the lovers. Lee Server's main concern is with her sex life.
Until I read his book all I knew about this was the story told by her second husband, the clarinetist Artie Shaw, in the course of a newspaper interview. Newly married, Shaw found himself impotent and went to see a doctor. The man, who seems to have known nothing about his private life, advised him to imagine he was making love to someone else, to Ava Gardner say. Shaw said he did not have the nerve to tell him that it was Ava Gardner. It is such a touching little story, and so human, but Lee Server does not mention it. His concern is with the love goddess.
First there was Mickey Rooney. Ava was 19 and a virgin, but immediately 'her body gave proof of what for months her words and the prohibitive snap of her thighs had declared'. How does he know? More to the point, how does he know the rest of it?
She would signal her need with a smouldering look or a provocatively raised eyebrow or come to greet him in a pair of panties and nothing else. Or dispense with subtleties altogether, growling at him, 'Let's ****.' By Rooney's reckoning she was custom designed for intercourse.
It is that kind of book, with that kind of language. The two were, of course, divorced within a year.
And then there was Artie Shaw. And Howard Hughes, whom she didn't go to bed with because he stank and had VD; it is a very subtle book, this. And Frank Sinatra, who weighed 119 pounds, 19 pounds of which, Ava told a girl friend, was his penis, though she told Shaw, her ex-husband, that going to bed with Sinatra was like going to bed with a woman. And then, as her own film parts got bigger, her co-stars.
There was David Niven, who mourning the death of his first wife, suffered from 'a nearperpetual erection, relief from which he found in the procreative recesses of all the alluring Hollywood females who would have him'. There's words, as the barmaid told Dylan Thomas.
And there was Kirk Douglas, one of nature's gentlemen, who later recalled their love for each other. 'Being a Jew I always fasted on Yom Kippur. And let me tell you, it's not easy to make love to Ava Gardner on an empty stomach.' After that there were bullfighters and beachboys, and moments of advice to young actresses from a long life. One was:
'You need to get the **** out of Spain, because the guys all have little dicks and they'll **** you in the *** before you can get your panties off.' How much of this I can believe, I'm not sure.
But something I do, and treasure, is Donald Sinden's recollection of how she once took a bath in front of him. Nothing happened, said Sinden, because she was in the habit of stealing food from his plate, which irritated him intensely. In such moments it is the doors which bang in Asgard.
Somewhere, in between all this, films got made, most of which I have seen and cannot remember.She was only a farmer's daughter . . .
AVA GARDNER by Lee Server Bloomsbury, £20, pp. 550 ISBN 0747565473 . £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655
Why are we so interested in biographies of the old film stars? I don't think our children will be. I can't see them reading 550 pages, the length of this book, about the lives of far better actors like George Clooney or Gwyneth Paltrow. But then we don't see the stars as actors. For that period straddling the middle of the last century we really came to believe the old gods were back.
This illusion was the achievement of the Hollywood studios, in particular of the Eastern European Jews who ran them, and were some of the most appalling human beings who have ever walked the earth.
According to Lee Server, L. B. Mayer of MGM 'routinely' groped the breasts of the adolescent Judy Garland, and Arthur Freed, the producer of The Wizard of Oz, exposed himself to the 12-year-old Shirley Temple.
But we knew none of this; all we knew was that after an absence of 1,000 years the gods were amongst us again.
Like the gods they lived apart, appearing to us, like them, as visions of heroism and loveliness, in their case in films. The irony is that off-stage they also behaved like the gods:
they drank, they quarrelled, and they humped (the teenage midget Mickey Rooney, who seems to have had a gift for alliteration, revealing of his affair with Norma Shearer, Thalberg's middle-aged widow, that 'she was hotter than a half****ed fox in a forest fire'). But the studio's publicists managed to keep all this from us, which is why these biographies are so fascinating. Asgard was a mad place. Still the men behind the gods had done their work well:
the creatures they chose and moulded were fascinating in themselves.
I remember that great 20th-century thinker Burt Lancaster telling me, 'When a man's face is nine feet across in close-up he has to have ... something.' Lancaster was explaining the difference between actors and film stars, in the intervals between explaining such diverse topics as the Risorgimento and transsexuality ('That's when you have a ****. And balls. And you don't want 'em.'). But there was something else apart from their nine-foot faces which made the stars fascinating, and gives their biographies, particularly those of the women, such a dying fall: unlike the gods, they grew old.
Burt, who had something to say on most things, had something to say on this as well.
'These old dames, they go on. They're 50, they're fading. They can't cope. They sit in make-up chairs for five hours, with straps holding their faces up.' After which there is just the withdrawal from public life, the darkened rooms, the small dogs walked at midnight, the booze, and the silence. Which, more or less, is the story of Ava Gardner.
It starts when, a farmer's daughter from the mid-West, she was discovered at 17 by a talent scout who saw her picture in the window of a small-town photographer's shop.
It ends with booze and small dogs in the exile of a South Kensington flat, all directors and publicists and lovers fallen away, especially the lovers. Lee Server's main concern is with her sex life.
Until I read his book all I knew about this was the story told by her second husband, the clarinetist Artie Shaw, in the course of a newspaper interview. Newly married, Shaw found himself impotent and went to see a doctor. The man, who seems to have known nothing about his private life, advised him to imagine he was making love to someone else, to Ava Gardner say. Shaw said he did not have the nerve to tell him that it was Ava Gardner. It is such a touching little story, and so human, but Lee Server does not mention it. His concern is with the love goddess.
First there was Mickey Rooney. Ava was 19 and a virgin, but immediately 'her body gave proof of what for months her words and the prohibitive snap of her thighs had declared'. How does he know? More to the point, how does he know the rest of it?
She would signal her need with a smouldering look or a provocatively raised eyebrow or come to greet him in a pair of panties and nothing else. Or dispense with subtleties altogether, growling at him, 'Let's ****.' By Rooney's reckoning she was custom designed for intercourse.
It is that kind of book, with that kind of language. The two were, of course, divorced within a year.
And then there was Artie Shaw. And Howard Hughes, whom she didn't go to bed with because he stank and had VD; it is a very subtle book, this. And Frank Sinatra, who weighed 119 pounds, 19 pounds of which, Ava told a girl friend, was his penis, though she told Shaw, her ex-husband, that going to bed with Sinatra was like going to bed with a woman. And then, as her own film parts got bigger, her co-stars.
There was David Niven, who mourning the death of his first wife, suffered from 'a nearperpetual erection, relief from which he found in the procreative recesses of all the alluring Hollywood females who would have him'. There's words, as the barmaid told Dylan Thomas.
And there was Kirk Douglas, one of nature's gentlemen, who later recalled their love for each other. 'Being a Jew I always fasted on Yom Kippur. And let me tell you, it's not easy to make love to Ava Gardner on an empty stomach.' After that there were bullfighters and beachboys, and moments of advice to young actresses from a long life. One was:
'You need to get the **** out of Spain, because the guys all have little dicks and they'll **** you in the *** before you can get your panties off.' How much of this I can believe, I'm not sure.
But something I do, and treasure, is Donald Sinden's recollection of how she once took a bath in front of him. Nothing happened, said Sinden, because she was in the habit of stealing food from his plate, which irritated him intensely. In such moments it is the doors which bang in Asgard.
Somewhere, in between all this, films got made, most of which I have seen and cannot remember.She was only a farmer's daughter . . .
scriptgirl
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Cowles
ACTRESS AVA GARDNER once was called "The World's Most Beautiful Animal," and it's hard to argue with that description of the striking brunette. But she was also a down-to-earth, self-described tomboy from North Carolina who hated shoes. When her moment came to join the immortals at Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theater, she wanted to remove her spike-heeled sandal and push her bare foot into the wet cement.
You can explore the contradictions of this fascinating woman at the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield, North Carolina, about 40 miles from Raleigh. The museum recently moved into a new home at 325 E. Market Street, eight miles from where Gardner grew up and only minutes from Interstate 95.
On the surface, Gardner's life seemed to be the stuff of fairy tales-she was a gorgeous star married, in succession, to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra, counted Howard Hughes and Ernest Hemingway as friends, lived in Spain and London, and starred in films such as The Killers, One Touch of Venus and The Barefoot Contessa. When MGM took a group photo of its stars in 1949, the tobacco farmer's daughter found herself seated between Clark Gable and Judy Garland.
But Gardner, who died in 1990, never took herself or Hollywood too seriously. She once quipped that being a movie star was "a big damn bore," and the failure of her three marriages troubled her.
The small, elegant museum tells her story with costumes, posters, film scripts and other trappings of her glamorous public life, but you can also see such intimate personal items as an embroidered throw pillow given to her by a niece. There is an admission charge; for more information call (919) 934-5830 or go to www.avagardner.org.
ACTRESS AVA GARDNER once was called "The World's Most Beautiful Animal," and it's hard to argue with that description of the striking brunette. But she was also a down-to-earth, self-described tomboy from North Carolina who hated shoes. When her moment came to join the immortals at Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theater, she wanted to remove her spike-heeled sandal and push her bare foot into the wet cement.
You can explore the contradictions of this fascinating woman at the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield, North Carolina, about 40 miles from Raleigh. The museum recently moved into a new home at 325 E. Market Street, eight miles from where Gardner grew up and only minutes from Interstate 95.
On the surface, Gardner's life seemed to be the stuff of fairy tales-she was a gorgeous star married, in succession, to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra, counted Howard Hughes and Ernest Hemingway as friends, lived in Spain and London, and starred in films such as The Killers, One Touch of Venus and The Barefoot Contessa. When MGM took a group photo of its stars in 1949, the tobacco farmer's daughter found herself seated between Clark Gable and Judy Garland.
But Gardner, who died in 1990, never took herself or Hollywood too seriously. She once quipped that being a movie star was "a big damn bore," and the failure of her three marriages troubled her.
The small, elegant museum tells her story with costumes, posters, film scripts and other trappings of her glamorous public life, but you can also see such intimate personal items as an embroidered throw pillow given to her by a niece. There is an admission charge; for more information call (919) 934-5830 or go to www.avagardner.org.
scriptgirl
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Capitol Hill Press Releases
Etheridge Launches Effort
to Put Screen Legend and NC Native Ava Gardner on Postage Stamp Lawmaker
says designation would be an appropriate honor for world- renowned actress,
calls on residents to write showing their support WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep.
Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) today launched an effort he is undertaking
in Congress to have a postage stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service in
honor of the late former screen legend and North Carolina native Ava Gardner.
Etheridge announced that he will introduce legislation in Congress next
week to urge the U.S. Postal Service Stamp Advisory Committee to issue
a stamp for the world-famous screen star who died on January 25, 1990.
A person must be deceased ten years to be eligible to be placed on a postage
stamp. Etheridge was joined at the press conference by Gardner's grand
niece and namesake Ava Carol Thompson, State Senator Allen Wellons (D-Johnston),
Deidra Kraft, Chairman of the Board of the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield
and other local and state officials. ``I am proud to be launching this
effort to issue a stamp in honor of Ava Gardner not only because she is
a native of our great state, but because of her accomplishments and the
lives she touched around the world,`` Etheridge said. ``Ava Gardner lived
the American Dream but never forgot her humble beginnings in Johnston County,
her high school days at Rock Ridge or her days at Atlantic Christian College.
Ava Gardner`s career spanned five decades, and she was America`s sweetheart
during Hollywood`s Golden Age. Ava was also a patriot who performed for
our servicemen and a tireless leader in the fight against cancer. Having
a stamp issued in your memory is a high honor. If Daffy Duck and the dung
beetle are worthy of postage stamps, surely someone as glamorous and accomplished
as Ava Gardner deserves one.`` Gardner, a native of Smithfield in Johnston
County, attended Rock Ridge High School in Wilson County and Atlantic Christian
College (now Barton College) in Wilson. In the summer of 1941 Ava Gardner
made her first trek across country to Hollywood where her career as a film
legend soon took off. Gardner, who was once married to Frank Sinatra, made
at least 64 films throughout her five-decade career and won many honors
including: A Golden Globe nomination for ``Best Actress in a Drama`` for
``Night of the Iguana`` in 1964; The Academy of Motion Pictures ``Merit
for Outstanding Achievement - Best Actress`` nomination for ``Mogambo``
in 1953; And the Look ``Film Achievement`` award for her performance in
``The Hucksters`` in 1947. Ava Gardner was also the first woman from North
Carolina to grace the cover of Time magazine. In addition to her success
on the silver screen, Ava was a leader in the fight against cancer and
worked tirelessly for more funding for research. Ms. Gardner was also a
patriot and was recognized by the U.S. Armed Forces for her spirit of public
service and her performance as a guest star on the Armed Forces radio network`s
production of ``Victorious Lady.`` Ava Gardner is known around the world
as one of the most accomplished actresses in the 20th century. She led
the Hollywood golden age and shared the stage with Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster,
and Grace Kelly. Throughout her career Ms. Gardner lived in New York, California,
England and Spain. So revered was she in Spain that a statue was erected
in her honor that still stands today. Ava Gardner is buried along with
her parents in Smithfield. Ten other native North Carolinian`s have been
honored on commemorative postage stamps, including: President Andrew Johnson
born in Raleigh, Virginia Dare, the first child born in America on Roanoke
Island in 1587, Author Thomas Wolfe of Asheville, First Lady Dolly Madison
born in Guilford, President James K. Polk born in Pineville, band leader
John William Coltrane born in Hamlet, jazz musician Thelonius Monk born
in Rocky Mount and the North Carolina signers of the U.S. Constitution
Dr. Hugh Williamson of Edenton, William Blount of Windsor and Richard Speight
of Craven County. Etheridge called on Gardner`s fans to join in the campaign
to have a stamp issued for the film legend by expressing their support
in letters or e-mails to Etheridge`s office. Fans can send letters to:
Congressman Bob Etheridge, 1533 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20515 or
by accessing Etheridge`s e- mail via his website at www.house.gov/etheridge.
Etheridge`s remarks at today`s press conference appear below. Congressman
Bob Etheridge Remarks for Ava Gardner Legislation Announcement February
8, 2001 Good morning, I want to thank you all for coming to celebrate the
life and accomplishments of Johnston County`s favorite daughter and one
of the world`s all time great actresses, Ava Gardner. Let me thank Billie
Stevens and Deidre Kraft of the Ava Gardner Museum for your hard work to
preserve Ava`s legacy. Without your dedication and vision we would not
be here today. I also want to thank State Senator Allen Wellons, Pete Connet,
Smithfield`s Town Manager, Donna Bailey Taylor of the Johnston County Bureau
of Tourism, and the Four Oaks Bank for your support of the Ava Gardner
Museum and for being with us today. We also have a relative of Ava Gardner
with us today: Ava Carol Thompson, Ava Gardner`s grand niece and namesake.
We are glad you`re here and appreciate your support. I am excited to be
here today, having grown up in Johnston County myself, to join with all
of you in paying tribute to this fine North Carolinian. Today we begin
an effort to achieve our ultimate goal to honor this great woman - having
a postage stamp issued for Ava Gardner. When I return to Washington next
week, I will introduce legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives
urging the Postmaster General to issue a stamp honoring Ava Gardner. I
am proud to be launching this effort in Ava Gardner`s memory, not only
because she is a native of this great state, but also because of her accomplishments
and the lives she touched around the world. Ava Gardner lived the American
Dream but never forgot her humble beginnings in Johnston County, her high
school days in Rock Ridge or her time at Atlantic Christian College in
Wilson. Indeed, Ava`s story is the American Dream. Born the youngest of
seven children of Jonas and Mary Elizabeth Gardner Ava grew up near Smithfield.
In the summer of 1941 the Smithfield Herald told the story of Ava Gardner`s
trip across country to a place called Hollywood. When she arrived in Hollywood,
it didn`t take long for the whole world to recognize what the people of
Smithfield and all of North Carolina already saw - Ava`s remarkable talent.
During her career, she starred in 64 films and won many honors including:
A Golden Globe nomination for ``Best Actress in a Drama`` for ``Night of
the Iguana`` in 1964; The Academy of Motion Pictures ``Merit for Outstanding
Achievement - Best Actress`` nomination for ``Mogambo`` in 1953; And the
Look ``Film Achievement`` award for her performance in ``The Hucksters``
in 1947. She was also the first woman from North Carolina to grace the
cover of Time magazine. In addition to her success on the silver screen,
Ava was a leader in the fight against cancer and worked tirelessly for
more funding for research. She was also a patriot and was recognized by
the U.S. Armed Forces for her spirit of public service and her performance
as a guest star on the Armed Forces radio network`s production of ``Victorious
Lady.`` Ava Gardner was one of America`s most accomplished actresses in
the 20th century. She led the Hollywood golden age, shared the stage with
Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, and Grace Kelly. She served as a goodwill
ambassador to people around the globe. Her fame lives on through her movies
and the wonderful Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield. With all of her accomplishments
and her record of public service, it is fitting that this great actress
and American should be immortalized on a commemorative postage stamp. Having
a stamp issued in your memory is a high honor. But folks, if they can put
Daffy Duck and the dung beetle on a postage stamp, for sure there is a
place for someone as glamorous and accomplished as Ava Gardner on one.
Ten other native North Carolinian`s have been honored on commemorative
postage stamps, including: President Andrew Johnson born in Raleigh, Virginia
Dare, the first child born in America on Roanoke Island in 1587, Author
Thomas Wolfe of Asheville, First Lady Dolly Madison born in Guilford, President
James K. Polk born in Pineville, band leader John William Coltrane born
in Hamlet, jazz musician Thelonius Monk born in Rocky Mount and the North
Carolina signers of the U.S. Constitution Dr. Hugh Williamson of Edenton,
William Blount of Windsor and Richard Speight of Craven County. It`s time
one was issued for Ava Gardner. The supporters of the Ava Gardner Museum
and I need your help. If you support this legislation urging the U.S. Postal
Service to issue a commemorative stamp honoring Ava Gardner, please write
me a letter. Address your letters to my Washington Office at 1533 Longworth
House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 or e-mail me via my website
at www.house.gov/etheridge. We will forward these letters and e-mails to
the postal service and the appropriate committees. Thank you all for joining
us for today`s announcement and thank you for your support. At this time
I would like to call on Senator Wellons for some brief remarks followed
by Ava Thompson and Ms. Kraft - after which we will unveil a mock-up of
the stamp we would propose be issued in memory of Ms. Gardner by the postal
service. Senator Wellons.
Etheridge Launches Effort
to Put Screen Legend and NC Native Ava Gardner on Postage Stamp Lawmaker
says designation would be an appropriate honor for world- renowned actress,
calls on residents to write showing their support WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep.
Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) today launched an effort he is undertaking
in Congress to have a postage stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service in
honor of the late former screen legend and North Carolina native Ava Gardner.
Etheridge announced that he will introduce legislation in Congress next
week to urge the U.S. Postal Service Stamp Advisory Committee to issue
a stamp for the world-famous screen star who died on January 25, 1990.
A person must be deceased ten years to be eligible to be placed on a postage
stamp. Etheridge was joined at the press conference by Gardner's grand
niece and namesake Ava Carol Thompson, State Senator Allen Wellons (D-Johnston),
Deidra Kraft, Chairman of the Board of the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield
and other local and state officials. ``I am proud to be launching this
effort to issue a stamp in honor of Ava Gardner not only because she is
a native of our great state, but because of her accomplishments and the
lives she touched around the world,`` Etheridge said. ``Ava Gardner lived
the American Dream but never forgot her humble beginnings in Johnston County,
her high school days at Rock Ridge or her days at Atlantic Christian College.
Ava Gardner`s career spanned five decades, and she was America`s sweetheart
during Hollywood`s Golden Age. Ava was also a patriot who performed for
our servicemen and a tireless leader in the fight against cancer. Having
a stamp issued in your memory is a high honor. If Daffy Duck and the dung
beetle are worthy of postage stamps, surely someone as glamorous and accomplished
as Ava Gardner deserves one.`` Gardner, a native of Smithfield in Johnston
County, attended Rock Ridge High School in Wilson County and Atlantic Christian
College (now Barton College) in Wilson. In the summer of 1941 Ava Gardner
made her first trek across country to Hollywood where her career as a film
legend soon took off. Gardner, who was once married to Frank Sinatra, made
at least 64 films throughout her five-decade career and won many honors
including: A Golden Globe nomination for ``Best Actress in a Drama`` for
``Night of the Iguana`` in 1964; The Academy of Motion Pictures ``Merit
for Outstanding Achievement - Best Actress`` nomination for ``Mogambo``
in 1953; And the Look ``Film Achievement`` award for her performance in
``The Hucksters`` in 1947. Ava Gardner was also the first woman from North
Carolina to grace the cover of Time magazine. In addition to her success
on the silver screen, Ava was a leader in the fight against cancer and
worked tirelessly for more funding for research. Ms. Gardner was also a
patriot and was recognized by the U.S. Armed Forces for her spirit of public
service and her performance as a guest star on the Armed Forces radio network`s
production of ``Victorious Lady.`` Ava Gardner is known around the world
as one of the most accomplished actresses in the 20th century. She led
the Hollywood golden age and shared the stage with Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster,
and Grace Kelly. Throughout her career Ms. Gardner lived in New York, California,
England and Spain. So revered was she in Spain that a statue was erected
in her honor that still stands today. Ava Gardner is buried along with
her parents in Smithfield. Ten other native North Carolinian`s have been
honored on commemorative postage stamps, including: President Andrew Johnson
born in Raleigh, Virginia Dare, the first child born in America on Roanoke
Island in 1587, Author Thomas Wolfe of Asheville, First Lady Dolly Madison
born in Guilford, President James K. Polk born in Pineville, band leader
John William Coltrane born in Hamlet, jazz musician Thelonius Monk born
in Rocky Mount and the North Carolina signers of the U.S. Constitution
Dr. Hugh Williamson of Edenton, William Blount of Windsor and Richard Speight
of Craven County. Etheridge called on Gardner`s fans to join in the campaign
to have a stamp issued for the film legend by expressing their support
in letters or e-mails to Etheridge`s office. Fans can send letters to:
Congressman Bob Etheridge, 1533 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20515 or
by accessing Etheridge`s e- mail via his website at www.house.gov/etheridge.
Etheridge`s remarks at today`s press conference appear below. Congressman
Bob Etheridge Remarks for Ava Gardner Legislation Announcement February
8, 2001 Good morning, I want to thank you all for coming to celebrate the
life and accomplishments of Johnston County`s favorite daughter and one
of the world`s all time great actresses, Ava Gardner. Let me thank Billie
Stevens and Deidre Kraft of the Ava Gardner Museum for your hard work to
preserve Ava`s legacy. Without your dedication and vision we would not
be here today. I also want to thank State Senator Allen Wellons, Pete Connet,
Smithfield`s Town Manager, Donna Bailey Taylor of the Johnston County Bureau
of Tourism, and the Four Oaks Bank for your support of the Ava Gardner
Museum and for being with us today. We also have a relative of Ava Gardner
with us today: Ava Carol Thompson, Ava Gardner`s grand niece and namesake.
We are glad you`re here and appreciate your support. I am excited to be
here today, having grown up in Johnston County myself, to join with all
of you in paying tribute to this fine North Carolinian. Today we begin
an effort to achieve our ultimate goal to honor this great woman - having
a postage stamp issued for Ava Gardner. When I return to Washington next
week, I will introduce legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives
urging the Postmaster General to issue a stamp honoring Ava Gardner. I
am proud to be launching this effort in Ava Gardner`s memory, not only
because she is a native of this great state, but also because of her accomplishments
and the lives she touched around the world. Ava Gardner lived the American
Dream but never forgot her humble beginnings in Johnston County, her high
school days in Rock Ridge or her time at Atlantic Christian College in
Wilson. Indeed, Ava`s story is the American Dream. Born the youngest of
seven children of Jonas and Mary Elizabeth Gardner Ava grew up near Smithfield.
In the summer of 1941 the Smithfield Herald told the story of Ava Gardner`s
trip across country to a place called Hollywood. When she arrived in Hollywood,
it didn`t take long for the whole world to recognize what the people of
Smithfield and all of North Carolina already saw - Ava`s remarkable talent.
During her career, she starred in 64 films and won many honors including:
A Golden Globe nomination for ``Best Actress in a Drama`` for ``Night of
the Iguana`` in 1964; The Academy of Motion Pictures ``Merit for Outstanding
Achievement - Best Actress`` nomination for ``Mogambo`` in 1953; And the
Look ``Film Achievement`` award for her performance in ``The Hucksters``
in 1947. She was also the first woman from North Carolina to grace the
cover of Time magazine. In addition to her success on the silver screen,
Ava was a leader in the fight against cancer and worked tirelessly for
more funding for research. She was also a patriot and was recognized by
the U.S. Armed Forces for her spirit of public service and her performance
as a guest star on the Armed Forces radio network`s production of ``Victorious
Lady.`` Ava Gardner was one of America`s most accomplished actresses in
the 20th century. She led the Hollywood golden age, shared the stage with
Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, and Grace Kelly. She served as a goodwill
ambassador to people around the globe. Her fame lives on through her movies
and the wonderful Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield. With all of her accomplishments
and her record of public service, it is fitting that this great actress
and American should be immortalized on a commemorative postage stamp. Having
a stamp issued in your memory is a high honor. But folks, if they can put
Daffy Duck and the dung beetle on a postage stamp, for sure there is a
place for someone as glamorous and accomplished as Ava Gardner on one.
Ten other native North Carolinian`s have been honored on commemorative
postage stamps, including: President Andrew Johnson born in Raleigh, Virginia
Dare, the first child born in America on Roanoke Island in 1587, Author
Thomas Wolfe of Asheville, First Lady Dolly Madison born in Guilford, President
James K. Polk born in Pineville, band leader John William Coltrane born
in Hamlet, jazz musician Thelonius Monk born in Rocky Mount and the North
Carolina signers of the U.S. Constitution Dr. Hugh Williamson of Edenton,
William Blount of Windsor and Richard Speight of Craven County. It`s time
one was issued for Ava Gardner. The supporters of the Ava Gardner Museum
and I need your help. If you support this legislation urging the U.S. Postal
Service to issue a commemorative stamp honoring Ava Gardner, please write
me a letter. Address your letters to my Washington Office at 1533 Longworth
House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 or e-mail me via my website
at www.house.gov/etheridge. We will forward these letters and e-mails to
the postal service and the appropriate committees. Thank you all for joining
us for today`s announcement and thank you for your support. At this time
I would like to call on Senator Wellons for some brief remarks followed
by Ava Thompson and Ms. Kraft - after which we will unveil a mock-up of
the stamp we would propose be issued in memory of Ms. Gardner by the postal
service. Senator Wellons.
scriptgirl
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scriptgirl
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Magill's
It is probable that the considerable success of KING SOLOMON'S MINES in 1950 prompted M-G-M to make MOGAMBO several years later. Once again, the film utilizes extensive African locations, but unlike the earlier adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's classic novel, MOGAMBO is not essentially an African adventure story. The source is a play, set on a tropical rubber plantation, which the same studio had used in 1932 to make RED DUST. The story remains superficially the same, with many picturesque African details added. John Lee Mahin, who had written the screenplay for RED DUST, also wrote MOGAMBO, but there is nothing stale about this fine writer's work on the film since each of the characters is subtly altered. The same star, Clark Gable, once again plays the hero; he gives the impression of being even more tough and virile than when he was a much younger man, and also provides the sensitivity and depth which many actors acquire as they grow older and more experienced. The role of the woman of the world originally played by Jean Harlow is reinterpreted by Ava Gardner, while Grace Kelly replaces Mary Astor in the role of the respectable married woman. Crucially, John Ford directed MOGAMBO, and although the material is not that which he usually favors, he handles it with characteristic mastery, and the result is a film far more vivid and moving than RED DUST.
The story divides into two sections, the first involving the affair between Victor Marswell (Clark Gable) and Eloise Y. Kelly (Ava Gardner) and the second involving Vic's infatuation with Linda Nordley (Grace Kelly), the wife of a scientist, Donald Nordley (Donald Sinden), for whom Vic is serving as a guide. In the first section, there is virtually no melodramatic plot development; Kelly is heading downriver and circumstances force her to stay with Vic. In spite of her warm humor, great beauty, and honest affection, Vic does not take her seriously this early in the film. For him, her apparently loose morals disqualify her as a permanent partner, and he considers the affair to be nothing more than a pleasant interlude for both of them. When the Nordleys arrive, the polished manners and feminine vulnerability of Linda make an immediate impression on Vic. Kelly remains, but Vic treats her with little regard. Although she is deeply in love with him, she must watch with mock good spirits as he becomes increasingly drawn to Linda, who finally responds. Vic ultimately realizes that he is a fool, and he and Kelly cleverly conceal his relationship with Linda from her husband after the hysterical Linda has shot and wounded Vic in a fit of anger. Although this section of the film is melodramatic, it does not present a classic triangle. Kelly gives the appearance of being sporting about Vic's troubled love for Linda, and her character is looked at independently from the main thrust of the narrative, which appears to center on Vic and Linda.
What is so interesting about Ford's interpretation of this story is that it reveals something very unexpected about his attitude toward women. The prim Linda would seem to be a type of woman not too remote from many of his heroines, and he might be expected to show her greater sympathy than Kelly. Instead, he favors Kelly throughout, admiring her independence and perceiving that her waywardness leaves her fundamentally moral character untouched. Whereas Linda eventually becomes a victim of her passions, Kelly is shown to be self-reliant throughout and to have an understanding of her actions. In one of the best scenes in the film, Kelly approaches a priest whose confessional is rather primitive. As Kelly begins her confession, the priest lets down a bamboo curtain to separate them. The scene reveals Kelly to be a Catholic, as much in harmony with her surroundings as the priest is, and to be in touch with her spiritual values far from the civilization which has superficially corrupted her.
The first section of the film, in which Kelly is at the center of the action, is directed in a relaxed and charming manner. Ford captures on film Ava Gardner's free and easy rapport with the animals, and also conveys his quiet certainty that she is the perfect woman for Vic. When the second section begins and the Nordleys arrive, the director sometimes seems impatient with the melodrama of scenes involving Vic and Linda but finds plenty of opportunities for more humor and for adding incidental touches to Kelly's character. To Ford's credit, however, the love scenes between Vic and Linda are romantically intense and charged with a feeling of sexual abandon.
Throughout MOGAMBO, Ford takes advantage of the locations in Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, French Equatorial Africa, and the Belgian Congo to create a pictorially appealing view of Africa that is filled with near-documentary moments which, without intruding on the story, reveal native customs, details of animal life, and the physical character of African landscapes. Fortunately Ford blends the natural beauty of Africa with the personal beauty of the two leading ladies. Grace Kelly was in the process of becoming a star when she made MOGAMBO, and the film clearly contributed to her image, which appealed to Alfred Hitchcock. Immediately after MOGAMBO Hitchcock used Grace Kelly for three films, casting the actress as the archetype of a woman whose beauty is cold on the surface but whose reserve conceals a sexuality which is unrestrained once expressed. Her character as Linda was ideal to project this archetype because she was morally forbidden to the hero as an object of love. His love for her must be understood as a flaw in his character, as it is her remoteness and inaccessibility which attract him. He is a man whose emotional responses are not truly adult until he is able to respond to a woman whose feelings are freely given.
Vic's preference for Linda over Kelly is barely overcome by his rationale, however, since it remains difficult to accept even temporarily the rejection of a woman as consummately sensual and sympathetic as Ava Gardner. It is clear from his direction that Ford found Ava Gardner enchanting, and this may partly explain why Kelly stands out as the most endearing character. Cast as a goddess in all her films during this period, Gardner has never been so natural, witty, and entertaining to watch as in MOGAMBO. In the relatively few moments in which the character is able to express her emotions directly, Gardner shows a dramatic skill for which she is almost never given credit, although it has graced a number of memorable films, notably BHOWANI JUNCTION (1956), THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (1954), SHOW BOAT (1951), THE KILLERS (1946), THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (1952), and PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (1951). For her performance in MOGAMBO she received her only Academy Award nomination.
In a touching conclusion, after the Nordleys have departed and Kelly herself is about to leave, Vic realizes that she is his true romantic partner. She is at the river and Ford composes a characteristically beautiful long shot which finds Vic going to her and embracing her. Where other directors would feel the need to cut to a close-up, Ford is visually subtle about this happy ending, and he allows the audience to respond to the resolution of the relationship without intruding on the intimacy of the two characters, thus providing the intimacy with even greater magic. The burnished orange glow of the African sky and the subdued chanting of the natives on the soundtrack contribute to making this final scene both lovely and poignant.
It is probable that the considerable success of KING SOLOMON'S MINES in 1950 prompted M-G-M to make MOGAMBO several years later. Once again, the film utilizes extensive African locations, but unlike the earlier adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's classic novel, MOGAMBO is not essentially an African adventure story. The source is a play, set on a tropical rubber plantation, which the same studio had used in 1932 to make RED DUST. The story remains superficially the same, with many picturesque African details added. John Lee Mahin, who had written the screenplay for RED DUST, also wrote MOGAMBO, but there is nothing stale about this fine writer's work on the film since each of the characters is subtly altered. The same star, Clark Gable, once again plays the hero; he gives the impression of being even more tough and virile than when he was a much younger man, and also provides the sensitivity and depth which many actors acquire as they grow older and more experienced. The role of the woman of the world originally played by Jean Harlow is reinterpreted by Ava Gardner, while Grace Kelly replaces Mary Astor in the role of the respectable married woman. Crucially, John Ford directed MOGAMBO, and although the material is not that which he usually favors, he handles it with characteristic mastery, and the result is a film far more vivid and moving than RED DUST.
The story divides into two sections, the first involving the affair between Victor Marswell (Clark Gable) and Eloise Y. Kelly (Ava Gardner) and the second involving Vic's infatuation with Linda Nordley (Grace Kelly), the wife of a scientist, Donald Nordley (Donald Sinden), for whom Vic is serving as a guide. In the first section, there is virtually no melodramatic plot development; Kelly is heading downriver and circumstances force her to stay with Vic. In spite of her warm humor, great beauty, and honest affection, Vic does not take her seriously this early in the film. For him, her apparently loose morals disqualify her as a permanent partner, and he considers the affair to be nothing more than a pleasant interlude for both of them. When the Nordleys arrive, the polished manners and feminine vulnerability of Linda make an immediate impression on Vic. Kelly remains, but Vic treats her with little regard. Although she is deeply in love with him, she must watch with mock good spirits as he becomes increasingly drawn to Linda, who finally responds. Vic ultimately realizes that he is a fool, and he and Kelly cleverly conceal his relationship with Linda from her husband after the hysterical Linda has shot and wounded Vic in a fit of anger. Although this section of the film is melodramatic, it does not present a classic triangle. Kelly gives the appearance of being sporting about Vic's troubled love for Linda, and her character is looked at independently from the main thrust of the narrative, which appears to center on Vic and Linda.
What is so interesting about Ford's interpretation of this story is that it reveals something very unexpected about his attitude toward women. The prim Linda would seem to be a type of woman not too remote from many of his heroines, and he might be expected to show her greater sympathy than Kelly. Instead, he favors Kelly throughout, admiring her independence and perceiving that her waywardness leaves her fundamentally moral character untouched. Whereas Linda eventually becomes a victim of her passions, Kelly is shown to be self-reliant throughout and to have an understanding of her actions. In one of the best scenes in the film, Kelly approaches a priest whose confessional is rather primitive. As Kelly begins her confession, the priest lets down a bamboo curtain to separate them. The scene reveals Kelly to be a Catholic, as much in harmony with her surroundings as the priest is, and to be in touch with her spiritual values far from the civilization which has superficially corrupted her.
The first section of the film, in which Kelly is at the center of the action, is directed in a relaxed and charming manner. Ford captures on film Ava Gardner's free and easy rapport with the animals, and also conveys his quiet certainty that she is the perfect woman for Vic. When the second section begins and the Nordleys arrive, the director sometimes seems impatient with the melodrama of scenes involving Vic and Linda but finds plenty of opportunities for more humor and for adding incidental touches to Kelly's character. To Ford's credit, however, the love scenes between Vic and Linda are romantically intense and charged with a feeling of sexual abandon.
Throughout MOGAMBO, Ford takes advantage of the locations in Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, French Equatorial Africa, and the Belgian Congo to create a pictorially appealing view of Africa that is filled with near-documentary moments which, without intruding on the story, reveal native customs, details of animal life, and the physical character of African landscapes. Fortunately Ford blends the natural beauty of Africa with the personal beauty of the two leading ladies. Grace Kelly was in the process of becoming a star when she made MOGAMBO, and the film clearly contributed to her image, which appealed to Alfred Hitchcock. Immediately after MOGAMBO Hitchcock used Grace Kelly for three films, casting the actress as the archetype of a woman whose beauty is cold on the surface but whose reserve conceals a sexuality which is unrestrained once expressed. Her character as Linda was ideal to project this archetype because she was morally forbidden to the hero as an object of love. His love for her must be understood as a flaw in his character, as it is her remoteness and inaccessibility which attract him. He is a man whose emotional responses are not truly adult until he is able to respond to a woman whose feelings are freely given.
Vic's preference for Linda over Kelly is barely overcome by his rationale, however, since it remains difficult to accept even temporarily the rejection of a woman as consummately sensual and sympathetic as Ava Gardner. It is clear from his direction that Ford found Ava Gardner enchanting, and this may partly explain why Kelly stands out as the most endearing character. Cast as a goddess in all her films during this period, Gardner has never been so natural, witty, and entertaining to watch as in MOGAMBO. In the relatively few moments in which the character is able to express her emotions directly, Gardner shows a dramatic skill for which she is almost never given credit, although it has graced a number of memorable films, notably BHOWANI JUNCTION (1956), THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (1954), SHOW BOAT (1951), THE KILLERS (1946), THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (1952), and PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (1951). For her performance in MOGAMBO she received her only Academy Award nomination.
In a touching conclusion, after the Nordleys have departed and Kelly herself is about to leave, Vic realizes that she is his true romantic partner. She is at the river and Ford composes a characteristically beautiful long shot which finds Vic going to her and embracing her. Where other directors would feel the need to cut to a close-up, Ford is visually subtle about this happy ending, and he allows the audience to respond to the resolution of the relationship without intruding on the intimacy of the two characters, thus providing the intimacy with even greater magic. The burnished orange glow of the African sky and the subdued chanting of the natives on the soundtrack contribute to making this final scene both lovely and poignant.
scriptgirl
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citadel
scriptgirl
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Magill's
the near future in Australia, a microcosm of humanity awaits the effects of the atomic catastrophe that has destroyed the rest of the world, among them U.S. Fleet Captain Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck), who finds solace in the arms of hard-living but vulnerable Moira Davidson (Ava gardner); Julian Osborne (Fred Astaire), an embittered atomic scientist and sports car enthusiast; Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins), a young naval officer; and Holmes's wife Mary (Donna Anderson). In place of a bromidic message of spiritual counsel, the film offers a perceptive, and grimly horrifying vision of the end of the world.
Summary:
Stanley Kramer's ON THE BEACH presents an apocalyptic nightmare, offering a perceptive and grimly horrifying vision of the end of the world. A masterful exercise in science fiction set in the near future, ON THE BEACH delivers a dark portrait of man's last days after an atomic war. What makes those final days so unsettling is the fact that the film concentrates on everyday people who have no recourse but to continue with their normal lives until the end comes.
As the film opens in 1964, atomic war is taking place in the Northern Hemisphere. When all life there is obliterated, the atomic menace begins drifting down to Australia, haven of the last, doomed life. A United States submarine, the fleet's lone survivor, has come to Melbourne for refuge. Captain Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) and his men have survived because their sub was submerged when America was hit. Although Towers and his men come to Australia bringing word of a dying world, Towers himself continues to be hopeful that his wife and children, back in Connecticut, might somehow have survived.
Towers' men are equally unsure about the extent of the atomic annihilation. A phantom radio signal emanating from San Diego, ultimately sends the submarine back to the northern waters to investigate in hopes of finding life. The sailor who goes ashore in a decontamination suit to trace the signal discovers that an overturned Coke bottle and a flapping window shade are the source of the transmission. Towers and his men then return to Australia with the bleak revelation.
In Australia the populace prepares for the end. Doctors hand out containers of Government Prescription No. 24768, medication to hasten death. While death is impending, however, life goes on. More people than ever turn out for the opening of trout fishing season, and the best wines are carefully rationed at the yacht clubs. Some people are drawn together awaiting the inevitable, while others are realizing some lifelong goals. For example, Julian Osborne (Fred Astaire), an embittered and conscience-stricken atomic scientist, is a sports car enthusiast who achieves his ambition of winning a grand prix race.
In the midst of a party given by young naval officer Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins) and his wife Mary (Donna Anderson), she cries out, "There is hope -- there has to be," vocalizing what many people feel. It is through Peter and Mary that Towers meets Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner), a cynical, hard-drinking woman who is desperately afraid of being alone at the end. Towers is lonely, but is initially unable to comfort Moira because he is haunted by thoughts of his wife. After the submarine returns from the obliterated Northern Hemisphere, however, he is able to face reality and return Moira's love. Peter and Mary face even greater difficulties because they have a baby, and Peter knows the time will come when the child must be given the medication. Mary has problems coming to grips with this eventual reality, and accuses her husband of being a murderer because of his intentions to administer the pills.
ON THE BEACH does not sermonize; it simply shows the way things could be. While the dialogue, with its fatalistic overtones, sometimes becomes heavy-handed, other sequences evoke an almost poetic beauty. For example, when the cruising submarine investigates the radio transmission and looks for other signs of life along the Pacific Coast, a homesick sailor jumps ship through the escape hatch because he wants to die in San Francisco where his parents died. Watching the city's solemn skyline, the sailor then begins to fish the quiet waters. In another scene, he conducts a final conversation with the submarine's periscope, as he says good-bye to the captain.
With its emphasis on the last pocket of humanity, ON THE BEACH refrains from exploring the details of the actual war. It is only revealed that a small, irresponsible nation started it. "Somebody pushed a button," explains Osborne. (In Nevil Shute's novel, on which the film is based, Albania started the war by bombing Naples; Russia and China were the next to start fighting.) Similarly, the film does not dwell visually upon the horrors of radiation sickness; only one case is shown. What amplifies the horror of the situation is the calmness with which people accept the inevitable. When Peter and Mary can no longer go on, they take their pills with their tea after giving the baby the medication. With his grand prix dream realized, Osborne is also ready for death and asphyxiates himself in a garage. Towers, who has grown close to Moira, is duty-bound when the submarine's crew votes to sail the vessel out and sink it rather than await death on the shore. As Towers sails out with his men, Moira is left watching on the beach. Equally stirring are the last minutes, in which papers blow across empty streets and a sign, hanging listlessly, reads, "There is still time ... Brother."
Fred Astaire, in his first straight dramatic role, is particularly good as the cynical scientist. Gregory Peck is a commanding Dwight Towers, and Ava Gardner, in a departure from the glamorous roles with which she is usually identified, and often photographed in an unflattering way, is effective as the hard-living Moira. Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson are suitably poignant as the young Holmes couple. Interwoven in the film's background is the music for "Waltzing Matilda," the bittersweet melody which is Australia's national anthem.
Producer-director Stanley Kramer has long been able to take a thought-provoking theme and merge it with the most commercially viable elements of film. His films tend to step away from toes, not on them, as witnessed by such films as GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967), as well as JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961). ON THE BEACH nevertheless remains one of the most effective, disturbing films about apocalypse, utilizing an almost documentarylike technique.
ON THE BEACH is a downbeat film from beginning to end. At the time of its release it generated headlines with its then highly topical subject matter. The film had an "international premiere,...opening simultaneously in seventeen major cities throughout the world, including Moscow."
With its stern examination of doomed life following atomic war, ON THE BEACH joined a segment of the science-fiction genre reserved for end-of-the-world lessons. The films that helped to initiate the Cold War fear included the thought-provoking FIVE (1951), about a band of struggling survivors, and the corny INVASION U.S.A. (1952), about an attack by the Russians and mass hypnosis, among other concerns. Released in 1959, ON THE BEACH helped to round out a decade firmly imprinted with the problems of the atomic age. Released the same year was THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL, another end-of-the-world treatise which also examined racism.
Despite some of these valid studies, ON THE BEACH, with its big-name cast and important director, emerges as the most chilling prophetic film of its decade. As is so often the case with science-fiction films, ON THE BEACH was completely passed over at Oscar time (the year belonged to BEN-HUR). Still, the film ranks as a success, in terms of both box-office and critical response. With its thought-provoking vision of the folly of atomic war, ON THE BEACH delivers a painful message. Realistic, revealing moments gave the film its horror ("Dogs go into a corner to die alone, ashamed. But what do we do?" someone asks). Indeed, a number of the decade's critics took offense at the film's stark realism, pointing out that ON THE BEACH is virtually devoid of any spiritual counsel. Something, they felt, should have been added as a buffer for the script's bleakness.
the near future in Australia, a microcosm of humanity awaits the effects of the atomic catastrophe that has destroyed the rest of the world, among them U.S. Fleet Captain Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck), who finds solace in the arms of hard-living but vulnerable Moira Davidson (Ava gardner); Julian Osborne (Fred Astaire), an embittered atomic scientist and sports car enthusiast; Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins), a young naval officer; and Holmes's wife Mary (Donna Anderson). In place of a bromidic message of spiritual counsel, the film offers a perceptive, and grimly horrifying vision of the end of the world.
Summary:
Stanley Kramer's ON THE BEACH presents an apocalyptic nightmare, offering a perceptive and grimly horrifying vision of the end of the world. A masterful exercise in science fiction set in the near future, ON THE BEACH delivers a dark portrait of man's last days after an atomic war. What makes those final days so unsettling is the fact that the film concentrates on everyday people who have no recourse but to continue with their normal lives until the end comes.
As the film opens in 1964, atomic war is taking place in the Northern Hemisphere. When all life there is obliterated, the atomic menace begins drifting down to Australia, haven of the last, doomed life. A United States submarine, the fleet's lone survivor, has come to Melbourne for refuge. Captain Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) and his men have survived because their sub was submerged when America was hit. Although Towers and his men come to Australia bringing word of a dying world, Towers himself continues to be hopeful that his wife and children, back in Connecticut, might somehow have survived.
Towers' men are equally unsure about the extent of the atomic annihilation. A phantom radio signal emanating from San Diego, ultimately sends the submarine back to the northern waters to investigate in hopes of finding life. The sailor who goes ashore in a decontamination suit to trace the signal discovers that an overturned Coke bottle and a flapping window shade are the source of the transmission. Towers and his men then return to Australia with the bleak revelation.
In Australia the populace prepares for the end. Doctors hand out containers of Government Prescription No. 24768, medication to hasten death. While death is impending, however, life goes on. More people than ever turn out for the opening of trout fishing season, and the best wines are carefully rationed at the yacht clubs. Some people are drawn together awaiting the inevitable, while others are realizing some lifelong goals. For example, Julian Osborne (Fred Astaire), an embittered and conscience-stricken atomic scientist, is a sports car enthusiast who achieves his ambition of winning a grand prix race.
In the midst of a party given by young naval officer Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins) and his wife Mary (Donna Anderson), she cries out, "There is hope -- there has to be," vocalizing what many people feel. It is through Peter and Mary that Towers meets Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner), a cynical, hard-drinking woman who is desperately afraid of being alone at the end. Towers is lonely, but is initially unable to comfort Moira because he is haunted by thoughts of his wife. After the submarine returns from the obliterated Northern Hemisphere, however, he is able to face reality and return Moira's love. Peter and Mary face even greater difficulties because they have a baby, and Peter knows the time will come when the child must be given the medication. Mary has problems coming to grips with this eventual reality, and accuses her husband of being a murderer because of his intentions to administer the pills.
ON THE BEACH does not sermonize; it simply shows the way things could be. While the dialogue, with its fatalistic overtones, sometimes becomes heavy-handed, other sequences evoke an almost poetic beauty. For example, when the cruising submarine investigates the radio transmission and looks for other signs of life along the Pacific Coast, a homesick sailor jumps ship through the escape hatch because he wants to die in San Francisco where his parents died. Watching the city's solemn skyline, the sailor then begins to fish the quiet waters. In another scene, he conducts a final conversation with the submarine's periscope, as he says good-bye to the captain.
With its emphasis on the last pocket of humanity, ON THE BEACH refrains from exploring the details of the actual war. It is only revealed that a small, irresponsible nation started it. "Somebody pushed a button," explains Osborne. (In Nevil Shute's novel, on which the film is based, Albania started the war by bombing Naples; Russia and China were the next to start fighting.) Similarly, the film does not dwell visually upon the horrors of radiation sickness; only one case is shown. What amplifies the horror of the situation is the calmness with which people accept the inevitable. When Peter and Mary can no longer go on, they take their pills with their tea after giving the baby the medication. With his grand prix dream realized, Osborne is also ready for death and asphyxiates himself in a garage. Towers, who has grown close to Moira, is duty-bound when the submarine's crew votes to sail the vessel out and sink it rather than await death on the shore. As Towers sails out with his men, Moira is left watching on the beach. Equally stirring are the last minutes, in which papers blow across empty streets and a sign, hanging listlessly, reads, "There is still time ... Brother."
Fred Astaire, in his first straight dramatic role, is particularly good as the cynical scientist. Gregory Peck is a commanding Dwight Towers, and Ava Gardner, in a departure from the glamorous roles with which she is usually identified, and often photographed in an unflattering way, is effective as the hard-living Moira. Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson are suitably poignant as the young Holmes couple. Interwoven in the film's background is the music for "Waltzing Matilda," the bittersweet melody which is Australia's national anthem.
Producer-director Stanley Kramer has long been able to take a thought-provoking theme and merge it with the most commercially viable elements of film. His films tend to step away from toes, not on them, as witnessed by such films as GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967), as well as JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961). ON THE BEACH nevertheless remains one of the most effective, disturbing films about apocalypse, utilizing an almost documentarylike technique.
ON THE BEACH is a downbeat film from beginning to end. At the time of its release it generated headlines with its then highly topical subject matter. The film had an "international premiere,...opening simultaneously in seventeen major cities throughout the world, including Moscow."
With its stern examination of doomed life following atomic war, ON THE BEACH joined a segment of the science-fiction genre reserved for end-of-the-world lessons. The films that helped to initiate the Cold War fear included the thought-provoking FIVE (1951), about a band of struggling survivors, and the corny INVASION U.S.A. (1952), about an attack by the Russians and mass hypnosis, among other concerns. Released in 1959, ON THE BEACH helped to round out a decade firmly imprinted with the problems of the atomic age. Released the same year was THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL, another end-of-the-world treatise which also examined racism.
Despite some of these valid studies, ON THE BEACH, with its big-name cast and important director, emerges as the most chilling prophetic film of its decade. As is so often the case with science-fiction films, ON THE BEACH was completely passed over at Oscar time (the year belonged to BEN-HUR). Still, the film ranks as a success, in terms of both box-office and critical response. With its thought-provoking vision of the folly of atomic war, ON THE BEACH delivers a painful message. Realistic, revealing moments gave the film its horror ("Dogs go into a corner to die alone, ashamed. But what do we do?" someone asks). Indeed, a number of the decade's critics took offense at the film's stark realism, pointing out that ON THE BEACH is virtually devoid of any spiritual counsel. Something, they felt, should have been added as a buffer for the script's bleakness.
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