| re: Jean Arthur -- In Film and On Stage | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 12:31 pm EST 02/05/24 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 12:26 pm EST 02/05/24 | |
| In reply to: Jean Arthur -- In Film and On Stage - BroadwayTonyJ 03:33 am EST 02/05/24 | |
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| There's a very good chapter she shares with another of my favorites, Deanna Durbin, in Jeanine Basinger's book "The Star Machine" which talks about Arthur's innate shyness and unhappiness with putting up with the interviews, publicity, etc. required of being a star. I haven't read the whole book yet, though I question some of Basinger's opinions as I've read sections of the book, even though I know she is scholarly -- when I read where she says Vera-Ellen was a middling dancer. I mean, wtf! Vera-Ellen was probably the most versatile female dancer in Hollywood history -- able to do any kind of dance and who partnered Donald O'Connor and twice Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. It's like in casting -- sometimes if a person reminds you of someone in your life who dumped you, or someone who was mean or ignored you, you won't get the gig or you just won't like them. Back to Jean Arthur, she did have a film career in silents through the very early 1930s before she went to Broadway. After she came back, with "The Whole Town's Talking" some of the persona and Jean Arthur-type was established, and definitely with "Mr. Deeds Comes to Town" which really, with Frank Capra's help, got her unique type which made her a big star thereafter. She had stage fright and other anxieties which showed up when she pulled out of "Born Yesterday" during the out-of-town tryout, giving Judy Holliday the career-making opportunity which made her a star. Also, while Arthur got excellent reviews in "Peter Pan" on Broadway, other problems began manifesting and the run was cut short. But her film career was about 30 years long, ending with "Shane", another classic, even if she hadn't a showy, comedic role that she was famous for. She worked with a lot of top directors during her career and has quite a number of films which are classics and are still enjoyable to watch. She worked a lot of her career as a independent/free-lancer after leaving Columbia (a smaller studio in the 1930s), so maybe she didn't have the financial drive and savvy to get a bigger salary of someone like Barbara Stanwyck, who also was independent and not tied to one studio. |
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