Joan Fontaine/Peter O'Toole - RIP

[followspot]

Posted: 12/15/13 at 9:14pm

Joan Fontaine

[followspot]

Posted: 12/15/13 at 9:15pm

Peter O'Toole

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/15/13 at 9:22pm

Oh, no!

There had to be a third (after Eleanor Parker and Peter O'Toole), and I'm so sorry to hear it was Joan Fontaine. So great in Rebecca, and such a difficult role to pull off (just look at the other screen tests for her role if you doubt it).

RIP

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/15/13 at 11:17pm

The death of O'Toole seems to be hitting me pretty hard. His film work was always so impeccable, Lawrence, and Jack in THE RULING CLASS, and Henry II in LION IN WINTER. I was very fortunate to see him as Henry Higgins in PYGMALION on Broadway around 1981, and he was incandescent, full of wit and energy but even then looking as breakable as spun glass. May he truly rest in peace, and may his work never be forgotten.

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 4:28am

RIP to both legends. What a body of work they have both left behind.

Maybe not his best work, but I am going to watch Goodbye Mr Chips tonight.

Bestie, sorry, is the audition for Rebecca on "the tube?" as it were? I will have a look, was not aware of its existence.

Gosh, it is so sad when the old guard leaves us. So few left now but we have their films to enjoy and that's special.

[The Other One]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 7:33am

O'Toole gives a beautiful performance in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips", and it is a true testament to the diversity of his talent. He tones down his natural flamboyance but is as wonderful as ever. It's not a great movie, true, but it's better than it's usually given credit for.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 8:20am

Goodbye, Mr. Chips - SPOILER ALERT * * * * * * * * * *











His scene in the classroom where he learns of his wife's death is the reason he was Oscar-nominated. You're right, it's not a great film, but that scene is among the most powerful of his entire career, which is saying quite a lot. It's such a devastating moment, and for anyone who hasn't seen the movie (and read the spoiler anyway), it's worth it just for that.

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 8:52am

Spoiler!!!


The Other One and Bestie - I couldn't agree more. Peter O'Toole says very little, if anything, but the scene is heartbreaking. I always rewind - I am giving away my age - to listen to Petula sing "You and I" just to wallow a bit more. Actually, knowing what is to come - when they toast his (Mr Chips) promotion with champagne and he says that's all he could find and he hopes it's alright, Petula says "That's alright then" and I fill up at that scene too - it's not even sad but I guess I know what's coming.

Bestie - you are the film expert (in my opinion) The Women! Is that the best film for me to watch for Joan?

x

[The Other One]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 11:56am

Dear Lord, no. Watch Rebecca. Joan is terrific in it, and it is a wonderful movie all around. Judith Anderson set the standard for women-gone-crazy on film with her brilliant performance as Mrs. Danvers, too.

[followspot]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 2:04pm

Vera, prime Joan Fontaine performances are Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), The Constant Nymph (1943), Jane Eyre (1943), From This Day Forward (1946), and Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948}.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 2:09pm

I recently saw Fontaine with Louis Jourdan in Max Ophuls's Letter From An Unknown Woman, perhaps an un- or at least under-sung masterpiece, and one of her finest performances.

I also can't help thinking of Fontaine's exquisite moment from The Women where she listens to the train and hears it say "go BACK, go back, go BACK, go back..."

[Tink2]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 4:33pm

Joan Fontaine is excellent in Rebecca. She won her Oscar for Suspicion, co-starring Cary Grant. Watch that one, too! It is one of my favorite films.

I loved Peter O'Toole in everything I saw him in. Even silly movies like High Spirits. Yes, this is very sad. Making me feel very old, even though all three were a great deal older than I.

Updated On: 12/16/13 at 04:33 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 5:29pm

The Women is a great comedy with a biting, witty script and many stellar performances. Joan Fontaine plays a bit of a bland ditz, but she does it very well. It's not a showy part, but after seeing it a few times, she really cracks me up with how bland and how ditzy she is. But she is way overshadowed by the other performances (Roz Russell, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Paulette Goddard, Marjorie Main, Phyllis Povar, etc.) You should definitely see it, but not for Joan's contribution alone.

I think "Rebecca" has her finest work, but I will warn you, it took me several viewings to warm up to it ... and mostly to the character she plays. She is a sweet but "nothing" young woman. Naive and simple don't begin to describe her. She is a non-entity ... but that's intentional. The character doesn't even have a name in the story. She is referred to in the novel as "I," because the story is told in first person. So it's "I" this, and "I" that.

The other characters around her are very strong ... but none so strong as the one who is never on screen because she is already dead. Her name is "Rebecca."

Joan Fontaine's role is a difficult one, because she gets caught up in the lives of these other strong people around her. I never realized just how difficult it is to play someone like that convincingly. And the first time I saw it, I seriously wanted to slap the crap out of her and say "snap out of it" ala Cher. After watching many other actresses in their screen-tests with Hitchcock, including Vivien Leigh, Margaret Sullavan, Anne Baxter, etc., I see just how hard it is to strike the right balance for the role. Likable but not too strong. Enthusiastic, but not too confident. Complacent, but not idiotic. She gets caught in the web, and it becomes a nightmare. And I don't think the film would be half as good without her performance.

It's the only Best Picture winner directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and it features great work by Laurence Olivier, George Sanders, and especially Dame Judith Anderson as the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers. Not to be missed!

[daisybeetle]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 5:30pm

My fave Peter O'Toole film is "Becket". Made me love period dramas with great dialogue. He was so intense in that movie! I also love "Lawrence of Arabia" but watching it as a kid I kept thinking 'is he wearing eye make-up?' He was so beautiful in that film.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 5:39pm

My favorite O'Toole performance is as Henry II in The Lion In Winter, opposite Katharine Hepburn. George and Martha in "Virginia Woolf" have nothing on Henry and Eleanor.

My second favorite is in My Favorite Year.

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 3:10am

The Other One - Thank you. I guess I will start with Rebecca. I have seen it a few times but I am still unsure of it. That's why I am interested in seeing the clip Bestie, spoke of, with other actresses auditioning.

followspot - Thank you too. To my shame, there are a few Joan Fontaine films I need to see, The Constant Nymph and From This Day Forward. Thanks again.

Bestie - I like Rebecca but don't appreciate it as much as I should maybe. I will watch the auditions and then the film again and see. Can't believe Vivian Leigh auditioned.

[The Other One]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 7:55am

Vera: GONE WITH THE WIND had not been released yet so, yes, she did have to audition. Olivier wanted her to do the film so they could be together. Hitchcock saw right off the bat that there was nothing timid about her and that it wouldn't work. You can see this in her audition.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 8:10am

Here's Vivien Leigh's screen test for the role of "I" in Rebecca (Joan Fontain's part).

The other screen tests aren't on YouTube (at least I can't find them), but they are on the Criterion DVD.

EDIT: This is just a fragment of the full test.
Vivien Leigh screen test

Updated On: 12/17/13 at 08:10 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 8:15am

I found Joan Fontaine's original test. There is no comparison. If you see the other tests, you'll realize Joan is the only one who really understands the role.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaMYJO-aWpU

Updated On: 12/17/13 at 08:15 AM

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 9:13am

Her screen test is just extraordinary - all that emotion in just 4 minutes.

And the Vivien Leigh fragment is fascinating. She is too beautiful to be "I" but also she is just a little too coy and sure of herself. She is "playing" young and awkward and it doesn't work.

Fontaine was perfect for the role, and I am glad she got it. I love the scene where she walks down the staircase in the costume, starting out so hopeful and grown up only to have her world shattered.

I don't care for the film personally because they had to change the book so that Maxim didn't have to be punished (accident rather than murder) and it dulls the entire story. And Olivier is not my first choice for Maxim either - he seems like such a cold fish when he should be someone desperately unhappy who has some of the same hope that "I" does, and I never saw a glimmer of that in Olivier. Perhaps he didn't really "get" the character either. Oddly, I am struggling to think who I would have cast in that role. Updated On: 12/17/13 at 09:13 AM

[GoSmileLaughCryClap]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 12:02pm

The test really highlights how natural her acting was at a time when a more overtly emotive style was popular. The quietness and conversational tone of much of the dialog doesn't even sound dated. Despite having the Mid-Atlantic hyper Anglo 1930's accent that everyone in Hollywood had to acquire, her performance is so unforced. Think of her sister, who could swing an octave and half in a single line reading. Some of her scene work is like being on a roller coaster.

[Will42]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 12:51pm

What a terrible month it was. We've lost so many legendary actors.
May they R.I.P.

TCM Remembers Eleanor Parker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsyHrxPR7r0
TCM Remembers Peter O'Toole: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRjITqahTbA
TCM Remembers Joan Fontaine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEGoH5QcnEg

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 12:56pm

I agree about Joan, GSLCC ... and if you watch her performance in "The Women" you see what is essentially a parody of her character in "Rebecca."

She spoofed the gentle, sweet, naive, hopeful girl in "The Women" first, then the real thing one year later in "Rebecca."

[Tink2]

Posted: 12/29/13 at 4:34pm

FYI for anyone interested... Suspicion is now showing ON TMC. It started at 4:00PM. Rebecca follows at 6:00PM. Lawrence of Arabia follows that. A tribute to Joan Fontaine and Peter O'Toole. It's raining here. Just ordered Chinese and I'm going to watch some great movies.