Both Caron and Angeli were a mere 19 when they joined the ranks of MGM in 1951. In addition to their enchanting youthful appearances, both were wholesome types but I saw something else. Perhaps I didn't see it at first but it didn't take long to become aware that both seemed depressed to me. When I read Caron's autobiography, I knew I had been right. Angeli never got the chance to write her life story and I wanted to know it because she seemed like a very, very sad and fragile person.
Hollywood would take her last name and turn it into two names. She was born Anna Maria Pierangeli in 1932 in Sardinia. Her twin sister is the actress Marisa Pavan (still alive). Their father, Luigi, was an architect and construction engineer, and the mother, Enrica, was formidable.
When she was three, the family moved to Rome. There was much arguing and the twins would avoid the chaos by running off to the movies (I hear ya, girls). Soon both of them were so enamored of films that they determined that one day they would both be up there on the silver screen. The parents fought over any talk of movie acting. The father was adamantly opposed to it but Mama, who fashioned herself as somewhat of a minor actress, was determined her girls would become movie stars.
One day, while she was still a teenager, Angeli was sauntering along the Via Veneto, no doubt doing her best to appear seductive. Director-friends, Italy's Vittorio De Sica and Russia's Léonide Moguy, spotted her and gave her a small role in Tomorrow Is Too Late (Domani è troppo tardi) in 1950. The following year she became a bit of a sensation when she appeared in Moguy's Tomorrow Is Another Day (Domani è un'altro). During this time she also appeared on the Italian stage. She won some awards and therefore some attention and she caught the eye of MGM.
The studio was looking for new faces for their production of Teresa (1951). It is a touching role and story but largely unknown to American audiences. It concerns an Italian girl who marries an American soldier she barely knows and goes with him to the U.S. at the end of WWII.... with predictable results. I thought this was among the best work Angeli would ever do. What audiences seemed to be captivated by was her everywoman quality, a soft-spokenness reticence and an ability to break one's heart. Again, it's that sadness.
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| With twin sister Marisa Pavan |
Her first real boyfriend was one of the executives at her studio.
She dated Teresa costar, hunky John Ericson, himself at the start of his career. She would become a serial dater. She hooked up with a number of her costars and other actors. She discovered early on that she liked dating famous, wealthy and powerful men. For awhile Brazilians were a favorite as were members of international political families. Mama, however, was never far away and she was immensely critical. Of course, Mama preferred her wayward daughter date Catholics but if they weren't, Mama promised nothing would come of the relationships.
Angeli's second American outing was in the dreadful Stewart Granger movie, The Light Touch (1951) and a good war thriller with Gene Kelly, The Devil Makes Three (1952), a largely overlooked film. Then came The Story of Three Loves (1953), an anthology film which loosely connects three different love stories.
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| Reaching out to Kirk Douglas |
She and Kirk Douglas appear in the third entry, Equilibrium, which focuses on a trapeze artist who wants to return to the limelight after his partner dies in a fall. Then he rescues a young woman (Angeli) who is about to throw herself in the Seine. They fall in love, she joins his high-wire act and the drama builds as she is trained to perform the act that killed his former partner.
Douglas, in between marriages, fell in love with Angeli and they became engaged. Two movie stars cavorting all over the globe made for many headlines. It was expected they would marry but when she learned Douglas was not faithful, she ended the relationship. Sort of.
While they were still together, she made Sombrero (1953), a musical-comedy-drama-romance. Actually, though it was an ambitious project and attracted the public's interest, Sombrero didn't know what it wanted to be. Ricardo Montalban is the star and Angeli, Vittorio Gassman, Cyd Charisse and Yvonne DeCarlo all practiced their Spanish accents.
Angeli returned to Italy to film The Flame and the Flesh (1954), a Lana Turner potboiler made for no discernible reason other than to show the aging actress could still attract desirable men. In this case it was Carlos Thompson who had location romances with both of his leading ladies.
Angeli and Douglas's affair would be back on and then it was over again and then on again. It was all breathlessly reported in the world's newspapers which Angeli seemed to cultivate. She may have thought she was over him but when she read that he got married, she became hysterical and had to be sedated.
MGM loaned her out to Warner Brothers in 1954 to make The Silver Chalice which is about the sculptor who makes the cup used by Christ during the Last Supper. Paul Newman and I both thought it was dreadful. It was his film debut and the only movie in which he stunk. So did leading lady Virginia Mayo. Angeli, who plays a sweet girl who loves Newman, and Jack Palance, as an unscrupulous magician, had the only noteworthy roles.
On the WB lot, also making his first film, was James Dean. His press agent, Dick Clayton, cooked up their meeting and kept the press informed of their highly-imagined relationship that ultimately included Dean's marriage proposal. It is not likely the rebellious gay actor ever gave it a serious thought although he likely led Angeli down that road.
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| Dean and Angeli below the WB logo |
What is known is that Mama had a cow. Dean was not Catholic, he was not Italian and she hated his guts. Soon the affair was over. Two husbands and many boyfriends and affairs later, Angeli was still lamenting that Dean was the love of her life.
Within a month of their breakup, however, Angeli married singer Vic Damone. They had met three or four times. First was when she was filming Teresa in Italy and then in Germany while she was making The Devil Makes Three. In L.A. and Vegas she had gone to his concerts. She knew he was smitten with her. How much she was smitten with him is the real question. Nonetheless, they had a big Hollywood wedding with all the trimmings. He was Catholic, Italian, a good singer and a movie star. Mama approved. MGM approved, too... Damone was also on their payroll.
During the marriage Angeli made what is regarded as her best film, Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956). She plays the understanding wife of boxer Rocky Graziano, played by Paul Newman. In a movie bursting with violence, she is clearly the only safe place to land. She auditioned for the showy part of Anna Magnani's daughter in 1955's The Rose Tattoo but it went to her sister who copped an Oscar nomination.
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| The Damones with son Perry |
She couldn't stay out of the newspapers. She broke her pelvis when boarding an airline and sued them. Although she and Damone had a son, she suffered a later miscarriage. She was robbed of her jewelry while in London. Spats with her mother over Damone became topics of gossip and he often went public with his hatred of his mother-in-law. The marriage was highly publicized, both when they wanted it to be and when they didn't. After four years it was no longer working out and they divorced but remained in the news during a six-year, unsavory custody battle. Neither she nor Damone were presented in a very positive light.
I have never cared for Danny Kaye but Merry Andrew (1958) was one of his best films. He plays a professor who becomes a clown and falls in love with an acrobat (Angeli) in the circus. It was a good role for her but the attention was on Kaye.
After her MGM contract ended her American career dried up. What happened to that early promise? Most of her films are forgettable and one cannot imagine that MGM didn't pay close attention to those glaring news stories. She packed up and headed back to Italy.
In 1962 she married Italian composer Armando Trovajoli and the following year she had another son. A year after that he booted her out although they never divorced. Neither of them, apparently, wanted to raise their son so her mother gained sole custody. Angeli was awarded custody of her son with Damone but the boy chose to live with his father.
She appeared in mainly Italian and French movies, several of which were not in leading roles and none of which made any particular splash in the States. Her picture was in the news slapping one of her boyfriends. She became more promiscuous than ever, had tax problems and lived in near-poverty. Her sister Marisa and husband Jean Pierre Aumont helped her out financially several times. She told the press it would be better if I were dead.
Her death has always been shrouded in mystery. One can read that she died of a stomach ailment... simple, brief, probably untrue. Some say it was an accidental barbiturate overdose. Perhaps. There is a story that her doctor was notified one day that she was very agitated and spiraling out of control. He visited and gave her an injection to calm her down. The next morning she was dead.
Suicide rumors have always swirled around her death but never confirmed. Her mood swings were always serious to those who knew her, but it was before anything was called manic depressive. She certainly led a tumultuous life. Her mother tortured her emotionally, never allowing her to be independent which sent the young woman fleeing into fragility or tempestuousness. She had two disastrous marriages, countless fractured relationships and likely considered herself a poor mother. Her show business dreams had certainly been crushed.
Pier Angeli died at age 39 in 1971 in Los Angeles where she had returned in the hope of reviving her career. She is buried in France.
Next posting:
A good 50's film
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