Melvyn Douglas

So invested was he in Democratic politics that he could have been a congressman (like his wife) or a governor.  Although he elected to stick with being an actor, it was a decided second place to his love for the political arena.   He made his first movie in 1931 and his last in 1981.  Melvyn Douglas' career can be divided into two parts, the early and middle years as a debonair leading man and then after a decade-long hiatus, the older years as a character actor who was richly and justly awarded with golden prizes.

I was pretty nuts about him in that later career because he reminded me so much of my grandfather.  On television I had seen quite a few of his earlier movies.  He was occasionally the top-billed star but in his better films he was more often second-billed to most of the famed movie queens of the day.  There were numerous pairings with Garbo, Crawford, Loy and Colbert but also there he was alongside Swanson, Dietrich, Stanwyck, Hepburn, Luise Rainer, Jean Arthur, Loretta Young, Merle Oberon and Rosalind Russell.  

He didn't offend nor did he hog the screen and he didn't step on the lines or long gowns of his glamorous costars.  He was never a pretty boy nor did he have a raging animal magnetism.  But he was always smart as a whip, exuded confidence and was one of the suave ones.  Always well-spoken with crisp diction and quick on the uptake, Douglas could exhibit a take-no-prisoners attitude but it was often enveloped in witty banter.  Furthermore, he displayed such an effortless side to his acting regardless of whether it was comedy, drama, period stuff or romance.

He was born Melvyn Hesselberg in Macon, Georgia, in 1901. His father was a concert pianist whose many performances took him all over the country and required several moves.  His mother opened up new worlds to him by way of her tales of old Scotland and her gift of storytelling.  After he was expelled from high school for youthful indiscretions he had a number of low-paying jobs until he joined the service.  

After his discharge he returned to the family home, now in Lincoln, Nebraska, and promptly became friendly with William Owen who was a popular Midwestern stage performer.  Before long Owen had convinced the newly-christened Douglas that his destiny was in show biz.  Douglas admitted some years later that all that meant to him was sleeping late, having diamond cufflinks and silk shirts.

But he took to it like a warm knife to butter and in short order was appearing in stock theater all over the Midwest.  By 1928, at age 27, he felt he was ready for The Great White Way, and he was right.  By 1931 he had appeared in a number of plays and had gotten himself pretty well-known in New York acting circles.  He was cast in Tonight or Never where he costarred with the woman who would be his wife for 49 glorious years, Helen Gahagan.   (Douglas had a brief two-year marriage five years earlier and a child.)  In the play there was a love scene that was considered risque and caused much talk and they were delighted to be the ones everyone was talking about.

Lovebirds for 49 years

While Gahagan went on tour with the play, Douglas went to Hollywood and appeared in Tonight or Never as his first Hollywood film.  His costar was Gloria Swanson.

For 20 years Douglas never missed a beat.  There were all those flicks with the actresses named above... 51 films from 1932 to 1949... but worry not, we're only briefly discussing a few of them because I want to get to that second career.  Besides, most of them are rather lackluster and Douglas himself said that this long period of movie-making bored him senseless and he said most of the films were too dull to recall. 

He may have worked so frequently because he was under contract to two studios at the same time, Columbia and MGM.  But as elegant as he was on the screen, he knew some of his roles came to him after William Powell, Cary Grant and Robert Montgomery turned them down.  Still, his true love was the stage and politics but the movies paid the bills.

He gained some fame by costarring with Garbo in three films, As You Desire Me (1932)  Ninotchka (1939) and Two-Faced Woman (1941).  He made the stone-faced Garbo laugh in Ninotchka
and the world drew a sigh of relief.  By 1941 she and MGM were tired of her image so they put her in a comedy but Two-Faced Woman bombed and she left acting forever.

Three times with Garbo

Theodora Goes Wild (1936) was a screwball comedy that Irene Dunne didn't want to do.  Her milieu was women's sob stories and musicals.  She thought this one was a step down.  She later changed her mind after accepting the role and a whole new career opened up for her.  She plays a smalltown girl who almost accidentally writes a titillating best-seller and Douglas plays a married illustrator who falls madly for her.  There are some knee-slapping good yucks in this one which deserves to be seen.  It solidly established Douglas as one of Tinseltown's most debonair and witty farceurs. 

A male version of the sob story comes with Hollywood's polished version of Rudyard Kipling's Captains Courageous (1937).  Douglas has a small role as the father of the spoiled brat played by the film's star, Freddie Bartholomew.  A top-notch cast also included Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Mickey Rooney and Charley Grapewin.

Also in 1937 an event occurred that would reshape the lives of both Douglases.  Gahagan went on an operatic tour of Europe and while in Austria she was propositioned by some nefarious types to join their movement for setting up an Aryan race.  Both Douglases were so revolted that they became deeply committed to anti-Fascist beliefs.  They were fired up and began taking on liberal causes.  When they spoke out in favor of the state welfare board,  Hollywood's right-wing contingent (including most studio heads) called them communist sympathizers.  It was an uneasy time for them and yet Douglas kept working.

Helen

Gahagan, however, gave up her show business career for one in politics.  She was appointed as an alternate delegate from California to the national convention in Chicago.  She was then elected to the House of Representatives in 1944, 1946 and 1948.  Douglas, too, was involved in liberal causes.  He had been the first actor to represent California at a Democratic convention.  He was chairman of the Motion Picture Democratic Committee and was a consultant for the arts division of the Office of Civilian Defense.  The Douglases popularity or lack thereof depended upon how one voted.

The Sea of Grass (1947), a western soap opera, is arguably perhaps the worst film Tracy and Hepburn ever made, although (duh) I liked it.  They are a feuding frontier couple and Douglas is an attorney who has an illegitimate son with Hepburn.  

Grant, Loy, Douglas... masters at subtle comedy

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) is a very funny flick.  Cary Grant and Myrna Loy (perhaps a little long in the tooth to play such an innocent couple) decide to build a house to their specifications in the country with hilarious results.  Douglas shines in a supporting role as a friend-attorney who used to date Loy to the utter annoyance of Grant.

A Woman's Secret (1949) is a noir about a one-time vocalist who grooms a tough protégée to replace her.  I saw it because it stars two actresses who made my head spin, Gloria Grahame and Maureen O'Hara, both of whom have been better.  Told in one tiresome flashback after another, I couldn't believe what a mess it was.  Douglas, doing his best Hoagy Carmichael piano-playing impression with snide remarks, is the best thing about it.

Two lavishly-produced MGM movies, The Great Sinner (1949), and My Forbidden Past (1951), both costarring Ava Gardner with Gregory Peck in the former and Robert Mitchum in the latter were dreary and uninvolving.  He was tired of making movies, tired of everything about it and wasn't sure he'd ever make another.  He was excited about the new medium of television and got even more excited when he realized how much movie people hated it. 

Douglas would not make another film until 1962.  On television he appeared in one prestigious production after another.  He even had a long-forgotten, one-season series.  But he also returned to the acting job he loved most, the Broadway stage.  

He supported his wife in her extremely contentious Senate race against Richard Nixon in 1950 but lost to him.  Milking the notion that she was a commie sympathizer, he publicly referred to her as The Pink Lady.  Gahagan, in turn, is the one who coined the phrase Tricky Dick.  Despite the loss, she continued in politics for years.

When Douglas returned to the screen in 1962, he looked considerably older than we had remembered, some of which was due to a heart condition he'd developed in the years away.  The film was Billy Budd.  He played a small role as Dansker, a crafty old sailmaker who encounters the young Billy (a gorgeous Terence Stamp) working his way up on the high seas.  It met my expectations.

Brilliant as Hud's cold father

Director Martin Ritt fought Paramount tooth and nail to have Douglas play the tough, old-bird rancher in Hud (1963) who 
detests his older, alcoholic, s.o.b. of a son (Paul Newman).  The studio was reluctant to insure Douglas because of his heart and it surely seemed like a rough role for a man with his condition.  I adored this film and Douglas' performance, the finest, I believe, of his long career.  He rightfully won an Oscar for his efforts.

The true star of The Americanization of Emily (1964) is the screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky who turned this military story into a delicious black comedy with words that gave me goosebumps.  Douglas was more than happy to appear as an eccentric admiral and fine as he was, the film belongs to its two stars, James Garner and Julie Andrews.

My second favorite Douglas performance came with I Never Sang for My Father (1970), another harrowing look into a father-son relationship.  Interestingly, Douglas had been asked to play the role on Broadway but thought the run would be too strenuous for him.  He plays a selfish father who has his hooks in his professor son (Gene Hackman) who wants to move across the country.  Their relationship and how it is portrayed is awfully hard to watch and yet I see such truth in it.  Due to my own background with my difficult father, I have always related to this story although it's much more dramatic than mine.  Bravo, bravo, bravo to both actors who were nominated for Oscars.

With Gene Hackman as the bickering father & son

One Is a Lonely Number (1972) stars Trish Van Devere as a young New Yorker trying to navigate through life after her husband dumps her.  I found it well-intentioned with something to say although the general topic was done better six years later with Jill Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman.  Douglas was charming as a 
sentimental shop owner... what a vacation it must have been for him after Father.

I don't remember why I didn't have much enthusiasm for Robert Redford as The Candidate (1972).  I can see why Douglas did, however.  Playing the father of a California Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate was right up his alley.  Douglas' politics over the years likely cost him movie roles but this one had his name written all over it.  Later in the decade he was more than happy to play in two more politically-themed films, both as a senator, in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979) and The Changeling (1980).

Douglas got another great role in Being There (1979).  He plays a wealthy man and advisor to the President who takes care of a simple-minded gardener (after he's struck by the man's limo).  The gardener knows precious little about life except for what he's gleaned from television.  Douglas mistakes his childish ramblings for something brilliant and fresh.  It is arguably Peter Sellers' finest role and Douglas, bless his weary heart, won another Oscar.

That heart was broken in 1980 when Gahagan died of cancer.  They were the rare Hollywood couple whose love lasted for decades.  He hoped to find a little solace in work.

The offer came to make Ghost Story (1981) with Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and John Houseman, stalwart performers all, in a horror tale about four friends who have kept a long-ago secret that appears to now be unraveling.  The story is perfectly fine while the real kick is seeing these four old pros acting with one another.

In August of 1981, with still a few scenes yet to complete on Ghost Story, Douglas suddenly died from pneumonia that was further compromised by his heart problems.  It had been less than a year since Helen died.  He was 80.

Perhaps you know of his actress-granddaughter, Ileana Douglas.  She did not acquire his fame but she certainly had his acting genes.

I always found much to admire about Melvyn Douglas.


Next posting:
time for another Siamese cat