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OT: Eva Marie Saint at the TCM 2018 Film Festival(April)

posted 7 years ago by ecarle (14979)
12 replies | jump to latest

They ran some interview clips from the red carpet of the Turner Classic Movies film festival that is happening the week I post this. Not too many big stars were interviewed, but some interesting little ones were. Paul Sorvino was there, for instance, to see Martin Scorsese get the first "Robert Osborne Award"(given to Marty by Leo DiCaprio, who IS a big star, but he stayed off the red carpet.) Dana Delaney. Thomas Everett Scott. Oh, well.

Actually, it was great to see Juliet Mills and her longstanding husband/beau Maxwell Caulfield. They go WAY back, and now they are handsome old people.

Anyway, that was about the star caliber and then -- Eva Marie Saint walked up to Ben Mankewicz, and she was her usually surprisingly spry self at 90 something.

I think its great. She lives on now, I think, as Hitchcock's greatest living visible player -- Kim Novak and Doris Day and Vera Miles have abandoned the public eye, Julie Andrews came too late in too weak a film -- but Eva Marie abides.

Oh, wait, there's one more of great visibility: Shirley MacLaine. Love her, too.

You gotta admit, a lot of those Hitchcock ladies have had great longevity. The men -- not so much. Cary and Jimmy and Henry are long gone. Even Young Tony. And Rod.

Well, Sean's still here...

[–] Culburn (3638) 7 years ago

[[[Actually, it was great to see Juliet Mills and her longstanding husband/beau Maxwell Caulfield. They go WAY back, and now they are handsome old people.]]]

Did not know this.

Good information all the way around here, carl. Great post!

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Thank you for reading, Culburn!

[–] swanstep (2715) 7 years ago

Eva Marie Saint has something special about her: she's the female lead in two of the most beloved movies ever, and got her Oscar for the first of these. She's basically kept her dignity (think of how easy it is to blow things for yourself in these easily offended times), sunny disposition, figure, looks and full wits intact to at least the age of 90. Amazing. She's kind of a totem or benign angel of Golden Age Hollywood glamor and perseverance.

She was already referenced as such in a cool '80s pop song:
https://youtu.be/gSc46sEZdl4
In 30 years nothing's changed, except maybe now EMS is even cooler to name-drop.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Eva Marie Saint has something special about her: she's the female lead in two of the most beloved movies ever, and got her Oscar for the first of these.

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Yep. On the Waterfront and North by Northwest. She was...IS...very proud of the first, but she says she has gotten far more questions about the second. Hitchcock fans were certainly legion over the decades, and NXNW is a grand entertainment...whereas Waterfront is pretty heavy going. Also -- famously -- Hitchcock transformed the "waif" of Waterfront into what the old-but-young Saint loves to call "the sexy spy lady." Glamour plus -- with, indeed a trace of intelligence and breeding to her looks that went well with Cary Grant. She seems a more mature version of Grace Kelly in NXNW -- and more rough and ready for Rushmore.

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She's basically kept her dignity (think of how easy it is to blow things for yourself in these easily offended times),

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To which I say -- are the offended REALLY offended -- or just professionally offended? (clicks, $$$)

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sunny disposition, figure, looks and full wits intact to at least the age of 90. Amazing.

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I suppose she's that "one in a million" who ages with perfect youth and keeps living when many of her peers have passed. (Which includes all the guys in NXNW -- Cary, James and just last year, Martin.)

It has been noted that the public always identifies with the "long lived survivors." We all imagine we're going to live long...like Eva Marie or Clint Eastwood(in his high 80's, but a good bet for 90.)

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[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

She's kind of a totem or benign angel of Golden Age Hollywood glamor and perseverance.

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Yep. One thing to mention: she had a husband for decades, and he only recently passed away. I can't recall his name. I think he was a TV director in the 50's, but I also think his career sort of fizzled out in the 60's, and he seemed content to be "Mr. Eva Marie Saint" for decades after that. It was a long and happy marriage, and Eva Marie has indicated she's sad over losing him and thus more dedicated than ever to getting out in public.

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She was already referenced as such in a cool '80s pop song:
https://youtu.be/gSc46sEZdl4
In 30 years nothing's changed, except maybe now EMS is even cooler to name-drop.

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I knew nothing of this! EMS IS cool. Even her name is cool. And I even think it is cool how Eva Marie played "Eve" for Hitchcock here. It rather merged actress and character.

BTW, I trust we all know how, on the NXNW poster, Cary Grant's name(9 letters) is as big as Eva Marie Saint's name below it(13 letters.) He wasn't THAT gallant.

[–] swanstep (2715) 7 years ago

And I even think it is cool how Eva Marie played "Eve" for Hitchcock here. It rather merged actress and character.

Absolutely. I reckon that EMS herself must at least occasionally think of Eve Kendall as her alter-ego. She may even have said as much somewhere.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Absolutely. I reckon that EMS herself must at least occasionally think of Eve Kendall as her alter-ego. She may even have said as much somewhere.

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That's possible. I think she realized that while her Waterfront role was dramatic, it was rather drab and over-emotional. Eve Kendell is All Ways Cool -- sexually assertive, a career woman(an "industrial designer," whatever that is), able to land smoothies like James Mason and Cary Grant, and very, very brave(she's willingly going to likely death at the end, before Cary saves her.) She's also able to survive rock-climbing on Mount Rushmore. An early Action Heroine.

Hitchcock very much liked Eva Marie Saint, and considered her for later movies. He actually thought of Saint for Marion Crane in Psycho, but decided that the role was too drab after glamour of Eve Kendell.

Saint was also up for Marnie, but I expect that Hitchcock found her too...regal?

The one Hitchcock REALLY wanted Saint for, he said, was the Julie Andrews role in Torn Curtain. But Universal wanted a bigger star. And there really were no roles for Saint in Topaz, Frenzy, or Family Plot.

Hitchcock's desire to work with Saint again makes sense, given the other actresses around her from Hitchcock. Hitch and Kim Novak didn't get along. Hitch and Vera Miles didn't get along(she quit Vertigo, he put her in the secondary role in Psycho on a cheap old contract.) Hitch and Tippi Hedren REALLY didn't get along. Hitch and Janet Leigh got along, but Hitch told Leigh after Psycho, "we can never work together again. Your one role for me was too unforgettable, it would be unfair to a new movie."

That left Saint. But HER role was pretty unforgettable too -- Eve Kendall. Given that Marnie and Torn Curtain are inferior to NXNW, I'm glad Saint isn't in them.

And how odd it would have been for her to be in BOTH NXNW and Psycho. Surviving in one, dying horribly in the other.

[–] swanstep (2715) 7 years ago

To which I say -- are the offended REALLY offended -- or just professionally offended? (clicks, $$$)

Rethinking, I probably shouldn't have stressed 'causing offence', and left it rather more open-ended about the exact way in which someone getting on in years can 'blow it'. I guess I count both Hedren and Novak as having lost a little dignity through some of their public forays in the last decade (when interest in Hitch has surged/solidified). It's just very easy in interviews and other public appearances to hit wrong notes of various sorts. If you come across as dumber or more naive or more deluded or less sympathetic or more vengeful or... than people expect that's a problem for you. Even if you cause no offence you can be sneered at or become a laughing stock. Precisely because it *is* so easy to make a painful booboo (perhaps particularly for women) I completely understand why many stars retire almost completely from public life. EMS's killer genes and serene presence mean that, almost uniquely, she can appear in public and never even come close to stumbling into the traps that find so many of her peers.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Rethinking, I probably shouldn't have stressed 'causing offence', and left it rather more open-ended about the exact way in which someone getting on in years can 'blow it'.

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I think I responded to your point with the wrong answer on my part. I was responding to a different idea. (Mine).

Which is that nowaday, I keep reading internet headlines that say "(INSERT STAR'S NAME HERE) tweet raises outrage on the Internet" or "(INSERT GROUP HERE) is offended by star's comment.)

And then I click and there are maybe two or three minor complaints that mean little -- other than getting some clicks.

That said, certainly some of the old-time actors and actresses quoted today get in BIG trouble if they comment "the wrong way" on modern morals.

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I guess I count both Hedren and Novak as having lost a little dignity through some of their public forays in the last decade (when interest in Hitch has surged/solidified).

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Hedren especially. She became a late-breaking poster girl for the Me Too movement, but there's a ton of "counterquotes" in the marketplace of all the actresses who LOVED working with Hitchcock(Fontaine, Bergman, Kelly, Saint, Leigh.)

Hitchcock made Hedren a star outta nowhere -- the leads in two movies back to back by one of Hollywood's biggest directors. That Hedren couldn't maintain the star career that she had, frankly, not earned, wasn't entirely Hitchcock's fault. Other producer-directors simply didn't consider her enough of a star to cast.

That said, I'm sure that Hitchcock -- aged, freaking out on an inability to match Psycho, probably sexually frustrated -- said SOMETHING to Hedren, and he has paid the price, too, invariably being dragged out as an example of old time Hollywood sexual predation. (Which, as I've noted, is rather ridiculous, since he claimed celibacy for 30 years and other Hollywood types were getting it all the time from somewhere.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I've lost track of Novak's comments. I think she spoke badly of Hitchcock, and then back-pedallled. I've seen interviews where she speaks well of him.

What I mainly gather about Hitchcock and Novak is that (a) he really wanted Vera Miles for Vertigo and (b) he didn't think Novak could act(there are quotes from him in this manner at the time of the film's release!)

So Novak didn't have great feelings for Hitch, in return.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

It's just very easy in interviews and other public appearances to hit wrong notes of various sorts. If you come across as dumber or more naive or more deluded or less sympathetic or more vengeful or... than people expect that's a problem for you.

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And in today's horrific speed-of-light internet world...that misstep becomes a news story that hangs on for days.

For instance, in these "Me Too" times, I think that both Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Denvenue offered some defense of the male romantic impulse and got a fusillade of venom hurled at them in the 'net press. SNL did a mean skit with Kate McKinnon playing Bardot as, like, 101 years old -- so the "out of touch old person" insult sounded, too.

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Even if you cause no offence you can be sneered at or become a laughing stock. Precisely because it *is* so easy to make a painful booboo (perhaps particularly for women) I completely understand why many stars retire almost completely from public life.

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Yep. I would.

I also enjoyed what Bill Murray did back in the 80's. A string of early 80's hits climaxed with Ghostbusters -- and he pretty much quit movies for 4 years and moved to France(oh there was a cameo in Little Shop of Horrors and an SNL hosting, but that's it.) He just couldn't take the fame. And when he came back, he never really had that superstar thing going again. He'd been gone too long.

But he was still rich, and he still kept working.

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EMS's killer genes and serene presence mean that, almost uniquely, she can appear in public and never even come close to stumbling into the traps that find so many of her peers.

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She projects both "niceness" and amazing energy and enthusiasm. She's always smiling, giggles a bit. I felt HAPPY when I saw the footage of her on the TCM red carpet.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I think I once rather meanly noted that, back in the 80's, Vera Miles looks seemed to have deteriorated fast(in Psycho II and Into the Night). I didn't mean it to sound mean, so much as to say that if you have a career as a beautiful actress, and your youthful looks go, maybe you WANT to retire from the public eye. Nobody's seen Vera in public for decades. And when Jessica Biel played Vera Miles in 2012's "Hitchcock," Vera Miles did not come out to help prepare or promote the film. She sent her granddaughter instead to talk to Biel.

I also recall Cary Grant's remark about one of the reasons he chose to retire at 62:

"I think I"ll leave my fans with that young tan and handsome fellow on the Late Show, not what I am today."