Readers, I apologize for my rather unannounced absence over the past week–Thanksgiving weekend kept me busy and this week it has been work keeping me busy! But as it is the last day in November, it’s time to say goodbye to Gene Tierney as Star of the Month, and to elect a new one for December. As I like to profile stars with birthdays in the corresponding month, the star whom I have chosen for honors in the month of December is:

MARLENE DIETRICH

With a birthday on December 27th, the legendary Marlene Dietrich will be profiled over this coming month.

Also, don’t forget that Backlots’ Dueling Divas Blogathon is happening December 20-23! If you haven’t signed up yet, drop me a comment to let me know you’ll be participating, and your blog will be added to the official participants’ list. I will be making another post in about a week, to which you can link your entries. In the meantime, start thinking about what you want to write about! Remember, this blogathon allows for all kinds of creative ideas. Keep them coming!

See you all in December!

Here’s hoping that all my readers have a happy Thanksgiving with lots to be thankful for! I’ll be spending the evening at a family friend’s house, but not before tuning into TCM for their SPECTACULAR lineup all day tomorrow:

(Please note: I have the TCM website set to Pacific Time because I’m in California–so the listed times will be 3 hours later if you’re on the East Coast!)

Have a wonderful, wonderful day tomorrow, dear readers!

After the difficult birth of her first child in 1943, Gene Tierney began showing some serious signs of mental instability. She ultimately spent a good part of her adult life in and out of mental institutions, struggling with what we would now term bipolar disorder (then known as “manic depression”), a mental illness that seems to be all too prevalent within the realm of classic Hollywood. Here, I would like to take a look at many of the stars who struggled with this illness, and how it affected their lives and careers.

Bipolar disorder is defined by the National Institute for Mental Health as “a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.” It is documented that many creative people have suffered from it, and as medication did not become available until relatively recently, many of our classic film stars lived untreated, self-medicating with drugs and alcohol or suffering painful electroshock treatments, the only known treatment before the advent of lithium in 1970, which is now the standard medication in treatment of the condition.

Sadly, Gene Tierney was one of the very few who came through to recount her experiences, with the vast majority of the stars having their lives ravaged by this horrendous disorder and thus retreating from public life. With mental illness still carrying an unbearable stigma, it took great courage for Tierney to come out and tell her story to a world that looked upon her as a flawless star and idol. As mentioned before, her condition was triggered by the birth of her daughter Daria in 1943. She committed herself voluntarily to the Harkness Pavilion in New York, later to be transferred to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. She received many shock treatments, which she claimed destroyed her memory, and she became a vocal opponent to the practice. In 1957, she was seen trying to attempt suicide, and was admitted to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, where she worked part-time anonymously as a salesgirl as part of treatment. She wrote about her experiences in 1979, one of the first actors to recount her battle with mental illness, and managed to keep her condition under control for the rest of her life.

VIVIEN LEIGH

Having come through a somewhat similar situation as Gene Tierney, Vivien Leigh began exhibiting strange behaviors around 1945, shortly after suffering a miscarriage following a fall on the set of Caesar and Cleopatra in 1945. According to those closest to her, Vivien would go through a period of restlessness, followed by a massive outburst of anger and vitriol (known as the “manic phase”), and then a deep depression during which she would not remember her mania.  A particularly severe episode occurred while Vivien was in Ceylon filming Elephant Walk with Peter Finch–her manic phase was so heightened that she had to be sedated and flown home, and subsequently replaced in the picture by Elizabeth Taylor. Though her behaviors became the worst in this period between 1945 and her death in 1967, many of her friends recall that she had been exhibiting milder episodes for quite some time–some remembering it from her childhood. In his autobiography, Confessions of an Actor, her husband, Sir Laurence Olivier, recalled his experiences with her illness:

“Throughout her possession by that uncannily evil monster, manic depression, with its deadly, ever-tightening spirals, she retained her own individual canniness–an ability to disguise her true mental condition from almost all except me, for whom she could hardly be expected to take the trouble.”

FRANCES FARMER

The story of Frances Farmer is perhaps the most well-known case of mental illness in classic Hollywood, due to the sensational media coverage of the time as well as the biopic starring Jessica Lange in 1982. Unfortunately, many of the true details have been sensationalized for media publicity, and it’s difficult to get accurate information. What we do know is that Frances Farmer was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct in 1942, and after behaving strangely at her hearing the next morning, she was jailed and sent to L.A. General Hospital where she was diagnosed with manic depression. She was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and was given a series of shock treatments to “cure” her. She alleged horrendous conditions at the mental hospitals, and despite (or perhaps because of) all these invasive medical procedures, Farmer lived with her illnesses for the majority of her life. Her autobiography, Will There Really Be A Morning? was published posthumously in 1973.

PATTY DUKE

The young actress who made waves with her remarkable performance as Helen Keller in 1961’s The Miracle Worker, has gone on to become the living embodiment of how one can come through mental illness to thrive. From childhood, Duke recalls feeling extreme highs and lows, which came to a peak during her late adolescent years. She exhibited extremely erratic behavior throughout her life, including a whirlwind 13-day marriage, leading people to believe that she had a problem with drugs and alcohol, with which she self-medicated. She was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1982, relatively late in life. Her condition has stabilized, and she wrote her autobiography, Call Me Anna, in 1988. She now devotes her time to educating people about the disorder and mental illness in general. I had the great honor to meet her in 2009, when she came to San Francisco with a production of Wicked.

The stars of classic Hollywood did not have the advantages of medical treatments such as lithium that are available today. Fortunately today’s young stars have the luck to be able to get themselves treated if they so choose, but the diagnosis of bipolar disorder is still rare in Hollywood, probably due to fear of the stigma. It’s really crucial that it be eradicated, and the autobiographies of Gene Tierney and others I feel can help do that.

Today is Star of the Month Gene Tierney’s birthday! She would have been 91 years old. Here is a photographic and video tribute to her. Stay tuned the rest of this month for more Gene Tierney-themed posts!

Interview with Gene Tierney, July 1985.

30 years after Natalie Wood’s tragic drowning off the coast of Catalina Island in 1981, the initial ruling that her death was accidental is being reexamined.

According to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s office, the captain of the boat off which Natalie Wood allegedly slipped and fell into the ocean has made some strange remarks about the 30th anniversary of her death. They won’t release what he said, but it seems that they’re going to start investigating this case as a homicide instead of an accidental drowning because of the captain’s remarks.

Spooky stuff, but not altogether surprising.

Back in 2001, Suzanne Finstad wrote a very classy, very exhaustive biography of Natalie Wood entitled Natasha. I read it when it first came out, and though I was just a little whippersnapper at 15, the official details of Natalie Wood’s drowning left gaping holes that sent chills up my spine. Finstad wrote about the details of that night, and about how there are some parts of the story that aren’t being examined closely enough. There was a fight on the boat…and there was drinking. There were reports of violence, and people heard cries. Finstad had some real reservations about saying that Natalie Wood’s death was accidental, and offers some possible explanations of her own.

I will be following this case closely. I hope justice, in whatever form it may come, is served, and we can continue to remember Natalie Wood as she deserves to be remembered.

In celebration of our Star of the Month Gene Tierney, I will be reviewing Tobacco Road, one of Gene’s earliest endeavors into film, and one in which despite efforts to the contrary, her striking looks win out over all the makeup to make her look like a hillbilly, and she simply looks stunning as usual. The movie itself, though directed by the legendary John Ford, was NOT a hit, but it’s an interesting movie to watch, and I will give you some of my own personal opinions later on in the post.

First of all, let me say that I saw this movie for the first time when I was in Paris. For those of you who have been following Backlots for some time, you know that there are 2 classic movie theaters in Paris, the Action Cinema Rue Christine, and the Desperado (which, oddly, was Action Écoles when I got there, and the Desperado when I left. Go figure–I’ve given up trying to understand anything that goes on in Paris). Obviously, I was constantly at one of them, and I saw some really fantastic movies on the big screen, as they were meant to be shown. Tobacco Road was at the Rue Christine, and I had never seen it before.

The plot has to do with a poor family living on inherited land, and their struggles to stay afloat during tough economic times. The story was taken from a novel, but the plot of the novel was more about the dramas of the family, while this movie chooses to focus more on the comic relief.

In fact, I find the film absolutely hilarious. I mean really:

Charley Grapewin, as Jeeter Lester, had me laughing all the way through the movie, as did many of the other supporting characters. A particular favorite recurring theme of mine is Jeeter’s obsession with turnips.  Toward the beginning of the film there is a scuffle over a sack of turnips that is really very silly indeed. It is the at the height of randomness and zany surrealism, and that is my favorite kind of comedy.

Gene Tierney and Ward Bond in "Tobacco Road."

As for Gene Tierney, she was 20 years old when this film was made, and though her role as the shy Ellie May Lester was small, she was noticed for her beauty that seemed to be beyond her years.

I highly recommend this movie if you are looking for some good laughs. There is one scene, however, that shows the more somber side of the story, in which Jeeter weeps over the loss of his land. It is very artfully done, and I would go so far as to say it’s done in a style very typical of John Ford, in stark contrast to the rest of the lighthearted, fun movie.

I leave you with a particularly funny gag from the film, when Jeeter discovers electric lighting and how much fun it is to turn on and off lamps. Thanks for reading!

Our Star of the Month Gene Tierney left this world 20 years ago today, succumbing to a long battle with emphysema at her home in Texas. Here is an article written by Richard Severo of the New York Times, appearing in the newspaper on November 8, 1991–2 days after Gene Tierney’s death.

Gene Tierney, the elegant actress whose beauty bewitched a tough detective in the 1944 film “Laura” and whose portrayal two years later of a diabolically selfish woman in “Leave Her to Heaven” won her an Academy Award nomination, died Wednesday night at her home in Houston. She was 70 years old.

Miss Tierney died of emphysema, a spokesman for the family said.

Miss Tierney had undergone years of treatment for stress and depression. She retired from films in 1965 after making “The Pleasure Seekers,” but made at least two television appearances after that. She told reporters that she preferred her life in Houston as the wife of W. Howard Lee, an oil man whom she married in 1960. He died in 1981.

A year before her marriage to Mr. Lee, when reporters found her working in a dress shop in Topeka, Kan. (a job she took as part of her psychotherapy at the Menninger Clinic there), she told them she attributed her illness to “my lack of understanding of what I could cope with and what I could not. . . . I tried to work harder and harder, thinking that work would cure everything. All it did was make things worse.”

With her blue-green eyes, brown hair, prominent cheekbones and what many young men of the 1940’s regarded as the most appealing overbite of the day (Miss Tierney said her movie contract stipulated that her slightly protruding front teeth were never to be fixed) she won plaudits for her patrician look but some criticism for her acting.

Even in “Laura,” which more than any other movie established her as a major star, Miss Tierney was faulted by some critics. In that film, a detective (Dana Andrews) falls in love with the portrait of a woman he believes has been murdered. For the first 30 minutes of the film, he and the other characters merely talk about her; then they discover she has not been murdered, and the character appears on screen.

For Thomas P. Pryor, who reviewed the film in The New York Times, Miss Tierney’s entrance was a bit of a letdown. She did not “measure up to the word portrait of her character,” he wrote.

Nevertheless, Miss Tierney received much praise over the years for the freshness and disarming directness she brought to her portrayal of Laura. The film is still regarded as a classic of its genre.

R.I.P. Gene Tierney. We are so lucky to still have her films with us.

Today, November 5, marks what would have been Vivien Leigh’s 98th birthday. Here is a tribute to mark the occasion of the birth of one of the 20th century’s best and most beautiful actresses, who encompasses far more than Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois. We’ll soon be revisiting Vivien at Backlots when we discuss the uncanny similarities of her life to that of our Star of the Month Gene Tierney–both strikingly beautiful women with enormous talent, suffocated by the same horrific mental illness.

But for now, just enjoy her for who she was and how much she contributed to the history of cinema. Vivien has throngs of fans throughout the world, and she deserves every ounce of praise she gets. Happy birthday, Vivien!

Screentest for Gone With the Wind

Winning the Oscar for Gone With the Wind

Attention, all prospective attendees!

Passes for the 3rd annual TCM Classic Film Festival will go on sale November 9. GET YOUR PASSES EARLY–last year they had 25,000 attendees. The theme this year is Style in Movies, and the opening night Gala screening will be a newly remastered version of Cabaret, which promises to be spectacular.

The festival will open with "Cabaret."

Robert Osborne will be there as well as Ben Mankiewicz, and a whole slew of celebrity guests who haven’t been announced yet–but last year they had Debbie Reynolds, Angela Lansbury, Peter O’Toole…all kinds of amazing people.

This is the first year I will be able to afford to go. It’s not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but by all accounts, it’s worth every penny. Obviously, I’ll be updating constantly while I’m there, and if Backlots gets its media accreditation (I’ll find out in early 2012), I’ll be able to have some behind-the-scenes info for the site. Fingers crossed!

Hope to see you there!

First off, you may notice something different about the title of this entry. When you are not God, it is rather stressful to try to cram an entire lifetime into one 7-day period. I have, thus, converted Backlots’ regular Star of the Week feature to a celebration of one star per month, to try to relieve some of the rush that comes from trying to sufficiently cover the (often very full) life of a particular star. This will enable me to cover more information and provide a fuller, more in-depth analysis of the star, and to rest on the sabbath (can you tell I work at a Jewish school?)

The star who gets the honor of being Backlots’ first Star of the Month is the magnificently stunning, brilliantly talented, and tragically troubled Gene Tierney, whom I never tire of gazing at. She made a plethora of wonderful films, and her personal life was full and fascinating to say the least. But unlike many of Hollywood’s finest, Tierney came through her troubles, and we have the good fortune to be able to read about her life firsthand in her memoir entitled Self Portrait, which gives us a glimpse into the psyche that many of her peers unfortunately succumbed to, and did not live long enough to describe to us. For that, it is a very precious book for aficionados of classic Hollywood.

Tierney was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 19, 1920. Her family was prominent socially, and Gene soon became bored with the social scene and decided to go to work on the stage, landing small parts on Broadway before breaking into the film world in 1940 with such pictures as The Return of Frank James (1940), Hudson’s Bay (1940), and Tobacco Road (1941). Her career continued steadily upward in the mid-1940’s, featuring notably Shanghai Gesture (1941), and Heaven Can Wait (1943), before the role that shot her to superstardom, the eponymous character in the 1944 film Laura.

Tierney’s first marriage was to Oleg Cassini in 1941, and their daughter Antoinette Daria (known simply as Daria) was born in 1943. During Tierney’s pregnancy, she had been exposed to the rubella virus, which was contracted by her daughter in utero, resulting in Daria being born blind, deaf, and severely mentally challenged. This may have been the impetus for Tierney’s future problems with mental health–Daria’s condition provoked intense stress on the family, and after the birth of their second daughter Tina in 1948, Tierney’s marriage to Cassini ended in divorce. Some years later and after a series of breakdowns, she was diagnosed with manic depression–today known as bipolar disorder.

With baby Daria.

Tierney was very upfront about her condition, writing about it candidly in her memoir in 1979, one of the first celebrities to do so. She thus helped to eradicate the stigma of the illness, and since then, a number of other celebrities have come forth with their own struggles. Self Portrait is, as I mentioned before, a very important book, and I don’t think it gets the attention it deserves as such.

She married a second time in 1960, and this time succeeded in her marriage to oil baron Howard Lee, remaining happily married until Lee’s death in 1981. Tierney died of emphysema 10 years later, after nearly 50 years of being a heavy smoker. Daria Cassini, her daughter who spent much of her life in institutions, also sadly passed away in September of last year. But Gene Tierney’s contribution to film has not been forgotten–she has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is still widely remembered, even by those not familiar with classic film, as the famous Laura.

Throughout November, I will be highlighting aspects of Gene Tierney’s life and career. Stay tuned for more Gene, all this month!