Montgomery Clift Blog-a-Thon.

"Hollywood's ultimate troubled child is unquestionably one of the great film stars but he still exists somehow apart from the Brandos, Bogarts and even the Taylors in Classic Hollywood's pantheon." With well over a dozen entries from far and wide, Nathaniel R's Montgomery Clift Blog-a-Thon has a fine showpiece in his own entry on A Place in the Sun:

For those inclined to enjoy readings of star performances through the distorting prism of what we know of their personal lives - in Clift's case: addictions, homosexuality, depression, and "pathological compartmentalization" of his social life - this also makes George Eastman and A Place in the Sun an ideal vessel for carrying nearly all the crucial pieces of the Clift mythology. It's here in one classic package: implosive sensational talent (this was the second of four Oscar nominations) beauty you can drown in (boy is Shelley Winters in trouble... in both senses of the word), self-destructive sexual behavior (George is living dangerously for an up and comer, isn't he?) and existential angst that doesn't overpower his charisma so much as inform it (check out how quickly Liz loses her ground as seductress to become both seduced and matronly, desperate to sex him up and save him). Just about the only missing piece of the Clift myth is the homo eroticism but there's always Red River for that.

Posted by dwhudson at October 17, 2007 1:48 PM