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| John Huston w/favorite leading lady, Ava Gardner: "The Life & Times of Judge Roy Bean." |
The
opposing anecdotes ahead are about Ava Gardner, on location for 1972’s The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. They
have always stuck in my head, from an excellent book, The Hustons: The Life and Times of a Hollywood Dynasty, by Lawrence
Grobel, published in 2012.
The
first is by Dallas’ Victoria
Principal, talking about her film debut as Roy Bean’s (Paul Newman) wife. The
second is by screenwriter/director John Milius, and this film was his first big
screenplay.
#1:
“We had a small dinner for her (Ava) and she was over two hours late,”
Principal recalled. “She arrived in white jeans and a white shirt that fit her
magnificently. And she didn’t walk into the room, she came in like a cat. I
have never seen a woman move like that or have that kind of presence, before or
since. I have never seen a woman electrify a room sexually like she did. You
were aware that she was on the prowl.”
#2:
“She (Ava) got drunk,” Milius said. “and got angry at everybody, broke some
glasses and stormed off into the desert. I was to go get her and bring her back
but I didn’t want to deal with this predatory woman. Looking back, I wish I
had. But she was old. There is something about people when they age and look like
they have been rebuilt. It was very unappealing.”
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| Ava was near the end of her partying days, as was Newman. Remember when the press bragged how he drank a case of beer a day and still looked great? |
These
memories are about a film from over 45 years ago, but the quotes are recent. They
point up the basic difference between the way men and women view female desirability,
but also how older women are still viewed in Hollywood. Look at the pictures
that go with this piece. Yes, the film stills are flattering and the artists
did a great job recalling Ava’s famed beauty. Now look at the candid shots on
the set. Does Ava look awful? To me, she looks like a beautiful middle-aged
woman. I’m constantly shocked when watching 40-something female stars in ‘50s
and ‘60s movies—they always seem to look a decade older. I mean, Angela
Lansbury looked older in Manchurian
Candidate than she did 20 years later in Murder, She Wrote! Why? Aside from differing lifestyles, classic
era actresses didn’t have the option to indulge in modern cosmetic surgery and
fillers starting at age 30!
It’s
ironic that young hotshots like Milius, some who openly bragged they were going
to bury the old cigar-chomping, starlet-squeezing moguls, turned out to be just
as ego-driven, sexist, and ageist as the previous generation. And I guess we’re
finding out that decades later, things still haven’t changed all that much. I
also wonder if Milius knew that Roy Bean’s
Paul Newman was only three years younger than “old” Ava.
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| Ava at her MGM magnificent. |
When
I was going for my bachelor’s in the mid-90s, I was in a Spanish class taught
by this outrageous woman who grew up in Spain. We had to create a sentence to
say, describing something or someone as beautiful. I used Ava Gardner as an
example. A young girl piped up, “Who’s Ava Gardner?” And my teacher answered
that Ava was a very beautiful actress and had run through many bullfighters,
and they had run through her! Touché!
Hollywood’s
original wild child, Ava Gardner made more headlines than movies from the
mid-60s on. In a long-ago Ava biography, I remember how “concerned” everyone
was over what kind of shape she was in, for her role in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. Gardner’s figure was in good
shape and pal Edith Head designed a lovely early 20th century frock
for the star. But her face… had… wrinkles! Ava used the usual temporary tricks
for film work, but never went the plastic surgery route, from what I’ve read. Artfully
made up, the cinematographer used the same special lens on Ava that was recently
used on Mae West in Myra Breckinridge—who
was 30 years older! Let’s just say the results were a bit more successful on
Ava.
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| Ava makes her entrance at the end of 'Roy Bean.' |
I
recall thinking, reading about Ava as a ‘70s teen, did studios freak out about
what kind of shape aging male boozers
reported for on a picture? William Holden comes to mind, as does Lee Marvin. How
about Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris, and Oliver Reed? Weathered
faces or no, their leading ladies faces were still young and pretty. Rock
Hudson told a story about how intimidated he was to work with John Wayne on The Undefeated—until he saw the Duke
getting smeared in tan makeup, and fitted with his toupee and girdle. Do you
think anybody worries about how Sean Penn is going to look when he shows up for
a work? Is there an actress today who likes to work hard, play hard, and
doesn’t care about wrinkles? If she exists, I can bet she’s not an American
movie star!
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| Terry O'Neill took still photos on 'Roy Bean' & photographed Ava several times, declaring she was his kind of woman! |
Ava
was 50 when she agreed to appear in a cameo as theatrical star Lillie Langtry,
as a favor to director and admirer John Huston. The movie’s title character is
obsessed by the great beauty and his bar is a shrine to Langtry, though he
never meets her. Gardner appears in the film’s final scenes, visiting the town
named in her honor, 20 years after his death. This would put the real Langtry
at 67 if she actually made the pilgrimage. Gardner shows what a natural actress
she was, when Ava felt secure. Huston had previously directed Gardner in her
greatest performance, as Maxine in Night
of the Iguana. Ava has a great light touch here, amused, charmed, wistful,
and worldly.
I
finally got to see Ava’s five minute guest role in Roy Bean today. But I knew all the behind the scenes scuttlebutt
around the film for decades. And it’s the kind of double-standard drama that’s
still being played out in Hollywood today.
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| Today, Ava would be a sexy cougar. Back then, some young hotshots thought she was just old! |
