MIRIAM HOPKINS: LIFE AND FILMS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL

MIRIAM HOPKINS: LIFE AND FILMS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL. Allan R. Ellenberger. University Press of Kentucky; 2018.

Miriam Hopkins is long overdue a serious biography, and at last we've got one. Hopkins never quite made the front rank of stardom -- like such ladies as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford -- but she was a highly gifted actress who appeared in many notable films and gave some excellent performances in them. Hopkins first made her mark on Broadway, and like many actors during this period, had some reservations about "going Hollywood." Seen as incredibly sexy in her twenties ( a sexiness that faded out rather early), she was cast in a number of crappy melodramas, such as the terrible 24 Hours, but also did The Smiling Lieutenant with Maurice Chevalier and starred in more than one movie for Ernst Lubitsch. Although she gave an uneven performance as a rape victim in The Story of Temple Drake, the film brought Hopkins a lot of attention, and she was excellent in William Wyler's These Three. (Years later Hopkins also scored in Wyler's remake of this, The Children's Hour, which stuck more closely to the original plot of Lillian Hellman's play.)

Although the media has made (too) much of the alleged "feud" between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, there was much more of a feud -- if that's what you want to call it -- between Davis and Hopkins. The two appeared together in The Old Maid and Old Acquaintance, and there was decided tension on the set. Hopkins felt sure that Davis had had a fling with Hopkins' then-husband Anatol Litvak, and she was also furious that Davis had played her part in the film version of the stage play Jezebel. Hopkins also infuriated other actors and directors with her scene-stealing and other antics. As Hopkins grew older, she concentrated more on the stage, although she had one of her best roles in another brilliant William Wyler film, The Heiress. Also as she aged, Hopkins never quite understood that she was not really the mega-star that, say, Davis was, and never attracted that kind of obsessive fan attention. This excellent book also examines Hopkins' other films and stage roles; her marriages and many affairs; her adopted son, Michael; behind-the scenes on-set experiences; and Hopkins' relationship with Tennessee Williams during and after her starring in his play Band of Angels; amused by her yet respecting her talent, Williams called her a "magnificent bitch." Well-researched and with plenty of interviews.

Verdict: First-class look at the inimitable Miriam Hopkins. ***1/2.