ANASTASIA

Helen Hayes, Yul Brynner, Ingrid Bergman

ANASTASIA (1956). Director: Anatole Litvak. Screenplay by Arthur Laurents.

In Europe in the 1920's rumors are circulating that Anastasia (Ingrid Bergman), the youngest daughter of the Tsar Nicholas, may have survived the purge that killed the rest of her family. General Bounine (Yul Brynner) finds a woman, fresh out of mental hospitals and contemplating suicide, whom he thinks resembles Anastasia, and guides her -- like Henry Higgins -- to act more like royalty. But as she is about to meet the Dowager Empress (Helen Hayes) and seal her fate, she wonders if she could really be who everyone says she is. Anastasia is a wonderful, absorbing film that is not true to historical facts but to their spirit, and works beautifully as a kind of fairy tale. Bergman deservedly won a Best Actress Oscar for this, and she is matched in excellence by a powerful Hayes, and a rather sexy and dynamic Brynner. There is also fine work from Martita Hunt [Becket] as the Empress' peppery lady-in-waiting [to whom the Empress says "to a woman of your age, sex should mean nothing but gender"]; Ivan Desny as her nephew, Paul; Akim Tamiroff [The Vulture] as Boris Chernov, one of the co-conspirators in this matter of the "phony" Anastasia; and Natalie Schafer [The Other Love] as one of the group of Russian exiles who embraces Anastasia as their own; among others. The ending is contrived but effective, and the movie still manages to maintain an air of ambiguity. In real life, the Empress completely rejected "Anastasia's" claim, and the woman lived her life as Ana Anderson, protesting all along that she was the real daughter of the Tsar. Decades later, DNA proved conclusively that Anderson was lying. Filmed in stunning DeLuxe color and with a nice score by Alfred Newman.

Verdict: A true classic with superb performances. ****.

SUMMERTIME

The beauty of Venice as photographed by Jack Hildyard

SUMMERTIME (1955). Director: David Lean.

Middle-aged secretary Jane Hudson (Katharine Hepburn) comes to Venice in the hopes of finding a "magical, mystical miracle," some adventure and romance, and meets a handsome shopkeeper named Renato (Rossano Brazzi), but the true star of this movie is the city of Venice where it was filmed in its entirety. Arthur Laurents' play "The Time of the Cuckoo" has been refashioned for Hepburn, with the result that much of the play has been thrown out and the other characters get little screen time -- it's all Hepburn and Venice, with a little Brazzi thrown in for good measure. The romance between Jane and Renato is completely unconvincing because the two actors have zero chemistry together; Hepburn seems less a repressed spinster than a self-hating lesbian trying to fool herself with a good-looking man! You might catch a glimpse of Darren McGavin [Kolchak, the Night Stalker and Mike Hammer] as one of the fellow guests in the pensione where Jane is staying, but his affair with the woman (Isa Miranda) who runs the place is so downplayed it hardly exists; Mari Aldon plays McGavin's wife. Gaetano Autiero is charming as the little boy, Mauro, who takes Jane sightseeing and is always trying to sell her things -- he seems to get more screen time than some of the adults. Some of the beautiful music is from La gazza ladra by Rossini; other music is by Alessando Cicognini. This was later turned into the Broadway musical Do I Hear a Waltz? with a book by Laurents, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and music by Richard Rodgers. By then the lead character's name was changed from Jane Hudson to Leona as we'd already had one [Baby] Jane Hudson in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Verdict: Enjoyable for its stunning shots of Venice, but don't expect too much of a story. **1/2.

ORIGINAL STORY BY ARTHUR LAURENTS

ORIGINAL STORY BY: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood. Arthur Laurents. Knopf; 2000.

Arthur Laurents may never have become a household name a la Tennessee Williams or Eugene O'Neill, but he did have quite a successful career with such plays as "The Time of the Cuckoo" to his credit, as well as writing and/or directing such famous musicals as West Side Story, Gypsy, La Cage aux Folles and Do I Hear a Waltz?, which was taken from "Cuckoo." He also wrote a number of screenplays for such films as The Snake Pit, Caught and Hitchcock's Rope. Laurents writes bluntly and intelligently of his experiences, good and bad, working on all of these productions, detailing the often infuriating compromises one must make in Hollywood and the inevitable clash of egos that happens on Broadway. His book is also a look at early gay life before modern Gay Liberation, where he dealt with his own self-hatred, while enjoying numerous affairs and a relationship with actor Farley Granger, and he also discusses the days of the blacklist as well. He doesn't pull any punches about such people as Jerome Robbins and others. One problem with the book, with is rich in detail and in anecdote, is that Laurents often bounces around time wise, which sometimes makes sense but also makes the book a confusing read at other times; just when you think you're done with one period or individual, you're suddenly back with them again for a few pages. There's also too much on his relationship or whatever you want to call it with dancer Nora Kaye. Laurents could be called a name-dropper were it not for the fact that he did legitimately work with and otherwise interact with many famous people, not all of whom are portrayed in a flattering light. Laurents ends the book by writing of his long-time partner, Tom Hatcher, "as long as he lives, I will." Sadly, Hatcher died six years later, and Laurents survived him by five years.

Verdict: Entertaining and absorbing for most of its length and a fine evocation of its period. ***1/2.

INCLUDE ME OUT

INCLUDE ME OUT: My Life from Goldwyn to Broadway. Farley Granger with Robert Calhoun. St. Martin’s Press; 2007.

Farley Granger will always be remembered as the star of Hitchcock’s films Strangers on a Train and Rope (he thinks the latter is minor Hitchcock). He traces his life and career from his early years working for Sam Goldwyn to his work with Hitchcock, his adventures in the New York theater world, his foray into Italian film-making with Luchino Visconti (Senso), and his re-emergence as a Broadway and soap opera actor in his later years. Although he doesn’t use the term himself, Granger is apparently fashionably bisexual in that he has had affairs with both men and women; reading between the lines he seems more interested in men. Granger claims he ended his relationship with playwright Arthur Laurents after he fell in love with Shelley Winters, but a few pages later intimates that he left Laurents after he came home to find him fooling around with another man. Which is it? One gets the sense that Granger wants to hold on to some sort of heterosexual pedigree in somewhat dated fashion. Whatever, he gets credit for not excluding his homoerotic relationships with the likes of Leonard Bernstein and others. In some ways this is a typical Hollywood story of an actor who achieves fame, loses it, and copes as best he can while constantly striving to be the best actor he can be. A bizarre note has Granger going for acting lessons after making his best-known film Strangers on a Train. Not essential reading necessarily, but it certainly is fast-paced and entertaining, with some juicy insider details both filmic and sexual, albeit a bit on the superficial side. As a Man Who Loves Men, one might have expected Granger to discuss, say, the possibly homophobic aspects of Rope, but he glosses over it completely.

Verdict: Enjoyable minor Hollywood memoir with 21st century twists. **½.