{"id":1324,"date":"2013-03-30T07:02:57","date_gmt":"2013-03-30T11:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/?p=1324"},"modified":"2014-03-16T13:31:15","modified_gmt":"2014-03-16T17:31:15","slug":"dodsworth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/?p=1324","title":{"rendered":"Walter Huston in ‘Dodsworth’ — Bravo!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dodsworth<\/a>

Dodsworth Original Poster<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

And then you think, as these people go . . . these beautiful<\/i> people go . . . You know, it\u2019s going to be a new world; we\u2019re not gonna have that same sort of person anymore.\u00a0 Like when Claude Rains<\/em> died . . . you couldn\u2019t bear<\/em> it.\u00a0 You can\u2019t find anybody that has . . . they\u2019re all individuals<\/em>\u00a0. . . I\u2019m not gonna sit around and moan for the past, because, you know, it\u2019s past<\/em>.\u00a0 And of course, you also say, \u201cWho\u2019s going next?\u201d\u00a0 . . . This is a terrible thing that happens, because you say, \u201cMaybe it\u2019s I<\/em>” \u00a0. . . it\u2019s so terribly depressing.\u00a0 Like when Walter Huston<\/em> died . . . you can\u2019t cast — you can\u2019t get that kind of a man anywhere in the world today again.
\n— Bette Davis on The Dick Cavett Show<\/em>, 1971<\/p>\n

Walter Huston’s star turn in William Wyler’s “Dodsworth” (Goldwyn, 1936) is one of the great, unsung performances in movie history. \u00a0He first played Sam Dodsworth on Broadway (Fay Bainter co-starred as his selfish, straying wife, Fran; in the picture, Ruth Chatterton plays the role). The character — a combination of impulsiveness, innocence and ruthlessness — is so perfectly suited to Huston’s temperament and talents that he hardly seems to be acting — he simply is<\/em>. \u00a0Even when an occasional line reading bears the traces of having been spoken by him many, many times before (the Broadway run lasted more than 300 performances), he never seems less than completely alive in the part. \u00a0His voice is immediately recognizable; nobody before or since has sounded anything like Walter Huston — his voice is easy to imitate, but his soulfulness cannot be copied. \u00a0Few actors have ever possessed such easy authority, humor and gravitas in equal measure and all at the same time. \u00a0There is never any fussiness about his acting, but he’s not perfectly realistic, either. \u00a0You always know he’s acting, but it’s hard to believe he’s not exactly like the guy he’s playing. \u00a0Yes, Bette Davis was right: \u00a0you can’t get that kind of a man anywhere in the world today. \u00a0In his time, he was one of the best-liked and most admired actors in America, but he rarely appeared in a major role in a first rate motion picture. \u00a0He won the 1949 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” about which James Agee wrote, “I doubt if we shall ever see . . . better acting than Walter Huston’s beautiful performance.” \u00a0But as great as he was in that one, “Dodsworth” is, by a long, long chalk, his finest screen performance. \u00a0He won that year’s New York Critics’ Circle Award, but lost the Oscar to the odious Paul Muni in “The Story of Louis Pasteur.” \u00a0Huston was robbed. \u00a0Muni’s performance today is risible — not a believable or human moment in it; Huston’s Samuel Dodsworth was and is one of the high points of screen acting. \u00a0He’s among the four or five greatest actors in the history of motion pictures. \u00a0Stanislavski himself was one of his greatest admirers.<\/p>\n

\"Walter<\/a>

Walter Huston: ‘Son, always give ’em a good show and travel first class.’<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Based on Sinclair Lewis’ novel, “Dodsworth” is the story of a wealthy automobile manufacturer who sells his company, takes an early retirement and takes his iron butterfly wife on a deluxe tour of the European capitals, where he hopes to rekindle their youthful passion; she has rather different plans of her own. \u00a0Things do not work out as either of them planned. \u00a0The portrait of a marriage heading for the rocks is one of the shrewdest, most penetrating examinations of marriage ever put on film. \u00a0Time has not diminished its effectiveness in the slightest. \u00a0Sidney Howard wrote the admirable script, which he based on his play.<\/p>\n

The clip below shows the Dodsworths in Paris, entertaining a financier\/gigalo, Arnold Iselin (Paul Lukas); an Austrian baron (Gregory Gaye — the banker whom Rick won’t let into his casino in “Casablanca”); an haute couture<\/em> dress designer (Odette Myrtil, who was a designer in real life); and Edith Cortright (Mary Astor), an American divorcee\/expatriate whom the Dodsworths met aboard the Queen Mary during their Atlantic crossing. \u00a0Mary Astor<\/a>‘s little exchange with Ruth Chatterton is my idea of perfection, both in the writing and the playing.<\/p>\n