Page 18 HIGH GEAR

Two good Montgomery Clift bios

Reader gets fascinating feast

Monty: A. Blography of Montgomery Cift. By Robert LaGuardia. Arbor, House. 304 pages. Illustrated, $12.95. -1977.

Montgomery Clift. & Brography. By Patricia Bosworth. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 438 pages, Ulustrated. $12.95. 1978.

By George Browni

He swept across the silver screen in "The Search" and "Red River in 1948 and became an immediate star. Montgomery Chit wasn't a new Clark Gable. Tyrone Power, or Gregory Peck... He was unique. later to become a prototype: the voluntary loner. sensitive and vulnerable. romantic yet realistic. He cast an erotic spell with his dark good looks and translucent eyes that revealed inner depths; yet his sexual power was. ambiguous. almost androgynous. He appealed to both women and men--the generation of women and men of the post-war years. Two penetrating biographies about the enigmatic actor are the bookstores. Both bert LaGuardia's and Patricia Busworth's biograpes (how interesting that one is by a man and one is by a woman) are well researched and well presented. explaining rather well this tormented man who to the public seemed to lead a golde life but in reality suffered hell. That s they explain the Clift enigma as well as arı enigma Can explained

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Montgomery Cuft remained a sensation, both popular and critical as he starred in "The Her ress The Big Lift A Place in The Sun in which he reached Supreme height. 1 Confess. From Here to Eternity." in which he brilliantly maintained his apo gee and discretion of an American Wife Then he was absent from the screen for three and one-half years returning in Raintree County Curing the blding of this picture co-starring: Elizabeth Taylor he was injured almost fatally in an automobile accident that mained his face. Yet Montgomery Cuft had been more than a handsome lace and although he now looked cufer-

the still was hangone However Raintree County was a disappointinent anting and unclear Byt most orappuinting of all, the indet,nubie nagic of Montgomery Chit was turned. Audiences were shocret when iney 81w

County in 1957 50 Over four years had passed since they had seen him in From Here to Eter nity (Indiscretion: was released after Etrinity but it has been filmed eårtier), and there was a great change in his physical appearance-mis manner. Movie-goers attributed the difference to the automobile accident., but LaGuardia points Out, that it was often difficult to tell whether a scene had been filmed before or after ine acci dent het.ause during the interim of "Eternity and Raintree County Clift. hart lived such a profligate life that the conse quences showed in the face of

the actor, who was now well into his thirties.

He was to make other good pictures until the early 1960's. giving fine performances in most of them: The Young Lions":

Lonelyhearts. Suddenly Last

Summer". "Wild River". "The Mistits." "Judgment at Nureinberg and "Freud." But the Clift mystique remained dim. Over hi hung an air of unfulfilled promises In Clift's personal life any promise for happiness was now completely unfulfilled

Wherein lay his tragedy? Both biographers show Montgomery Clift's early life as unsatisfactory Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1920 into a prosper. ous family, he and his twin sister and older brother early left the United States with their mother for various wanderings through fashionable places in Europe. while Mr.Clift remained at home. which was now Chicago to earn money as a financier to keep them in style. Early there emerged the dorninant mother and the weak and/or absent father Busworth in writing her biography had the support of the brother. Brooks. and through him discovered the mysterious story of Mrs Clift's background and birth--circumstances that drove her to search frantically for her family roots, to be obsessed with bringing up her children as "thoroughbreds "

Early attracted to the stage. Chil: was appearing in an ama teur production in Florida where the peripatetic family had paused when he was twelve years old By the time he was fourteen he was a supporting player on Broadway He became a Powers model, and play after play followed until at the age of nineteen he played the son of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne

There Shall Be No Night Greatly impressed by Lunt: Clift, temporanil, copied his style

arned much from the master.

When the play closed. the Lunts gave Clift a picture of themselves inscribed "From your real par

ents." Years later, they were to turn from him because of his excessive drinking.-.

By 1945 Clift was appearing on Broadway in "You Touched Me!" by Tennessee Williams and Donald Windham. The play wasn't much of a success. but. Clift, who personified virility in it. was. LaGuardia writes, "For the

first time in his career he was called upon to portray pure macho. an exercise, which delighted him He managed to convince the audience that he wis unmitigated male sexuality without making a vulgar display of himself, as most other actors of his age and type would have. How? He used Inner silence. unusual pauses in his speeches, awkward body movements. He spoke so quietly that at times he was practically inaudible. He shifted moods erratically, from a brooding pose to a bursting. smile." This became the basis of the technique for his screen acting.

Up to this point Montgomery Clift was by most accounts, in his private life an elegant, a sophisticated, well-mannered, well-read young man. much influenced by his mother. However, by now the maternal influence was waning steadily, for Clift had moved from the family's Park Avenue apartment to a walk-up above a laundrumat on East Fifty-fifth Stree!. Soon he was to embrace the post-war macho trend and abandon his Brooks Brothers suits for blue jeans and other casual, even sloppy. dress.

With the late 1940's came the beginning of the fantastic movie Career a career he demanded and got on his own terms, refusing to sign a long-term contract. carefully choosing pictures while rejecting many, and refusing to live in California He was Rebel Number One. And before the. 1940's were over, co-existent with us great success came excessive drinking. The drinking increased to the point where he sought pyschiatric help, but this never alleviated. He also became

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a drug ad uct, taking a wide varfiety of drugs, and mixing them with alcohol As the years passed. henecame more and more tormented, and the more tormented he became, the more alcohol and drugs he consumed. The drug habit possibly grew out of his need for them when he suffered from amoebic dysentery which resulted from a visit to Mexico in 1939. That and other ailments were to plague him for the rest of his life.

Raintree

By the time of County" Clift's personal life was in shambles. Attracted to noth men and women.he couldn't suem able to decide between them. Both biographers conclude that Clift was attracted to men but couldn't accept himself as a homosexual. Many of his friends and acquaintances see this as the tragedy of his life. Yet even their statements to the biographers are conflicting, reveal ing the ambiguity that was Clift.

Deborah Kerr didn't seem to be particularly close to him, but her concise statement perhaps sums

up the situation best "He wanted to love women but he was attracted to men, and he cruci fied himself for it

Yet he did seem to have a deep need for women particularly older women (although he turned down "Sunset Boulevard because he said he didn't want to play opposite an older woman Gloria Swanson). He had a long and bizarre relationship with exsinger Libby Holman, many years his. senior. He had deep emotional attachments with Ell zabeth Taylor: Myrna Loy.Nancy Walker. and Augusta Dabney (wife of his good friend Kevin McCarthy); and for years he was highly dependent upon his acting coach Mira Rostova. But most.or all, of these relationships were platonic. One friend said. "He'd pick up gays and bring them to the duplex. He'd sleep with them and that would be that. He'd get bored. Once he said to me. don't understand it. I love men hed but I really love women." Clift's brother said. "Monty

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