Reviews and Profiles
"Best Film Books of 2013" -- Huffington Post
In 1912, producer Henry Miller became
smitten with his young discovery Ruth Chatterton. They teamed on stage
in The Rainbow and for a time, off stage as well. In 1928 Hollywood
beckoned. 'Talkies' needed 'voices' and Chatterton's faultless English
was her ticket to film stardom.
Nominated for Best Actress in popular tearjerkers like Madame X and
Sarah and Son, Chatterton proved equally adept in feminist turn,
Female. In 1936, she offered her cinematic piece de resistance as the
superficial, selfish wife of Walter Huston in the Academy Award
nominated Dodsworth.
A friend of Amelia Earhart, Ruth also earmarked her career as an aviator
and sponsor of successful air derbies. By 1950, the actress/aviator
became recognized as a novelist whose courageous, controversial work
made The New York Times best-seller list. She tackled Anti-Semitism,
McCarthyism, racism, and proved adept in making a positive ripple amid
society's prejudices.
Underappreciated actress finally gets her due.
By J. L. Paxson
This is the latest excellent movie-star-of-the-1930s biography by Scott
O'Brien (following Kay Francis, Virginia Bruce and Ann Harding) and it's
just as fascinating as the others. I came away knowing much more about
Chatterton and appreciating not only her screen acting, but her other
talents, especially as a novelist. O'Brien obviously researched his
subject well as evidenced by the end notes following each chapter, yet
the text flows as interesting story, not a list of facts. He's
especially good at ending a chapter in a kind of cliff-hanger way that
makes you wonder "well goodness, what happens next!?" For example
"Paramount quickly signed Ruth to a new contract. Her next release was
an even greater success. Then began a downward spiral from which Ruth
Chatterton's film career never fully recovered." The book is an
invaluable history of the workings of the Hollywood studio system
through Chatterton's film career and the people she worked with and was
close to, including husbands George Brent and Ralph Forbes and directors
Dorothy Arzner and William Wellman. Lots of great photos too.
The Dummy (1929 - Fredric March)
Madame X (1929)
Female (1933 - George Brent)
Girl's Dormitory (1936 - Herbert Marshall)
Dodsworth (1936 - Walter Huston)
When Ruth signed on for the role of Fran
Dodsworth on February 4, 1936, she emphasized her delight in portraying
a character that was not only brilliant and showy, but unsympathetic. She was tired of playing for audience
sympathy, and told Benjamin Crisler of The
New York Times that she wanted the American public to know that “she can
dish it out as well as take it.” For over a year, Samuel Goldwyn had been
persistent in coaxing Chatterton to take the role, saying it would be the high
point of her career. Goldwyn was
right. Dodsworth was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best
Picture.
... Studio politics still had clout, influencing the
winners as well as the nominees. Ruth was snubbed. Following the Academy Award presentations in
1937, columnist Jimmy Fiddler headlined his column, saying, “The failure to
include Ruth Chatterton as a 1936 best performance nominee, was a shame that
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will never live down.”
... In the 1987 publication, Oscar Dearest: Six Decades of Scandal, Politics and Greed Behind
Hollywood’s Academy Awards,author
Peter H. Brown put a sobering slant on the Academy bypassing Ruth. “A maverick (such as Ruth Chatterton) could
give the finest performance in years (such as her work in Dodsworth) and remain Un-Oscared.
If an actor, no matter how fine, refused to play the studio game, then
just don’t nominate him.”
Ruth had announced that studio contracts
interfered with her independence; she was determined to free-lance; and, she
paid the price
