Talkback: Is Grace Kelly a Justified Screen Legend?
The TIFF Bell Lightbox museum in Toronto just scored an exhibit worthy of Alfred Hitchcock's horny gaze. "Grace Kelly: From Movie Star to Princess," an attraction chronicling the Philadelphia native's ascent from Oscar winner to Monacan royalty, will run from Nov. 4 to Jan. 22, 2012. Kelly died almost 30 years ago, concluding a life that still seems about ten times better than a fairy tale; to fans, however, her cinematic legacy is just as important. But, class: is Grace worthy of such critical praise?
Surely Grace Kelly's acting career is tainted by a few damning moments:
1.) She is simply the least impressive performer in High Noon, which is an impressive movie.
2.) She was nominated for two Oscars, but both nominations are dubious; Mogambo was a decadent, Technicolor epic in Africa that skimped on great acting moments and splurged on zebras, and in The Country Girl -- for which Kelly won the Academy Award -- she's downright miscast as the stoic, long-suffering wife Georgie Elgin. (It doesn't help that Kelly won the Oscar over Judy Garland, the towering favorite in the 1954 Best Actress race for her work in A Star is Born.)
3.) Of course, plenty of Grace Kelly's 11 films are duds. The Bridges at Toko-Ri? Green Fire? The remake of The Swan, co-starring my husband Louis Jourdan? Even High Society? All non-classic.
But avast: That leaves three films whose greatest moments come courtesy of Grace Kelly. They're Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief, three Hitchcock gems that combine the director's love for intrigue, feminine subversion, and glamor. Hitchcock understood Kelly's latent gall and always challenged it in his pictures. In Dial M, Kelly thwarted her own murder and fought for justice against the haunting Ray Milland. In To Catch a Thief, she traded barbs with Cary Grant and proved privy to his cat burglar past. And in Rear Window, she forced herself in front of the handicapped Jimmy Stewart, broke into the sinister apartment across the courtyard that captivated him so, and brazenly cast herself as the star of his voyeuristic fantasy. I like to say she invented Madonna with that move. If the most essential part of an actor's job is command, then surely Stanislavsky would take down notes when watching Grace Kelly break and enter.
Do you think Grace Kelly is a rightful screen legend? Does it help that she's perhaps the single most gorgeous star of all time? Does it hurt at all? And who here is really jealous of Toronto right now?
· TIFF Scores Coup with Grace Kelly Exhibition [Toronto Star]
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Comments
Three movies is good enough for James Dean - he just died before he had a chance to make a bunch of crap.
Also, I could stare at her all day - so that has to count for something, right?
The sexiest kiss of all time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEnNyXPKAUQ
Legend for sure.
"Three movies is good enough for James Dean - he just died before he had a chance to make a bunch of crap."
Very good point. You don't have to make a ton of good movies to be a screen legend.
Excellent points all. And she IS the best thing in those Hitchcock movies, which is saying something since the blondes are often there not due to talent but due to Hitch's obsession with them (cough, Tippi Hedren, cough).
We were just talking about a similar case with Julia Roberts earlier today. One of the biggest movie stars today, yet when was the last time SHE was in a really good movie? Charlie Wilson's War and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind were marginally successful as movies, but not as moneymakers. Her part in Ocean's 11 was too tiny to count. We have to go back to 2000 and Erin Brockovich! Her only other critical successes would be Notting Hill and the very small Mystic Pizza. Otherwise all she's had are star turns in mediocre movies, like Pretty Woman, My Best Friend's Wedding, Runaway Bride and Closer. Otherwise the movies were so forgettable that we basically forgot she was in them (most of the rest of her films). Being a screen legend is only half from actually being on the screen.
Her life was a real life screen legend of the highest in Hollywood wish fulfillment. She's a legend for that alone. Then throw in an Oscar win, another nomination, and films from such directors as John Ford, Hitchcock and Fred Zinneman all in the span of a 12 picture film career? I'm sold.
I agree - one of the best kisses in cinema but for me, its the one in to Catch a Thief parked and eating lunch, Cary takes command and kisses Grace. Hitchcock puts it in slow-mo and dissects the ultimate kiss for all to see. The fireworks kiss is also great (maybe too much fireworks) and the other Rear Window kiss - the wake-up kiss. Yes, three movies and an actress whose femininity and sensuality will span the ages.