Romancing the Silver Screen: Robert Montgomery

I love movies! Almost as much as I love books. But recently I have been rather disappointed by the actors and movies which Hollywood has been churning out. I don’t know how many times I have sat down and watched a much-anticipated movie only to come away throughly unhappy or down right disgusted. With CGI all the rage, movies have become more flash than substance, always pushing it to the next level... Where’s the drama, the comedy, the romance, the charm?

And then I discovered B&W movies... Yes I know, they have been around for a long, long time. As a kid, I never really paid much attention to them. My attitude was: “...the world IS in color after all, why would I want to watch something in black and white?” But I have discovered that there is something just so charming about all those old movies, especially those from the ‘30s and ‘40s. Something that touches you in a way that few modern flicks do. Maybe it’s because at the time they were made life was so much simpler than it is now. Maybe it’s the innocent quality of the stories, the actors, the movies themselves. I’m not exactly sure what it is that has made me fall in love with them, but I’m hooked on all those wonderful actors from days gone by...

Thanks to the Turner Classic Movie Channel (now my favorite channel), I have admittedly fallen in love with a great actor named Robert Montgomery. He was more than just another handsome face in Hollywood, he had something unique about him, and could be very funny or dramatic, as the role demanded. He had a certain presence which is no doubt one of the reasons why he became such a big star in the 30s and 40s. He was paired with some of the most beautiful leading ladies of the time, like Norma Shear and Rosalind Russell. And what’s more, he had an irristitiable charm ,and dare I say a sarcastic wit, which made him so loveable. But he was more than the playboy roles he was so often cast in, much more. He had tremendous skill which he was finally able to display in the movie Night Must Fall, where he plays a charming physcopath who has a propensity to kill older women. And Robert certainly delivered. Try watching that movie at night with lights off, and you’ll see he could be downright chilling—when he wanted to be.

Though I love his dramas, and his thrillers, it is his comedies which I have to admit I love most. No one could quite pull off a romantic comedy like him, with his oozing charm, and lightening wit. Even as the perpetual drunken, skirt-chasing, work-avoiding playboy (a role in which he was cast over and over again) he was loveable.

Not only was he a great actor, but his personal life reads like a hollywood “rags to riches” script. He was born in 1904 in a well-to-do family. When his father died in 1922, his family suddenly found themselves penniless. To support them, he worked various jobs, from mechanic’s helper with the railroad, to deckhand on an oil tanker. And the funny part is, he had intended to be a writer, not an actor, yet he made his stage debut in New York in 1924.

In 1929 he got his first film roll in The Single Standard. But it wasn’t until Untamed and Their Own Desire, that Montgomery became typecast as the “playboy”. He was the president of the Screen Actors Guild on four separate occasions, and was one of the many actors who wanted a union. In those days, actors worked 6 days a week for only $65, and producers were threatening to slash their salory in half... No wonder the SAG was founded.

And then, during the height of his career, Robert enlisted in the Navy and served in WWII much to MGM’s dismay. He was sent to the Intelligence Section in the U.S. Naval Attache office, and set up a naval operations room in the White House. It was after his time served in the war that Hollywood began to take this leading man a lot more seriously, even allowing him to try his hand at directing with the film Lady in the Lake, which Robert also starred.

But despite his yearning to be recoginized as an actor of considerable talents (which he indeed was), I think he will always be remembered and loved for his comedic rolls, like the suave, don’t-give-a-damn, skirt-chasing writer in Ever Since Eve, and the quirky, charming, starving artist in Live, Love, and Learn.

Robert Montogomery was more than a handsome actor with a wonderful talent, he was a real person, and it showed through in every role he played.

To learn more about Robert Montgomery and his plethora of movies, be sure to check out The Earl of Hollywood – Robert Montgomery, a throughly comprehensive website about the man and his movies.