The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (425 page)

2. Since, clearly, he was no actor, those immune to the dream reviled him. They chose first to regard him as a gigolo. Such interpretation emphasized his shady beginnings in America, from 1914 onward, as a café dancer, an extra in movies, a petty thief, and a flexible sexual opportunist. In time, they grasped the fact that the rapist was very insecure. His first marriage, to dancer Jean Acker, had reputedly never been consummated. After that, two women vied for control of him: Natacha Rambova, his second wife, and June Mathis, an executive at Metro. Mathis had been the brains behind
Four Horsemen
and she had insisted that Valentino play in it. Rambova was the art director on
Camille
. She increasingly dominated the Italian and, with Mathis, persuaded him to abandon Metro for Paramount, where
The Sheik
was made. After that, he played in
Moran of the Lady Letty
(22, Melford), with Gloria Swanson in
Beyond the Rocks
(22, Sam Wood), and as the bullfighter in
Blood and Sand
(22, Fred Niblo).

But then the two ladies urged him to insist on greater freedom. First Mathis wrote
The Young Rajah
(22, Philip Rosen) for him and then Rambova persuaded him to set up as an independent with J. D. Williams, releasing through Paramount. She wrote and designed him into a more effeminate character in
Monsieur Beaucaire
(24, Sidney Olcott),
A Sainted Devil
(24, Joseph Henabery), and
Cobra
(25, Henabery). It transpired that Rambova had lesbian traits, but she only drew out qualities of homosexuality that had always been latent in Valentino. The agreement with Williams broke up, and Valentino moved to United Artists for two final, improved films:
The Eagle
(25, Clarence Brown) and
The Son of the Sheik
(25, George Fitzmaurice). But by then, male hostility had fastened on him. The faun stripling, author of silly poetry and tool of domineering women, was called “The Pink Powder Puff” in the press. Death rescued him from sordid scandal, thrust him instead into mythology, and, incidentally, saved him from the exposure that sound would have threatened. (Note that Jeanine Basinger reckons he might have turned into George Raft.) 3. The third view is Valentino’s. For it seems likely that he was bewildered by his fame and the wealth of characters it opened up for him. His screen personality and his reputation are both inaccessible now because they depended upon the fashion of the moment. Men have always had an insecure hold on the camera, and male sex appeal vanished much quicker than the sway exerted by actresses. But Valentino was the original in an important line of screen heroes: the sexual androgyne, an icon for lovelorn ladies and for homosexuals alike. He is the first in a small but striking band of brilliantined exquisites that has included Presley, Mick Jagger, and the athletes from the Warhol stable.

Alida Valli
(Alida Maria Altenburger) (1921–2006), b. Pola, Italy
Without ever being compelling, Valli—as she was once known—has been in a number of fascinating, flawed movies. She had a promising debut in the Italian cinema with
Manon Lescaut
(39, Carmine Gallone);
Piccolo Mondo Antico
(40, Mario Soldati);
Luce nelle Tenebre
(40, Mario Mattoli);
Catene Invisibili
(41, Mattoli); and
Noi Vivi
(42, Goffredo Alessandrini), but went into hiding from the Fascists once she had refused further films.

In peace, she made
La Vita Ricommincia
(45, Mattoli) and
Eugenia Grandet
(46, Soldati) before David Selznick called her to America as an emblem of dark, continental fatalism. In fact, she was more brooding and reproachful than a femme fatale. Hitchcock muttered that Garbo would have been better for
The Paradine Case
(47), but Valli still managed to suggest baleful self-destructiveness and looked like a Latin Mrs. Danvers. After
The Miracle of the Bells
(48, Irving Pichel), she gave a good portrait of vulnerable mixed origins as the Limestruck actress in
The Third Man
(49, Carol Reed). In close-up, she photographs very soulfully in that film and it was not her fault that Reed made her walk straight at the camera, rather than past it, obliquely, in the last shot.

Since then, she has worked nomadically:
Walk Softly, Stranger
(50, Robert Stevenson);
Les Miracles n’ont lieu q’une Fois
(50, Yves Allégret);
The White Tower
(50, Ted Tetzlaff);
Les Amants de Tolède
(52, Henri Verneuil); in an episode from
Siamo Donne
(53, Gianni Francolini); doing her best as the supposedly wanton countess in Visconti’s
Senso
(54), but more eloquent as the woman humiliated by a fickle Farley Granger; deserted and harshly resentful in
Il Grido
(57, Michelangelo Antonioni); dourly inspecting Bardot’s young body in
Heaven Fell That Night
(57, Vadim);
La Grande Strada Azzurra
(57, Gillo Pontecorvo);
The Sea Wall
(58, René Clément);
Le Dialogue des Carmélites
(59, Philippe Agostini); the procuress in
Eyes Without a Face
(59, Georges Franju);
Ophélia
(62, Claude Chabrol);
Une Aussi Longue Absence
(62, Henri Colpi);
Homenaje a la Hora de la Siesta
(62, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson);
The Happy Thieves
(62, George Marshall);
Il Disordine
(62, Franco Brusati);
Oedipus Rex
(67, Pier Paolo Pasolini);
The Spider’s Strategy
(70, Bernardo Bertolucci);
The Antichrist
(74, Alberto De Martino);
The House of Exorcism
(75, Mario Bava);
1900
(75, Bernardo Bertolucci);
The Cassandra Crossing
(76, George Pan Cosmatos);
Suspiria
(76, Dario Argento);
Zoo Zero
(78, Alain Fleischer); and
La Luna
(79, Bertolucci).

She has also appeared in
Inferno
(80, Argento);
Aspern
(81, Eduardo de Gregorio);
Sezona Mira u Parizu
(81, Predrag Golubivic);
La Caduta degli Angeli Ribelli
(81, Mario Tullio Giordano);
Segreti, Segreti
(85, Giuseppe Bertolucci);
Jupon Rouge
(87, Genevieve Lefebvre);
Il Lungo Silenzio
(93, Margarethe von Trotta);
A Month by the Lake
(95, John Irvin);
Fatal Frames
(96, Al Festa);
Il Dolce Rumore della Vita
(99, G. Bertolucci);
Vino Santo
(00, Xaver Schwarzenberger);
L’Amore Probabilmente
(01, G. Bertolucci);
Semana Santa
(02, Pepe Danquart).

Lee
(Clarence Leroy)
Van Cleef
(1925–89), b. Somerville, New Jersey
All it takes is a look. He said nothing in
High Noon
(52, Fred Zinnemann), but he was remembered as one of the gunmen at the rail depot waiting for the noon train, and he seemed nasty. He had small, glaring eyes and a face that might have been cut out of raw wood with a hatchet. Later on, it proved a face that could sweat and seethe under the Mediterranean sun of spaghetti Westerns, but long before that it had been a face that casting directors would pick out of a crowd.

He served in the Navy and then worked as an accountant before he tried his luck in films: he was always castable in Westerns, but he had his share of gangsters, too:
Untamed Frontier
(52, Hugo Fregonese);
The Lawless Breed
(53, Raoul Walsh);
Arena
(53, Richard Fleischer);
Arrow in the Dust
(54, Lesley Selander);
A Man Alone
(55, Ray Milland);
The Big Combo
(55, Joseph H. Lewis);
Tribute to a Bad Man
(56, Robert Wise);
Joe Dakota
(57, Richard Bartlett);
China Gate
(57, Samuel Fuller);
The Tin Star
(57, Anthony Mann);
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
(57, John Sturges);
The Young Lions
(58, Edward Dmytryk);
The Bravados
(58, Henry King);
Ride Lonesome
(59, Budd Boetticher);
Posse from Hell
(61, Herbert Coleman);
How the West Was Won
(62, John Ford, Henry Hathaway, and George Marshall);
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
(62, Ford).

You might have forgiven Van Cleef for sighing over
Liberty Valance
at seeing himself surpassed by Lee Marvin in the struggle toward leading parts with dialogue. He was said to be close to giving up, when he got an invitation from Italy that led to
For a Few Dollars More
(65, Sergio Leone). This was a turning point in the Western and for so many careers, but Van Cleef was soon established as a leading villain under the hot sun. Did he know it was “camp,” or care? He was on to a far better living than drifting from one U.S. Western television series to another without ever quite catching on:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
(66, Leone);
Death Rides a Horse
(66, Giulio Petroni);
Day of Anger
(67, Tonino Valerii)—by which time he was a lead.

He did
Barquero
(70, Gordon Douglas)—with Warren Oates;
Captain Apache
(71, Alexander Singer);
Bad Man’s River
(71, Gene Martin);
The Magnificent Seven Ride
(72, George McCowan)—as the leader of the seven;
Take a Hard Ride
(75, Anthony Dawson);
God’s Gun
(76, Frank Kramer);
Kid Vengeance
(77, Joe Manduke);
The Squeeze
(78, Antonio Margheriti);
The Octagon
(80, Eric Karson)—a Chuck Norris film;
Escape from New York
(81, John Carpenter). There was a TV series,
The Master
, in which he was a martialarts master;
Armed Response
(86, Fred Olen Ray)—in which David Carradine was the lead;
Thieves of Fortune
(89, Michael MacCarthy).

He is referred to in a Thomas Pynchon novel; there is a character named after him in World of Warcraft; and
Kill Bill 2
ends with an R.I.P. salute to him (among others). It only takes a look.

W. S
. (Woodridge Strong)
Van Dyke
(1889–1943), b. San Diego, California
1918:
The Land of Long Shadows; Open Spaces; Men of the Desert; Gift o’ the Gab
. 1919:
Lady of the Dugout
. 1920:
Our Little Nell
. 1922:
According to Hoyle; The Boss of Camp 4; Forget-Me-Not
. 1923:
The Destroying Angel; The Little Girl Next Door; The Miracle Makers
. 1924:
The Battling Fool; The Beautiful Sinner; Loving Lies; Gold Heels; Half-a-Dollar Bill; Winner Take All
. 1925:
Barriers Burned Away; The Desert’s Price; Hearts and Spurs; Ranger of the Big Pines; Timber Wolf; The Trail Rider
. 1926:
War Paint; The Gentle Cyclone
. 1927:
California; Eyes of the Totem; Foreign Devils; The Heart of the Yukon; Spoilers of the West; Winners of the Wilderness
. 1928:
Wyoming; Under the Black Eagle; White Shadows in the South Seas
(begun by Robert Flaherty). 1929:
The Pagan
. 1931:
Trader Horn; Never the Twain Shall Meet; Guilty Hands; Cuban Love Song
. 1932:
Tarzan, the Ape Man; Night Court
. 1933:
Penthouse; Eskimo; The Prizefighter and the Lady
. 1934:
Laughing Boy; Manhattan Melodrama; The Thin Man; Hide-Out; Forsaking All Others
. 1935:
Naughty Marietta; I Live My Life
. 1936:
Rose-Marie; San Francisco; His Brother’s Wife; The Devil Is a Sissy; Love on the Run; After the Thin Man
. 1937:
Personal Property; They Gave Him a Gun; Rosalie
. 1938:
Marie Antoinette; Sweethearts
. 1939:
Stand Up and Fight; It’s a Wonderful World; Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever; Another Thin Man
. 1940:
I Take This Woman; I Love You Again; Bitter Sweet
. 1941:
Rage in Heaven; The Feminine Touch; Shadow of the Thin Man; Dr. Kildare’s Victory
. 1942:
I Married an Angel; Cairo; Journey for Margaret
.

“Woody” Van Dyke’s was a prolific and eventful career, with rather more than three films a year for twenty-five years. He was held in some awe for the speed at which he worked and for his ability to complete a film against odds. In the early days of sound he had returned from Africa, after a great physical ordeal, with
Trader Horn
. And in 1938, when Norma Shearer was the dowager duchess at MGM, her cherished
Marie Antoinette
was given not to that tortoise, Sidney Franklin, but to the sprinting Van Dyke. Some even alleged that he was on a bonus for every day he finished under schedule. He was a trusted servant of MGM, able to turn his hand to most of the studio’s idioms and to invent one of the most beguiling.

In his first days as a director—after serving as an actor and assistant to Griffith—he handled melodramas, Buck Jones and Tim McCoy Westerns, and when Flaherty resigned, his first Pacific adventure,
White Shadows in the South Seas. Spoilers of the West
and
Wyoming
were made simultaneously, at Selznick’s behest. (They so satisfied the young producer that ten years later he hired Van Dyke to touch up the fencing scenes in
The Prisoner of Zenda
.) After
White Shadows
and
The Pagan
, Van Dyke was the obvious choice for
Trader Horn
, and for the first Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movie, which has a florid pleasure in well-lit muscle and plastic jungle. But in the 1930s, he was just as happy with cocktail-lounge romances: Myrna Loy in
Penthouse;
Loy and Max Baer in
The Prizefighter and the Lady;
Loy, William Powell, and Gable in
Manhattan Melodrama
(another Selznick film); Joan Crawford in
Forsaking All Others, I Live My Life
, and
Love on the Run
. When Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald were teamed by Metro, he handled many of their musicals, indulging that airy warbling but gently spoofing it at the same time:
Naughty Marietta; Rose-Marie; Sweethearts; Bitter Sweet;
and
I Married an Angel
.