Twitch Upon a Star (50 page)
Read Twitch Upon a Star Online
Authors: Herbie J. Pilato
Etta Place
from
Mrs. Sundance, Belle Starr,
and
The Awakening Land's Sayward
could be described as pioneering female roles for Lizzie (or any other actress) to portray. These were parts for her in particular that fueled ambition, expanded career opportunities, and strengthened artistic muscles. Each of these characters fit into what became her very strategic objective to work with daring projects. And if a network executive or producer objected to a particularly questionable script that may have held her interest, she was further ignited to bring the idea to fruition. “That's the kind of stuff I want to do,” she told
Entertainment Tonight
in 1994.
“I think television has grown up,” she said to
Tonight
reporter Scott Osborne in 1985, but she believed those “running it” were afraid of doing just that. “I don't know why.” At this point, Lizzie was still open to performing in a comedy film, which she believed were “a lot harder [to do] than drama.” And such properties were also “very hard to find,” she said, partially because “on television there is so much censorship that it's tough to do really sophisticated comedy” that the Standards and Practices divisions at the networks will approve.
While network executives may not have met Lizzie's standards and practices, she dealt with her own challenges head-on, namely her shyness, which she overcame, at least on camera, whenever she assumed a dramatic role in one of her post-
Samantha
TV-movies.
By the time
The Awakening Land
premiered in 1978,
Bewitched
had been off the air six years and she was still mostly known as
Samantha
, the
Queen
of the TV Witches
. Now, she had added a new twist to the title: “Lizzieâ Queen of the TV-Movies,” a crown that would later be bestowed on Valerie Bertinelli (then just exiting the sitcom
One Day at a Time
, today starring in TV Land's
Hot in Cleveland
) and on Jane Seymour (Lizzie's co-star in
Awakening
, who later starred in the family medical western,
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
, a female TV pioneer in her own right).
Due to
Awakening'
s success, Lizzie was in a position to command the highest price of any TV star and had her choice of roles. Her acquired wealth from
Bewitched
secured the already stable financial arsenal she amassed by way of her father's inheritance.
Through it all, she not only retained an unaffected demeanor, but remained devoted to her three children. She had it all, and she knew it. But she didn't flaunt it. She didn't have to because everyone else in the industry knew it, too. Long gone were the days when she butted heads with the likes of Screen Gems executive Jackie Cooper at the dawn of
Bewitched
. She was no longer demanding, but in demand. Her success commanded attention. No one could turn away from her, and no one could turn her away.
The Victim
, her first TV-movie since leaving
Bewitched
, had attracted a large enough audience for ABC in 1972 that her services were requested for a second film with the network:
Mrs. Sundance
, which premiered in 1974. She was on a hot streak, and the groundwork for her royal TV-movie status was in place.
The free spirit was now a free agent, no longer tied down to one series, one character, or one network. When ratings for NBC's
A Case of Rape
went through the roof and delivered with it her first Emmy nomination since
Samantha
, there was no stopping Lizzie. She was a bona fide legend by the time she'd play yet another one: in ABC's 1975 film,
The Legend of Lizzie Borden
.
After that, came the remake of
Dark Victory
in 1976 on NBC, which also presented the indiscriminate
A Killing Affair
in 1977âall of which garnered upwards of 35 percent of the audience. Today, network suits and producers would kill for such ratings. In the era of
The Awakening Land
, those were the kind of stats they worshipped.
The grungy, gnarled locks, and weathered look of
Sayward Luckett
in
The Awakening Land
are light-years away from
Samantha
on
Bewitched
. Although her age was not yet an issue off-screen, in
Awakening
Lizzie was transformed from a young girl to an elderly woman.
Bewitched
makeup artist Rolf Miller was Emmy-nominated for gracefully aging her (and Dick Sargent) in the December 3, 1970 episode, “
Samantha's
Old Man,” which was directed by her friend Richard Michaels.
But now it came time for a dramatic turn, under the insisting guidance of Boris Sagal, who helmed
Awakening
and who, according to Tom Mc-Cartney, she once called “an extraordinary man” and said she would not have done the film without him.
Lin Bolen Wendkos is the widow of director Paul Wendkos, a versatile talent who among other productions guided the Sandra Dee/
Gidget
films. According to
The Los Angeles Times
, he died November 12, 2009 of a lung infection. His career spanned fifty years and covered more than 100 films and television shows, including several episodes of
I Spy, The Untouchables
, and the acclaimed 1978 TV-movie,
A Woman Called Moses
, starring Cicely Tyson. He was one of Lizzie's choice directors dating back to the
Playhouse 90
segment “Bitter Heritage” from 1958 through to 1975's
The Legend of Lizzie Borden
, and
Act of Violence
in 1979. Bolen Wendkos has a theory as to why Lizzie took such a dramatic departure with her later work:
I think she earned the opportunity to do so by playing a very commercial part as
Samantha
on
Bewitched
. In her mind, she may have wanted to give something more of the talent that she was holding back. For example, to play a strong female lead as she did in
Act of Violence
, in which her character (
Catherine McSweeney
) was forced to defend herself.
From 1971 to 1978, Lin served as the first female vice president of a television network when she worked for NBC's daytime operations, bringing the “peacock” network from number three to number one within a two-and-a-half year period when such positions were held mostly by men. Suffice it to say, she knows all too well of what she speaks. As with
Act of Violence
, Bolen Wendkos says Lizzie's 1974 NBC TV-movie,
A Case of Rape
, aired at a time when “women weren't being allowed to tell the truth, or to talk about their inner fears, or to challenge people who treated them in a way that was inappropriate. So Elizabeth was challenging the system and saying âI am much more than you think and I have something to say, and these characters are going to say it for me.'”
Lin explains how her husband's perspective on
Borden
jibed with Lizzie's theatrical abilities:
My husband worked with a lot of interesting actresses and Elizabeth was definitely one of his favorites. She was a magnetic personality to look at. She captured that character in a way that I don't think anyone else could have. She
became
that person she was playing. If you look at her face in the movie, she had become that character. How many actresses on TV ever did that? Not many. She gave herself to that murderess spirit, and she did not stop until the end. He controlled the set of every movie he worked on. But what he didn't do was control the actress. If the cinematographer, the lighting director or the wardrobe assistant or anyone had something to offer, they would have to wait for Paul's word. But when it came to the actors, he always gave them the opportunity to go on set and do their thing first. Because he knew that's where the picture was. If the actor didn't feel secure in allowing their innermost ideas to surface in that first run-through ⦠that first rehearsal ⦠then it was a lost cause. He would say to each actor, “What is your character doing in this scene? Let's see it!” He wouldn't just stand there and stare at them. Instead, he'd ride the camera crane, or peer through the camera lens to allow the actor to retain
the privacy of their moment
. He absolutely believed that the photography was very important, and that [it] would need to be real. That's what it made a new creation ⦠a real human outline, right there in front of you. He knew the camera had to capture that. So he gave the actors a chance to move around. He didn't just stage a scene and then instruct an actor to walk through it. He let the actor find their moment before he staged the scene and Elizabeth played into that very well.
Actress Bonnie Bartlett performed with Lizzie in the
Borden
film. Although they did not share any scenes together, Bartlett was a fan of her work:
She was an extraordinary actress. She was a major TV-movie star and she could have done almost anything. She was very serious about her work and an extraordinary professional. Every little detail was important to her. She was also a very cheerful person. She came to work with a good attitude, a really good attitude. She really enjoyed being an actress. And I do know that Paul [Wendkos] adored her, and loved working with her. He had that same kind of enthusiastic spirit that she had. The movie was one of his favorite things that he had ever done.
Lizzie's other film with Wendkos was 1979 CBS TV-movie,
Act of Violence
. Originally airing as part of the network's
Special Movie Presentation
, this Emmet G. Lavery production featured Lizzie's
Catherine McSweeney
as a television news writer whose liberal beliefs are challenged when she's brutally attacked by three young gang members, who happen to be Latino. Here's a closer look at the story:
Divorced, Catherine lives with her young son in a lower-middle class neighborhood. She is assigned to a
crime in the streets
news series with
Tony Bonelli
(James Sloyan), a reporter with zero tolerance for her liberal perspective, so much so, he calls her “ignorant, soft-minded; sheltered.” Then, upon returning from work by taxi, she's assaulted in the hallway of her apartment building. A short time later at the hospital, a detective looking into the incident is puzzled by her explanations. “I didn't ask to be mugged,” she protests. “Didn't you?” he asks, suggesting that she, the victim, is responsible for the crime. In time, Catherine turns increasingly paranoid, flinching involuntarily at the sight of a minority's face. In effect, she becomes a different person, but not for the better. In the midst of this transformation,
Tony
convinces her to tell her story on TV. So, in a consequent interview, she bitterly condemns her attackers: “I am a bigot, a racist, a fascist, that's what they made me, that's why I hate them.” By the movie's conclusion, Catherine regains a measure of her former self.
And Lizzie gains increasing respect as an actress.
Act of Violence
aired on November 10, 1979, the same date
TV Guid
e published the article, “From
Bewitched
to Besieged,” writer Tabitha Chance deduced that Lizzie:
had undergone more transformations than Henry the Eighth had wives. But unlike some of Henry's consorts, she has kept her charming head intact upon her charming neckâand used it to the dedicated, sensible furtherance of her profession. Indeed, she is no longer
Somebody's Daughter
âRobert Montgomery's daughter. She is
Somebody
. Elizabeth Montgomery.
She had already proved that, of course, with her stardom from
Bewitched
(on which
Samantha
, ironically enough, had missed by a hair the tragic fate of marrying King Henryâin the two-part episode, “How Not to Lose Your Head to King Henry VIII”). It's safe to say that Lizzie always kept her head in the midst of a storm that frequently encircled the airing of post-
Samantha
films like
Act of Violence
.
Approximately five years before, she appeared in
A Case of Rape
, which Tabitha Chance described as “a fairly explicit examination of the subject, without a happy ending.” But Lizzie resented any suggestion that there were (and are) obvious similarities between the two films.
“Comparisons are odious,” she said, a trifle royally. “I can't worry about things being similar. As far as I'm concerned, they are two very separate kinds of violations and violence.”
On December 21, 1985, Elizabeth talked about her creative choices with reporter Scott Osbourne for
Entertainment Tonight
. She found “fun” in “stretching” herself as an actress and “not feeling safe all the time.” She didn't like to feel safe when she worked and believed that actors did their best work when they don't feel safe “because [otherwise] they don't set themselves up for any real challenge.”
On May 12, 1992, she appeared on
CBS This Morning
to promote her TV-movie,
With Murder in Mind
, which in some ways was reminiscent of
Act of Violence
. She told
Morning
host Kathleen Sullivan that she liked the “kind of diversity” in each of her TV-movies. “I don't like doing the same thing over and over again. And I like being a little bit scared ⦠a little teeny bit.”