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Spencer Tracy Dvds @ amazon.com (direct link)
Spencer Tracy Biography Books @ amazon.com (direct link)
Chester Erskine, director of the Broadway play that projected Spencer Tracy to stardom, provides a penetrating insight into his old friend's work and character
'The best movie actor in the world', wrote an
effusive journalist - just after Spencer Tracy
had been nominated for an Academy Award
for Father of the Bride in 1950. A lot of people,
including most of his fellow actors, would
agree to this. The notable exception was Spencer
himself:
'Now how can anybody declare me to be the
best in the world? It's kind of silly. Like this
Academy Award business, I'm damned
pleased to be nominated and included amongst
the other nominees, worthy actors all of them.
That's enough of an honour for me. But if I
should win, would that make me better than
them? Of course not. A good performance
depends on the role, and what the actor brings
of himself to it. And him alone. I bring Spencer
Tracy to it. Nobody else can bring Spencer
Tracy to it because they're not me. I'm the best
Spencer Tracy in the world. If they want to
give me an award for that. I've truly earned it.'
This is a true insight into his own work -
Spencer did not act roles, the roles acted
Spencer. His performances were part of him.
They were him.
He came upon this special approach during
rehearsals of The Last Mile in 1930, a landmark
play of the time in which society's right to take
the life of even a murderer was questioned. It
was directed by me in a new style of realism -
one that I had successfully introduced into
several previous productions, a true realism
born out of a world in economic depression, a
world impatient with euphemism. The play is
about a convicted murderer awaiting execution in the death house of an American
prison, who chooses to die in violent protest
rather than by passive compliance.
On the play's opening night, I stationed
myself at the back of the auditorium. I suddenly saw him, after a hesitant start, realize his
power as he felt the audience drawn into the
experience of the play and respond to the
measure of his skill and the power of his
personality. I knew that he had found himself
as an actor, and I knew that he knew it. The
play - and his performance - projected Tracy
to permanent stardom.
It was inevitable, of course, that the new
realism of the theatre would pass to films, then
in the transitional period from silent pictures to
dialogue pictures.
The film director John Ford came to New
York and saw The Last Mile. He was fascinated
by Tracy and invited him to make a picture. It
turned out to be Up the River (1930), a slapstick
prison comedy of no quality. It was an unfortunate start for Spencer. Fox, the company
to which he was under contract, typecast him
in similar roles and inferior material, though
his performances rose far above the banal level
of the films. Eventually a respite (inspired by
film critics who complained of this misuse of his
talent) came in the form of several interesting
pictures. In particular there was The Power and the
the Glory (1933), a brilliant study by Preston Sturges of an industrialist's rise to power, in which Spencer came to maturity as a film actor in a role worthy of him.
Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, was not so convined that Spencer had sex appeal, so he was cast as a second lead to Clark Gable. Anyone acquainted with Spencer's private life could have reassured Mayer on this point, as Irving Thalberg, head of production, finally did. He freed Tracy from bondage to Gable and cast him opposite some of Hollywood's loveliest ladies, all of whom he was permitted to win by the script, and several of whom he won off-screen, regardless of script or permit.
MGM was soon aware that it had gained a genuine star of 'first top billing over the title', as it is officially denoted. He did not stereotype himself into a single character or role to be repeated in various stories as other stars did. What is striking in a random selection of his film roles is their variety: the harried victim of Fritz Lang's Fury (1936); the loveable Portuguese fisherman of Kipling's Captain's Courageous (1937); the gentle Father Flanagan of Boys' Town (1938); the redoubtable Stanley in Stanley and Livingstone (1939); Pilan, a Mexican peasant not above a little petty larceny, in Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat (1942); Joe the pilot in A Guy Named Joe (1943).
Spencer's famous partnership with
Katharine Hepburn began in 1942 with
Woman of the Year. It was an historic occasion,
both professionally and personally. For the
next 25 years they appeared together in a
variety of films. Perhaps the best were two
sophisticated comedies, Adam's Rib (1949) and
Pat and Mike (1952).
When working, Spencer was very strict with
himself. He examined the script carefully,
defining his place in the story. He learned lines
quickly, and asked for few if any changes. He
relied on his ability to meet the requirements of
the dialogue, no matter what. He did not go in
for improvisation of any kind. He was a good
listener in rehearsal and tried to do what was
asked of him. Directors loved to work with him.
'I don't have to do
those things. Everybody knows
me. They see me in pictures. That's who I am.'
But behind Spencer's strong, confident,
craggy visage, there was an angry man disposed to self-destruction. When the strain
became too intense he drank - drank fiercely to oblivion. He was not the only actor so afflicted. There were others - too many others. We talked about this, and I suggested it might be because acting imposed on the actor the burden of being his own instrument so that he
was in danger of becoming a split personality. He smiled.
'Jekyll and Hyde? I played that part. Maybe. And maybe it's just that acting is
no proper job for a grown man. I've never
really felt comfortable about it.'
And then he added:
'But I wouldn't do anything else
for the whole world!'
Spencer Tracy Dvds @ amazon.com (direct link)
Spencer Tracy Biography Books @ amazon.com (direct link)
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