Robert Aldrich

Robert Aldrich
Born Robert Burgess Aldrich
(1918-08-09)August 9, 1918
Cranston, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died December 5, 1983(1983-12-05) (aged 65)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Occupation
Years active 1945–1981
Spouse(s)
Harriet Foster
(m. 1941; div. 1965)

Sibylle Siegfried
(m. 1966; his death 1983)
Children 4 (with Foster)

Robert Burgess Aldrich (August 9, 1918 – December 5, 1983) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His notable credits include Vera Cruz (1954), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), Autumn Leaves (1956), Attack (1956), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967) and The Longest Yard (1974).

Aldrich was portrayed by Alfred Molina in the anthology television series Feud (2017), which received highly positive reviews.

Biography

Early Life

Aldrich was born at Cranston, Rhode Island into a family of wealth and social prominence - “The Aldrich’s of Rhode Island”.[1] His mother, Lora Elsie née Lawson of New Hampshire (1874-1931), died when Aldrich was 13 and was remembered with fondness by her son. His father, Edward Burgess Aldrich (1871-1957) was a newspaper publisher and an influential operative in state Republican politics. Ruth Aldrich Kaufinger (1912-1987) was his elder sister and only sibling. [2]

Among his notable ancestors were the American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene and the theologian Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island Colony. [3]

His grandfather, Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich was a self-made millionaire and art investor. A Republican member of the US Senate for thirty years (1881-1911) he was dubbed “General Manager of the Nation” by the press for his dominant role in framing federal monetary policy.[4][5]

A number of Aldrich’s paternal uncles had impressive careers, among them a successful investment banker, a noted architect and Harvard instructor, a member of the US House of Representatives, and a chairman of the Chase-Manhattan Bank who also served as the US Ambassador to Great Britain. An aunt, Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich Rockefeller married John D. Rockefeller Jr., scion of the Standard Oil fortune. Nelson Rockefeller, a four-term governor of New York State and US Vice-President to Gerald Ford was the director’s first cousin. [6]

Education

As the only male heir to Lawson-Aldrich family line, Aldrich was under considerable pressure to compete successfully with his numerous cousins in a family of high achievers. [7] Following family tradition and expectations, Aldrich was educated at Moses Brown School in Providence. There he served as Captain of the track and football teams and was elected president of his senior class. Failing to matriculate to Yale due to mediocre grades, Aldrich attended University of Virginia, majoring in economics. He continued to excel in sports and played a leading role in campus clubs and fraternities. [8]

During the Great Depression the adolescent Aldrich began to question the justice of his family’s “politics and power” which contradicted his growing sympathies with left-wing social and political movements of the 1930s. Aldrich’s disaffection from Aldrich-Rockefellers right-wing social and political outlook contributed to a growing tension between father and son. [9][10]

Having satisfactorily demonstrated his aptitude for a career in finance, Aldrich defied his father by dropping out of college in his senior year without taking a degree. [11] Aldrich approached his uncle Winthrop who got the 23-year old nephew a job at RKO Studios as production clerk at $25 a week.[12] For this act of defiance, Aldrich was promptly disinherited. Aldrich would reciprocate by expunging public records of his connection with the Aldrich-Rockefeller clan, while stoically accepting the breach. He rarely mentioned or invoked his family thereafter.[13] Indeed, it's been said that "No American film director was born as wealthy as Aldrich — and then so thoroughly cut off from family money."[14]

RKO Pictures: 1941-1943

At the age of 23, Aldrich began work at RKO studios as a production clerk, an entry level position, after declining an offer through his Rockefeller connections to enter the studio as an associate producer. [15][16] He married his first wife, Harriet Foster, a childhood sweetheart, shortly before he departed for Hollywood in 1941.[17]

Though the smallest of Hollywood‘s top studios, RKO could boast an impressive roster of directors (George Cukor, John Ford and Howard Hawks) as well as movie stars (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and the Marx Brothers. The 23-year old Aldrich assumed his duties just after Orson Welles, also 23, signed a six-movie contract with RKO after the release of the widely acclaimed Citizen Kane (1941).[18]

When the United States entered the Second World War in December 1941, Aldrich was inducted into the Air Force Motion Picture Unit, but quickly discharged when an old football injury disqualified him for military service. The film studios manpower shortage allowed Aldrich to win assignments as third or second tier director’s assistant learn the basics of filmmaking.[19] In just two years he participated on two dozen movies with well-known directors, among them the Canadian-American Edward Dmytryk and Leslie Goodwins. Towards the end of the war, Aldrich had risen to first assistant director making comedy shorts. In 1944, he departed RKO to embark on a period of free-lancing at other major studios, including Columbia, United Artists and Paramount.[20][21]

Assistant director: 1944-1952

Aldrich was fortunate to serve as an assistant director to many notable and talented filmmakers. During these assignments, which spanned nine years, Aldrich gained both practical and aesthetic fundamentals of filmmaking: “set location and atmosphere” (Jean Renoir, The Southerner, 1945), the “techniques of pre-planning a shot” (Lewis Milestone’s The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, 1946), “action scenes” (William Wellman’s The Story of G.I. Joe, 1946), the “importance of communication with actors” (Joseph Losey’s The Prowler, 1951) and “establishing visual empathy between camera and audience” (Charles Chaplin’s Limelight, 1952). [22][23]

Aldrich approached these projects and their directors with fine discrimination, enabling him to learn from both their strengths and weaknesses.[24]

Director

He became a television director in the 1950s, directing his first feature film, Big Leaguer, for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1953.

He directed episodes of the television series China Smith with Dan Duryea. Aldrich used many of the same sets and cast in a feature World for Ransom (1954) which he produced and directed.

Aldrich had worked on crews for films starring Burt Lancaster and Lancaster hired him to direct Apache (1954). It was a big hit and Aldrich's next movie, also for Lancaster, Vera Cruz (1954), did even better.

The success of these movies enabled Aldrich to turn producer for his next movies. Kiss Me Deadly (1955) was a film noir based on a novel by Mickey Spillane. The Big Knife (1955) was based on a play by Clifford Odets.

After directing Joan Crawford in a melodrama Autumn Leaves (1956), Aldrich adapted another play for his own company, Attack (1956).

Aldrich worked on The Garment Jungle (1957), but was fired during filming. He was unable to get a job until he had an offer from Hammer Films and Seven Arts to make Ten Seconds to Hell (1959) in Germany.[25] While there, he was head of the jury at the 9th Berlin International Film Festival.[26] He stayed in Europe to make The Angry Hills (1959) for MGM in Greece.

Back in Hollywood he did The Last Sunset (1961) then made a Biblical spectacular in Italy, Sodom and Gomorrah (1962) for Joseph E. Levine.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Aldrich optioned the novel What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), and turned it into a film featuring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as spiteful sisters and faded child-actresses. It was a massive hit and restored Aldrich's commercial reputation.

He made a comic Western with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, 4 for Texas (1963), then did a follow up to Baby Jane, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), with Bette Davis as a Southern woman who lives in a mansion and thinks she is going insane (both Joan Crawford and Davis were to appear, but Crawford left the film).

He made the all-male action film The Flight of the Phoenix (1965).

The Dirty Dozen

Aldrich had his biggest hit to date with The Dirty Dozen (1967). The success of The Dirty Dozen allowed him to establish his own film production studio for some time.

He made The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968), then The Killing of Sister George (1968). He produced but did not direct What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969).

He produced and directed Too Late the Hero (1970) and The Grissom Gang (1971).

He directed only Ulzana's Raid (1972) and Emperor of the North Pole (1973), both of which were box office disappointments.

The Longest Yard

Aldrich's commercial fortunes were revived after he had two hits starring Burt Reynolds: The Longest Yard (1974) and Hustle (1975).

He did a thriller Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) and a comedy, The Choirboys (1977).

His last movies were comedies, The Frisco Kid (1979) and ...All the Marbles (1981).

Personal life

From his marriage to Harriet Foster (1941–1965), Aldrich had four children, all of whom work in the film business—Adell, William, Alida and Kelly. In 1966, after divorcing Harriet, he married fashion model Sibylle Siegfried.

Critical reaction

Film critic John Patterson summarized his career in 2012: "He was a punchy, caustic, macho and pessimistic director, who depicted corruption and evil unflinchingly, and pushed limits on violence throughout his career. His aggressive and pugnacious film-making style, often crass and crude, but never less than utterly vital and alive, warrants — and will richly reward — your immediate attention."[27]

Death and legacy

Aldrich died of kidney failure on December 5, 1983 in a Los Angeles hospital.

In 2012, John Patterson of The Guardian commented that Aldrich is "a wonderful director nearly 30 years dead now, whose body of work is in danger of slipping over the horizon."[27] Japanese film director Kiyoshi Kurosawa noted Aldrich's influence on him.[28]

Filmography

Films

Television

Unmade projects

  • Rebellion (late 1960s) — a Western
  • The Crowded Bed (early 1970s)
  • The Greatest Mother of Them All (1969) — film about a broken down director living with a young girl – Aldrich made a 30-minute short with Peter Finch, trying to raise funding
  • Rage of Honor (1970s) — Western set in 1929 about an aging cowboy
  • Coffee, Tea or Me? (early 1970s) — comedy about virginal air stewardess

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 2, p. 3
  2. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 3-4
  3. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 2
  4. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 2-3: “...effectively voiced the interests of big business [and] author of the ‘Aldrich Plan’ [on] banking reform in the early twentieth century.”
  5. ↑ Walsh, 2018. “...a leading member of the Republican Party around the turn of the 20th century, referred to by the press as the “General Manager of the Nation” for his dominance in determining federal government monetary policy.”
  6. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 3
  7. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 3: His family ties “a burden as well as a blessing... [his] position in the family was from the beginning a difficult one.” And p. 4: “...as the only son in his branch of the family, Aldrich must have felt a tremendous pressure to follow family traditions.”
  8. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 5: Aldrich describes himself as “not being bright enough to get into Yale.”
  9. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 4: Aldrich’s “relationship with his demanding and authoritative father... [became] strained." and quoting Aldrich, ‘I discovered that [family] politics and power meant money...there was little discussion of art or culture or theatre or music in my [childhood] home.”
  10. ↑ Williams, 2004. p. 2: Aldrich “often sympathized with outsiders victimized by a famity unit seeking to destroy human potential...He was fully aware of changing historical forces affecting American cinema and society, often for the worse...” And "The cultural movements of the New Deal had an effect on his work as well as the trauma caused by the blacklist."
  11. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 3
  12. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 5
  13. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 4: "Aldrich always played down his impressive heritage" and had little personal contact with his father..."omitted his parents' names from Who's Who in American and any mention of the Aldrich-Rockefeller connection." And p. 5: His uncle warned him “I never want to see you again...” after procuring the position at RKO.
  14. ↑ Thomson, David (2010). "Iconoclasts/ Robert Aldrich:Going for Broke". DGA Quarterly (Spring): 57. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  15. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 1, p. 6: “...the first job offered him as a rich man’s son [was] as an associate producer…[as] a production clerk he started at the bottom.”
  16. ↑ Williams, 2004. p. 47: “...as a production clerk, a position little better than a gofer.”
  17. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 5 (see footnote 14)
  18. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 5-6
  19. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 6
  20. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 5-6: “...gone as far as he could at RKO and decided to free-lance at the other studios.
  21. ↑ Williams, 2004. p. 47
  22. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 7
  23. ↑ Williams, 2004. p. 47
  24. ↑ Arnold and Miller, 1986. p. 6: Aldrich quote: “Working with great directors – and terrible directors – is the greatest education possible.” And p. 8-9: “Aldrich’s education, finally, involved the process of sorting out, in the case of each director, the good qualities from the bad…”
  25. ↑ mr. film noir stays at the table Silver, Alain. Film Comment8.1 (Spring 1972): 14-23.
  26. ↑ "9th Berlin International Film Festival: Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved January 5, 2010.
  27. 1 2 Patterson, John (December 7, 2012). "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane should remind us of the talent of Robert Aldrich". The Guardian.
  28. ↑ Gonzalez, Ed (February 10, 2005). "Bright Future – DVD Review – Slant Magazine". Slant Magazine.

Sources

  • Arnold, Edward T. and Miller, Eugene, L. 1986. The Films and Career of Robert Aldrich. University of Tennessee Press. Knoxville, TN. ISBN 0-87049-504-6
  • Walsh, David. 2018. 100 years since the birth of American filmmaker Robert Aldrich: Including an interview with film historian Tony Williams https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/31/aldr-a31.html Retrieved 10 October, 2018.
  • Williams, Tony. 2003. Body and Soul: the cinematic vision of Robert Aldrich. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham, Maryland. ISBN 978-0-8108-4993-8
  • Silver, Alain and Ursini, James. 1995. What Ever Happened to Robert Aldrich?: His Life and His Films Limelight Editions. ISBN 0-87910-185-7

Further reading

  • Robert Aldrich biography and credits at the BFI's Screenonline Entry written by Robert Shail.
  • "Aldrich & Associates special section". Screening the Past (10). 2000. A special issue of a film journal that emerged from a symposium devoted to Aldrich & Associates on August 2, 1998 in Melbourne.
  • Silver, Alain (May 2002). "Robert Aldrich". Senses of Cinema (20). Silver's contribution to the journal's "Great Directors" series.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.