Granger had one of those dream starts to a movie career – acting in a school play he was spotted by a talent scout, who signed him to Sam Goldwyn; he was loaned out to play male juvenile parts in prestige productions from Lewis Milestone (The North Star, The Purple Heart); his career was interrupted by war service, but it was pretty cruisy war service on Hawaii, then he went back to Goldwyn who loaned him out to Nick Ray to make They Live By Night, which took aged to be released but was seen widely around Hollywood, including by Alfred Hitchcock who cast Granger in Rope. Duly impressed, Goldwyn then tried to launch Granger as a major star in a series of flops (The Real McCoy, Enchanted); Hitchcock gave his career a spark with Strangers On a Train, but then it was more flops (The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing). Visconti used him for another classic, Senso, then some more flops saw him flee to live TV and a fairly average stage career. He’s still around, doing bits and pieces – TV, dinner theatre, soapies, etc.
Granger was also bisexual, which presumably prompted the publication of this book. He lost his virginity to a woman then a man the one night in Hawaii, then went back and forth between the sexes for a few years before settling down with a man. Among his relationships: Arthur Laurents, Lenny Bernstein, Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters, Jerome Robbins and Jean Marais; he knocked back Noel Coward, which seems just rude.
You don't think of Granger being a bad actor - indeed, he's been good in everything I've seen him in. But he really was a character actor rather than a star - he projected weakness rather than strength; he's best as someone to whom things happen as opposed to someone who makes things happen. Granger never seemed to recognise this about himself; indeed, he doesn't really have an idea about how he fit in the Hollywood scheme of things (he seems to imply that the drop in his film career was not due to his flops but rather due to (a) being blacklisted for turning down the lead role in The Egyptian, and (b) wanting to do theatre and TV work in New York).
He's also a bit of a whinger - whingeing about how Goldwyn misused him (to be fair, most of Goldwyn's films post-Best Years of Our Lives were pretty crappy, but Granger wouldn't have had any sort of career without him), about how restrictive star contracts were, about how his old Hollywood directors didn't offer him roles in the 60s.
Granger was also bisexual, which presumably prompted the publication of this book. He lost his virginity to a woman then a man the one night in Hawaii, then went back and forth between the sexes for a few years before settling down with a man. Among his relationships: Arthur Laurents, Lenny Bernstein, Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters, Jerome Robbins and Jean Marais; he knocked back Noel Coward, which seems just rude.
You don't think of Granger being a bad actor - indeed, he's been good in everything I've seen him in. But he really was a character actor rather than a star - he projected weakness rather than strength; he's best as someone to whom things happen as opposed to someone who makes things happen. Granger never seemed to recognise this about himself; indeed, he doesn't really have an idea about how he fit in the Hollywood scheme of things (he seems to imply that the drop in his film career was not due to his flops but rather due to (a) being blacklisted for turning down the lead role in The Egyptian, and (b) wanting to do theatre and TV work in New York).
He's also a bit of a whinger - whingeing about how Goldwyn misused him (to be fair, most of Goldwyn's films post-Best Years of Our Lives were pretty crappy, but Granger wouldn't have had any sort of career without him), about how restrictive star contracts were, about how his old Hollywood directors didn't offer him roles in the 60s.
He spends too much time talking about his not very interesting adventures in the TV and theatre trade during the 50s to 70s, and about his travels in Europe. In contrast, he mentions his work in a Trinity film in one sentence - surely this was worth one anecdote? - and is surprisingly brief about his work in the Hitchcock's. It's like he's gone "I'm going to put things in proper perspective and not just concentrate on the well known stuff" - but the stuff that isn't well known isn't very interesting. (The exception was his piece about his panic attacks working on a soapie.)
It was an interesting read, especially as you don't get careers like Granger any more - I just wish it had been more thoroughly edited.
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