Book review - "The Unholy Three" by John Hamilton

A delightfully random collection of profiles - the lives of Dennis Price, Andre Morell and George Colouris, all grouped together under the one roof. Why? Well, I'm guessing the main reason is that the author just liked all those actors and felt accounts of their lives had been unrepresented - they aren't really linked in the way, say, George Zucco, Colin Clive and Lionel Atwill were (another "grouping" biography - all three were famous on-screen mad scientists). They were all English, dabbled in horror movies, were highly regarded.... It's not much of a link, really.

Nonetheless it's a fun book - there's not a tremendous amount of primary research but all three actors had interesting careers and so little is known about them (to me at any rate) I found it engrossing. Of the three Morrell seemed to have the happiest life - consistently strong and varied roles (it helped he played authority figures so convincingly, there's always parts for generals); he worked with truly top filmmakers all through his career (Kubrick, Lean - a good friend, Wyler); happy home life.

Colouris had a wonderful career too but always seemed grumpy about it - forever whinging. (He lived to  a good age so presumably the whinging helped.) He struggled to established himself, having to move from England to American, where he worked extensively with Orson Welles on radio and of course Citizen Kane. He later returned to England where he had a very varied career, with steadily diminishing roles on screen but good ones on stage.

Price was more of a tragic, epic figure - from a wealthy family, a war time slacker who rocketed to sort-of fame for Gainsborough as a James Mason substitute; he was never really a star, because he lacked charisma; he wasn't much of a character actor either. But he was a personality, and found constant work playing villains, spivs, blackmail victims, etc. Although married he was gay and enjoyed rough stuff, which resulted in a suicide attempt and public disgrace, but he came back. He also loved drinking and gambling. So it's kind of a miracle he did as well as he did. This is the most interesting section and it finishes the book on a strong note. A good read.