Althouse: "A remarkably beautiful woman who was surprisingly shy, yet spoke her mind fearlessly... who thought little of herself as an actress..."

April 22, 2006

"A remarkably beautiful woman who was surprisingly shy, yet spoke her mind fearlessly... who thought little of herself as an actress..."

Peter Bogdonovich on Ava Gardner.

I must confess that I've never understood why people -- is it just men? -- are enthralled by Ava Gardner. Was she ever good in a movie? Is she really so especially beautiful? I don't see it in the stills, and maybe I've never seen one of her movies. She made a hell of a lot of them, but look at the list. What a shocking lot of crap!

Anyway, I like that she was good with the snappy remark. Bogdonovich quotes this crack about Clark Gable: "Clark is the sort of guy that if you say, 'Hiya, Clark, how are you?' he's stuck for an answer."

18 comments:

Mark Daniels said...: I have seen Ava Gardner in movies and she was wretched.

Mark Daniels; 4/22/06, 8:05 AM
SippicanCottage said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/22/06, 8:36 AM
Ann Althouse said...: How thinking about a woman being with Mickey Rooney is sexy is beyond me. Frank Sinatra, I understand. But Ava Gardner seems to be mostly about the fact that she makes people think about sex -- and then there's Mickey Rooney taking the most prominent place is her legend as a sex symbol. I don't get it!

I don't see how Gardner can compare to Elizabeth Taylor as a Hollywood Goddess of that era. Taylor seems to own the niche. Taylor is more beautiful, a decent actress, was in some great movies, and had a sexier personal life (as we knew of it).; 4/22/06, 8:53 AM
knox said...: I remember reading somewhere that all his other marriages notwithstanding, Frank Sinatra never really got over Ava Gardner.

Anyway, talk about cheekbones!; 4/22/06, 9:11 AM
Oscar Madison said...: Maybe Clark was just tongue tied because of Gardner's remarkable beauty...; 4/22/06, 9:20 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Oscar: On that theory, Ava's observations about everyone are unreliable. Every time anything happens to her, she is disabled by her own beauty from having any undistorted perceptions, because everyone she ever encounters is twisted out of normality by looking at her.; 4/22/06, 9:41 AM
Jeff with one 'f' said...: In Miles Davis' autobiography "Miles", he pays tribute to Ava Gardner and the effect she had on himself, other jazz musicians, and the creative community that he ran with at the time. Miles carried a torch for Ava, too, and needless to say, he was no Mickey Rooney! And Miles hated almost everybody....

Elizabeth Taylor had a beautiful face but she was all top and no bottom...; 4/22/06, 10:43 AM
Ann Althouse said...: So, Jeff, Elizabeth Taylor wasn't fat enough?; 4/22/06, 10:59 AM
bearbee said...: Some of the most beautiful are Greek actress Irene Papas (difficult to find a photo to do her justice and Isabella Rossellini another of Isabella and each could act.

This is trite but their physical beauty was mixed with an inner radiance.

I liked Ava in 'Night of the Iguana'.; 4/22/06, 11:07 AM
Jeff with one 'f' said...: Elizabeth Taylor has a beautiful face, but never had the greatest figure. Her costumes seemed to place on emphasis on her bosom, and rightfully so. I seem to recall noticing that she had a flat behind in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".

Ava Gardner, on the other hand, had an hourglass figure. She was also leggy like a dancer, which I find more attractive.

Miles Davis also wrote of Gardner as being a sensation while still a teenager and the object of heavy competition among the men of Hollywood. She was the Angelina Jolie of her day, sex symbol-wise. That Mickey Rooney got her first attests to his status as one of the leading box office draws of the period. Kind of like if Macaulay Culkin had a more productive career into his early 20's.; 4/22/06, 1:00 PM
SippicanCottage said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/22/06, 1:02 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: What was Lana Turner doing with Mickey Rooney? That guy musta had somepin'. Artie Shaw. Lana and Ava dated the same men.

You all have to see "The Killers" with Burt Lancaster. Just look at the stills from that one....she was the most beautiful gal....she....pre 1950. Ann, you'd like "East Side, West Side" with her and James Mason....with that famous line that "All she needs to do is crook her little finger" and the men come a'runnin. That was a famous scene between her and Barbara Stanwyck arguing over Barbara's husband. East Side, West Side was a great film as it was kind of the end of the studio days, and MGM threw everyone into that film to use up their contract, before everything collapsed.

After 1950, I agree, nothing she did was noteworthy, and her looks became ravaged from all the drinking and hard living. But pre-1950, she was lovely.

Peace, Maxine; 4/22/06, 4:31 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Ann: You can't compare Ava Gardner to Elizabeth Taylor. There's a 20 year age difference between the two.

Ava, Rita, and Lana are strictly 1940s sweater girls. They were the pinups of the 40s.

---Sort of a slump in the early 50s, but by the mid-50s, then it was Liz and Marilyn's time.; 4/22/06, 4:37 PM
hygate said...: Is she really so especially beautiful?

Yes; 4/22/06, 5:22 PM
Ron said...: Ava Gardner then was like Jennifer Connolly now; great beauty, no scripts.

and certainly Ava isn't as sexy as say, ...Larry David.; 4/22/06, 8:42 PM
Sanjay said...: Professor Athouse asks,

"Is she really so especially beautiful?"

so, in case this isn't clear yet from the above responses,

Yes,yes yes. Oh, God, yes. Yes. Yes.; 4/22/06, 8:56 PM
michael farris said...: I'd say Ava Gardner was first and foremost a movie star, people tend to confuse that with acting, but in reality, there's not that much connection.

Lot's of good to great actors can't or don't become movie stars and many movie stars are not required to act beyond the barest basics. What movie stars have to have is _presence_ a combination of distinctive looks and command of body language that allows them the ability to hold the camera and an audience's attention. Ava Gardner definitely had that. Acting wasn't her job and she mostly left it to the rest of the cast and counted on them, and the technicians (director, cinematographer, film editor) to make her look good.

It's a little like opera singers, if you have Lucianno Pavarotti's voice and musicianship, you're going to be the leading man no matter that you look like an overfed peasant and have virtually no acting skills.; 4/23/06, 2:38 AM
Unknown said...: I saw Elizabeth Taylor in 1961, when she was still married to Eddie Fisher. No picture or movie could capture that incredible face. Her coloring was breath taking. She had on a plain sundress which barely contained her bosom and I remember her skin as being iridescent. And, yes, her eyes were violet. The eyes alone would have been more than enough. Surprisingly, not very tall. Never saw Ava in her prime, only years later, so it wouldn't be fair to compare. Hedy Lamarr, Vivian Leigh, Linda Darnell, Gene Tierney, Grace Kelly, all gorgeous. Why choose?; 4/10/17, 1:24 AM