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Alida Valli in Hollywood: From Star of Fascist Cinema to ‘Selznick Siren’

2012; Routledge; Volume: 32; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01439685.2012.727226

1465-3451

Stephen Gundle,

European history and politics

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Notes 1 Alastair Phillips and Ginette Vincendeau (eds), Journeys of Desire: European actors in Hollywood—a critical companion (London, 2006). 2 Ibid., 311–312. 3 David Thomson, Showman: the life of David O. Selznick (New York, 1952), 517. Thomson also mentions the producer's heavy gambling habit as a factor in his financial difficulties (p. 492). 4 (Houndmills, 2007). The focus on process and agency is mentioned on pp. 6–8 of the introduction. 5 Phillips and Vincendeau, Introduction, in: Phillips and Vincendeau, Journeys of Desire, 4. 6 Ibid., 4. 7 This applies to the Italian Isa Miranda who signed for Paramount in 1939, even though her emigration was opposed by some. 8 See David W. Ellwood and Gian Piero Brunetta (eds), Hollywood in Europa: industria, politica, pubblico del cinema 1945–1960 (Florence, 1991). 9 The challenges are partly extrapolated from points made on pp. 10–12 of Phillips and Vincendeau, Introduction. 10 Ibid., 12. 11 Alastair Phillips, Changing bodies, changing voices: French successes and failures in 1930s Hollywood, in: Phillips and Vincendeau, Journeys of Desire, 88. 12 Phillips and Vincendeau, Introduction, 14–15. 13 On the broad terms of America's relationship with Europe in this period, including the role of media industries, see David W. Ellwood, The Shock of America (Oxford, 2012). 14 See David Forgacs and Stephen Gundle, Mass Culture and Italian Society from Fascism to the Cold War (Bloomington, 2007), Chapter 7. 15 Lorenzo Quaglietti, Storia economico-politico del cinema italiano, 1945–1980 (Rome, 1980), Table A, 245. On the withdrawal of the US majors, see Forgacs and Gundle, Mass Culture and Italian Society, 207–208. 16 On this phenomenon, see Forgacs and Gundle, Mass Culture and Italian Society, 159–160. 17 See Stephen Gundle, Film stars and society in fascist Italy, in: Jacqueline Reich and Piero Garofalo (eds), Re-Viewing Fascism: Italian cinema 1922–1943 (Bloomington, IN, 2002), 325–327. 18 Lorenzo Pellizzari and Claudio M. Valentinetti, Il romanzo di Alida Valli (Milan, 1995), 71. 19 Her originality stemmed from the fact that she stood somewhere, to use her own words, between ‘the alignment of lively naughty Lilia Silvi-style girls and that of the supersensual, torbid and vaguely ambiguous actresses of the Luisa Ferida or Clara Calamai type’. Quoted in Pellizzari and Valentinetti, Il romanzo, 56. She offered, in other words, the possibility of something that was not entirely confined within the conventional female stereotyping of the period. In achieving this, a part was played by her aloof, remote air and a vaguely central European configuration of the facial features that bore no comparison with the other actresses of the time. 20 For an extensive analysis of this genre, see James Hay, Popular Film Culture in Fascist Italy: the passing of the Rex (Bloomington, IN, 1987). 21 For a full account of all the films Valli made in this period, and her later career up to 1979, see Ernesto G. Laura, Alida Valli (Rome, 1979). 22 She later passed to the Minerva company. 23 Pellizzari and Valentinetti, Il romanzo, 101. 24 On Valli's gestures and their perception by the public, see Natalia Marino and Emanuele Valerio Marino, L’Ovra a Cinecittà (Turin, 2005), 233–234. 25 Stefano Della Casa, Mario Mattoli, (Florence, 1990), 8, 49–53. 26 Several stars of the 1930s regularly sang songs in films, most notably Vittorio De Sica. The pretext was usually diegetic but the wider intent was commercial, since songs played on the radio acted as free advertising for the films in which they featured. 27 Pellizzari and Valentinetti, Il romanzo, 114. 28 The film was Carmine Gallone's Il canto della vita/The Song of Life, 1946. Eugenia Grandet was greeted with markedly less enthusiasm than Piccolo mondo antico. See Laura, Alida Valli, 83–84. 29 Pellizzari and Valentinetti, Il romanzo, 117. 30 See Maria Denis, Il gioco della verità: una diva nella Roma del 1943 (Milan, 1995). 31 In the immediate aftermath of the dictator's fall in 1943 details of his sex life and his relationship with Claretta Petacci were made public and after war's end further details of his chronic womanising were revealed. See Stephen Gundle, Satire and the destruction of the cult of the Duce, in: Roberta Cremoncini and others (eds), Against Mussolini: art and the fall of a dictator (London, 2010), 21–22. It was on account of her position as one of the country's screen favourites that Valli found herself tainted with the brush of scandal. 32 Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, David O. Selznick Collection (henceforth HRHRC), Selznick Administration Talent Files 1939–51, box 3346, folder 1, letter 19 July 1945 from David Golding. 33 HRHRC Selznick, Administration Talent Files 1939–51, b. 3346, f. 1, David O. Selznick (henceforth DOS) to Neil Agnew 6 July 1945. 34 HRHRC, Selznick Administrative Correspondence 1940–50, Valli, b.589, f.5, Jenia Reissar to DOS, 8 May 1946. 35 See Gian Piero Brunetta, La lunga marcia del cinema Americano in Italia tra fascismo e Guerra fredda, in: Ellwood and Brunetta, Hollywood in Europa, 80; Quaglietti, Storia economico-politico, 37–38; Forgacs and Gundle, Mass Culture and Italian Society, 135–136, 153–154. 36 HRHRC, Selznick Administrative Correspondence 1940–50, Valli, b.589, f.5, Reissar to DOS, 27 November 1946. 37 In his interviews conducted in the mid-1970s with over one hundred actors and film personnel of the 1930s, Francesco Savio found that most had one or more American favourites they admired. See Cinecittà anni trenta, 3 vols (Rome Bulzoni, 1979). 38 See Orio Caldiron and Matilde Hockhofler, Isa Miranda (Rome, 1978), 79–87. 39 To Valli's fears that her proposed contract was one-sided, Selznick responded by promising to ‘bend over backwards to be more than fair to Valli in their relationship under the terms of the contract’. HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.5, DOS memo 25 October 1945. 40 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.5, Valli to Reissar, 2 August 1946. 41 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.5, Mueller to Reissar, 20 August 1946. 42 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.5, Dieterle to Vanguard, 5 September 1946. 43 Thomson, Showman, 484. 44 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.5, DOS to O'shea, 13 September 1946. For an example of how the visa issue was recounted from an Italian point of view, see Raffaele Maderna, Alida, attrice calunniata, Oggi, 16 April 1948, 14–15. 45 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.5, DOS to Reissar, 13 September 1946. 46 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.5, Reissar to DOS, 11 August 1946. 47 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.5, DOS to Reissar, 31 December 1946. 48 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.5, DOS to Colby, 21 December 1946. 49 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f. 6, publicity release 10 January 1947. 50 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.5, DOS to publicity dept., 27 November 1946. 51 See, for a discussion of biographical factors and artifice, Thomas Harris, The building of popular images: Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe, in: Christine Gledhill (ed.), Stardom: industry of desire (London, 1991), 40–44. 52 Selznick first had the idea of using Valli's surname alone in mid-1946. 53 HRHRC, Selznick Publicity Biographies 1948–50. Valli. B.4635, f.Valli, undated note. 54 Photographs by the Rome studio of Arturo Ghergo on file, held on file in the Selznick Collection, confirmed the producer in this view. 55 Stephen Gundle, Glamour: a history (Oxford, 2008), 179. 56 Adrienne McLean, Being Rita Hayworth: labor, identity, and Hollywood stardom (New Brunswick, 2004), 31–32. 57 Reka Buckley, Glamour and the Italian female stars of the 1950s, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 28(3) (2008), 267–289. See also Stephen Gundle, Hollywood glamour and mass consumption in postwar Italy, Journal of Cold War Studies, 4(3) (2002), 95–118. 58 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.6, MacNamara to Bolton, inter-office communication 16 January 1947. 59 Thomson, Showman, 413. See also Anita Colby, Anita Colby's Beauty Book (New York, 1952). Her flattering comments on Valli are on p. 20. 60 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.6, Colby to DOS, 13 February 1947. 61 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.6, DOS to Colby, 19 February 1947. 62 HRHRC, Selznick Publicity: Biographies 1948–50, b. 4432, f. Valli. Undated note. 63 Leonard J. Leff, Hitchcock and Selznick (Berkeley, CA, 1999), 232. 64 HRHRC, Selznick Production Files, The Paradine Case, b. 3374, f 8, DOS memo 13 June 1940. 65 Thomson, Showman, 482. 66 Leff, Hitchcock and Selznick, 240. 67 The Selznick files contain numerous test photographs of Valli in various guises and costumes, with her hair done in several ways. On one is written the recommendation that her teeth should be straightened. 68 HRHRC, Selznick Production Files, b.3374, f.6, memo 8 January 1947. 69 HRHRC, Selznick Production Files, b.3374, f.6, DOS to Hitchcock, 23 January 1947. 70 McLean, Being Rita Hayworth, 33. 71 HRHRC, Selznick Production Files, b.3374, f.6, Doctor's report, 1 July 1947. 72 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.6, DOS memo, 12 January 1948. 73 On von Sternberg and Dietrich's public spats, see Gundle, Glamour, 190–191. 74 Thomson, Showman, 362. 75 Leff, Hitchcock and Selznick, 262. 76 Thomson, Showman, 482. 77 Leff, Hitchcock and Selznick, 263. 78 Ibid., 240. 79 On Valli's lack of appeal to ‘bobby-soxers or teenage fans’ see HRHRC, Selznick London, Publicity Files 1947–54, b.694, f.11, DOS to William Herbert 29 December 1950. 80 The article by Frank Conniff appeared on 21 January 1948. 81 See also William P. Flythe, Italy Beauty in L.A. Faces Congress Quiz, Los Angeles Examiner, 30 January 1948. 82 HRHRC Selznick Publicity: Biographies 1948–50, b. 4432, f. Valli, DOS to MacNamara 9 February 1948. 83 Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy: society and politics 1943–1988 (Harmondsworth, 1990), Chapter 3. 84 Issue of 3 March 1948. 85 HRHRC Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.7, memo of 3 March 1948. 86 She was also a close friend of Mario Camerini, a director of known anti-fascist sympathies whose father had been a Socialist. Camerini supported the Italian Socialist Party after the war. 87 HRHRC Selznick Talent Files, b.3346, f.7 letter to DOS, 27 April 1948. 88 Rudy Behlmer (ed.), Memo from David O. Selznick (Hollywood, 1989), 383–384. 89 The Miracle of the Bells, Monthly Film Bulletin, n.177, 30 September 1948. 90 Richard Raskin, European vs American storytelling: the case of The Third Man, P.O.V., 12, 2001, www.pov.imv.au.dk/issue _12/section_1/artc8A.html 91 HRHRC Selznick Publicity Files, b.3842, f. 6, 27 April 1950. 92 Graham Greene, The Third Man and The Fallen Idol (London, 1950), 18. 93 Behlmer, Memo from David O. Selznick, 384. 94 Entry by C.S. (Chloe Stephenson), Phillips and Vincendeau, Journeys of Desire, 456–467. 95 Gianni Rondolino, Luchino Visconti (Turin, 2003), 301–302 96 Behlmer, Memo from David O. Selznick, 383–384. 97 Paola Cristalli, Alida dai cento volti, Cineteca, 6(2–3) (1990), 8–9, 9. 98 HRHRC Selznick Disrribution Files, 1951–58, b.1825, f.1, inter-office memo, 18 September 1951. 99 HRHRC Selznick Distribution Files, 1951–58, b.1825, f.1, Valli to DOS 2 October 1951. 100 HRHRC Selznick Distribution Files, 1951–58, b.1825, f.1, Selznick memo, 24 November 1951. 101 For various memos on Artisti associati and Caramelli, see HRHRC Selznick Administrative Files: Selznick Foreign Correspondence 1949–50 Italy, b.608, f.16 and 1951–58, b.1479, f.6. 102 HRHRC Selznick Distribution Files, 1951–58, b.1825, f.1, DOS memo, 4 February 1952. 103 HRHRC Selznick Distribution Files, 1951–58, b.1825, f.1, Blau [i.e. Valli's legal representative Louis Blau] to DOS, 2 April 1952 and DOS to Blau, 15 April 1952. 104 HRHRC Selznick Distribution Files, 1951–58. b.1825 f 1., DOS to Mr Hoare, 20 May 1953. 105 Stephen Gundle, Bellissima: feminine beauty and the idea of Italy (New Haven and London, 2007), Chapter 7. 106 Valli's new trajectory suffered a brusque arrest in 1954 when she was obliged to provide an alibi to her new partner, who was accused of causing the death of a carpenter's daughter after a drug-fuelled orgy. See Stephen Gundle, Death and the Dolce Vita: the dark side of Rome in the 1950s (London, 2011), especially 171–76, 247–249, 331–332. 107 This view is advanced on the basis of Selznick's actions on the film Stazione Termini, in which he sent in his own cinematographer when he found G.R. Aldo's close-ups of Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift inadequate. See HRHRC Selznick Administrative Files, Co-Productions, Loan-Outs 1950–58, DOS to Girosi, 5 December 1952. 108 Sandro Cova, Un convento aspetta la nomade del cinema, Il Giorno, 18 December 1954, 14. 109 Oriana Fallaci, Lo specchio del passato, L’Europeo, 4 January 1965, 59. 110 Ibid. 111 HRHRC, Selznick Talent Files, DOS to Reissar, 22 June 1951. 112 See Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Luchino Visconti (London, 2003), Chapter 5; Rondolino, Luchino Visconti, 321–24. 113 Anon., Alida Valli, The Daily Telegraph, 24 April 2006, 21.