October 17th marking the 100th Birthday Anniversary of Montgomery Clift, took it upon myself to create a personal self-blog project to mark the occasion. Monty's second film, post RED RIVER (1948), though released prior to RED RIVER ... THE SEARCH (1948).
Incorporating this piece into a CINEMA COFFEE because of its "Mom and I" film connection, which, if you need a refresher or are new to the coffee table in write-up context (for my "in person" CINEMA COFFEE chats @ the Coffee House (my YouTube Channel), gather around the table here: CINEMA COFFEE/FASHION FRIDAY), I created CINEMA COFFEE as to write about cinema my mom and I would watch religiously (for the full story: IT NEVER ENDS), from classic films to the then and now films, as a form to continue to connect my Mom with film, and connect with others by sharing my film memories out loud, in return, hearing/reading others share their film memories with me, especially to anyone who has since lost someone. Their film buddy. Their best friend.
THE SEARCH was a film my mom and I "discovered" quite by accident. A film we so happened to catch at its very opening credits after finishing up one of our SATURDAY NITE MOVIE NIGHT watches, a night we'd reserve as the night to watch new release films at 8PM, no tardiness allowed, provided with a bucket of popcorn and cappuccino, both curated by us, no talking, no phone, just fun, weekly for nearly 12 years.
I couldn't tell you what film we had just finished, would probably have to go back and look through one of my various journals to get the exact film we had decided to watch that week, but I do remember it wasn't (obviously) a memorable film, as my mom and I both said after watching THE SEARCH ... "Dang, that was better than the film we just sat through!" |
Not only was THE SEARCH memorable and better than its unfortunate SATURDAY NITE MOVIE NIGHT predecessor because of learning through Robert Osborne's outro commentary about the life of Monty's nine-year-old co-star, Ivan Jandl, both during production on this film and his life afterward, being disheartened to discover he was not allowed to travel to the US, by the Czechoslovakian government at the time, to accept his Juvenile Academy Award, peaking both our interest to Google and find out more about his life and career, but because of Montgomery Clift's performance alone.
Monty was a like a fan club for my mom and me. Of the actors "the Studio" (Actors Studio) produced of the time, Monty was the actor my mom and I both agreed upon ... well, and Pauly Paul (Paul Newman), but that's a different CINEMA COFFEE entirely. Pauly Paul was someone we both grew up with, my mom prior to me and I catching up on the deets when I arrived into the world, from watching his more recent films (THE PERDITION (2004) I'm lookin' at you) to never missing his appearances with David Letterman, stunts 'n' all. Brando ... well, that was my Fan Girl hobby alone.
For us, Monty represented what acting was when you interact with someone. As if you weren't watching a script coming to life. You were watching life happening. As my mom pointed out to me, with a huge co-sign on my part because it was something I'd known, but he did it so naturally, so realistically, it never struck my mind as something to point out because, it just ... was. Monty's ability to look at the person he's in a scene with. When he's opposite his female lead, she is the only person in that room. No cliché. He was. And she was to him. That moment. Was real. It's as if he's left his Zoom camera on by mistake and you're looking into what's happening in Monty's life, as that character, in real time. I love Brando and all, but I have unobjectionably admitted repeatedly, even Bud (Marlon Brando) doesn't do that, that look, the way Monty does. No one had (in our opinion).
Monty was a like a fan club for my mom and me. Of the actors "the Studio" (Actors Studio) produced of the time, Monty was the actor my mom and I both agreed upon ... well, and Pauly Paul (Paul Newman), but that's a different CINEMA COFFEE entirely. Pauly Paul was someone we both grew up with, my mom prior to me and I catching up on the deets when I arrived into the world, from watching his more recent films (THE PERDITION (2004) I'm lookin' at you) to never missing his appearances with David Letterman, stunts 'n' all. Brando ... well, that was my Fan Girl hobby alone.
For us, Monty represented what acting was when you interact with someone. As if you weren't watching a script coming to life. You were watching life happening. As my mom pointed out to me, with a huge co-sign on my part because it was something I'd known, but he did it so naturally, so realistically, it never struck my mind as something to point out because, it just ... was. Monty's ability to look at the person he's in a scene with. When he's opposite his female lead, she is the only person in that room. No cliché. He was. And she was to him. That moment. Was real. It's as if he's left his Zoom camera on by mistake and you're looking into what's happening in Monty's life, as that character, in real time. I love Brando and all, but I have unobjectionably admitted repeatedly, even Bud (Marlon Brando) doesn't do that, that look, the way Monty does. No one had (in our opinion).
And that same look, went for whomever Monty was in scene with. He was present. What was happening around him, to him, was real. No more so proven as with his nine-year-old co-star Ivan Jandl in THE SEARCH. Evolving this talent, this gift, to lengths past normal performing circumstances as Ivan, who plays Karel Malik ("Jim" to Monty's Ralph "Steve" Stevenson in the film), who did not speak English, had to learn his lines phonetically.
Yet, Monty makes it feel as if it's happening right then. Right in that moment. As if it is he who is teaching Ivan English, as if the English Ivan is speaking is from learning through the lessons Monty's character "Steve" is giving him in the film. That it's those lessons in which taught Ivan how to speak English fluently, not that he is speaking those lines phonetically. As Ivan not knowing English fluently was a complete shock to both my mom and I when we found this out through Robert Osborne's commentary. How could this be?
Yet, Monty makes it feel as if it's happening right then. Right in that moment. As if it is he who is teaching Ivan English, as if the English Ivan is speaking is from learning through the lessons Monty's character "Steve" is giving him in the film. That it's those lessons in which taught Ivan how to speak English fluently, not that he is speaking those lines phonetically. As Ivan not knowing English fluently was a complete shock to both my mom and I when we found this out through Robert Osborne's commentary. How could this be?
This doesn't just give credit to Ivan's own talent as a child actor, but Montgomery Clift's naturalistic aptitude to make performing look flawless. Real.
The circumstances that bring "Steve" and "Jim" together, too, a realistic one, a relatable one, as something present, something real, happening in real life, as Jim, a Czechoslovakian boy, who had been dislocated -- scratch that, taken, ripped, torn, from his family, his life, during WWII, sent to a concentration camp, now, in the last days of WWII, is safely in care of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, though considered an orphan, runs away from this haven, as to him and the other children being taken to a transit camp by train, fear (understandably) this is just another Nazi tactic to lure them into the gas chambers to their death.
Finding his escape to run away, he comes into contact, reluctantly at first, with "Steve," beautifully performed by Montgomery Clift, who, in spite of not seeing him until almost 36-minutes into the film, from the very first introduction to his character, just that first movement, that first camera shot, becomes an attraction between you and the story that's about to transform into your life for the next hour and four minutes. As the story unfolds between the bond and the connection of a son searching for his mother, a summary I won't go any further with, as I don't do spoilers, this film is a gem I recommend going into as cold as possible to discover this journey as your own.
Finding his escape to run away, he comes into contact, reluctantly at first, with "Steve," beautifully performed by Montgomery Clift, who, in spite of not seeing him until almost 36-minutes into the film, from the very first introduction to his character, just that first movement, that first camera shot, becomes an attraction between you and the story that's about to transform into your life for the next hour and four minutes. As the story unfolds between the bond and the connection of a son searching for his mother, a summary I won't go any further with, as I don't do spoilers, this film is a gem I recommend going into as cold as possible to discover this journey as your own.
In a cast that includes Aline MacMahon as Mrs. Murrary ... Yep. My fave GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (1933) clap back girl) ...
... And Wendell Corey ... "Careful, Tom" as Jerry Fisher, THE SEARCH is a film with heart and connection.
So, as you are scheduling out your film watches for Montgomery Clift's 100th, be sure to add this film to your Monty Marathon Movie watch!
#ForMyMom ... XOXO. À Bientôt!
So, as you are scheduling out your film watches for Montgomery Clift's 100th, be sure to add this film to your Monty Marathon Movie watch!
#ForMyMom ... XOXO. À Bientôt!
For my other CINEMA COFFEE blog pieces:
#ForMyMom Cinema Coffee ... | COFFEE CINEMA: Talking Streetcar | CINEMA COFFEE: "Et tu, Brute?" | CINEMA COFFEE: "La Chocolaterie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Milk? I loathe milk!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Elderberry Wine ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The choice I never had ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The smell of Mimosa" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Mighty like a Rose" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Don't cry on the rolls" | CINEMA COFFEE: "You're the first Kansas I ever met" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Everybody calls me Gracie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "What the devil are Belinskis?!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Hello friends and enemies." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Stop remindin' me of heaven." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Even Gatsby could happen" | CINEMA COFFEE: "I made a wish" | CINEMA COFFEE: Audie Murphy | CINEMA COFFEE: Put The Blame on Mame | CINEMA COFFEE: "Just Singleton." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Where I Come From, Nobody Knows" | Film Therapy: Coping through Cinema | CINEMA COFFEE: Socks fall down | CINEMA COFFEE: "The moon's reaching for me" | CINEMA COFFEE: The Horne: Luso World Cinema Blogathon | CINEMA COFFEE: Aunt Bettye Lightsy | CINEMA COFFEE: I never lose | CINEMA COFFEE: "I have a mother!" | CINEMA COFFEE: THE SIGN OF GEMINI | CINEMA COFFEE: Venus Rising | CINEMA COFFEE: Stan vs Geek | CINEMA COFFEE: "Positively the same dame"
#ForMyMom Cinema Coffee ... | COFFEE CINEMA: Talking Streetcar | CINEMA COFFEE: "Et tu, Brute?" | CINEMA COFFEE: "La Chocolaterie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Milk? I loathe milk!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Elderberry Wine ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The choice I never had ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The smell of Mimosa" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Mighty like a Rose" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Don't cry on the rolls" | CINEMA COFFEE: "You're the first Kansas I ever met" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Everybody calls me Gracie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "What the devil are Belinskis?!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Hello friends and enemies." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Stop remindin' me of heaven." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Even Gatsby could happen" | CINEMA COFFEE: "I made a wish" | CINEMA COFFEE: Audie Murphy | CINEMA COFFEE: Put The Blame on Mame | CINEMA COFFEE: "Just Singleton." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Where I Come From, Nobody Knows" | Film Therapy: Coping through Cinema | CINEMA COFFEE: Socks fall down | CINEMA COFFEE: "The moon's reaching for me" | CINEMA COFFEE: The Horne: Luso World Cinema Blogathon | CINEMA COFFEE: Aunt Bettye Lightsy | CINEMA COFFEE: I never lose | CINEMA COFFEE: "I have a mother!" | CINEMA COFFEE: THE SIGN OF GEMINI | CINEMA COFFEE: Venus Rising | CINEMA COFFEE: Stan vs Geek | CINEMA COFFEE: "Positively the same dame"