Oscar Profile #240: Flora Robson

Born March 28, 1902 in South Shields, Durham, United Kingdom, Flora McKenzie Robson first appeared on stage at the age of five. Educated at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, she augmented her budding acting career as a factory welfare officer until the stage provided more steady employment.

In residence at the Old Vic from 1931 the year she made her screen debut, it wasn’t long before she was burning up the screen in forceful portrayals such as the Dowager Empress Elisabeth in 1934’s The Rise of Catherine the Great and Elizabeth I in 1937’s Fire Over England. She made her Hollywood debut as Merle Oberon’s faithful maid in 1939’s Wuthering Heights and followed it with three more important roles in the same year’s Poison Pen, We Are Not Alone and Invisible Stripes. In 1940 she won acclaim for Broadway’s Ladies in Retirement in a role played by Ida Lupino in the 1941 film version. She was memorable on screen that year in her second portrayal of Elizabeth I, this time in support of Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk.

Robson received her only Oscar nomination for 1945’s Saratoga Trunk in which she played Ingrid Bergman’s mulatto maid. She was also memorable as Cleopatra’s nurse in the 1946’s Caesar and Cleopatra, as Sister Philippa in 1947’s Black Narcissus and as a ruthless countess in 1949’s Saraband for Dead Lovers. She made a terrific Lady Macbeth in the 1948 Broadway production of Macbeth opposite Michael Redgrave.

The actress’s most memorable 1950s role was as the nurse in 1954’s Romeo and Juliet. Made a Dame of the British Empire in 1960, she played some of her most interesting roles during the decade in such roles as that of the Empress of China in 55 Days at Peking, a murder suspect in Agatha Christie’s Murder at the Gallop, a naïve British MP in Guns at Batasi, Irish playwright Sean O’Casey’s mother in Young Cassidy, the Mother Superior in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, the Head of the British Mission in 7 Women and David Niven’s aunt in the horror film, Eye of the Devil.

Robson’s later performances included David Hemmings’ murdered aunt in 1970’s Fragment of Fear, the Queen of Hearts in 1972’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Prioress in the 1978 TV version of Les Misérables with Richard Jordan and Anthony Perkins and Miss Pross in the 1980 TV version of A Tale fo Two Cities with Chris Sarandon, Alice Krige and Billie Whitelaw Madame De Farge. Her last role was as a witch in 1981’s Clash of the Titans.

Dame Flora Robson died on July 7, 1984 at the age of 82. She never married not had children. The two sisters with who she shared her home and life also died around the same time, Shela shortly before her and Margaret in February, 1985.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE RISE OF CATHERINE THE GREAT (1934), directed by Paul Czinner

Conceived by director Czinner as a showcase for his wife Elisabeth Bergner, this was the first of two films about the Russian Empress, her husband Peter the Great and her mother-in-law Dowager Empress Elisabeth released in 1934. It beat von Sternberg’s The Scarlet Empress into theaters by seven months.

While The Scarlet Empress is by far the more famous film, boasting three great performances by Marlene Dietrich, Sam Jaffe and Louise Dresser, Czinner’s film features a brilliant turn by Robson that is even more remarkable than Dresser’s, considering she had less to work with. It was her first great performance captured on film.

FIRE OVER ENGLAND (1937), directed by William K. Howard

While the film is best known today as the first pairing of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, it should be remembered that Leigh played a supporting role as lady in waiting to England’s Elizabeth I, a towering portrayal by Robson at her best.

Two years later Bette Davis played Elizabeth in Hollywood’s The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland in roles similar to those of Olivier and Leigh. That same year Leigh and de Havilland would make movie history in Gone With the Wind while Robson and Olivier were on screen together again in Wuthering Heights. The year after that Robson would reprise Elizabeth opposite Flynn in The Sea Hawk.

SARATOGA TRUNK (1945), directed by Sam Wood

Filmed in 1943, shown to the Armed Forces toward the end of World War II, released in New York in November, 1945, the film was not released in Los Angeles until March, 1946. A year later when the 1946 Oscar nominations were announced, Robson’s lively portrayal of Ingrid Bergman’s Haitian maid earned her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress, the only one she would receive in her fifty year screen career.

Today Robson’s performance in blackface would be considered politically incorrect, but there is nothing about her portrayal that is in any way servile. Her scenes with Bergman and Gary Cooper evoke memories of Hattie McDaniel’s interface with Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind.

55 DAYS AT PEKING (1963), directed by Nicholas Ray

Once again Robson displays remarkable versatility as the Empress of China at the center of the bloody Boxer Rebellion at the turn of the 20th Century. Yes, it’s another role that would be considered politically incorrect today, but it was considered one of the great gets at the time. Both Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford were considered for the part. While Robson is billed below the title with marquee names Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and David Niven billed above, hers is the dominant role. Her delightfully evil performance is one of her greatest.

Robson was in theatres at the same time in a completely different screen persona playing opposite Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s Murder at the Gallop.

YOUNG CASSIDY (1965), directed by Jack Cardiff

Robson had her last two memorable screen roles in John Ford’s last two films. The first of these, Young Cassidy was completed by Jack Cardiff after Ford became ill. He managed to finish the equally fine 7 Women on his own.

Robson’s portrayal of Sean O’Casey’s downtrodden mother in Young Cassidy is one of her finest. Although the character’s name is changed to John Cassidy due to rights issues, it was clearly about Ireland’s future dominant playwright. At the time, though, he was a struggling laborer. Though Julie Christie, Edith Evans and Maggie Smith also provide memorable portraits of Irish women in the 1930s, it’s Robson’s performance that lingers in the mind. Her role in 7 Women, though good, is secondary to the performances of Anne Bancroft and Margaret Leighton that dominate the mostly female cast.