Oscar Profile #331: Robert Aldrich

Born August 9, 1918 in Cranston, Rhode Island, to the former Lora Lawson and newspaper publisher Edward Burgess Aldrich, Robert Aldrich was a long-time Hollywood director. He was the grandson of U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, nephew of John D. Rockefeller and cousin of Nelson Rockefeller. He was educated at the Moses Brown School in Providence, and studied economics at the University of Virginia where he also was a letterman on the 1940 football team. In 1941, he dropped out of college for a $50-a-week clerical job at RKO Radio Pictures, resulting in his being disowned by his family. It has been said that “No American film director was born as wealthy as Aldrich—and then so thoroughly cut off from family money.”

Aldrich was a quick learner. By 1942, he had become a second assistant director on such films as Joan of Paris, The Big Street, Behind the Rising Sunand A Lady Takes a Chance. By 1945, he had moved up to Assistant Director on such films as The Story of G.I. Joe, The Southerner, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, Body and Soul, Force of Evil, The Red Pony, M and Limelight.

After working with Charlie Chaplin on Limelight, Aldrich became a director in his own right. After some TV work in 1952, he directed his first theatrical film, 1953’s Big Leaguer starring Edward G. Robinson. From there, he went on to direct such well-remembered 1950s films as Apache, Vera Cruz, Kiss Me Deadly, The Big Knife, Autumn Leaves, Attack and The Angry Hills.

The 1960s proved to be a tumultuous decade for Aldrich, in which he directed the lieks of The Last Sunset, Sodom and Gomorrah, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , 4 for Texas, Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The Flight of the Phoenix, Th Dirty Dozen, The Legend of Lylah Clare and The Killing of Sister George. It was also the decade in which he was divorced from Harriet Foster, his wife of 24 years (1941-1965) and mother of his four grown children, and his marriage to Sibylle Siegfried (1968-his death).

Although twice nominated by the Directors Guild of America for their Best Director award for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and The Dirty Dozen, Aldrich was never nominated for either a Golden Globe or an Oscar.

Aldrich remained in the spotlight through the 1970s with such films as Too Late the Hero, The Grissom Gang, Ulzana’s Raid, Emperor of the North, The Longest Yard, Hustle, Twilight’s Last Gleaming, The Choirboys and The Frisco Kid. He directed his last film, All the Marbles in 1981.

Robert Aldrich died of kidney failure on December 5, 1983. He was 65.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

KISS ME DEADLY (1955)

Mickey Spillane’s 1952 novel was his sixth featuring private detective Mike Hammer. Aldrich’s 1955 film noir remains the most famous of the filmed versions. It grabs you from the fantastic opening sequence and holds your interest right though to its shocking conclusion. Ralph Meeker never had a stronger on-screen presence and Cloris Leachman, already a veteran TV performer, makes a stunning big screen debut. The film was a natural progression for Aldrich, whose early films, including Apache, Vera Cruz and Attack, were all action centric, as opposed to his next, the tearjerker, Autumn Leaves.

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962)

The success of this glorified Grade B horror movie was a confluence of events. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford alone were has-beens, together they were fascinating. Aldrich, in career nadir after the flop of Sodom and Gomorrah, leaped at the chance to direct his Autumn Leaves star (Crawford) and her 1940s Warner Bros. nemesis (Davis) as sisters in late middle-age who were long-ago movie stars. Jack Warner, cashing in on the film’s built-in publicity opened the film wide when slow releases were the norm and cleaned up at the box office. The film opened-up career opportunities for other actresses of a certain age as well.

HUSH…HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964)

Planned as a follow-up to Baby Jane? with Davis as the sympathetic one and Crawford as the conniving one this time around, Crawford was forced to withdraw due to illness. Filming was put on hold waiting for Crawford’s return, then for the casting of her replacement, which eventually went at Davis’s request to her friend, Olivia de Havilland. The hold lasted so long that Barbara Stanwyck had to drop out due to filming conflicts. She was replaced by Mary Astor. The film resumed just in time to retain Agnes Moorehead, who was on the verge of leaving as well, with Thelma Ritter waiting in the wings.

THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967)

This rousing action-adventure war film was one of the biggest box-office of its day, returning Aldrich to the genre that he was originally associated with. Nominated by the Directors Guild of America, this was probably the closest he came to receiving the Oscar nomination that eluded him his entire career. The film was nominated for four Oscars and won for Best Sound Effects. The cast was led by Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Best Supporting Actor nominee John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Trini Lopez, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and Clint Walker.

THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE (1968)

Aldrich’s versatility took another fascinating turn with this adaptation of Frank Marcus’s London and Broadway success about an aging actress who goes into a frenzy when she learns that her soap opera character is being killed off. If the play implied that the actress (Beryl Reid), the younger woman she lives with (Eileen Atkins) and her soap opera boss (Lally Bowers) are lesbians, the film with Reid, Susannah York and Coral Browne removes the implications and flat out celebrates the characters’ lesbianism. Reid, York, and especially Browne, are brilliant. Reid, a Tony winner on Broadway, received a Golden Globe nod for Best Actress – Drama.