Montgomery Clift Linkfest

A few Monty-themed links from around the Internet…

Self-Styled Siren writes insightfully On the Manliness of Montgomery Clift.  I love this essay and agree with every word.

It’s often observed that the post-war Method actors redefined masculinity. It is more precise to say that Montgomery Clift (who was not entirely a Method actor anyway) expanded the definition. Forever afterward, a man on screen would seem half-formed if the actor could not suggest some sort of inner life, no matter how much derring-do was shown. And exposing that inner life takes nerve, nerve that Clift had in abundance. Rosalind Russell said “acting is standing up naked and turning around slowly.” Showing yourself naked doesn’t sound so bad–but the Siren wouldn’t do it. You probably wouldn’t. John Wayne wouldn’t have either. Montgomery Clift did, in every role he ever played.

And if that isn’t manly, the Siren would like to know what is.

The ever-marvelous Sheila O’Malley’s birthday tribute, an epic post full of quotes about and from Montgomery Clift.

From The Hairpin’s Anne Helen Peterson, Scandals of Classic Hollywood: The Long Suicide of Montgomery Clift. Peterson’s series can be a little sensationalistic, as the “Scandals of Classic Hollywood” title would suggest, but the pieces are invariably interesting, as this one is.  She knows how to pierce my Monty-loving heart, that’s for sure!

Clift once told someone that the closer we come to death, the more we blossom. He took himself to that precipice, but he fell straight in. And so he remains, frozen in the popular imagination, circa From Here to Eternity – those high cheekbones, that set jaw, the firm stare: a magnificent, proud, tragically broken thing to behold.

From Vanity Fair, “a long-forgotten trove of the actor’s personal photos has recently surfaced in the archives of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Bequeathed to the library soon after Clift’s untimely death in 1966, at the age of 45, the scrapbooks and portraits of fellow stars reveal Clift’s gift with a lens. The N.Y.P.L.’s treasure chest also houses previously unpublished photos taken of Clift throughout his life and career.”

I especially like this picture Monty took of his Lonelyhearts co-star and dear friend, Myrna Loy.

Myrna Loy, photograph by Montgomery Clift

These Life magazine photos of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift on the Paramount lot during the filming of 1950’s A Place in the Sun are quite simply stunning.  They were two stars at the height of their beauty and the beginning of their lifelong friendship.  The playfulness and intimacy between Monty and the girl he called Bessie Mae are very apparent in these shots.

Monty and his Bessie Mae

Clift Notes – a Tumblr featuring lots and lots of photos and GIFs of Montgomery Clift.  Because sometimes you just want to enjoy the pretty!

Hellooooo Monty!