The Country Girl

I think I might have mentioned at the beginning of the month in conjunction with my post on Summer Under the Stars that I had two Grace Kelly films on my DVR that I hadn't done posts on, and that both are showing up on her day. That day is tomorrow, August 24, but thankfully one of the films is airing overnight. So we'll start with the first of the two movies, The Country Girl, which TCM is showing at noon on August 24.

Kelly is, somewhat surprisingly the titular country girl, although we don't see her for a few minutes. Instead, we see the two male stars of the movie. One is William Holden, who plays Bernie Dodd. Bernie is a theater director, and in a big blow-up with producer Philip Cook (Anthony Ross). They're arguing over a faded star, Frank Elgin (Bing Crosby). They need someone for their new musical drama The Land Around Us who can both sing and act, which Elgin can do. The only thing is, in the intervening years, Frank has gained a reputation for becoming a raging alcoholic.

Frank comes in to audition for the lead role, not realizing at first that that's what they want him for, and when Bernie tells Frank this, Frank seems a bit nonplussed, as though he's not certain he's ready to take on such a big part after all those years of drinking. By the time Bernie and Philip are finished bickering, Frank has already left the theater, presumably thinking he's lost the part or just desperate for another drink.

Bernie goes looking for Frank, eventually going to his current address, which is an apartment in a crappy part of town. Opening the door is Frank's wife Georgie (Grace Kelly), looking decidedly frumpy since the studio obviously thought casting Grace Kelly against type would be exceedingly daring. Frank and Georgie talk, and it's a decidedly standoffish conversation. Frank comes home, and things get even more volatile.

Part of the reason for this is, that, as the movie goes on, Bernie finds himself wondering whether Georgie might be part of the reason why Frank turned to drink. Still, he takes a huge risk on giving Frank the role. The production goes into rehearsals, for the eventual road preview in Boston before opening in New York at some point in the future. Georgie is there, which she may think is for Frank's benefit. Bernie, for his part, thinks her presence is a huge problem. Frank has to deal with that conflict in addition to trying to stay sober.

The Country Girl is based on a play by Clifford Odets, who may not be to everybody's tastes. William Holden had gotten his big break in the movie version of Odets' Golden Boy, which is one of those plays that is a bit strident in trying to get its point across. This movie feels stagey, although to be fair to the movie a lot of that has to do with the fact that it's a play about the theater. It would be hard not to have a movie like this be stagey.

The acting is mostly good; Grace Kelly won the Best Actress Oscar which I think must have been down to the Academy voters being impressed by her playing against type. Frankly I still think I'd have voted for Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones. The best acting here is really done by William Holden.

The Country Girl is one of those Oscar-winning movies that shows up surprisingly infrequently considering the fact that it's an Oscar-winner with multiple big stars. I'd guess that has something to do with being a relatively "little" picture and from Paramount, which is not one of the studios TCM has the easiest access to. Still, it's decidedly worth a watch.