The Country Girl

Bing Crosby's career reached its dramatic heights in The Country Girl. In fact the trio of Crosby, Grace Kelly, and William Holden all hit incredible highs with this one. Clifford Odets's play was a good backstage drama without any great political statement that characterized his earlier work

It would be another three years before Bing Crosby would do a film without singing at all. But for those who've never seen the Odets play, the story is one without any music. Crosby's role on Broadway was originated by Paul Kelly. When Paramount bought the screen rights they had Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin write the songs that Crosby sings in The Country Girl. Curiously enough none of them, good that they were, became any kind of hit for Bing. Also this was Ira Gershwin's last score for either the stage of screen.

It's fitting that Grace Kelly won her Oscar for this part. Uta Hagen who played Georgie Elgin on Broadway won a Tony for her performance. Kelly was up against some stiff competition that year and upset the betting favorite Judy Garland for A Star Is Born. Other nominees included Dorothy Dandridge for Carmen Jones, Jane Wyman for Magnificent Obsession and Audrey Hepburn for Sabrina. I suppose it was the fact that Kelly was cast against type in her portrayal. Usually playing chic blonde princesses, she's almost dowdy looking in this film.

Crosby plumbed some dramatic depths also and was nominated for Frank Elgin. However after three successive years of being nominated and not winning, Marlon Brando was not going to be denied in 1954. The rest of that field included Humphrey Bogart for The Caine Mutiny, James Mason for A Star Is Born and Dan O'Herlihy for Robinson Crusoe. Not a shabby field there either and Crosby's personal best came up against Brando's consolation for not winning for Streetcar Named Desire. Oscar politics at its finest.

Bill Holden's part of Bernie Dodd was originated on Broadway by Steven Hill who today's audiences know as DA Adam Schiff from Law and Order. After years of playing what he called "Smiling Jim" roles, his acting took on some bite with Sunset Boulevard. He's a cynical man here also, but there was an additional edge here. One of the plot elements was alcoholic Crosby knowing about Holden's bad marriage and using that knowledge to blame his bad behavior on Kelly. Holden was in the midst of a bad marriage himself, the only one he ever had. Marked by bitterness, recriminations, and mutual infidelities, he and Brenda Marshall stayed married for over 20 years for the sake of their children. When Holden's Bernie Dodd talks about his former wife there's an edge that I'm sure came from personal experience.

The only other role of any size is that of producer Phil Cook and it's played Anthony Ross. Another plot element is Holden's championing Crosby going head to head a few times with Ross who never really wanted him in his show. One of Ross's condition to using Crosby is that he given a contract with a two weeks notice clause and not a run of the play contract. Ross gets hoisted on his own petard for that one. Sadly this was Ross's last film, he died the following year.

The Country Girl is mature and intelligent and avoids the usual Hollywood clichés concerning show business stories. Even if you're not a fan of any or all of its three stars, this can be enjoyed on its artistic merits.

BING CROSBY gives his all to the role of a washed up actor fixated on guilt (and the bottle) while GRACE KELLY and WILLIAM HOLDEN give even finer performances as the two people who quarrel over how to reform his guzzling ways.

The weakness here is not the script. It's the dull musical numbers assigned to Crosby, who carries them off in the usual amiable Crosby manner, before he reverts to character as Frank Elgin. Nevertheless, when he's down and out, he gives a very painfully convincing portrait of a weak alcoholic man who shifts all of the blame to his wife. I suspect Clifford Odets may have based his portrait of this weak man on actor Frank Fay (once married to Barbara Stanwyck), whose career was destroyed by alcoholism and who depended on breezy charm for his appeal.

There are some really searing scenes between Kelly and Holden, fireworks that never seem less than realistic as a result of two completely realized characters that come to life in a well-written script. Holden is particularly fine in a difficult, demanding role that forces him to gradually shift his sympathy as he realizes who the real culprit is. His performance is the strongest of the three stars.

Grace Kelly subdues her aristocratic ways (and her prissy affected manners and voice) to play a woman who knows what the truth is behind her husband's weakness. She looks as forlorn and beaten as the script requires, always completely in touch with her character's moods and feelings. There are little nuances all along that show what a fine actress she could be under superb direction and given some brilliant dialog.

Fascinating as a portrait of theater people, but a letdown whenever it strays into the producing of a show that looks to be as feeble as any amateur production could be with hopes of becoming Broadway bound.

Neverthelss, a gritty, searing, truthful drama that is well worth watching for the performances alone.

More backstage melodrama than morality tale on the perils of drink, "The Country Girl" is watchable but only occasionally gripping entertainment, perhaps because it lacks the perfect casting that made the James Mason / Judy Garland "A Star Is Born" such a superior film. For me casting one of the leads against type can be considered daring but two seems reckless and for all that it was Crosby and Kelly who got the main acting plaudits, it's William Holden's ever reliable character-work which for me centres and grounds the film, if not quite catapulting it into the "classic" firmament for which it so earnestly strives.

For one thing I couldn't believe Kelly as the downtrodden frump she appears to be here and for another Crosby, while you can see him really trying (part of the problem) never convinced me at any time that he was a drunk in the way that Ray Milland did so well in "The Lost Weekend".

I found the plot unconvincing too, with the melodramatic motive for Crosby's actions overplayed, the triangular affair when Holden falls for Kelly seemingly coming out of nowhere, while the musical interludes by the celebrated Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin sound some way off their best work, unlike some of the great songs in the aforementioned Garland movie.

All the same, as you'd expect from award-winning playwright Clifford Odets, there are some telling lines amongst all the exchanges (this is a very talky film), I liked the way Crosby's significant flashback was delayed until over 30 minutes into the film and the long cutaway shot at the conclusion makes for an effective finish. In the end though, this country girl needed a bit more air to really come alive, although some tribute is due to the producers for tackling a largely taboo subject in Hollywood.

Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, & William Holden all give what I consider to be their best performances. Crosby plays a neurotic drunk, and is just unbelievable. Or should I say is quite believable. I didn't know he could act, but can he ever. Grace Kelly is his frumpy wife. Not her usual type-cast character, either. Even though it's pretty much a forgotten film, a must-see for classic movie fans.

All the other comments here-on the quality of the three leads' acting, the somberness of the film, the plot, etc--I agree w/ pretty much. For me the standout was not Grace but Bing. He was cast vs type the most and if anyone deserved an oscar here, it was him. Grace was fine, but still-it's like seeing Michelle Pfieffer or Theresa Russell playing frumpy-it don't really work.

Typical solid 50's dramatics, Holden in his element as always, very believable.

***1/2 outta ****