Mascot of the Month: Montgomery Clift

A color shot of Montgomery Smith

I love movies.  Particularly movies from the 30s and 40s, where black and white where used to evoke emotion so movingly.  By the 50s, nearly all "big" movies were done in color and black and white was used for low cost, not for emotional depth.
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A Place In The Sun

Nearly.  But not all.  To see a movie still using a lack of color as an advantage, watch "A Place In The Sun".  It segues from the tight emotion of black and white to emotional amazement in a wholey unique way.  Remember in Wizard of Oz when Dorothy opens the door to a color movie.  Well in A Place In The Sun, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift meet and the movie starts using close ups that are as stunning as color.
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This was back when Elizabeth Taylor was young and known more for acting that for activism (or marriage or Cleopatra).  If you every want to see Elizabeth Taylor really act, watch A Place In The Sun.  And, if you do, you will be transfixed by Montgomery Clift.  He and Taylor look like a glamour shot for Silver Screen Magazine, come to life.  They are youth and love and heartbreak personified.  A Place In The Sun is a tragedy of youth and love and fate, like Romeo and Juliet.
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Of course that isn't all Montgomery Clift did.  He was nominated for 4 Academy Awards.  He was kind of the Brad Pitt of his day, so handsome that people didn't always notice he could act.  Apparently he was pretty omnisexual, having affairs with men and women - but he seemed to be eternally in love (non-sexually) with Elizabeth Taylor. In later years she even put up her fees as insurance for his work when he couldn't get insurance.

A Photo Shoot with the stars "goofing around" for the cameras

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His personal tragedy was a car accident after leaving a party at Taylor's house, probably drunk.  The talk of the day was that it happened right outside her house, and Elizabeth herself ran outside and pulled his tongue from his teeth to keep him from choking to death.  Probably just a story, but one indicative of their deep friendship.
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He was in huge demand in the 50s, turning down the starring roles in East of Eden and Sunset Boulevard.

His First Big Move: Red River with John Wayne

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Montgomery had major reconstructive surgery after the accident, and lost his amazing looks - and his confidence.  In major pain from the accident, he fell into using painkillers and alcohol.  During the filming of Misfits in 1961, Marilyn Monroe said that "... he is the only person I know that is even worse shape than I am."

From Here to Eternity Pre-Accident

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His last Oscar nomination was for a supporting role as a mentally retarded concentration camp victim in  Judgement at Nuremberg.  He died in 1966 in New York living with a male secretary.  It was a heart attack, probably brought on by excessive and long term alcohol use.  Kind of like Whitney Houston back when they still covered that stuff up.

Post Accident in Judgement at Nuremberg

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He's the Mascot for a personal reason.  He had such passion, some much talent and yet he lost it all by losing confidence in himself.  Occasionally I lose confidence in myself - and right now it is worse than usual.  I am having trouble getting a new job, and I am having writer's block.  The waste of such amazing talent is a reminder, to me, that throwing your life away ... well, if I am this sad for the wasted potential of the young man I never knew, I can certainly kick myself in the ass to get over my own setbacks.