Perhaps the most
famous of Monty's performances almost didn't happen. Columbia
boss Harry Cohn had wanted Aldo Ray to play the part of Robert E
Lee Prewitt in From Here to Eternity and only relented after
director Fred Zinnemann threatened to quit the project. As the
loner in love with the army who is eventually beaten by it,
Monty gave a stand-out performance and co-stars like Frank
Sinatra were quick to credit him with pushing the whole cast.
Rostova was no longer with him after they had argued shortly
before filming began but he became great friends with Sinatra
and James Jones - the novelist whose work had been heavily
censored for the screen - and the trio would drink long
into the night together.
Despite his row with Rostova, Monty was keen to work with her
and Kevin McCarthy again and they eventually plumped for an
off-Broadway revival of Chekhov's The Sea Gull, with Monty as
Treplev and Rostova miscast as Nina. The production was marred
by disputes over direction, Rostova's performance and Monty's
continuing problems with drink and drugs and, although it
received mixed reviews, it closed a week early. He would never
appear on stage again despite receiving many offers and he did not
return to work until 1956 when he and Elizabeth Taylor signed up
for Raintree County. Both accepted it was an average script but
they were keen to make a film together again. It was while they were
shooting that Monty suffered the accident that would so
affect the rest of his life - on May 12 1956.
He had been to a party at Elizabeth Taylor's Beverly Hills home
and had, according to the guests, only drunk a glass of wine. He
left in his car, following McCarthy down the winding round, and
crashed it into a telephone pole on a sharp bend.
McCarthy rushed back to raise the alarm and Taylor dashed to the
scene to comfort a badly injured Monty. Rushed to hospital, it
was discovered that his nose and jaw were broken and the muscles
on the left side of his face had been ripped apart. It took two
months for him to recover - filming was suspended - but no
plastic surgery was carried out. The accident left him with the
left side of his face almost paralysed and with a small scar on
his upper lip. The recurring pain in the rest of his body
would also remain for the rest of his life, only serving to increase
his dependence on alcohol and prescription drugs. He never
looked the same again.
Some of his friends had told Monty to forget Raintree County
but, perhaps sensing that if he didn't complete it he may never
work again, he returned. It was not a success.
He followed it with The Young Lions, in which he co-starred with
Dean Martin and Marlon Brando as a young Jewish man who goes to
war. He called it one of his favourite roles and was convinced
he would get an Oscar for his performance. But when the
nominations were announced that year, he came away empty-handed.
It was a bitter blow for a man who would be nominated four times
throughout his career. At
the start of his career he seemed less than interested in winning awards but
on failing to collect the Oscar for Judgment at Nuremburg he was
deeply upset.
From The Young Lions he went on to make Lonelyhearts, a
disappointing adaptation of the novel and a film Monty cared
little for.
