HOPE LANGE DIES AGED 70

Actress Hope Lange, who starred opposite Monty in The Young Lions, has died at the age of 70 in hospital. Born in 1933 in Connecticut, she grew up in New York City. She won an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in the 1957 film Peyton Place.

THE MISFITS DOCUMENTARY

American television has screened a behind-the-scenes documentary about The Misfits. The troubles involved in the production - and the blurring of life and art - were examined in "Making the Misfits," the documentary that premiered in October on PBS' Great Performances.

The one-hour special featured interviews with writer Arthur Miller, supporting actors Eli Wallach and Kevin McCarthy and locals. It also offered rare film footage and photographs of the stars shot during the filming. You can read a preview of the programme in this special report.

ITALIAN BIOGRAPHY GOES ENGLISH

A biography of Monty first published in Italian is set to be released in an English version late this year.

Montgomery Clift, A Biography by Michelangelo Capua, who lives in New York, will be published by McFarland & Company in the US with about 200 pages and 55 photos. It will be priced at $32 in paperback. For more information and to pre-order a copy, visit the publisher's site.

MONTY DOUBLE BILL IN HOLLYWOOD

The American Cinematheque at the Hollywood Egyptian Theatre is hosting a double bill of Monty films and a book-signing by Noel Alumit - author of the novel Letters To Montgomery Clift - on May 22. The programme begins at 6:15pm with the signing in the theatre lobby, followed at 7pm by the films.

First up is Suddenly Last Summer, director Joseph Mankiewicz's adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play starring Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn. It's followed by John Huston's Freud, in which Monty battles the closed minds of Viennese society as Sigmund Freud. The film is being shown in a new 35mm print. For more information, click here

GERMAN ACTRESS DIES

German actress Hildegard Knef, a blonde who began her half-century career as a teenager in Nazi propaganda films before starring in Hollywood and on Broadway, has died in Berlin at the age of 76. Hospital staff said Knef, who suffered from emphysema, had died of a lung infection. Known in Hollywood as Hildegard Neff, her most famous film was the 1946 Die Moerder sind unter uns (Murderers Among Us), a critical German self-examination of how Nazis kept themselves in positions of power despite Hitler's defeat. Knef was lured to Hollywood by David O Selznick in 1947 but rejected the producer's suggestion that she change her name and say she was an Austrian to cover up her links to the Nazis. She was due to co-star with Montgomery Clift in The Big Lift but had to step aside in 1949 after reports of her past surfaced. She went back to Germany but returned to Hollywood to make The Snows of Kilimanjaro with Gregory Peck in 1952.

AUTHOR AT MONTY BOOK SIGNINGS

Author Noel Alumit, whose new novel Letters to Montgomery Clift is published by MacAdam Cage in the USA this month, will be signing copies of his book at several events. A book party is being held on Saturday, February 9, at 7:30pm at Skylight Books, 1818 North Vermont Ave, LA, California (inquiries to ladyjful@aol.com). A signing is happening on Saturday, February 16, at 3pm at A Different Light Bookstore, 8853 Santa Monica Blvd, W Hollywood, California, and a further event is held on March 6 at 7pm at Dutton's Bookstore, 11975 San Vicente Blvd, LA, California. See here for a feature on the book.

MONTY NOVEL PUBLISHED

A new novel published in the United States in February features Monty. Letters to Montgomery Clift, by Noel Alumit, is published by MacAdam Cage. It's set in the Philippines and is billed as a novel of endurance and hope as well as a tale of growing up, coming out and going home. The story centres on Bong Bong Luwad, who is living with his Auntie Yuna in Los Angeles, far from his Philippine village, the Marcos regime and his mother who helped him escape but who has disappeared. Letters To Montgomery Clift is Noel's first novel and is on sale priced $25 hardback from MacAdam/Cage It is currently not available outside the USA but can be purchased direct from the publishers or from internet retailers like Amazon. You can read an interview with Noel Alumit here and more about the book here.

ETERNITY ON DVD

From Here To Eternity has finally been released on DVD in the UK, making it only the third Monty film available on the format in Britain. For information click here. Other films available in the UK on DVD are The Misfits and Red River.

PUBLICIST JOHN SPRINGER DIES AT 85

John Springer, theatre and film publicist died on October 30 in New York. He was 85. The cause of death was congestive heart failure. Springer launched his career as professional public relations man in 1948 when he started with RKO Pictures as head of magazine publicity. In the mid-50s he opened his own business.

The stars he represented were a virtual who's who in Hollywood. They included: Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Montgomery Clift, Bette Davis, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Hal Prince, Gene Kelly, Grace Kelly, Lauren Becall, Gary Cooper, Peter Sellers, Michael Redgrave, Lee Strasberg, Mia Farrow and Henry Fonda, among many others.

LIONS ON DVD

20th Century Fox will be releasing The Young Lions on November 6 in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer with an English stereo soundtrack and an alternate French soundtrack. Unfortunately the only extra will be a trailer. The DVD will only be available in US markets initially. (Thanks to Rob for the information!)

FILM ON HOLD

Sources close to the planned film biography of Monty have confirmed that it's on indefinite hold - the fate of so many movies. Originally planned to star Wes Bentley in the title role and due to start filming in the spring of 2001, there are currently no plans to start filming.

NEW BOOK

The author Michelangelo Capua is translating his Italian biography of Monty into English. The 184-page book was published in Italy last year by Lindau. Capua, who lives in New York, interviewed people who knew and worked with the star for his work. He is planning biographies of other Hollywood stars.

ETERNITY ON DVD

From Here To Eternity is due to be released on DVD in both the US and Europe this autumn. The American version goes on sale on October 23 while the European version will be available a couple of weeks later. Both can be pre-ordered.

DVD UPDATE

For those who often mail me to find out what DVDs are available featuring Monty, then here is the list.

Indiscretion of An American Wife; The Big Lift; The Misfits with an Original Theatrical Trailer; Red River; Suddenly Last Summer with Talent Files on the director and stars, trailers, adverts and photo galleries; and A Place in the Sun with an audio commentary by George Stevens Jr, an Original Theatrical Featurette and interviews with the cast and crew.

These are only Region 1 DVDS and therefore only work in the Americas - unless you have a multi-region DVD player outside of the States.

Click Yahoo Shopping here for the latest releases and price comparisons.

FILM CASTING RUMOURS

Upcomingmovies.com reports that Wes Bentley and Catherine Zeta Jones are no longer in the frame for the Monty biopic. Unfortunately there is no other news available so far.

THE I CONFESS SEMINAR

My correspondent Harvey Chartrand sent me these notes after attending the I Confess seminar held during the Alfred Hitchcock exhibit at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He 'confesses' that there wasn't all that much new stuff on Montgomery Clift:

Most of the discussion had to do with Hitchcock and his problems with the Catholic Church in Quebec, which leaned on the province's censor board to cut three minutes from I Confess just before the film premiered at the Capitol Theatre in Quebec City in 1953.

After very pleasant dealings with Quebec actors, Hitchcock hated French-Canadians from that day on. He never returned to Quebec and always spoke disparagingly of I Confess. It was an unhappy experience for him. I Confess also tanked at the box office, though its reputation has grown in recent years.

I talked to Gilles Pelletier (an actor in the film) after the seminar. He said that it was only in retrospect - after reading biographies of Monty and Alfred Hitchcock - that he became aware of Monty's self-destructive behavior. He said he saw things without understanding their implications. Pelletier ran into Clift several times while shooting interiors in Los Angeles. (Pelletier was on the Warner Bros lot for 10 days.) He remembers that when Clift arrived for makeup in the morning, he had a very intense, pop-eyed expression, and his eyes were totally bloodshot.

Pelletier (then 27) thought that Monty had a 'cool look'. After one excellent take, Pelletier whispered to Monty's acting coach Mira Rostova: "He's very good, isn't he?" Possibly misinterpreting the comment, Rostova said: "No, he's being very bad."

No doubt the Russian actress was referring to Monty's heavy drinking-and-drugging and kinky sex life off the set. Pelletier also recalls that Monty brought his legendary thermos to the set on several occasions. Hitchcock often looked at Monty and the thermos disapprovingly but never said anything.

Years later, Pelletier realized that the thermos contained a potent mixture of orange juice, vodka and crushed Demerol or amphetamines - whatever Monty needed to get through the day.

Ironically, it was Anne Baxter who was rebuked for heavy drinking - not Monty. Baxter arrived late on the set one morning - visibly intoxicated. In front of the cast and crew, Hitchcock told Baxter that if she didn't shape up, he'd reshoot all her scenes with another actress (even if it meant returning to Quebec City).

Baxter's life was in turmoil at the time. She was in the middle of a messy divorce from actor John Hodiak and perhaps unhappy with the turn her career had taken since her appearance in the classic All About Eve in 1950.

MONTY AND THE HITCHCOCK EXHIBITION

My correspondent Harvey Chartrand sent me these notes after visiting the Hitchcock exhibition in Montreal:

One gallery is devoted to I Confess. There are some wonderful wall-size images of Montgomery Clift and Anne Baxter on the Quebec-Levis ferry, scenes from the film playing on monitors, behind-the-scenes/publicity shots, movie posters. The Hitchcock show's run has now been extended.

Some trivia gleaned from the exhibition book tie-in: Clift was provided with a female administrative assistant (not Mira Rostova), possibly to quell rumours about his homosexuality. She kept him on a short leash after an unfortunate event. Clift's nighttime jaunts in Sault-aux-Matelots - Quebec City's harbour district - led to trouble on at least one occasion: after a night on the town, Clift appeared on the set with the left side of his face rather swollen (an eerie foreshadowing of his later disfigurement in the car crash).

Several of Clift's scenes in I Confess are therefore shot from his undamaged right profile (shades of Raintree County!). The night before, Clift was hanging out at a notorious sailor's bar in Lower Town and was presumably beaten up by a sailor on shore leave who rejected his advances. It's a wonder any of this didn't make the local papers.

News of Clift's 'double life' would have caused an enormous scandal. Today, one cannot imagine the dictatorial control that the Catholic Church exerted over Quebec 50 years ago. Perhaps the Church hushed up the story. Decades later, Catholics would realize the irony of Clift's being cast as a priest, since many priests are of course homosexual.

This 'open secret' made headlines after several scandals at seminaries and residential schools. It would seem that Clift's self-hatred was so overpowering that he subconsciously wanted his 'face of an angel' to be destroyed.

ZETA JONES TALKS ABOUT MONTY FILM

Catherine Zeta Jones has been talking about playing Elizabeth Taylor in the upcoming movie about Monty.

She says the only time she met Taylor was when she was a teenager and she is desperate to impress the screen legend.

She said: "We go way back. Just when Annie (the musical in which she starred) closed, I was about 12 and she was starring in The Little Foxes in the West End.

"My mother took me to the door at the Victoria Palace Theatre (London) to wait for her before a matinee. I bought her daffodils, the Welsh national flower - and I remember she was wearing big black sunglasses.

"I asked her to take them off - I wanted to see those famous lavender eyes - and she replied 'oh, it's too early for that, honey!'"

She added: "I don't think there's any reason in the world you can't have or do it all. Why not? I'm gonna give it a shot."

WES STILL GO ON MONTY PROJECT

Actor Wes Bentley is still go for the Monty film biography.

In an interview for the London Evening Standard, promoting his new film The Claim, the actor said he was committed to the project - which will hopefully go before the cameras this year.

I CONFESS TO BE DISCUSSED AT HITCHCOCK SHOW

The giant Alfred Hitchcock exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (which runs until March 18 before moving to Paris) shows in spellbinding detail the artistic influences on the great director's 53-film oeuvre.

The exhibit also features lectures and discussions, one of which will be of particular interest to fans of Montgomery Clift: Hitchcock in Quebec City: Recollections, Stories and Anecdotes about the Filming of I Confess is a special event planned for Sunday, February 25 (from 1pm to 5pm) in the MMFA's Maxwell Cummings Auditorium.

THE NAME LIVES ON...

The lead singer of British rock band Oasis, Liam Gallagher, says he would call his baby Montgomery Clift if he was a boy - according to the London Mirror newspaper (which I work for, shock horror).

The yobbish star recently divorced his wife, Patsy Kensit, and is now dating All Saints singer Nicole Appleton. At the weekend it was revealed she was pregnant with his child.

RED RIVER DOUBLE DIES

Actor Richard Farnsworth, who was Monty's stuntman and double in Red River, has died at his home in the US aged 80.

He had earned an Oscar nomination for his role in The Straight Story earlier this year. Police said he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

There is an interview about him and his role in Red River here

YOUNG LIONS WRITER DIES

The screenwriter Edward Anhalt, who wrote The Young Lions and who won two Academy Awards, has died in the USA. He was particularly noted for his adaptations of stage and literary works, among them Member of the Wedding, The Pride and the Passion, The Young Lions, The Boston Strangler and Luther.

The Young Lions (1958) was Anhalt's first solo script after his marriage had broken up, and he won praise for his adaptation of Irwin Shaw's novel which follows the effect of the Second World War on three disparate characters, a German officer (Marlon Brando) and two American soldiers (Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin). Variety called the film "a king-sized credit to all concerned". Anhalt was born in New York in March 1914, was five times married (one daughter) and died in Los Angeles on September 3.

HELP WITH I CONFESS STORY

A Canadian freelance writer is working on a story about I Confess, shot in Quebec City in 1952. He is attempting to locate people who were around during the shoot, and who would like to share their memories about the production, as well as observations about Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden and Alfred Hitchcock.

This writer has been published in several newspapers and film magazines, including The Globe and Mail, National Post, Filmfax, Outre and Cinefantastique.

Anyone who can provide credible, verifiable information about the circumstances surrounding the making of I Confess - either people who were there or who knew someone who was there - are asked to contact Harvey Chartrand, tel. (613) 688-5433 (office); fax (613) 688-1994; e-mail: hchartrand@ccpa.ca

WES FACING LOG-JAM

Wes Bentley's diary could hit filming of the Monty screen biography planned by the Newman/Tooley Films production company. The in-demand actor has been linked with several projects which could affect director Billy Hopkins' project - scripted by Michael Easton - which is due to start filming in the spring.

Wes is set to star as Spider-Man and in the new version of The Four Feathers but he has been ruled out of the new Anne Rice Vampire project. Showbiz news agencies suggest that the timetables of the various projects could force Bentley to dump one of the projects.

DAME LIZ SAYS YES

From the London Daily Telegraph: Swansea-born Catherine Zeta Jones plays Elizabeth Taylor? Sounds odd, but it seems Dame Liz thinks she would be perfect.

Taylor has okayed her in her role as consultant on a film of the life of Montgomery Clift. Key scenes will be Taylor's long friendship with Clift, with whom she starred in A Place in the Sun. Taylor, of course, has always loved the Welsh.

ZETA-JONES AS TAYLOR?

Catherine Zeta Jones could be in line to play Elizabeth Taylor in the new Monty biopic (see below).

The British actress starred in Zorro but is best known today as Michael Douglas's pregnant partner.

Wonderful Wade reported the news to the Monty listserve. Reaction so far has been overwhelmingly negative from members.

BENTLEY SIGNS TO PLAY MONTY

Wes Bentley, star of American Beauty, has signed on to play Montgomery Clift in the indie feature Monty.

Director Billy Hopkins (I Love You, I Love You Not) plans to start shooting next spring, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film Monty follows the actor's life from 1947, when his movie career began, until his death in 1966 and will centre on Clift's renowned decision to only work on projects that intrigued him, his refusal to get locked into any long-term picture deals and the demons that plagued his personal life.

Director Hopkins (who used to be a casting director), will have to find actors to portray other famous faces in the film, including Taylor, Brando and John Wayne.

Since bursting onto the scene in American Beauty, Bentley's wrapped two other films, Soul Survivors and Kingdom Come. Needing a break from "It Boy" status, Bentley recently dropped out of a starring role in the vampire film Queen of the Damned, which starts filming in August.

The project is currently being hawked around Cannes by Buena Vista Sales and producers Vincent Newman and Tucker Tooley.

MAGNUM ON THE MISFITS

A glossy new book on Monty's great movie The Misfits has been published with a wealth of photos from the celebrated Magnum photographic agency.

And while most of the pix concentrate on Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, the book gives us a great behind the scenes look at one of my favourite Monty movies. The book also features an essay by Serge Toubiana and an interview with screenwriter Arthur Miller.

To buy the book at a discount, click here

BURT SWINGS BOTH WAYS

Monty's co-star in From Here to Eternity, Burt Lancaster, allegedly swung both ways. He enjoyed a string of mistresses and attended a gay orgy with Rock Hudson and 250 US marines, according to surveillance records released by the FBI.

The agency regarded him as a dangerous liberal and tracked him constantly through his life. Agents also demanded to see out-takes from his memorable clinch in the surf with Deborah Kerr in FHTE, a scene that J Edgar Hoover, the FBI director, regarded as deeply immoral. The files were extracted from an FBI bunker in Virginia by Kate Bufford, author of Burt Lancaster - An American Life.

A 10-year investigation into Lancaster's sex life began in November 1955 when a New York informant reported seeing Lancaster at a gay party with a male friend, despite the first of three marriages. That was followed by similar sightings.

In January 1960, under the heading Hollywood Vice, there was a report of a joint police and military raid on the home of a "millionaire dillitante (sic) who frequents the Hollywood night spots and is a notorious homosexual.

At his mansion, surrounded by a high wire fence and guarded with a $10,000 electric alarm and shocking system, have been organised large-scale homosexual orgies at which guests were required to register their names and at which many of them were surreptitiously photographed", said the report from the FBI archive.

LOVE LETTER STOLEN

Former Andy Warhol superstar Taylor Mead, 75, allegedly had a Monty love letter stolen from him when he was attacked in New York on New Year's Eve.

According to the New York Post, the robber made off with a love letter from Montgomery Clift that Mead was carrying. "In it, Monty goes on about why he was dropping me because he was confused and kept changing his mind about [his position in the alleged relationship]," he says. Mead, actor, poet and artist, was the star of Lonesome Cowboys and hosts a weekly talk show on pseudo.com.