Trivia
A collection of offbeat facts about the great man. If you have
any you want to add, please e-mail me with the details and
sources at f4monty@aol.com
In Lasse Halstrom's 1993 movie What's Eating Gilbert Grape, starring Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and Juliette Lewis, the Grape family is enjoying a family evening in front of the television watching Indescretion of an American Wife. (Thanks to Stephanie)
When he was casting Rope, the dramatisation of the Leopold and Loeb murder case, Alfred Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant to play the teacher and Montgomery Clift one of the gay killers. They both chose not to take him up on his offer and Hitch reportedly said: "Well, they can't afford to because of their lives."
Irish film watchdogs insisted on cuts to I Confess and Warner Bros obliged by slicing 423 feet from Alfred Hitchcock's film prior to its submission in 1954 to censors. The cuts had been designed to suppress the love by Ruth (Anne Baxter) for Fr Michael Logan (Clift) both before and after her marriage. Unsatisfied, the censors demanded further cuts to the film. Ireland is notoriously catholic.
In The X Files, Mulder is watching a movie while packing for a trip to England in the season seven episode All Things written and directed by Gillian Anderson. The movie that he is watching was chosen for the line "you're breaking my heart" which Gillian specifically requested in her script. The movie that was used is Indiscretion of an American Wife.
Both
The Clash and REM wrote songs about Monty. The Right Profile is
a track on The Clash album London Calling while REM's Monty Got
a Raw Deal is on Automatic for the People.
Monty
famously rejected the role eventually played by William Holden
in Sunset Boulevard. He rejected many other parts including Bus
Stop (the Don Murray role), Moby Dick (Gregory Peck), Trapeze
(Tony Curtis), Shane (Alan Ladd), A Star is Born (James Mason),
On the Waterfront (Marlon Brando), Mrs Miniver (Richard Ney),
Rio Bravo (Dean Martin) and East of Eden (James Dean).
Monty
and Marlon Brando were often touted as rivals during the 50s
- both were born in Omaha, Nebraska.
Monty
bought an option on the screen rights to You Touched Me! - the
last play he performed on Broadway before going to Hollywood. He
worked on a screenplay with his friend Kevin McCarthy but it was
never produced.
Monty
was considered for other roles but not offered them, including
High Noon (Gary Cooper), The Greatest Story Ever Told (Max von
Sydow) and The Red Badge of Courage (Audie Murphy).
A rock
band calling themselves The Montgomery Clifts released an album
in Britain in 1991.
Monty's
niece was convicted of manslaughter after killing the father of
their child when he refused to marry her. She had given herself
up to police shortly after the incident in 1962 and was later
put on probation and treated at a mental hospital.
"He was always interested in people and he had a dedication, a
fierce concentration to his work."
Brooks Clift
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