Why is George Cukor only, famously a "woman's director" when no one has gotten more Best Actor Oscar performances out of his male players than he did? As for his way with leading ladies, consider Katharine Hepburn, who might be said to owe her career to Cukor. The gay director gave the queer duck Hepburn her first movie role in A Bill of Divorcement, then cast her as Jo in Little Women, then as Sylvia Scarlett. Their last collaboration was 47 years after their first, when he directed her in The Corn Is Green for television. Cukor brilliantly paired her with Cary Grant in Holiday and The Philadelphia Story, and perfected the Hepburn - Tracy subgenre with Adam's Rib and Pat and Mike. According to William J. Mann's biography Kate, she was also indebted to Cukor for the way he perpetuated the fabled Hepburn - Tracy offscreen romance, which Mann says was fabricated to mask the never-married star's lesbian affairs. Cukor was much more open in his own gay pursuits, hosting weekly Sunday afternoon pool parties where Hollywood's brightest mingled with aspiring actors and rough trade. Depending which version you choose, Cukor's being fired from Gone with the Wind after two years of prep and three weeks of filming was either because Clark Gable refused to be directed by a "fairy" or because Gable was terrified Cukor knew about his own past gay relationships. Nevertheless, even after Victor Flemming took over, Cukor continued to coach Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland on their roles. Among his other great achievements are Dinner at Eight, David Copperfield, Camille, Romeo and Juliet, The Women, Gaslight, Born Yesterday, A Star Is Born, It Should Happen to You, Travels with my Aunt and My Fair Lady, for which he finally won an Oscar. He died at 83, two years after directing Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bisset in Rich and Famous.
Ah, old Hollywood. And the scuttlebutt behind Cukor's dismissal from GWTW. The version I choose to believe also comes via Bill Mann, from his 'Wisecracker' bio of actor/interior designer William Haines: Some queen friends of both Cukor and Haines were visiting the film's set and perhaps unwisely and maybe at too high a volume (near dear Mister Gable) said, "Oh, look. Georgie's directing one of Billy's old tricks." Cukor departed not long afterwards. (And I LOVE that he was replaced by the director of 'The Wizard of Oz.') I walked past Cukor's former home once when visiting a friend in Los Angeles, but, sadly, the only examples of new Hollywood's brightest I saw were Cheryl Tiegs (jogging) and Dyan Cannon (the former Mrs. Cary Grant was driving.)
Posted by: Sandy | July 07, 2011 at 11:58 AM