Love with The Proper Actress: Natalie Wood

was her own technique clashing with the "Dead Zone" acting style of co-star Christopher Walken, or perhaps it was that her character had nothing significant to do until the final moments of the film, but Wood looks distinctly uncomfortable throughout. To make things worse, she had not finished filming her part before she died, so the finished product probably makes less sense than it might have otherwise.

Natalie Wood may have never had that one perfect film to define her, the way Bogart had CASABLANCA or Judy Garland had A STAR IS BORN. Some of her films, based on topical themes, have badly dated. Other films featured performances by others (Rosiland Russell, Rita Moreno, Dyan Cannon and especially James Dean) that pushed her own work into the background. She didn't have that dynamic indefinable something that makes for a career-defining film. She could act, sing, dance and do light comedy, but she couldn't grab a film and run with it the way a Bette Davis or a Vivien Leigh could.

Still, Natalie Wood remains a beloved actress, one who left us long before she should have. We should forgive her for the bad films, or the occasional inadequate performance. We should remember her best moments - as the engaging little girl in GYPSY who sang "Little Lamb" to her pet lamb and her stuffed toys, and as the confused, cynical young woman of LOVE WITH A PROPER STRANGER, who struggled with society's concepts of love and marriage. And, of course, as the adorable child who learned from the man himself that, yes, there is a Santa Claus.

NOTABLE FILMS AND TELEVISION APPEARANCES:

Miracle on 34th Street* (1947); The Ghost and Mrs. Muir* (1947); Pride of the Family (1953-54 – TV Series); Rebel Without a Cause (1955); The Searchers (1956); Marjorie Morningstar (1958); Splendor in the Grass (1961); West Side Story (1961); Gypsy (1962); Love with The Proper Stranger* (1963); The Great Race (1965); Inside Daisy Clover (1965); Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (1969); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976 – TV); From Here to Eternity (1979 – TV); The Cracker Factory (1979 – TV)

(*) denotes black and white film

The Natalie Wood Scrapbook is a beautiful fan page that can be found at http://www.geocities.com/nataliewoodscra...

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