She was the Angelina Jolie of her generation – surreally alluring and possessing an awe-inspiring figure and the kind of face onto which men could superimpose their most pressing desires.
Sadly, though, onscreen there was something missing from her exquisite eyes.
When talking shop, actors frequently reference what happens “behind the eyes.” But there was always something mechanical in Novak’s eyes. As if she was working out her characters on screen.
The Kim Novak Collection Includes Five Films, Many Extras
Still, Novak’s performances were credible enough to keep her a top box office draw for years. The Sony Pictures Home Entertainment three-disc box set includes five Novak titles from the Columbia Pictures library. It is a hit-and-miss collection.
The set includes telling commentaries and conversations between Novak and film writer Stephen Rebello. But, perhaps not so strangely, nowhere in the four featurettes do we see a close up of Novak today.
Instead, we see a lot of rare, vintage stills. And in mostly wide shots, we see Novak driving Rebello around her Oregon ranch, painting at an easel (she is a lifelong artist) and fielding (off camera) her guest’s intelligent, informed but sometimes fawning questions.
Still, it’s fascinating to hear Novak describe the differences between the Sinatra she dated and Sinatra the co-star; her earnest struggles to get into character; plus keen observations and various backstage tales.
Picnic (1955)
“Oh mom,” says a wistful Kim Novak as Madge in this look at small town life, “what good is it just to be pretty?” It’s easy to see why Novak identified so closely with the small town beauty she plays in screenwriter Daniel Taradash’s adaptation of William Inge’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
The picture holds up pretty well. Novak was born to be Madge, and the overall cast is spot on. They include co-star William Holden in the central role of a womanizing drifter, plus Rosalind Russell as the town spinster desperate to marry aging bachelor Arthur O’Connell and a callow Cliff Robertson in his movie debut as the town’s rich kid and Holden’s rival for Madge’s affections.
Some moments are cringefests of overwrought symbolism -- like when Madge’s mother and Holden literally yank her in different directions.
Otherwise, Josh Logan’s direction is sure-handed and cinematographer James Wong Howe’s use of color is spectacular.
Jeanne Eagels (1957)
Very little of this film works. Novak gives it her best shot in the fictionalized story of the troubled superstar actress of the 1920s. But she just isn’t up to the role. Novak’s line readings consistently ring false and often she seems like a novice Thespian bent on Emoting.
The drunken tantrum scenes are especially wince-inducing.
Jeff Chandler, maybe the strangest-looking leading man of the '50s, plays Eagels’ main love interest. Offscreen, he and Novak were good friends. But in the movie, theirs is a tempestuous relationship and sadly, while Chandler leaves her repeatedly, he keeps showing up in the next scene.
After a while you want to scream, “Just leave already!”
Agnes Moorehead is wasted in a thankless supporting role. Indeed, the best performance is turned in by Virginia Grey as a washed-up actress turned playwright cruelly betrayed by Eagels.
George Sidney, who directed Novak in this and two other pictures, never seems to get Novak past the scenery-chewing stage. He had more luck with that same year, in…
Pal Joey (1957)
Ring a ding ding!
This one’s Frank’s show; Kim and Rita Hayworth just live in it.
This nearly total re-do of the 1940 Broadway hit is about a singing cad torn between a rich, gorgeous “mature” widow (Hayworth) who can set him up in his dream nightclub, and a gorgeous “young, innocent” chorus girl (Novak) still years away from cynicism.
Many scenes were shot on location in San Francisco (switched from the play’s Chicago) and the city has never looked more beautiful, especially in color.
Speaking of color, designer Jean Louis’ tight, blazingly bright colored dresses practically light up Novak’s knockout figure; she rarely has looked sexier.
But Novak’s ingenue is undeveloped and in the commentary, she admits, “There wasn’t much to do in that role.” Except, of course, to look pretty.
Ring a ding ding.
Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
This one wants to be a charming modern fable about lonely young Manhattan witch Gillian (Novak), who conjures a love spell on a mature man (James Stewart) she admires from afar. But the film just doesn’t work, despite a fine cast including Jack Lemmon as her wacky, bongo drum-playing warlock brother, plus Elsa Lanchester, Ernie Kovacs and the underrated Janice Rule.
Maybe it’s the generation-straddling story placing Novak in Greenwich Village beatnik hangouts while she enchants the silver-haired Jimmy Stewart.
According to Stewart’s biographer, the actor “had utterly no interest in the film,” but made it simply to fulfill Novak’s loan-out deal to Universal that year for the genuine classic Vertigo. (Marc Eliot, Jimmy Stewart: A Biography, Harmony Books, New York, 2006, p. 323)
Middle of the Night (1959)
Paddy Chayefsky based his script on his own Broadway play, and it’s the main reason this film has so much going for it.
Fredric March co-stars with Novak in this moody May-September story of a 56-year-old clothing manufacturer and widower who, to his own astonishment, finds love with his 24-year-old secretary.
The sensitive, low-key script introduces many familiar types and there’s really nothing terribly original here. But the execution makes the black-and-white Middle of the Night a noirish delight and the surprise of the set.
Director Delbert Mann deserves much of the credit for making this slice of New York life work so well.
As a shy, jittery, self-conscious divorcee, Novak is cast thankfully against type -- and she’s quite effective. The excellent supporting cast includes veterans Albert Dekker and Glenda Farrell plus (in 1959) relative newcomers Martin Balsam, Lee Grant and Lee Philips.
***
Jeanne Eagels and Middle of the Night make their DVD debuts in The Kim Novak Collection, which features beautifully restored prints. It’s available Aug. 3 at a suggested list price of $39.95.
Barry M. Grey - Barry M. Grey is a non-fiction TV writer-producer in Los Angeles whose love of classic film borders on the dangerously obsessive.
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