best film: Red River is an all-time great western and all-time great Howard Hawks film so that’s enough in it of itself. However, I also think it’s an all-time great and landmark film as far as film acting goes. It’s Clift’s debut (landmark in it of itself) which means it’s really an important film for a new school of acting—less stagey, more natural— method. Clift (some would argue John Garfield) was really the first of a new school (notably Marlon Brando and James Dean) that differed from their predecessors (Gable, Bogart, Cagney—- Wayne). If you have that in comparison with an all-time John Wayne (old school even in 1948) Hollywood actor performance and it’s one for the ages.
best performance: Red River. Clift’s Matt Garth is sensitive and in many ways couldn’t be more different than John Wayne’s Thomas Dunson. He’s softer and it’s a massive testament to Clift as an actor that Wayne’s performance doesn’t swallow him up whole because Dunson is a whirlwind. Clift is just about equal to his work here in his top four performances below but with the acting on display dueling with Wayne, Hawks’ behind the camera, and what this film means for the genre- this is Clift’s best work.
stylistic innovations/traits: 18 IMDB credits and dead at 45. Montgomery Clift was a revelation from 1948-1956 when he had a massive car accident (apparently Liz Taylor- his friend- saved his life) and had to have his face rebuilt. Some commented that his life from 1956-1966 was a 10 year suicide attempt. He still acted a few times in those 10 years but it wasn’t the same. Clift is the actor most often cited with a changing of the guard in cinema acting and I think rightly so. His natural approach influenced (and pre-dated) Marlon Brando and Brando changed everything. James Dean admitted his admiration for Clift openly. There are great pleasures to take from the quiet moments in a Montgomery Clift performance. It’s a miracle of acting that he’s somewhat sympathetic in A Place in the Sun, I Confess is just now getting it’s due for the monster of a performance that it is and of course Red River–.
directors worked with: Fred Zinneman (2) was the only director more than once—but ten you have Hawks, Wyler, George Stevens Hitchcock, John Huston and Kazan
Top 5 Performances:
- Red River
- A Place in the Sun
- I Confess
- From Here To Eternity
- Wild River
Archiveable films
| 1948- Red River |
| 1948- The Search |
| 1949- The Heiress |
| 1951- A Place in the Sun |
| 1953- From Here To Eternity |
| 1953- I Confess |
| 1958- Lonelyhearts |
| 1958- The Young Lions |
| 1959- Suddenly Last Summer |
| 1960- Wild River |
| 1961- The Misfits |
Montgomery Clift was nearly in the following.
Sunset boulevard (William Holden)
East of eden (James Dean)
High Noon (Gary Cooper)
A Star is born (James Mason)
Rope (John Dall)
Rio Bravo (Dean Martin)
Shane (Alan Ladd)
He would have (on paper) easily been the best actor of the 50s if accepted two or three of these films) even over Brando (who was almost in plenty of other classic movies himself)
Clift in Sunset Boulevard would have been interesting to say the least But I think he would have done an amazing Job.
this would be interesting for directors and movies.
Would day in the country be a masterpiece if the whole film was found. What about all the silent films lost to time?
Would Kubrick’s Napolean be the greatest movie of all time?
How would the godfather have turned out if Peter Yates, Peter Bogdanvich, Richard Brooks, Arthur Penn, Costa-Gavras, or Otto Preminger. directed it? They were all approached to direct the movie. (Coppola wasn’t 1st choice)
How would AI have turned out if Kubrick directed it instead of Spielberg?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Spielberg%27s_unrealized_projects Would these movies have been great if Spielberg directed them.
Speculating is hard-haha.
There are other two directors who worked with Montgomery Clift twice, and not only Fred Zinemann:
Edward Dmytryk: Raintree County, The Young Lions
John Huston: The Misfits, Freud.
For me his best performances are From Here to Eternity, A place in the sun, I confess, and his small role in Judgment at Nuremberg.
He was the most genuine actor or his generation and the first one to defy the Hollywood’s studio system. My big respect and absolute recognition to this amazing actor and complex human being.
@Jose Luis— thanks for visiting the site and the comment here. I only count archiveable films– so Freud and Raintree Country aren’t counted.
this guy’s amazing. just watched red river and i think his performance might be better than the dukes. i think clift is as good as brando, even if he doesn’t have a performance like the godfather (sadly died too young.)
@m – happy to hear the praise of Clift here. He gets forgotten too often between Brando and James Dean.