Winter winds are blowing, hearts are glowing, and
almost every store is stocked with candy and flowers. This can only mean one
thing; that equal parts anticipated and dreaded holiday, Valentine’s Day, is
just around the corner. In recognition of this celebration of all things
romantic I’ll be highlighting three couples who sizzled just as much off-screen
as on. Submit your favorite on and off-screen couples in the comments!
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| Sometimes even Garbo didn't want to be alone |
Greta
Garbo and John Gilbert: This silent screen duo proved that
romance truly transcends words. The two first met on the set of the 1926
romantic drama Flesh and the Devil,
in which Hollywood newcomer Garbo portrayed the wanton woman who comes between
Gilbert’s smitten soldier and his best friend. The pair quickly embarked upon a
tumultuous affair, which was reportedly so passionate that during filming of Flesh and the Devil director Clarence
Brown and his crew would tiptoe off the set while the two leads continued their
love scenes long after Brown called, ‘cut’. Initially, their relationship
enhanced both stars’ personal and professional lives with Gilbert drawing the
notoriously reclusive Garbo out of her shell and Garbo bringing stability to
the volatile Gilbert, while their pairing proved to be box office gold. The duo
went on to star in two more silent dramas, the modern update of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Love (1927), and the
controversial (due to its thinly veiled references to homosexuality, addiction,
and unplanned pregnancy) flapper tale A
Woman of Affairs (1927). Tensions arose as he became frustrated by her
refusal to accept his many marriage proposals and she became alienated by his
increased drinking. Eventually, the pair went their separate ways when she left
him at the altar after his drinking had begun to turn violent. Despite their
less than amicable break-up, however, they did reunite for one final screen
pairing in the 1933 historical drama Queen
Christina ,in which Garbo played the Swedish monarch and Gilbert portrayed
the Spanish ambassador for whom she abdicates her throne. By this time, her
star had continued to rise, while his career was all but over after MGM
executives used the transition to sound as an excuse to blacklist any stars
they deemed troublesome. The blow to his career, combined with a crumbling
personal life (including a bitter break up with Garbo’s rival Marlene
Dietrich), proved devastating to Gilbert and led him to spiral even further
into alcoholism. Despite their complicated past and his status as a studio
liability, however, Garbo never forgot the ways in which Gilbert had helped
launch her career and specifically requested that he be cast as her leading
man. The sparks flew on screen (though Garbo remained aloof off screen) once
again and their chemistry ensured that the film became one of her most
critically acclaimed hits. Studio politics and addiction continued to plague
Gilbert, however, and his career failed to revive. Shortly before his death
three years later from a heart attack he was reported to have said of Garbo,
“There’s never been a day since she and I parted that I haven’t been lonely for
her”. Classic films fans remain just as lonely today for the pair’s timeless
chemistry.
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| Insolence never looked so sexy |
Humphrey
Bogart and Lauren Bacall: “Anybody got a match?” was Lauren
Bacall’s first line in her debut film To
Have and Have Not, and there may be no on-screen match as smart and sexy as
that of Bacall and her co-star and eventual husband Humphrey Bogart. The pair
first met on the set of To Have and Have
Not (1944) when nineteen year old Bacall was still adjusting to life in
Hollywood and Bogart was struggling with his failing third marriage to actress
May Methot. When they were first introduced Bacall was unimpressed with the
forty-five year old star and requested that the studio cast her opposite the more
conventionally suave Cary Grant instead. When filming began, however, Bogart
did his best to put his inexperienced and understandably anxious co-star at
ease and the two developed a friendship. Before shooting wrapped, that
friendship had developed into a passionate affair that would go down in cinema
history. The film was an instant success that left audiences wanting more of
the duo’s no nonsense sex appeal, and led to Bacall being cast opposite
Bogart’s cynical detective in The Big
Sleep (1947). Despite the disapproval of her family, his marriage, and the
efforts of director Howard Hawks (who had vied to start an affair of his own
with the uninterested Bacall) to break them up, the pair remained devoted to
one another and married in 1945. They went on to star in two more films
together, the suspense thriller Dark
Passage (1947) in which Bogart’s fugitive from justice finds love with
Bacall’s lonely designer, and the gangster classic Key Largo (1948) in which the pair are held hostage by and
eventually turn the tables on a ruthless mob boss. The couple remained married
for twelve years and had two children together. Tragedy shattered their
seemingly idyllic life together when Bogart was diagnosed with cancer in 1956
and died one year later. When his ashes were buried Bacall had the gold whistle
he had given her when shooting wrapped on To
Have and Have Not, inscribed with the film’s famous line, “If you need
anything just whistle”, put inside the urn. Despite eventually remarrying and
pursuing other relationships in the years following Bogart’s death, Bacall
always maintained that she had never met another man or acting partner who
could measure up to him, and to this day it would be difficult to find an on-screen
pair who could measure up to Bogart and Bacall.
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| The couple that laughs together.... |
Paul
Newman and Joanne Woodward: Fifty years of marriage
is impressive, but fifty years of marriage in Hollywood must be an all-time
record. Hollywood legends Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward made marriage look
every bit as glamorous as a movie romance in one of cinema’s most enduring love
stories. The pair first met in 1953 when Newman starred in the sexually charged
play Picnic on Broadway and Woodward
was cast as understudy to the lead actress. While there was an immediate
attraction between them, he was already married and their relationship remained
strictly platonic throughout the production. They remained friends, but did not
work together again until four years later when they were cast opposite one
another in the sultry romance The Long
Hot Summer, in which Newman’s charismatic drifter wins the heart of Woodward’s
head-strong southern beauty. By that time, he had divorced his first wife and
the sparks were free to fly as they embarked upon a whirlwind romance that
culminated in their marriage the next year. Rather than continue to live in the
Hollywood fast lane, they made their home in a Connecticut farmhouse and became
involved in the local community, including restoring the Westport Playhouse,
which Woodward remained artistic director of until 2009. Even after the births
of their three daughters the couple continued to work together and starred in a
total of ten films together, with Woodward starring in an additional five films
that Newman directed. While they admitted that working together could be
difficult, they credited relying upon humor and mutual respect to work through
their differences. When sex-symbol Newman was asked how he was able to remain
faithful in the notoriously racy industry he famously said, “Why fool around
with hamburger when you have steak at home”. When asked what the secret to her
lasting marriage was Woodward replied, “Sexiness wears thin after a while and
beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, oh, now
that’s a treat”. In 2008 their marriage reached a tragic end when Newman died
at age eighty-three, three months after announcing that he had been diagnosed
with lung cancer. After fifteen film collaborations and fifty years of marriage
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward left a lasting legacy that extended far beyond
the confines of the screen.
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