Critical Focus | Shining the Spotlight on Movie Microbes
THE MICROSCOPE
2013, Volume 61:2, pp. 63–73
DOI
https://doi.org/10.59082/JRWJ9483
AUTHOR
Brian J. Ford
EXCERPT
“Marilyn Monroe was a confused, sweet angel,” said our visitor, as the sun sparkled on his crystal glass of orange juice. “And Cary — did you know he was born in Britain? Cary Grant was so muddled in his mind. He and I became such good friends. Archibald Leach, he was called originally. Poor chap ran away to become a performer when his mother was locked up in a mental institution in Bristol and nobody told him about it. It’s strange what makes people into movie stars.” My dear friend Charles Bennett had been born in 1899, and stayed with us in Cambridgeshire when he was 94. He was Alfred Hitchcock’s first scriptwriter and lived next to Mel Tormé in Beverly Hills. I remember Charles’s desk at his home cluttered with portrait photos and résumés for would-be actors, each eager for fame. “What makes people into movie stars?” mused Charles. “Nobody knows. That would make such an interesting piece of scientific research.”