Teresa Wright

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Star of Shadow of a Doubt, The Best Years of Our Lives and other films I leave for you to name, has passed away at the age of 86. Please post your appreciations on this thread.

Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 01:31 (twenty years ago)

RIP

she was absolutely amazing

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

Hitchcock used her wholesomeness brilliantly (when she tells Cotten "I'll kill you myself" and isn't laughable). All her other perfs that I've seen were either just The Girl (ie, the no-resemblance-to-life Gehrig film) or have evaporated from my mind.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

The truth be told I don't remember much about her roles other than in the two films I mentioned in the thread question, but her portrayal of Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt - she loves her uncle best (her mother only sees him through nostalgia-tinted glasses) so she is the one to learn his secret, therefore she must die- is just about perfect.

Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

She was in one hell of a lot of good films.

Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 16:24 (twenty years ago)

And fraudulent crap like Mrs. Miniver, but that wasn't her fault.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

Greer Garson is kind of a dealbreaker for me, movie-selection-wise.

Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

she's quite amazing in the best years of our lives. she really had something; a real intelligence that came through, a self-containment. that added complexity to sometimes simply-written or -conceived characters she played.

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

a wonderful actress, and the two films she's most famous for are two of the best films ever. i've been meaning to watch "shadow of a doubt" again, it might be my favorite hitchcock.

J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 10 March 2005 06:14 (twenty years ago)

yeah, I think "Shadow of a Doubt" is one of the two-three best Hitchcock films, right below "Vertigo," "39 Steps" and I guess "Rear Window." She *was* perfect in that role, and I like the way Hitch used her to actually affirm good ol' American values at the same time she was seduced by Uncle Charlie, and the nifty way the film becomes something more than just another "on the road to discovering evil in your own backyard" thing. She was sure beautiful in that film too. I have a lot of respect for her, she's up there with Barbara Stanwyck in my pantheon of great Hollywood actresses...

edd s hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 10 March 2005 18:22 (twenty years ago)

you have good taste.

barbara stanwyck = most *rawr* individual ever

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 10 March 2005 20:16 (twenty years ago)

i don't think this will embed, but please let's talk about this canonical deep-focus shot featuring ms teresa wright: http://www.geocities.com/aaronbcaldwell/BestYears10.jpg

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 10 March 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)

OTM on Stanwyck, Amateurist. I just read a Douglas Sirk interview w/James Monaco in which he said of her, "There's not a single fradulent note in her performances. Every gesture is true."

My favorite Wright moment is in "The Best Years of our Lives." She and Dana Andrews are very touching; and I love how subtly she and mom Myrna Loy suggest that they don't recognize (or empathize) their father/husband anymore, even while smiling and genuinely loving him.

Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 11 March 2005 00:34 (twenty years ago)

http://www.rouge.com.au/images/5/jones.jpg

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 24 March 2005 23:17 (twenty years ago)

Amateurist, did Toland shoot BYooL?

M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 24 March 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

yes

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 24 March 2005 23:27 (twenty years ago)

Hitch, that perv, lost no opportunity to shoot Teresa Wright walking in "Shadow." It's one good walk, too. I just saw this again a few days ago and now think it's definitely the third-best Hitchcock film. "Vertigo" being the obvious #1, "39 Steps" (being the in my opinion truly emblematic Hitch film) #2. Below that, "North by Northwest," "Psycho," "Rear Window," and "The Birds." And "Shadow" is the greatest Joseph Cotten performance, better than even "Citizen Kane," "Ambersons" or "Third Man." Hitch always knew how to get 'em playing against type...

Yeah, I think Stanwyck is the greatest Hollywood film actress ever, there's really no competition. Bette Davis? Hepburn? I've never seen her be less than compelling in anything, and she's totally convincing in the flawed-but-fun "Ball of Fire," which was also photographed by the great Gregg Tolan. Sexy, intelligent...perfection. In my opinion, Laura Linney kinda has that same aura these days.

edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 25 March 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

Gregg TolanD.

edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 25 March 2005 17:11 (twenty years ago)

I don't find Laura Linney sexy in the least, except okay fine in "Love, Actually." But she seems smart.

My favorite Hitchcock film, strangely, is "The Lady Vanishes." That has nothing to do with Teresa Wright, though.

The Obligatory Sourpuss (Begs2Differ), Friday, 25 March 2005 17:16 (twenty years ago)

i vaguely dislike laura linney (in films).

stanwyck is incredible. i especially like her in "the bitter tea of general yen" and "stella dallas." also (i've written this a zillion times), she is unutterably gorgeous.

anyway, back to teresa wright:

Film critic James Agee even singled out Wright's performance as particularly noteworthy in his review of THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES for The Nation (December 28, 1946): "I cannot ... resist speaking briefly ... of Teresa Wright. Like Frances Dee, she has always been one of the very few women in movies who really had a face. Like Miss Dee, she has also always used this translucent face with delicate and exciting talent as an actress, and with something of a novelist's perceptiveness behind the talent. And like Miss Dee, she has never been around nearly enough. This new performance of hers, entirely lacking in big scenes, tricks, or obstreperousness -- one can hardly think of it as acting -- seems to me one of the wisest and most beautiful pieces of work I have seen in years. If the picture had none of the hundreds of other things it has to recommend it, I could watch it a dozen times over for that personality and its mastery alone."

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 25 March 2005 18:26 (twenty years ago)

Hitch, that perv, lost no opportunity to shoot Teresa Wright walking in "Shadow."
Doesn't Truffaut comment on this in Truffaut/Hitchcock? "She has a very nice shape," or something like that.

Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 25 March 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

ah yes, hitchcock and truffaut, those two exemplars of feminist consciousness

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 25 March 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

anyway, it's so obvious that james agee had a big ol' crush on teresa wright, and i think that's awesome

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 25 March 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

p.s. you all must read this: http://www.reelclassics.com/Actresses/Teresa/teresa-article18.htm

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 25 March 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

xxpost:
Indeed. In fact, now I'm thinking what Truffaut said was more or less exactly what edd s hurt said, "she has a very nice walk."

Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 25 March 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

Goldwyn wanted to give Wright the usual fanfare, but listen to the then-infamous clause 39 she had placed in her contract: "The aforementioned Teresa Wright shall not be required to pose for photographs unless she is in the water. Neither may she be photographed on the beach with her hair flying in the wind. Nor may she pose in any of the following situations: In shorts, playing with a cocker spaniel; digging in a garden; whipping up a meal; attired in firecrackers and holding skyrockets for the Fourth of July; looking insinuatingly at a turkey for Thanksgiving; wearing a bunny cap with long ears for Easter; twinkling on prop snow in a skiing outfit while a fan blows her scarf; assuming an athletic stance while preparing to hit something with a bow and arrow...."

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 25 March 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

"Often, when others play virtuous people, we're dying for the shattering blow to fall and make them interesting. This actress changed that"
That piece was great. Thanks, Amateurist.

Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 25 March 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

thirteen years pass...

after seeing Shadow of a Doubt for the first time last fall I haven't gotten Teresa Wright out of my mind... I watched The Best Years of Our Lives recently and Pursued tonight - former obviously classic, latter is really strange, she's great in it, but too much Mitchum... anyway I found this episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour that was she was on in the early 60s. it was startlingly to see her nearly 20 years older. i started crying when she said good morning to the squirrel http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5z01em

flappy bird, Sunday, 1 April 2018 05:07 (seven years ago)

two months pass...

Teresa Wright is in the final shot of Abbas Kiarostami's final film, 24 Frames, via the final shot from The Best Years of Our Lives.

flappy bird, Wednesday, 27 June 2018 05:47 (seven years ago)

four years pass...

Just saw her and Robert Mitchum in Raoul Walsh’s The Pursued, written by her husband at the time, Niven Busch, and similar in tone to another script of his for The Furies, which also featured Judith Anderson. Fantastic. You can watch on Plex, seems to be a German print via ZDF.

after the pinefox (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 19 February 2023 03:22 (two years ago)

SPÄTE RACHE is the German title. Which literally means Late or Belated Revenge.

after the pinefox (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 19 February 2023 03:39 (two years ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.