Farley Granger - Leading Roles

Leading Roles

Granger's next two films for Goldwyn, Edge of Doom and Our Very Own, were unpleasant working experiences, and the actor refused to allow the producer to loan him to Universal Pictures for an inferior magic carpet saga. When he was placed on suspension, he decided to accompany Ethyl Chaplin, who had separated from her husband, and her daughter on a trip to Paris. At the last moment they were joined by Arthur Laurents, who remained behind when the group departed for London to see the opening of the New York City Ballet, which had been choreographed by Jerome Robbins. He and Granger engaged in a casual affair until the actor was summoned to return to New York to help publicize Our Very Own and Edge of Doom, both of which received dreadful reviews. Goldwyn cancelled the nationwide openings of the latter, hoping to salvage it by adding wraparound scenes that would change the focus of the film, and Granger refused to promote it any further. Once again placed on suspension, he departed for Europe, where he spent time in Italy, Austria and Germany with Laurents before being contacted about an upcoming film by Alfred Hitchcock.

The project was Strangers on a Train, in which Granger was cast as amateur tennis player and aspiring politician Guy Haines. He is introduced to psychopathic Bruno Anthony, portrayed by Robert Walker, who suggests they swap murders, with Bruno killing Guy's wife and Guy disposing of Bruno's father. As with Rope, there was a homosexual subtext to the two men's relationship, although it was toned down from Patricia Highsmith's original novel. Granger and Walker, whose wife Jennifer Jones had recently left him for David O. Selznick, became close friends and confidantes during filming, and Granger was devastated when Walker died from an accidental combination of alcohol and barbiturates prior to the film's release. It proved to be a box office hit, the first major success of Granger's career, and his "happiest filmmaking experience."

On December 31, 1950, Granger picked up close friend Shelley Winters to escort her to Sam Spiegel's traditional New Year's Eve gala. The actress kept him waiting for nearly two hours, and they argued while en route to the party. Once there, they went their separate ways, and Granger met Ava Gardner. The two left to hear Nat King Cole perform at a nearby nightclub and then went to Granger's home, where they began an intense affair that lasted until Gardner began filming Show Boat a month later.

Having reconciled, Granger and Winters went to New York City, where they audited classes at the Actors' Studio and the Neighborhood Playhouse. Winters subscribed to the concept of method acting, but Granger felt an actor "had to be faithful to the text, not adapt it to some personal sense memory," and their disagreement triggered more arguments. Their plan to pursue individual training programs was disrupted when both were called back to Hollywood. Goldwyn cast Granger in I Want You, a drama about the effect the Korean War has on an American family still trying to recover from World War II. Granger thought the screenplay by Irwin Shaw was "not only dull, but felt dated," but welcomed the opportunity to work with Dana Andrews and Dorothy McGuire. Goldwyn expected the film to be as successful as The Best Years of Our Lives, but it proved to be as "tepid and old-fashioned" as Granger feared and, opening after cease-fire negotiations with Korea had begun, no longer topical, and it died at the box office. His subsequent projects – an inconsequential screwball comedy with Winters called Behave Yourself, the Gift of the Magi segment of the anthology film O. Henry's Full House, and the musical film Hans Christian Andersen – were no more successful.

Anxious to work with Vincente Minnelli, Granger willingly accepted a role opposite Leslie Caron and Ethel Barrymore in Mademoiselle, one of three segments in the 1953 MGM film The Story of Three Loves. The film's producer, Gottfried Reinhardt, also directed the other two segments, and he mercilessly edited Mademoiselle in order to give his stories more screen time. Unhappy with the direction his career was taking, Granger sought solace with Shelley Winters, who was separated from Vittorio Gassman, and the two friends resumed their love affair, which at one point nearly had culminated in marriage. Their relationship was complicated, but Granger felt "it works for us."

Granger's next project was Small Town Girl, a musical with Jane Powell, Ann Miller and Bobby Van. Upon its completion, he bought his release from Goldwyn, a costly decision that left him with serious financial difficulties. Granger was determined to move to Manhattan to study acting and perform on stage, but his agent convinced him to accept a role in Senso, directed by Luchino Visconti and co-starring Alida Valli. Filming in Italy lasted nine months, although Granger frequently was idle during this period, allowing him free time to explore Italy and even spend a long weekend in Paris, where he had a brief affair with Jean Marais. During his time in Venice, Granger renewed his friendship with Peggy Guggenheim, whom he had met during his earlier trip to Italy with Arthur Laurents, and he met Mike Todd, who cajoled him into making a cameo appearance as a gondolier in his epic Around the World in 80 Days. He finally returned to Hollywood exhausted but happy about the experience.

Upon his return to the States, Darryl F. Zanuck offered Granger a two-picture deal, and in quick succession he made The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, in which he portrayed tycoon Harry Kendall Thaw, and The Naked Street, a melodrama the actor thought was "preachy, trite and pedestrian," although he welcomed the opportunity to work with Anthony Quinn and Anne Bancroft.

In 1955, Granger moved to New York and began studying with Bob Fosse, Gloria Vanderbilt, James Kirkwood and Tom Tryon in a class taught by Sandy Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. During this period he made his Broadway debut in The Carefree Tree, a play with music based on an old Chinese legend. The cast included Janice Rule as Granger's love interest and Alvin Ailey, Frances Sternhagen, Jerry Stiller and Sada Thompson in supporting roles. The play closed after only 24 performances, but shortly after its demise Rule moved in with Granger, and before long they were making wedding plans. They gradually realized the love their characters had felt on stage actually had not carried over into real life, and the two went their separate ways, although they remained friends until her death in 2003.

With both his film and theatrical career foundering, Granger turned to television. He starred in Beyond This Place, an adaptation of the A.J. Cronin novel of the same title, with Shelley Winters and Peggy Ann Garner, and joined Julie Harris for a remake of The Heiress. He also was featured in episodes of Climax Mystery Theater, Ford Television Theatre, The 20th Century Fox Hour, Robert Montgomery Presents, Playhouse 90, Wagon Train, Kraft Television Theatre, The United States Steel Hour, and The Bell Telephone Hour, and in later years Get Smart, Run for Your Life, Ironside, The Name of the Game and Hawaii Five-O, among others.

In 1959, Granger returned to Broadway as Fitzwilliam Darcy opposite Polly Bergen as Elizabeth Bennet in First Impressions, a musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with a book and direction by Abe Burrows. The tryout in New Haven was a disaster, and reviews were mixed. Things improved slightly during the Philadelphia run, but by the time the production reached New York, Bergen – who was fighting bitterly with co-star Hermione Gingold – was experiencing serious vocal problems, and some of her songs would be cut during each performance, creating confusion for the rest of the cast. Only two of seven critics wrote favorable reviews, Bergen was replaced by understudy Ellen Hanley, and the musical closed in less than three months. Later that year, he was cast in The Warm Peninsula, a play by Joe Masteroff. Co-starring Julie Harris, June Havoc and Larry Hagman, it received fair reviews and closed after only 86 performances.