Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Style Essentials--Ava Gardner is Dressed to Kill in Vera West for 1946's THE KILLERS

We're now in the thick of awards season here in Los Angeles with this month leading up to the Oscars. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) always celebrates this time with their 31 Days of Oscar and has divided this year's schedule in interesting ways, including a toast to the 75th anniversary of the iconic films from 1939. Though 1939 is heralded as the Greatest Year in Film History--and with good reason, as you'll see if you look at the long list--I often point to 1946 as a very close runner up. This is especially true when it comes to film noir. The genre is largely defined by the films that premiered in 1946 and featured many of the most famous femmes fatales and intrigantes. This includes Rita Hayworth in Gilda, Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice, Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep, Veronica Lake in The Blue Dahlia, Ingrid Bergman in Notorious, and of course, Ava Gardner in The Killers.

The Killers is a film filled with breakthroughs. It was Burt Lancaster's first movie (at the ripe old age of 32), but in many ways it seemed like Ava Gardner's, too. Both of them became big stars overnight. Though Ava had been with MGM since 1941, it was her loan to Universal to make The Killers that led to her breakthrough performance. MGM had hired Ava for her obvious beauty--photographs of her segued to a screen test that resulted in Louis B. Mayer famously pronouncing, "She can't sing, she can't act, she can't talk. She's terrific!" Yes, she was stunning, but it was her magnetism while simply standing onscreen that really evoked Mayer's enthusiasm. You couldn't take your eyes off her. Yet MGM couldn't seem to put her in substantive roles that capitalized on all Ava had to offer. It took the great independent producer Mark Hellinger (High Sierra, The Naked City) to recognize she could go beyond being simply a sexpot (though she certainly was that, too) and had much more simmering beneath the surface. He fought to borrow the worldly 23-year-old siren from MGM, and the role of femme fatale Kitty Collins made her the icon she is today. Ava knew it; it was Hellinger she credited for the success of her career.

The Killers was a hit with the public and critics alike, and justifiably nominated for four Academy Awards. Among those nominations, one was for Best Adapted Screenplay and that, too, can be traced to a contribution from Hellinger. It was he who got the film rights from friend Ernest Hemingway for one of his short stories. That said, though the opening 20 minutes of the film are true to Hemingway's original story, the remaining plot comes from screenwriter Anthony Veiller and, significantly, uncredited contributions from writer/directors John Huston (The Maltese Falcon) and Richard Brooks (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof). The characters and plot that these men created would inspire many more to come, such as Quentin Tarantino for Pulp Fiction (1994). Another Oscar nomination went to The Killers' director Robert Siodmak, well-deserved for the deep focus photography and extraordinary expressionist lighting that he and cinematographer Woody Bredell used to compose the film's impressive images. Not surprisingly, Siodmak was born in Germany and started his career at UFA, the studio which gave birth to German expressionism in films such as Metropolis (1927) and Pandora's Box (1929).

Part of The Killers' visual style of course also comes from its incredible wardrobe, and the film should be considered a breakthrough for costume designer Vera West as well. She is lesser known in the pages of film history, always surprising considering her immense talent and extensive career. She began in fashion at the prestigious Lucile couturier--along with other costume design giants Howard Greer, Travis Banton, and Robert Kalloch--and then had a salon on New York City's 5th Avenue. She then became head of costume design at Universal from 1928 to 1947, which means Vera's career in film lasted longer than legendary contemporaries Adrian at MGM and Banton at Paramount.

In contrast to the fashion forward films that both MGM and Paramount were known for, Universal focused more on monster movies like Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931). Though these would become iconic in their own right, this often cast Vera as the queen of "Horror Couture." One should remember her great elegance in doing so, though--for example, Elsa Lanchester never looked so striking than in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). But Universal was also known for noir, and with The Killers Vera's fashion side could really shine. We see some of the style that made her so sought-after, which only continued when she quit film to design couture for celebrity clients at the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. It's no wonder--Ava Gardner's wardrobe for The Killers featured an evening gown that has become so iconic it still influences fashion designers today such as Dior, Donna Karan, and Ben de Lisi.

That said, sadly one Oscar that The Killers was NOT nominated for was costume design. This was not any oversight of the voters that year, but rather an oversight of the Academy itself; as I have oft discussed, the award for costume design was not even created until 1948. This means that the nearly two decades of costume design since the beginning of the Oscars in 1929--much of it now iconic, as shown through The Style Essentials--was completely ignored by the Academy. Thus, my way of righting some of this wrong is to celebrate it here on GlamAmor. With regard to The Killers, let me just say that there are many black dresses from film that have made an impact on fashion, but the one from this movie is among the greats. And so, during this Oscar season, for your consideration: Vera West's costume design for Ava Gardner in 1946's The Killers.