Hot Air but What Hot Air! Kim Novak

"That scene" from the movie Picnic is burned in my brain -- even deeper than that day on the second deck at Willy T's, as the best of all, best ever. And I'm now almost 69. This from Stanley Fish in today's New York Times:
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/giving-kim-novak-her-due/index.html
August 17, 2008, 8:11 pm
Giving Kim Novak Her Due
Tags: hollywood, kim novak
Even these days, when it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between a general-release motion picture and soft pornography, two of the most erotic moments one can find on film feature no nudity and bodies just touching.
Both are ‘50s movies. The first, the 1951 “A Place in the Sun,” pairs a ravishing 18-year-old Elizabeth Taylor with Montgomery Clift. In a scene where the two are dancing and declaring their love for each other, Taylor sets up a rendezvous. “I’ll pick you up outside the factory,” she tells Clift; and then she breathes into his ear: “You’ll be my pickup.” Moments later the emotional intensity is raised even higher when Clift exclaims, “If I could only tell you how much I love you. If I could only tell you all.” In response, she draws him closer and in a voice that could ignite fires implores him, “Tell mamma, tell mamma all.”
“Sexy” doesn’t even begin to describe it.
In the second movie, 1955’s “Picnic,” the sparks fly between Kim Novak, then 22, and William Holden. Again the context is a dance, although it would be more accurately characterized as a mating ritual. To the music of George Duning’s and Morris Stoloff’s brilliant arrangement of “It Must have Been Moonglow,” a radiant Novak, clapping her hands in rhythm, sways down a bank toward Holden, who then joins her in a dance of such sensuality that the observers can only gape, each betraying the emotion he or she involuntarily feels — envy, nostalgia, frustration, longing, wonder.
“Picnic” was not one of the films shown last Tuesday when Turner Classic Movies devoted a day to Novak, a recognition some might think she does not deserve. They would be wrong.
Novak was the top box office star three years running in the ‘50s. Still, she is not usually mentioned in the same breath with the other major actresses of the period — Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner. She was not earthy like Gardner or icy like Kelly or Rubensesque like Monroe or raunchy like Jane Russell or perky like Doris Day. She was something that has gone out of fashion and even become suspect in an era of feminist strictures: she was the object of a voyeuristic male gaze.
This is true of her first movie with a speaking role, 1954’s “Pushover,” a film noir in the “Double Indemnity” mode featuring, along with Novak, Fred MacMurray, E.G. Marshall, Philip Carey and Dorothy Malone. (In her best work, Novak is often surrounded by powerful co-stars, and to her credit she plays off them, not against them.) Malone could do a sultry turn of her own (“Warlock,” “Written on the Wind”), but she is no match for Novak. MacMurray plays a cop assigned to ingratiate himself with her in the hope that she will lead him to her gangster boyfriend. But, as TCM host Robert Osborne observed, one look at Novak and he’s lost. When he’s not watching her, the camera is, for the plot consists largely of a surveillance operation; a team of detectives spends endless hours looking at Novak through binoculars, as do we. It is voyeurism from a distance, and emphasizes her status as a glittering something beheld from afar.
This of course is what Jimmy Stewart does for much of the first part of “Vertigo.” Hired by a friend to monitor her activities, he follows Novak (Judy pretending to be Madeleine) from place to place, and in one extended scene stares at her as she stares at a portrait of a woman in a museum. What he doesn’t know is that the object of his desire is a confection, a fantasy created by his employer who has made her up to look like the wife he plans to kill.
When the scheme succeeds and the Stewart character believes her to be dead, he falls into a depression until he spots a young girl who bears a physical resemblance to his lost love, but is nothing like her. Rather than being refined, austere and aloof, she is coarse, over-made-up, even common. In what remains of the movie he works at turning her into the simulacrum of his beloved (he strips off her make up and then applies his own), transforming her from an all-too-flesh-and-blood woman into an ever more abstract representation of an image — itself an illusion — that lives only in his memory. When the last stage of the reconstruction is complete, his restored love emerges as if from a mist — this is a close-up that actually distances — and he is once again happy to have an object to look at rather than an actual human being who has weaknesses and needs.
The characters Novak plays know and resent the fact that those who pursue them are drawn only to their surfaces and have no idea of, or interest in, what lies beneath. Betty in “Middle of the Night,” Madge in “Picnic,” Lona in “Pushover,” Linda in “Pal Joey,” Molly in “The Man with the Golden Arm,” Polly the Pistol in “Kiss Me Stupid,” Judy in “Vertigo” — all are the prisoners of their beauty and its effect. One critic speaks of Novak’s “passive carnality.” Her characters draw men in, but not willfully. That is not who they are or what they want, although no one cares to know.
Madge in “Picnic” complains of being the “pretty one.” Betty in “Middle of the Night” yearns to be just a housewife. Polly in “Kiss Me, Stupid” lives out her real fantasy — domesticity — for a single night. Judy in “Vertigo” begs, “Can’t you just love me for who I am?” Gillian in “Bell Book and Candle” longs to be a human and not a seductive witch. Molly in “The Man with the Golden Arm” wants nothing more than to stand by her man. Even Mildred in “Of Human Bondage” projects a vulnerability that seems more genuine than the sexual voraciousness she seems driven to display.
Of the men who become entangled with the child-women Novak repeatedly portrays, only Jerry in “Middle of the Night” (played in a towering performance by Fredric March) gets it right when he says that despite the provocative and voluptuous appearance, Betty is really a little girl, insecure and in need of someone who will protect her.
It is possible that the men who directed her — Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Joshua Logan, Richard Quine, Delbert Mann — saw her in the same way and made her into a projection of their fantasies. She seems to think so. The Washington Post writer Tom Shales asked (in 1996) if the women she played were “reluctant sex symbols” and if she were one too. In response, she recalled Joshua Logan’s remarking that in “Picnic” she played Madge “like she was wearing a crown of thorns”; and, she adds, Madge’s “looks were definitely a handicap and it was that way for me…too… You could really get lost in that kind of image.”
At any rate, “that kind of image” — of the inwardly fragile beauty dependent on the men who wish only to possess her — was no longer what the movie-going public was looking for after the early ‘60s, and that model of female behavior has not come into favor again (although Scarlett Johansson comes close to reviving it in some of her movies, especially Woody Allen’s “Match Point”). But however retrograde it may be, that role was performed to perfection by Kim Novak, who, after all these years, can still break your heart.
Comments (120)
120 comments so far...
1.
August 18th,20081:01 am
Thank you Mr. Fish for the Novak piece. The comments were appropreate to my rememberence of her. Beauty is a two way street and it must have given her a confidence that would only diminish with time. But on film her face was that of Venus and Helen, but she had the sincereity and grace of a fifth grade teacher. The “Lady” was not a “Tramp”. Have you seen her paintings? Pretty good.
Thanks
— Posted by Saguaro
2.
August 18th,20081:02 am
Amen!
— Posted by Dick McKenzie
3.
August 18th,20081:08 am
i was born in 1950 so i was too young to appreciate her acting when i was a kid. however, i wasn’t too young to realize she was absolutely gorgeous….
— Posted by bp
4.
August 18th,20081:16 am
My favorite Kim Novak movie is “Bell, Book and Candle” where she seduces Jimmy Stewart with magic then falls in love with him, hardly the “passive carnality” that the critic quoted above speaks of. Personally, I think that the strength of Ms. Novack’s parts are the strength that you see underneath them. She may play the 1950’s woman, but she has the strength of the women who proceded her, the women of the Depression and the War eras and the sense of independence of the feminists who would succeed her. “Bell, Book and Candle” I think shows this more explicitly than any of her other movies.
— Posted by Rick Umbaugh
5.
August 18th,20081:20 am
Thank you, Mr. Fish, for your brilliant and incisive piece on one of Hollywood’s most neglected and underrated stars. One can only hope (presumably in vain) that Ms. Novak might consider a long-overdue return to the screen. She is probably as beautiful at the age of 75 as she was at the height of her career.
— Posted by Robin
6.
August 18th,20081:38 am
How interesting to find out that Professor Fish is a Kim Novak fan - and I would assume a Hitchcock fan.
I love “Vertigo”, and it took me a long time to really appreciate her work in that film. I knew Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly for the part, and whenever I would watch it, I couldn’t help but think, “What if…”
After a while, I realized Kim Novak was perfect. When she says, “Can’t you just love me for me?” it really does - as Professor Fish points out - break your heart.
— Posted by BrianJ
7.
August 18th,20081:58 am
Once Mr. Fish stays away from politics [especially the academic kind] I find myself agreeing with him. Except for Ava Gardner, whom I’d consider her equal in sex appeal, Kim Novak had it all over the others.
She always had a contained sexuality with, combined with that killer figure, one knew could be explosive. There was an icyness, actually, but an icyness that “promises,” as the French would say. And those huge eyes !
By comparison, I’ve always found Marilyn blowsy and too vulnerable to be really sexy. Liz Taylor always overacts with tremolos. Grace Kelly was icy to the point of being asexual–close your eyes and listen to her “little girl” voice in most movies [If you want icy, take Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest].
Kim suffered from not having quite the same spectacular tabloid faits divers as the others. And I disagree with Fish about this “projection” nonsense–as if that didn’t apply to every director with every star! Kim’s casting was as perfect as those form-fitting outfits–talk about “contained” — she wore in those movies.
— Posted by Isaac Lagnado
8.
August 18th,20082:03 am
Although you listed Marilyn Monroe as Rubenesque, she projected the same vulnerability in her movies, especially the better ones. As in Bus Stop, which she did a marvelous acting job in, she attracts the cowboy but rejects his rough approach, until he sees her as a troubled woman in need of protection, beyond her flamboyant image. The same in The Misfits. Also giving single word descriptions of various actresses is unfair as they are responding to the role and the director. Grace Kelly played moving roles in several movies where she was anything but icy. Yes I always liked Novak - she had a certain honest elegance which reflected her actual persona.
Pearl Volkov
— Posted by Pearl Volkov
9.
August 18th,20082:12 am
Thanks Dr. Fish, but I wish you had written this column before last Tuesday, then I could have set the DVR! Those TCM marathons are great stuff for people like me who weren’t around when these films were made.
— Posted by Kathy
10.
August 18th,20083:02 am
In Picnic, after Novak’s dance with Holden, there is the very disturbing scene of Rosalind Russell’s alcohol-induced breakdown. I think you use the right adjectives to describe Novak - voluptious, voracious, even coarse. In that sense she was closest to Monroe, but without her playfulness. Very hard to pigeon-hole her, which maybe why she didn’t have as long a career as some of her peers who you mentioned above. Incidentally, she played twice movie actresses - Legend Of Lylah Clare (which alsohas shades of Vertigo in its storyline) & The Mirror Crack’d.
— Posted by Tipu
11.
August 18th,20083:20 am
Kim Novak is the best of all… I think I fell in love with her when I first saw “Picnic” at a film festival about 25 yrs ago. In the 80s and 90s I found a “real” video store in Sarasota that had all her movies and I got every one of them, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her since. She has become the benchmark for me for cinematic beauty and mystery…an understated elegance that not a single actress of the past few decades can match. It’s hard to put into words. Thank you for this article! and Ms. Novak you will always be the ultimate screen goddess for this admirer. http://www.nicholassimmons.com/
— Posted by Nicholas Simmons
12.
August 18th,20083:47 am
You left out one important point. Miss Novak was a lousy actress.
— Posted by Dan
13.
August 18th,20084:07 am
since when was marilyn monroe “rubenesque”?
look at this picture:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Peter_Paul_Rubens_116.jpg/749px-Peter_Paul_Rubens_116.jpg
is *that* what you think marilyn was?
dude, you totally lost your credibility with that one.
— Posted by anonymous
14.
August 18th,20084:16 am
It is disenheartening that while Kim Novak is recognized as a fine actress her talent as a singer is mostly unknown.Working most wonderfully as a jazz/blues/caberetsinger, her beautiful voice, intelligent and sensual phrasing and style place her among the best woman singers of that time.There is only one non soundtrack CD of hers that I could find on Amazon.What a shame, what a loss.
— Posted by Marvin Jacobs
15.
August 18th,20084:18 am
That sexy dance sequence in “Picnic” scrupulously avoids closeups of William Holden’s hips and feet. He was reported to be a very poor dancer and he was clearly too old, literally, to match Novak in easy, innocent movement — or to learn new tricks or liberate a new woman from a girl’s mazey dreams. Novak, of course, did dance with every part of her. A pet-girl on the screen, she, like Bardot, in life-after-screen demonstrated worthy rapport with pets and injured animals. Something poetic in that affinity for the voiceless love-object and something sorrowful. Dr. Fish caught that poignant marriage in Novak of womanly body and pet-babying, confused, outer-directed, pre-feminist girl-lover.
Dr. Bob Solomon
— Posted by Dr. Bob Solomon
16.
August 18th,20085:16 am
Yonkers, New York18 August 2008
As a virile young man, I had the good fortune to watch Kim Novak in several of her tantalizing movies.
Probably like most men who had the good fortune to see her in her movies, I fell for her beuty, her voluptuousness, her sexy voice, and fell in love with her.
I am no longer a virile young man, and have long gotten over my fascination with Kim Novak. But it was good whilt it lasted.
Mariano PatalinjugMarPatalinjug@aol.com
— Posted by Mariano Patalinjug
17.
August 18th,20086:36 am
Kim Novak may not have been a particularly good actress. I’m not sure I am competent to judge that. She was in some pretty bad movies, but she was also in some very good movies, too, many of which you mention.
And a revival of her movies would, indeed, be worth watching. I hope that wherever she is, Ms. Novak is well and without regret for what might have been. What was (her movies) were extraordinarily good.
— Posted by Herb Yood
18.
August 18th,20086:50 am
Youth imagines that what it knows today is just about all it will know or need to know. Youth fails to see the chasm of ignorance that yawns ahead and that will bring forth a satisfaction unparallelled as the chasm is filled with knowledge gained. Kim was a marvel to behold when I was a teenager. There were many like her who were exploited in a silly sleazy way by Hollywood.
It is amazing how multimillionaires were so certain they knew precisely what the common man wanted/needed in his life from filmic fantasies.
— Posted by Kal
19.
August 18th,20086:53 am
Jeeeeeez, Fish.
I like Charlotte Gainsbourg, but I feel no need to explain to others that her film portrayals are similar to, the same as, or different than other similar contemporary actresses.
Or actresses of the past.
Or actresses yet born.
Don’t you have a garage to clean? Or better yet, why don’t you p-l-e-a-s-e examine the media portrayal of Russia’s invasion of Georgia, or even STILL better yet, parse the common theories on how music became so important to humans?
With regard to your ode to Kim Novak, yeah … social roles change in society, and consequently, in film.
Now let’s move on.
— Posted by Mark Cougar Rosenblatt
20.
August 18th,20087:41 am
Thanks for this. The odd thing about growing up with Kim Novak (I mean maturing sexually with her screen image before you) is how sometimes this feature or fact of her screen persona wasn’t understood by directors or producers, who tried to use her as a bombshell or hot number–or as a type allied to but different from the one you locate, that is, the hot or desirable woman who doesn’t understand or notice how inflaming she is (Monroe in Seven Year Itch, e.g.). When that happened and she couldn’t bend the role her way, the movie failed.
Also — she was the only bombshell who looked like an actual woman, slighter and slimmer than most, and given to appealing to the American boob obsession not with those Jane Russell double-barreled bras but soft cashmere sweaters under which she often seemed to be wearing no bra at all. Gulp.
— Posted by John Crowley
21.
August 18th,20087:48 am
i would argue that this type hasn’t necessarily disappeared but simply undergone some formal variations. there still exist women characters who are the object of the male voyeuristic gaze, but now, the “object of desire” is also (and most often) gazed as the “object of female ire.” one silly example (because i can’t think of another off the top of my head, though i know there are more) is the character nicolette sheridan plays on desperate housewives. the point of edie in the show is that she seduces men even though what she really wants is the domesticity that the other women on her block have (hence why she tried to kill herself when one relationship didn’t work out). equally, though, we see her mostly through her interactions with female characters who mostly dislike her for the exact reasons that men do.
though i am sure that the type still exists (in changed form), i’m not sure if there is an actress who embodies it like novak. thanks for the post.
— Posted by steve
22.
August 18th,20087:53 am
You didnt mention Strangers When We Meet with Kirk Douglas.
— Posted by melissa
23.
August 18th,20088:02 am
Ah Stanley, Both Elizabeth and Kim were there on the silver screen fevering your adolescent fantasies, no wonder they had such an indelible imprint–you were 13 for Elizabeth’s Place in the Sun and 17 for Kim’s Picnic–I was four years older and therefore so much more sophisticated.
— Posted by richard kopperdahl
24.
August 18th,20088:05 am
As a young teen I must have seen Picnic at least five or six times. In the sexually repressive 50s Novak’s overt sexuality was just irresistible. Now at the age of 66, it still is.
Let’s also keep in mind that we are talking about a Pulitzer Prize winning play be William Inge and an amazing performance by Rosalind Russell. Even Susan Strasburg holds her own as in the part of Millie.
Thanks for the memories!
— Posted by Alvin Steingold
25.
August 18th,20088:51 am
Prof. Fish: Thanks for a fine column on Kim N. How interesting that all the blogs so far are from men! I’m exactly her age and grew up with her films. My comments are confessional and self-analytical, still may be on point, so…I always found her a bit repulsive, but I was an up-tight and unsexy girl. I don’t think it was envy since I adored the other beauties you mention, Taylor especially. Her perfection held me in thrall. In retrospect I think there was something about Novak that hit me on a gut-level that I was unaware of. Danger? Carnality? A kind of unaware maturity? Whatever it was, it was hers alone. Sorry to have missed the special, but I will rent the old movies and watch them with this new insight.By the way, in response to an earlier remark about the Hollywood moguls who managed her, we should realize that they came from very humble origins and they and their progeny never forgot that. In fact the history of the movie industry is a fascinating aspect of our culture.As for the comment about your choice of subject matter, no, you are not a political pundit but rather a cultural critic, and I thank you for your contribution.
— Posted by moran in va.
26.
August 18th,20089:01 am
What? No mention of JEANNE EAGELS?
— Posted by B. Baker
27.
August 18th,20089:01 am
As an impressionable 12 or 13 year old, I read a magazine article that noted Kim Novak was a major “sex symbol.” She became my first “sex symbol” in my budding adolescence. I also read that she enjoyed relaxing and having someone read to her. So, my first sexual fantasy was about reading books to Kim Novak. Now that I’m in my sixties and she is 75, I still find that fantasy to be very, very pleasant. For years, I even knew her birthday. I’ve forgotten it now, but think it is in February.
— Posted by pointpetre
28.
August 18th,20089:12 am
There’s a scene in “The Notorious Landlady” where Kim is sitting across from Jack Lemon at a table. She’s holding a coffee cup with both hands as she looks into his eyes.
This is burned into my memory for some reason.
— Posted by William Morrison
29.
August 18th,20089:31 am
I agree that Kim Novak was sensual — or “sexy” as Fish says — but she really wasn’t a very good actress. Maybe a little better than Marilyn Monroe, but not much.
— Posted by Ray Jenkins
30.
August 18th,20089:37 am
I agree that Ms. Novak’s acting ability has been underestimated. Her magnetism may be something that I never fully appreciate, since I was born the year that her first movie came out. But I think that I understand it. I saw her in person at a showing of the restored Vertigo at the Uptown several years ago. At the post-showing reception, she was surrounded by men of a certain age who were clearly enthralled to be in her presence. I can’t say that “she was the object of a voyeuristic male gaze” that night, but it was close. These were guys who clearly had gazed at her that way 40 years earlier. They seemed to be glowing as much as she was.
— Posted by KB
31.
August 18th,20089:38 am
Slavs have a hard time in AngloSaxonia. Anna Netrebko, a passable and attractive Russian operatic soprrano, has long been bombarded with the bovinesque barbs that Kim Novak was so familiar with.
— Posted by john
32.
August 18th,20089:38 am
Can’t overlook her temper tantrum in “Of Human Bondage.” She blew Bette Davis away, with her turn as Mildred.
Whenever her enraptured Philip sought her time, or wanted to give her something, her reply of jaded condescension was wonderful - “I don’t mind…”
— Posted by JG
33.
August 18th,20089:52 am
I think the most interesting thing about Ms. Novak, which has not been mentioned, is the fact that she quit movies at the very height of her career. That decision says more about her than anything else.
— Posted by f.shadow
34.
August 18th,200810:05 am
Monroe Rubenesque? Shelley Winters, perhaps.Monroe=Buxom and Vulnerable.
— Posted by gheyde
35.
August 18th,200810:35 am
There was a fairly accurate review of her talents in the Harvard Crimson (for “Pal Joey”, if I remember correctly):
“This is not to say that Miss Novak is the world’s worst actress, it is merely to say that she is grossly miscast in any role requiring dialogue.”
— Posted by Charlie
36.
August 18th,200810:48 am
The best example of beauty and voyeurism is Gene Tierney in “Laura.” How soon we forget!
— Posted by joan kinsey
37.
August 18th,200811:21 am
Thank you Mr. Fish for this article. Kim Novak has to be one of the greatest Hollywood beauties of all time and a vastly under appreciated actress. But you pass over “Bell, Book and Candle” with barely a mention. In this film her character could have seduced the devil himself. Her onscreen chemistry with Jimmy Stewart was amazing. It remains one of my favorite films.
— Posted by Steve Hunter
38.
August 18th,200811:29 am
I have never considered Kim Novak to be “underrated.” Everone I know absolutely adores her. And, in my opinion she was a very good actress.
Kim Novak had a mystery about her (as did Ava Gardner) that the others mentioned didn’t possess.
Thank God that neither Grace Kelly nor Vera Miles were in Vertigo.
— Posted by laurence hoffman
39.
August 18th,200811:56 am
Mr. Fish’s knowledge of Hollywood film is pretty light. Doris Day gave a rock solid performance in Love Me or Leave Me after she was freed from Warners. Novack’s not under-rated but her choice of films didn’t always showcase her very real talents (she turned down both The Hustler and Days of Wine and Roses, which were both wonderful films.)
Oddly, Mr. Fish doesn’t mention Pal Joey, where her chemistry with Sinatra makes their scenes sizzle.
Marilyn Monroe wasn’t Rubenesque–Mr. Fish is using a modern day prism to view her. (If he thinks Monroe is fat, what of Rita Hayworth or Jane Russell?)
Scarlett Johannson is far from the modern version–if anything she’s closer to Doris Day.
— Posted by Kate Coe
40.
August 18th,200812:18 pm
I find it odd that people do not see what a good actress Kim Novak was - like Monroe, the evaluation stops with the body. It’s a kind of perverse prejudice that easily acknowledges talent in ‘less attractive’ people but won’t grant it to beautiful people, the assumption possibly being, ‘You’ve got the looks, what more do you want?’. Plain Jane’s like Thelma Ritter have praise heaped upon them and nominated for awards - are people saying that Ritter is a far superior actress?
Novak was perfect in Vertigo, Kiss Me Stupid, Bell, Book & Candle, and Boys Night Out.
— Posted by Bryan James
41.
August 18th,200812:30 pm
Recall the photo of her in a Life Magazine photo essay. It was taken by Leonard McCombe and she is being seated in a dining car and the eyes of every man in the picture are turned towards her.
— Posted by Murray
42.
August 18th,200812:40 pm
not to put down the talents of either ms. taylor or ms. novak–alhotugh i would seriously argue that the latter is not as good an actress as taylor or gardner at their best–but it does seem that mr. fish is fishing for beauty here.
to prove my poin, he is so bent on telling us how beautiful ms. novak and ms. taylor were, that he seems hardly aware, or hardly able to admit that co-stars clift and holden were as sexy and alluring on screen as these two women.
and thus, hillary doesn’t get to run for president this year. sexism in politics, sexism in film reviewws!
— Posted by briggs
43.
August 18th,200812:41 pm
It’s customary in on-line discussions of Ms Novak for someone to call for her to be given a Lifetime achievement Oscar ASAP… or for Hitch’s remaining amazing actresses (Novak, Marie Saint, Hedren, V. Cartwright, Pat Hitchcock, and maybe a few others) to be given a collective salute at the Oscars ASAP. So let me be that person here!
In either case, however, expect Novak to be given the most rousing reception. People who make movies and people who love film love her almost without exception in my experience. She’s not underrated by those who like to rate things, but her career ended too soon, and I suspect she’d be quite surprised by a demonstration of the warmth that various generations both in and out of the industry feel for her.
— Posted by swanstep
44.
August 18th,200812:46 pm
Your analysis is excellent, but you neglect to mention Novak’s superb performance in “Of Human Bondage.”
— Posted by TD Allman
45.
August 18th,200812:46 pm
I was born many years after Kim Novak’s heyday but still developed a teenage crush on her after seeing her in Vertigo — and later in Kiss Me, Stupid. Sexy as hell and a very good actress.
One of our best film critics, Jonathan Rosenbaum recently published this fine essay about her:
http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=7962
“Maybe it was Novak’s beauty and her acute awareness of it that made her fragile, and perhaps it was her fragility that made her real. “Mom, what good is it just to be pretty?” she says as Madge to Betty Fields in Picnic. This was her first big movie role, and presumably the line came from playwright William Inge. But it appeared to come from the actress as well as the character she was playing—expressing what always seemed to make Kim Novak less than wholly delighted about the burden of being a movie star and a glamorous myth, when she’d rather chow down with the rest of us. It was the kind of ambivalence that worked against the obsessive career-building of a Monroe, so that her fame peaked early on, and was already fading fairly rapidly after about a decade. Much as Novak’s husky voice seemed to contradict or at least complicate the hyperbolic femininity she was supposed to project, her down-home earthiness often wound up undercutting some of her obligatory studio baggage as a glamor queen.”
— Posted by NK
46.
August 18th,200812:50 pm
“feminist strictures”?Come on. What simple reasoning. You’ve discovered the one (1) reason each of the other stars were granted top status. Because what male would gaze at Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor? Uhhhhh. Hmmmm. Perhaps-to-sure she is underappreciated, but the reason why rests more with the power and money train which rests in the hands of, ahhh, feminist strictures. So I have it right, Sir.
— Posted by S.
47.
August 18th,200812:51 pm
As an aside, I just want to thank the writer for correctly using the term Rubensesque. I was beginning to think everyone believed the painter’s last name was Ruben.
— Posted by Terrils
48.
August 18th,200812:53 pm
“Scarlett Johansson comes close to reviving it in some of her movies, especially Woody Allen’s “Match Point”)”
Oh, come on. She can’t act at all. And any sex appeal she has goes out the window the second she opens her mouth. Such a dreadful voice.
— Posted by Asher
49.
August 18th,200812:54 pm
I just watched Vertigo again after not seeing it for some time and i had forgotten have wonderful Kim Novak was in that movie - she really blows Jimmy Stewart away with the depth of her emtion, even when she is just sitting there and staring. There is an electricity around her. A superb actress.
— Posted by lawrence
50.
August 18th,200812:55 pm
I think you’ll find that the role of “object of a voyeuristic male gaze” is still being filmed today. It’s just not being filled by icily perfect blond white women — more likely, it is an exotic dark ethnic woman. But it is eerily the same — to reduce someone to an agenda-less existence as an object.
— Posted by a commenter
51.
August 18th,200812:56 pm
Concupiscence does not become Mr. Fish.
— Posted by Vir Gules
52.
August 18th,20081:00 pm
Post # 16 speaks for many.
— Posted by Erik
53.
August 18th,20081:00 pm
Rita Hayworth once said about the men who pursued her, “they go to bed with Rita Hayworth and they wake up with me.” I always felt that Ms. Novak had that sense of mortality.
— Posted by William Marcy
54.
August 18th,20081:01 pm
The movie, ‘Middle of the Night” has always haunted me.You also mention Frederic March’s performance - another GREAT actor who rarely gets mentioned when superstar’s are discussed.As to an earlier poster’s speculation than Kim would be better remembered if she had been tabloid fodder?Helllllooooooooo!Didn’t her relationship with Sammy Davis Jr. almost cost him his other eye if the stories are true.
On a lighter note, “Miss Novak prefers lavender to the black and red blondes usually wear and has a Siamese cat called Piewacket”.(More tabloid stuff).
— Posted by charles almon
55.
August 18th,20081:01 pm
Dr.Fish:Many thanks for this piece, I find myself agreeing with everything you said about Ms. Novack.I usually don’t agree with your columns……nice to know at our age, we do have something in common….afterall.Best regards,bob me.
— Posted by Bob from Sarasota
56.
August 18th,20081:04 pm
Kim was plenty fine to look at, but let’s face it, the woman couldn’t TALK! She has - what we in the communication business call - a “lazy mouth”. Words are slurred so heavily, endings of words are dropped so consistently that comprehension becomes compromised to the point of, well, INFURIATION!
Sorry Kim, but you should have been a SILENT movie star!
— Posted by HMKillinger
57.
August 18th,20081:05 pm
mr. fish’s column, though well-written and erudite, feels pornographic to me. too much author, too much salivating in this column, for me.
— Posted by academic writer
58.
August 18th,20081:06 pm
Not only does Kim Novak rate mention with so many of the leading actresses of her era, she belongs at the head of the class. The way she could exemplify things that were euphamized or unmentioned was something that in not to be forgotten.
Her mysteriousness in a glance is what made Vertigo as affecting and powerful, and Jimmy Stewart’s character would not have believable without her. She sells the illusion so well that his loss is only our beginning.
— Posted by Gilbert Lopez
59.
August 18th,20081:06 pm
Novak may have had an “inner life” going on during her scenes but, I’m sorry,the camera did not capture it. Every now and then the inner turmoil of this actress may have been glimpsed–”Vertigo” Picnic”–but most of the time it was just the gorgeous face and body dominating the screen and the responsibility of the audience to project whatever they wished on to that lovely creature.
I do think “Jeanne Eagles” should never be left out of any analysis of Novak’s career. I saw it as a teenager–I recall it being bizarre film and probably a rather bad one– but Novak was mesmerizing in that film. It was one of those performances that was so bad that it actually was good and the images of her face –black and white cinematography–are as vivid to day as then.
Robert
— Posted by Robert Graham
60.
August 18th,20081:07 pm
Unfortunately, I was born too late to appreciate Kim Novak’s body of work in it’s time. However, as a funny coincidence, I saw a documentary last week where it was mentioned that she was offered the role of “Mrs. Wormer” in “Animal House”…ah what might have been…
— Posted by Brad
61.
August 18th,20081:09 pm
I watched Vertigo for the first time last year and was completly charmed by Kim Novack. She seemed to me to be very different from the other actresses in the way she spoke… it seemed hypnotic to me. She is beautiful, but she’s no Ava Gardner or Grace Kelly that’s for sure.
— Posted by Tom O'Dea
62.
August 18th,20081:18 pm
What a great article! Any praise Kim Novak receives is well deserved. Vertigo is one of my favorite films and I doubt any actress other than Ms. Novak could have done justice to the role of Madeleine/Judy. When I think of Grace Kelly in that role I cringe.
I do agree with the reference to Novak’s passive carnality. However, I don’t think the passive infers that she was a weak actress, rather that she was strong enough to play off other actors without attempting to over play her own roles.
I was recently in San Francisco and got some great photos of “Scotty’s apartment.” It’s still there and largely unchanged.
— Posted by John
63.
August 18th,20081:22 pm
“You think you’re getting a lot,” he [Alfred Hitchcock] said of her ability, “but you’re not.”
— Posted by D.J.
64.
August 18th,20081:27 pm
She was the beauty I wanted to be. She was so different than the rest.I hope she and her husband are living a wonderful and peaceful life.
— Posted by Ory
65.
August 18th,20081:31 pm
Er, I’m gonna have to second Mark Cougar on that one: what’s up Fish?Besides, the Rubenesque Monroe only applies to the Some Like It Hot period, not to Niagara, and hardly at all to The Misfits. What was that about Scarlett? The quicker she’s forgotten the more intelligent we’ll all feel.
Anyway, full disclosure: I’m a Gloria Grahame man myself, thanks, and what she says about Ford’s hotel room in The Big Heat suits Novak like a glove in my view: hey I like this, early nothing.
— Posted by Silenos
66.
August 18th,20081:33 pm
Life Magazine had the famous candid photo of Kim Novak on a train sitting down to eat, taking off her coat, and a line of men behind her just gazing at her.
The men look almost evil in their plotting; she looks scared.
see it belowhttp://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a2868.asp
— Posted by rab
67.
August 18th,20081:33 pm
this sweet Polish girl from Seattle stole my heart and claimed my entire respect and admiration: a feat no other American actress has achieved.
— Posted by jmb
68.
August 18th,20081:34 pm
Thanks, for recharging the old memory bank. I was a teenager when the scene in Picnic gave me hope for a life of romance and eternal togetherness.
I still have hope.
Gary
— Posted by Gary
69.
August 18th,20081:44 pm
From one Kim Novak fan to another: thank you.
— Posted by Harron K. Appleman
70.
August 18th,20081:44 pm
Kim Novak was far from being a great actress. But the thought of being with her atop the Flatiron Building on a snowfilled Christmas morning, is more than enough to compensate for that minor flaw……………mario
— Posted by Mario
71.
August 18th,20081:48 pm
What’s the point of this story other than a trip down memory lane?
If you want to critque film then ask Ben Brantley if you can some time at his desk. For you to be given front page space for a Kim Novak tribute islittle more than idiotic.
Please connect the ‘past’ to the world we live in today and to issues which affect our lives. Just ask as most people can give you a list of what has been overlooked and what has gone unrecognized in this country. For starters, how about the horrendous absence of recognition and care given to our soldiers at our national hospital - Walter Reed. They return without arms,without legs or without the brain they once had.
The end of youth, of dreams, of a life not yet lived. The “fragile beauty” of young men imprisoned for life is heartbreaking.
Kim Novak! It’s her fragile beauty that “still breaks your heart.” Well, Mr. Fish, you’ll just have to learn to live with this sadness.
Miriam
— Posted by miriam
72.
August 18th,20081:49 pm
You didn’t mention one of my favorite Kim Novak movies. Jeanne Eagles. I watched it many times in my teens and was taken in by her sensitivity. Now viewing it again after many years, the entire production seems so amateur, but her persona still came across. She was a magnificently strong and sensitive actress.
— Posted by margery
73.
August 18th,20081:49 pm
One of my favorite Novak roles is as “Polly the Pistol” in what may be the most underrated Billy Wilder film, 1962′ “Kiss Me, Stupid.”
— Posted by Stan Denski
74.
August 18th,20081:49 pm
Enjoyed the article. And as a woman and a lover of beauty, I have always appreciated her stunning beauty and sensuality.
Note to Mark Cougar Rosenblatt -”Lighten up — you’ll enjoy life more!”
— Posted by Shay
75.
August 18th,20081:50 pm
This piece triggers my memory to search for the sexiest scene I have ever seen in a film. The winner is a telephone conversation scene in Frank Capra’s 1946 “It’s a Wonderful Life.” George Bailey ( Jimmy Stewart) and Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) hold a phone together and talk to Sam Wainwright, a friend of Bailey’s who explains that the New York City grass is greener. The breathless sexuality of Stewart and Reed, as they listen together to what they don’t want and need, might as well have been played out in a marriage bed. It’s one of the great movie scenes.
— Posted by Mike McCaffrey
76.
August 18th,20081:53 pm
I, too, am surprised that “Bell, Book, and Candle” was so little appreciated by Prof. Fish and most of those who commented. I’m not sure when I first saw the movie, but it stuck with me. I was in my twenties in the fifties. The one’s Prof. Fish mentions? I’ve seen them, but I don’t bother to order them.
— Posted by Larry
77.
August 18th,20081:54 pm
Stanley,
What a superb article! You capture so well the feelings that many of us have had around beatiful women (real & video). She’s right up there. Her steamy yet “just controlled” passions make her come alive…esp. in Vertigo.
You’re a brilliant writer.
Thanks, Jack
— Posted by Jack
78.
August 18th,20081:57 pm
About three months ago,our son confessed that back in the fifties,when the family saw Picnic at the drive-in,he had such a teenage crush on Kim Novak.We thought he was too young to notice her beauty,but I now know that males are never too young!
— Posted by E.Wheaton
79.
August 18th,20081:57 pm
One of the most erotic mmoments in film occurs in FLYING DOWN TO RIO. Dancing to The Carioca, Astaire and Rogers touch foreheads and stare into each others eyes for 10 seconds or so with no other contact.
— Posted by Lloyd L. Thoms Jr.
80.
August 18th,20082:01 pm
I am 61 now, but it took me to get into my 50’s before I slowed down enough to watch the classics.I remember being captivated by Kim in Picnic. Her looks, her voice, her whole presence. Some of Kim’s appeal may vary according to individual taste, but for those who think she lacks acting talent - I draw the line. Her work in Vertigo isconsidered outstanding by everyone. It is a shame that Kim retired “early”, but remember the time,she was devastated by Marilyn’s suicide. And I agree with the comment about her voice, both speaking and singing. Her singing in Pal Joey was excellent. I thank Stanley Fish for his observations and hope Kim takes note of this tribute. She is a class act and all of us fans wish her continued happiness. Thanks, KIM.
— Posted by Paul Struck
81.
August 18th,20082:03 pm
Professor Fish -
One thumb up for Kim Novak is that about right?
Ken Bill
— Posted by Ken Bill
82.
August 18th,20082:05 pm
Serendipity rules! I’ve thought for so long that Kim Novak was operating invisibly under the radar for the mainstream. That’s what it seemed to me. That her unpoken qualities did not have what it takes to make for a celebrity in every suburban home. But what an actress! She’s profound in her transformation in Vertigo which for some reason has emerged in my constellation for great films to the very forefront over the last five years. Why, I’m not sure altogether. Reincarnation as a red herring, Missions which I grew to know and be intrigued by when I lived in L.A., Stewart’s fitting the tortured dick’s persona like the glove we never expected him to wear. And on and on. Even Redwood trees. And that’s without the obvious: S.F. bay and the hills.It happens that lately I’ve begun to feel burnt out from having spent most of my adolescence and adulthood watching films, but this is one of those that I find myself really looking forward to living with on that promised desert island.And in Picnic I thought that it was my own perceptivity that picked up on the lushly erotic dance when she slowly sashayed toward Holden. Fool me. Guess it was only my arrogance in thinking no one else noticed that. But it took my breath away and no one ever seemed to mention it. I remember actually muttering WoW, under my breath to no one particular…. And it’s not even a great film, Holden looks ridiculous as a college bum, but that moment between them makes it all worthwhile.Thank you Mr.Fish!!
— Posted by stephan morrow
83.
August 18th,20082:12 pm
number 56..too much salivating by the author…has it right. Alright already, don’t exaggerate, Mr. Fish. You sound like a 14 year old boy. I think novak is an expressionless, rather dull actress, but good for the 1950’s prevailing view of women as over-sexualized objects of men’s overheated, unreal, , cartoon-like view of women. The male directors of movies reinforced this. Any actress of greater expression, intelligence, and acting technique would have thrown these pictures out of whack and wouldn’t have fit in with the prevailing attitudes, which these movies exaggerate. Example, Marilyn Monroe was an exaggerated cartoon, evident now looking back. The whole era was negative and unhealthy for women, and I am glad we are passed it. By contrast the 30’s and maybe 40’s showed women as smart, more independent, sophisticated, with sex appeal less exaggerated and cartoon-like. I have always wondered about the reasons for this.
— Posted by ellen b
84.
August 18th,20082:13 pm
I think the best part of Picnic was the scene where Kim pulls away from her mother. What a decisive break from mamas apron strings. It’s like bye bye mama , I’ve got a real life to live now. Full of all the things you wanted to see me avoid including heartbreak and poverty.
G Spoon
— Posted by G Spoon
85.
August 18th,20082:14 pm
Absolutely spot on. Those two scenes are two of the sexiest in film history - without the skin, sweat and grunting that would be de rigeur if either of them were made today. (Although William Holden was kind of sweaty.) I saw Kim Novak some years ago at a screening of a restored version of Vertigo and she was as beautiful as ever.
PS..my wedding song was Moonglow so the magic still works.
— Posted by Rosemary Harris
86.
August 18th,20082:17 pm
In the late ’50s, I was friendly with Martin Goldblatt, a publicist in the New York offices of Columbia Pictures. He was friendly with Kim Novak.
A chemical company I was working for, at that time, had, because of a convention that was occurring at Columbus Circle, a suite at the St. Moritz hotel on Central Park South.
For whatever reason, Kim Novak was also registered there.
I had told my bosses about the Goldblatt-Novak connection, and mentioned she was staying at the same hotel. “Can we meet her?” they asked. So, here I was with either egg on my face, or a star on my lapel.
I asked Martin about it and he asked her. Not only did I get the gold star, but the chance meet, and to introduce my bosses to the lovely and extremely gracious Kim Novak.
Ms. Novak, thank you.
Ron Bruguiere
— Posted by Ron Bruguiere
87.
August 18th,20082:20 pm
There was a sweetness about her, too. In STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET, with Kirk, her concentration in every scene leant credibility to her character–a sexually frustrated housewife who was not a tramp, but vulnerable to her needs. Her husband was inhibited, and she was kind of like “Lady Chatterly,” looking for fulfillment. She underplayed all her scenes, but her tiniest reactions spoke volumes about her feelings at each moment. It was a very focussed, alive performance, showing a real pro at acting. Brava for that performance. (I only hope Mr. Douglas controlled himself and didn’t try his usual seduction routine on Kim.) Great job about how a good woman deals with a tough problem. Bittersweet, to say the least.
— Posted by Sally
88.
August 18th,20082:21 pm
Kim Novak had the good sense to not be caught up in the Hollywood star culture and escaped to the Monterey Peninsula. She also knew how to act her age and not keep trying to be the young sexy thing beyond the time of believability like so many sad stars. She was still sexy when she taught the aerobic dancing class I took in Monterey and Carmel, but in an age appropriate way. Her love of animals and a “normal” life style has, I’m sure, given her a much happier and fulfilling life than many of her contemporaries.Jane
— Posted by Jane
89.
August 18th,20082:23 pm
In 1986 I wrote my masters thesis on a critical history of Hitchcock’s Vertigo. When the film premiered in 1958 it was panned by many critics and even those that liked the film singled Novak out for criticism. Thanks to the French and British film critics Vertigo slowly gained the respect it deserved, now being universally recognized as one of the greatest films ever made. But Professor Fish is correct to remind us that Kim Novak is one of the films actresses of all time. Bravo!
— Posted by Gregory Adamo
90.
August 18th,20082:24 pm
“Strangers When We Meet” — one of my all-time favorites. Still watch it, when I have the time. Kim Novak had a look on her face that defies description. Mysterious, is the best adjective I can come up with.
— Posted by Gloria
91.
August 18th,20082:33 pm
Oh, please! I recently watched “Bell, Book and Candle” because I wondered why I hadn’t liked it when it first came out given all the fuss people still seem to make over Kim Novak. But I couldn’t see the movie through to the end. A more wooden, almost silly, performance would be hard to imagine! No wonder Kim Novak is little remembered, while we still thrill to the movies of actresses like Ingrid Bergman.
— Posted by Paul
92.
August 18th,20082:33 pm
Wow. And this was given space in the New York Times? So many males salivating over what? Some (dyed) blonde hair, some breasts and a falsely breathy voice (trust me, I was there. Except when “in character” -and I use the term loosely - her voice was several octaves higher and considerably less “breathless”).I recently read some woman’s wry comment that one must accept that men never mature past the age of 12. Fish and his lathered-up commenters certainly prove this.
— Posted by KC
93.
August 18th,20082:34 pm
For two years in college I had a “fold out” picture of Kim Novak in a kneeling pose wearing a short pink “teddy like” nighty, posted right over my study desk. The Teddy was not see-through, but when you were 19-20 in the ’50s, it didn’t have to be. I was in love with her and can still see her singing “My Funny Valentine,” even though I later found out she didn’t really sing it. At that time in my life, it didn’t matter.
— Posted by Douglas K. Rhodes
94.
August 18th,20082:36 pm
#40:“Plain Jane’s like Thelma Ritter have praise heaped upon them and nominated for awards - are people saying that Ritter is a far superior actress?”
Ummm… Could be.
— Posted by B. Baker
95.
August 18th,20082:42 pm
I remember Kim as a gorgeous lady with a body that overwhlemed the movie goer and failed to apperciate her acting skills, if any.It’s the reason she is not held to the same esteem as her contempories…..
— Posted by Joe Conlon
96.
August 18th,20082:44 pm
To the person born in 1950…the beauty of Novak and other films and film makers of that period was that at 10 you could watch them and be mesmerized. I watched all her films multiple times and I was born in 1950 as well. It speaks more to the quality of the film that of our age while viewing them. Another hot steamy fully clothed scene was Marlon Brando and Eve Marie Saint in “On The Waterfront” when he grabs and kisses her. Talk about passion…OMG!
— Posted by dee dee witman
97.
August 18th,20082:47 pm
Mr. Fish’s opinion on the characters played by Ms Novak, reminded me of a line written by Tennessee Williams for one of his most vulnerable characters,Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire, at the end she says “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers”. I think that line pretty much sums up Ms Novak’s career, whose voluptuous beauty made up for her lack of real acting talent.
— Posted by Celso
98.
August 18th,20082:49 pm
Still retaining some memory and a bit of libido at 79, the “loves” I remember well were women with looks, intelligence, and a persona that shone brightly, sometimes their own, sometimes a ‘construct’ of the director. Greta Garbo at times; Greer Garson all of the time, Ingrid Bergman forever, Sofia Loren even when she needed a bath, and Katherine Hepburn, when she “let go”. Add to that, on the stage, Beverly Sills, seductive even in dying scenes, singing, lying on her back on the floor.Add to that Cher, when she wants to, as in “Moonstruck”.
— Posted by bern roth
99.
August 18th,20082:51 pm
Yes oh yes,she was a terrible actress and yes the movies stoke our fantasies.In Picnic,so the rumors go,she and Holden almost hated each other.It was good acting on her(and his) part to convince us that they we a couple.She was and is delicious to look at and maybe for some that is enough.It was difficult to sense an intelligence to her.Sorry to not get excited about the Fish story.
— Posted by albert levy
100.
August 18th,20082:53 pm
my first impression of Kim novak was as a kid when I watched that rather bad movie that had something to do with the Bermuda triangle and she played a reincarnation of the devil having the time of his life on a private yacht on which everybody had died in odd ways (sort of closed room mystery, anybody remembers this?) so for a long time I associated her with something scary. And she was scary, in her own way. Then nothing happened until I saw Vertigo, which was adapted from a French thriller novel by Boileau Narcejac originally called “Sueurs froides” (cold sweat). I was much older by then, much more critical, and I remember loving the film (it is still to me one of the top ten) yet thinking: why choose her? Madeleine the hazy, classy, aloof blonde would have acquired another dimension if played by Tippi Hedren, who was just the part. And I remember reading somewhere that actually Novak got the part because some other ethereal actress had declined it. Now I know this was destiny. Kim Novak was just it. Deeper. Scarier. Something slightly alarming abouther. Could be both the hazy ideal figure that never existed and the vulgar girl. Only her. Thank you again Mister Fish.
— Posted by Anne Guerrier, France
101.
August 18th,20082:56 pm
Thanks for a fantastic tribute to an underrated actress!The dance in “Picnic” is one of the sexiest scenes Hollywood has produced.
— Posted by Bill Walker
102.
August 18th,20082:56 pm
Lovely essay–I wish Mr. Fish would do his take on the biggest female box office star of the fifties, Doris Day.
— Posted by John Dukes
103.
August 18th,20082:56 pm
In “The Brave One,” a recent Neil Jordan / Jodie Foster thriller, there is a rare moment of humor in which a teenage (male) witness is pulled in by the police to identify a suspect. Working with a police artist, they come up with the rendering that looks a lot like Jennifer Aniston (they now use computers for this kind of work). The police artist remarks that this is not unusual: we are so inundated by popular culture that it permeates the way we see the “real” world.
Your comments on Kim Novak — and in particular your astute discussion of the pathology she inflicts upon Jimmy Stewart in “Vertigo” — reminded me of this. Films are our modern world “Commedia dell’arte,” and the great actors of both genders (Chaplin and Pickford, Bogart and Bacall, Stewart and Novak, Clooney and Pfeiffer — one could go on and on) engage us from one role to the next as archetypes upon whom we project the most sustaining fantasies regarding our desires, imagined roles and relationships, and how, vicariously, we live out the drama of our mundane, daily lives. Ms. Novak certainly certainly deserves her place in this Parnassus of our projected world, and your nuanced characterization of her qualities is richly appreciated.
— Posted by dranonyme
104.
August 18th,20082:58 pm
Not too long ago I was doing post grad work at Oxford University and did a paper comparing the views of society of the role of women in three entertainments (strangely enough, they were The Playboy of the Western World, The Music Man and Picnic) and they held together suprisingly well. In all three, women were catalysts and in Playboy and Picnic the women were not written in to be extremely bright. For that reason I thought Kim Novak (whom I met once) was just perfect for the role of Inge’s Madge … although, unlike the fictional Madge, I did not think she was especially pretty.
— Posted by Robert Harper
105.
August 18th,20082:59 pm
Kim Novak is one of the movies greatest stars and kudos to Professor Fish for his fine blog. The gorgeous Miss Novak has a splendid body of work from her very overlooked “Of Human Bondage” to a very comedic and wonderful “Moll Flanders’ to the heartbreaking “Strangers When We Meet” to the fine films shown last week on TCM in honor of Kim Novak such as Billy Wilder’s brilliant “Kiss Me Stupid” to Josh Logan’s “Picnic” that lingers long after it is finished.
Miss Novak’s fine work in ‘Vertigo’ is now recognized but do many know that no one in that pic…Novak, Stewart, Hitchcock, et al were even nominated for an Oscar. Somehow the Academy ought to give Kim Novak an honorary Oscar. I personally cannot think of anyone other than Garbo who could have done in “Vertigo” that Kim Novak did: A superb performance!
Kim Novak in a great career worked with Billy Wilder, Rita Hayworth, Bill Holden, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Wyman, Kirk Douglas, Jack Lemmon,Tony Curtis, Dean Martin. Frank Sinatra, George Sidney, Angela Lansbury, Frederic March-pro’s all- and many others. Leave it to Walter Matthau who got it right in saying that ‘Kim Novak taught Him more of screen acting than anyone else in Hollywood’. Enough Said!
— Posted by David Atkins
106.
August 18th,20083:10 pm
I read somewhere that it took a rather hefty bet (on the order of $10,000?) to prompt William Holden to learn that dance in “Picnic.”
If I may wax rapsodic and indulge a bit in stream of consciousness re: the “Picnic” soundtrack - such a wonderful melding of “Moonglow” and the Main Theme, with those atmospheric strings making the transition, sonically rising to the challenge of and complementing the Novak-Holden visuals. Puts one in such a reverie. Steve Allen wrote lyrics which are every bit the equal of the melodic Main Theme. Very nice vocal versions by The McGuire Sisters and Andy Williams. Morris Stoloff’s instrumental version is to be commended (I’ll keep putting quarters in the booth juke box), as is Arthur Fiedler’s Boston Pops’. Also, featured in the film is the song, “It’s a Blue World” (Wright & Forrest, who wrote the musical “Kismet”), the first big hit for The Four Freshmen.
George Duning also wrote for television. In the third and final season of “Star Trek - The Original Series,” he wrote absolutely gorgeous shimmering, ethereal strings in the episode, “The Empath.” It caught my 8th grader ear, as did “Picnic” some years later when I stumbled across it (as Duke Ellington said, “If it sounds good, it IS good.”), and I despaired of every getting to hear it again. But of course now both are available on CD.
— Posted by Phillip Ogle
107.
August 18th,20083:26 pm
I completely agree that the dance scene in Picnic was one of the ‘hotest’ most erotic scenes that I will always remember — except I was really into Bill Holden — I read somehwere that he felt so self-conscious about filming the scene that he had to get pretty loaded before filming. In any event, it has been burned in my memory, and the music was dreamy too. Somehow, in my mind,nothing has ever compared to this scene. I also agree with the author’s comments on Taylor/Clift in “A Place in The Sun”. It takes two to make the sparks fly!
— Posted by Trudy Schwartz
108.
August 18th,20083:29 pm
Part of the magic of this scene was the music. Moonglow was,of course, made famous by the Benny Goodman quartet: Benny, Teddy Wilson,Lionel hHpton and Gene Krupa, two black men and two white. Every time I hear it I recall the sheer erotocism of that scene and thing of early loves. Kim Novak, yes and yes; but also Benny and the quartet.
— Posted by ronald hikel
109.
August 18th,20083:33 pm
Mr. Fish,You forgot one–Strangers When We Meet, with Kirk Douglas.She plays that same role you describe in this film as well, and it’s a favorite Novak film of mine.
— Posted by Veronica
110.
August 18th,20083:38 pm
I will never forget the first time I saw Vertigo. I was absolutely transfixed and helplessly sucked into the storyline. I was a big Jimmy Stewert and Alfred Hitchcock fan, and became a big Kim Novak fan at that moment!!
— Posted by Dave
111.
August 18th,20083:39 pm
She couldn’t act. If it hadn’t been for her crown-of-thorns looks, she would have had no career.
— Posted by Liana Markley
112.
August 18th,20083:41 pm
Kim Novak has all the qualities Mr Fish describes, and more. I still remember photos from a memorable article in one of the homemaker magazines the day, showing how she’d designed and set up her home and garden in the remote Big Sur, where which she was one of the first celebrity residents.
What the photos showed was the fruit of a rich and artistic mind, alive to the joys and beauties of nature in a way several decades short of being fashionable. No other such photo layout offered anything close to it.
There was much more to Kim Novak than made it to the movies. Not her fault, of course.
— Posted by kunino
113.
August 18th,20083:42 pm
No 39# says: Scarlett Johannson is far from the modern version–if anything she’s closer to Doris Day.
Johannson? Day? Sorry, these stars do not collide. They’re not even in the same universe.
— Posted by Chris
114.
August 18th,20083:48 pm
Everything you say about Kim Novak is true. She was absolutely one of the greats. She was one of my favorites of that era. She had an intangible overwhelming sexiness but along with that sexiness she had talent. In my opinion she oozed both.
If she is not included with the other greats such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and others she should be. She is right up there with them. My only regret is that time does not stand still so we can experience her charisma and brilliance still.
— Posted by Natalie Rosen
115.
August 18th,20083:53 pm
On the other hand . . . Oh, the horror of it all. Beautiful, Hollywood contract, men falling at her feet, riches, fame. Will the angst ever cease?
— Posted by William Marcy
116.
August 18th,20083:53 pm
Awhile back, my college roommate, when I told him how erotic Kim Novak was in a scene in “Picnic”, replied that what made the scene was not the beautiful Kim, but the music, “Moonglow”.
I disagreed at the time, and now, years later, the New York Times, no less, singles out the scene I remembered so well for its incredibly erotic atmosphere.
I feel vindicated.
— Posted by w s eddy
117.
August 18th,20083:56 pm
Forgot to mention - most have not seen Wilder’s “Kiss Me,Stupid,” and the film got shut out back in the 60’s because of a contrived decency controversy. All the same, I saw it recently on DVD (actually, might have been VHStape) and found Novak quite charming and funny. Those who continue to insist Novak wasn’t much of an actress are being silly
— Posted by Chris
118.
August 18th,20083:57 pm
I sat next to Kim Novak on a plane to NYC back in the early sixties. It was one of those planes with a seat section built into the rear of the fusilage with room for 5 or 6 passengers. My recollection of Ms. Novak continues to be two things; her hair, which was more orange than red, and her pensive look. Frankly, I didn’t think she was all that beautiful. I had the good manners to honor her privacy although I was sorely tempted to introduce myself to one of the great actresses of that period.
— Posted by John McPhail
119.
August 18th,20084:04 pm
Vertigo haunts, and I only saw it once, on B&W TV. Couldn’t see it again, although I frequented Ernie’s in SF because of it. I saw one or two other KN films. Over the years, I smiled when I thought of this gorgeous woman, who did project an inner mystery on screen, quietly becoming a Big Sur bohemian and leaving us to our reveries, as she walked on the chilly beach. Long life to her — she can handle it. Harvard Crimson has been wrong before. American men belittle slavic women at their peril: go to the opera or watch professional tennis!
— Posted by jay
120.
August 18th,20084:05 pm
In my late teens - early 1950-56, I fell in “warm love” with Kim Novak. Yes, it was sensuous.
Saw too few of her movies or photos - memory hazy - but not the memory of the “warm love.”
Thanks for the reminder and alert - will try to recoup the movies and photos now.
— Posted by PAUL MICHAEL
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Stanley Fish is the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor and a professor of law at Florida International University, in Miami, and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has also taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and Duke University. He is the author of 10 books. His new book on higher education, "Save the World On Your Own Time," will be published in 2008.


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