I don't honestly like the feeling of the film

Today's letter enticed me to watch Love Among the Ruins (1975), a film made especially for television, directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier in their only film together. It's a charming film about an ageing actress who, after having been sued for breach of promise, hires a lawyer with whom she was romantically involved some 40 years ago; although she doesn't remember him, he has been in love with her ever since.

What makes the film so delightful are the great performances by the leads, in particular by Laurence Olivier whom I loved in this role. Both Hepburn and Cukor wanted Olivier as the male lead from the start but Olivier wasn't interested in the project at all, as his letter to Cukor dated 27 November 1973 indicates (seen below). According to an interesting Emanuel Levy article, Hepburn and Cukor tried to persuade Olivier to accept the role by writing him a long letter back, asking several questions: "Do you find the relationship–thus cast–not interesting? Do you find it not funny? Do you find it too trivial? Would there be any particular thing which could make you do it, and if so, what? Say it's just hopeless, and we will both blow our brains out." Adding more pressure Cukor then jokingly mentioned their greatest individual failures: "What a combo! The star of Romeo and Juliet; the girl who was so successful in The Lake; and the director–fresh from his success–of Gone With the Wind. Irresistible!". To this Olivier had no defense and finally accepted.

Love Among the Ruins was a huge success, receiving seven Emmy Awards including awards for Cukor, Hepburn and Olivier.

Source: icollector.com

Transcript:

27th November 1973

My dearest Georgie,

I am a hell of a coward not to have got on to you before you left. Let me grovel before you about this, and now I have to grovel again about the opinion - which can be as wrong as all get out but it does insist and therefore has to be sincere - I don't honestly like the feeling of the film of LOVE AMONG THE RUINS, and what makes me feel so badly about not liking it is my opinion is an absolute polarization from yours and from Kate's, whose opinions I respect more than almost anybody else's I can think of.

I am dreadfully sorry but try as I may I just can't change my opinion or make my love and deep admiration for you both alter it to come into line with yours. I can't imagine why this is and there must be something wrong with me. I hope it isn't serious and I hope that it won't make both or either of you feel differently about thinking of me for such a heavensent partnership at some other time.

It was marvellous to see you last week and I can't tell you how Joanie [Plowright] and I ate up your most generous and delicious words of praise for what you saw.

Your appalledly contrite but ever devoted and worshipful,

Larry. (signed) 

Mr. George Cukor

Laurence Olivier, Katharine Hepburn and director George Cukor having a laugh on the set of Love Among the Ruins. For Olivier it was his first and only collaboration with Hepburn and Cukor.

Darling Merle

Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon couldn't stand each other while making William Wyler's Wuthering Heights (1939). Although they had gotten along during production of the comedy The Divorce of Lady X (1938), their working relationship on Wuthering Heights was far from pleasant. Olivier had lobbied to get his then-lover and wife-to-be Vivien Leigh cast in the role of Cathy but producer Samuel Goldwyn wanted Oberon. (The supporting role of Isabella was offered to Leigh but she refused.) Olivier was unimpressed with Oberon's acting abilities and is said to have called her "an amateur", feeling that Leigh would have made a much better Cathy. Oberon, in turn, wasn't happy with Olivier either. During a kissing scene she accused him of spitting on her. When Olivier retorted "What's a little spit for Chrissake between actors? You bloody little idiot, how dare you speak to me...", Oberon fled the set crying and director Wyler made Olivier apologise to her.

Above: Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon as Heathcliff and Cathy in Wuthering Heights. Below: Vivien Leigh visits Olivier and Oberon on the set of Wuthering Heights.

In 1959, twenty years after Wuthering Heights, Merle Oberon contacted Olivier with regards to Shakespeare's Macbeth. As actor-director Olivier had done three successful Shakespeare film adaptations, Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955), and he desperately wanted to film Macbeth as well. However, his attempts to picturise the play had failed, mainly due to financial problems, and the project was shelved in 1958. When Olivier received Oberon's letter asking if he was interested in re-embarking on Macbeth, he was "touched and grateful" that she had thought of him, as he told her in his reply on 22 August 1959. Olivier didn't have time to do Macbeth, however, and wouldn't resume the project at a later date either. (While Olivier never made a film version of Macbeth, in 1955 he had starred in a much-praised stage production with himself in the title role and Vivien Leigh as Lady Macbeth.)

In his letter Olivier is quite affectionate towards Oberon. The hatchet between them had apparently been buried. 

Source: Bonhams

Transcript:

Stratford-on-Avon.

August 22nd. 1959.

Darling Merle,

Thank you so very much for your so sweet letter. I am deeply, deeply touched by your thinking of me and wishing to help in this way- and enormously grateful.

The trouble now is that I have got myself heavily booked up with other things. If the picture changes and it seems that I might be free for long enough to re-embark on "Macbeth", I will let you know, but right now it would not make sense to enter into discussions about it. So could we leave it like that for the time being?

Do please forgive this being in type, but things are hectic as always.

(added handwritten) I am so deeply touched and grateful for your infinite kindness, darling.

Ever your loving

L.

Miss Merle Oberon.

We really did not like Bob Montgomery

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Laurence Olivier became best friends in the early 1930s and remained so for the rest of their lives. Someone they used to hang out with was fellow actor Robert Montgomery, with whom they went fishing and yachting. The following letter from Douglas Fairbanks Jr. to Betty Barker (known for being Joan Crawford's long-time secretary) shows that Fairbanks and Olivier put up with Montgomery but that they didn't really like him, feeling Montgomery was "pompous". Fairbanks wrote to Barker as he wanted to play a practical joke on his buddy Larry (the joke having to do with Montgomery) for which he needed her help. The letter is from 1987 when Fairbanks was 77 years old, but apparently not too old to play pranks.  

(left to right) Douglas Fairbank Jr., Laurence Olivier and Robert Montgomery in their younger days.

Source: WorthPoint

Transcript:

16 June 1987

Betty Barker

839 North Fuller

Apartment H

West Hollywood

Los Angeles

California 

U.S.A.

Betty dear-

I have an inside joke with Larry Olivier, though we do not like it generally known as it is in rather gruesome bad taste. Although we were outwardly friendly and former fishing and yachting partners of the late Bob Montgomery, we really did not like him, and thought him pompous.

I want to play a joke on Larry if I can, and I am going to sign a picture of Bob to him. However, I haven't got such a picture- could you please find one somewhere of any size, kind or description and be good enough to mail it to me at White Club, St. James's Street, London SW1?

Thank you dear, love,

(handwritten)
As ever
D.
P.S. How and where are you?

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Laurence Olivier and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. photographed with Lilian Gish in the 1980s.

You are as wrong for role as role would be for you

Following her legendary role in Gone with the Wind (1939) Vivien Leigh desperately wanted to play the female lead in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940). While initially uninterested in the part of the second Mrs de Winter, Leigh became eager to play it after Laurence Olivier (whom she was having an affair with and would later marry) had been cast as Maxim de Winter. Determined to be in a picture with Olivier, Leigh went after the part and was ultimately tested for it twice.

Rebecca's producer David O. Selznick, who had previously worked with Vivien Leigh on Gone with the Wind, was far from enthusiastic after seeing Leigh's screen tests. Selznick felt that Leigh didn't "seem at all right as to sincerity or age or innocence or any of the other factors which [were] essential to the story coming off at all". Others agreed with him, including Hitchcock and George Cukor, and even Laurence Olivier, who had lobbied to get Leigh cast, later said he found her wrong for the part.

David Selznick and Vivien Leigh on a plane to Atlanta for the premiere of Gone with the Wind in December 1939. 

In August 1939, while aboard the ocean liner Île de France (having just spent a holiday with Olivier in Europe), Vivien Leigh received a radiogram from David Selznick, informing her that she would not be starring in Rebecca. The radiogram can be read below as well as a radiogram from Selznick to Laurence Olivier (sent that same day), in which Selznick also explained to Olivier his decision not to cast Leigh .

[Click here to watch Vivien Leigh during her screen test for Rebecca opposite Laurence Olivier (see also photo below). I think David Selznick was right! Leigh was indeed wrong for the role while Joan Fontaine, who was later cast, was the perfect second Mrs de Winter.]

August 18, 1939

Vivien Holman* 

Île de France 

New York Radio  

Dear Vivien: We have tried to sell ourselves right up until today to cast you in "Rebecca", but I regret necessity telling you we are finally convinced you are as wrong for role as role would be for you. You must realize it is this same patience, care, and stubbornness about accurate casting that resulted in putting you in most talked-of role of all time in what everyone who has seen it agrees is greatest picture ever made. It would have been very simple to cast Bette Davis as Scarlett, thereby satisfying millions of people including everyone in the profession. It would be much simpler to cast you, who are under contract to us, in "Rebecca" lead, and thereby have saved us all great deal of expense and agony searching for right girl. And even though you must be completely wrong casting, we might still have put you in it had we thought it was good for you, regardless of the picture. But I am positive you would be bitterly criticized and your career, which is now off to such tremendous start with Scarlett, materially damaged. Although Hitchcock feels even more strongly than I do on this question, I was still not satisfied and therefore ran the tests of all candidates for Robert Sherwood, who is working on script, without giving him any hint of our feelings. His first and immediate reaction was how completely wrong you were for it. Still not satisfied, I repeated the procedure with George Cukor, knowing his high regard for you, and George's first and immediate reaction was identical with Sherwood's. Am hopeful of having something soon for you that we will both be happy about, and also hopeful you will recognize that same care that has gone into "Wind" and "Rebecca" will go into selection and production of your future pictures, which is something I have no hesitancy in saying does not exist in many studios. Affectionately,

David

 [*Vivien Leigh was married to Herbert Leigh Holman whom she divorced in 1940. She and Olivier were married that same year.]

__________ 

 

August 18, 1939

Laurence Olivier

Île de France

New York Radio

Dear Larry: Please see my wire to Vivien. I know you must be disappointed, but Vivien's anxiety to play role has, in my opinion, been largely, if not entirely, due to her desire to do a picture with you, which was best demonstrated by her complete disinterest in part when I first mentioned it to her as possibility and until she knew you were playing Maxim. You will, after all, both be working here, so I think her eagerness has become exaggerated and not rationalized. Because of my personal affection for Vivien and my high regard for you both, am hopeful you will recognize that my judgment has been fairly sound and successful in these matters for many years. Hopeful we will be able to find something for the two of you to do together for us at some future date. Script is coming along splendidly, and glad be able tell you Robert Sherwood is doing final dialogue rewrite. Believe we are assembling exciting cast including Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers, George Sanders as Favell, Reginald Denny as Frank, and Nigel Bruce as Giles. Possible may be able let you have day or two in New York if you want it and if you will contact us before leaving for coast. Cordially,

David 

Source: Memo from David O. Selznick (1972); selected and edited by Rudy Behlmer.

Joan Fontaine received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her portrayal of the second Mrs de Winter, but lost to Ginger Rogers (Kitty Foyle). Apart from Fontaine's nomination, Rebecca was nominated for ten more Oscars, eventually winning only two-- Best Picture (David Selznick) and Best Cinematography (George Barnes).

Bette & Vivien

In 1964, when Joan Crawford needed to be replaced in Robert Aldrich's Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte, several actresses were considered to play the part opposite Bette Davis, including Vivien Leigh. Vivien declined the role and reportedly said: "I could almost stand to look at Joan Crawford's face at 6am, but not Bette Davis." I don't know what had made Vivien say that (or if indeed she had) but at any rate, a decade earlier Vivien and then-husband Laurence Olivier had been hosts at their home Notley Abbey to a party of people that included Bette and then-husband Gary Merrill. Following the visit, Vivien received flowers from Bette accompanied by a lovely letter as seen below. Bette seemed quite sincere in her admiration for the Oliviers and how she enjoyed her visit with them. While I have tried to find information on how Vivien felt about Bette, apart from the above-mentioned quote, alas I could find nothing.

Bette Davis, Vivien Leigh and Kitty Carlisle visiting Danny Kaye backstage in London.

Via: divinevivienleigh.tumblr.com

Transcript: 

Dear Vivien,

It is seldom one sees talent combined with gracious living and gracious people.

Yesterday was magic for us- I was so stimulated by it all I had to take a sleeping pill! ☺-

Gary is writing later from the boat - to Larry.

In the meantime- please accept these flowers as our only possible token, at the moment, of our thanks.

One day maybe we can spend a day by the sea in Maine- with the hope you will enjoy it one quarter as much as we enjoyed yesterday.

Our love

Bette

P.S. I hope these will prove suitable for the benefit tonight.

P.P.S. Tell Danny to try and keep in step with you!☺[see photo below]

The benefit mentioned in the post-script of Bette's letter was probably the Sid Field tribute, held on 25 June 1951, where Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier and Danny Kaye were doing the Triplets act.

My darling, are you alright?

Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were both married to other people when they first met. It was during production of Fire over England (1937) that the two fell in love and started having an affair. After their divorces came through in 1940, Leigh and Olivier got married, their marriage lasting until 1960 when Olivier left Leigh for actress Joan Plowright. As Leigh suffered from bipolar disorder (having frequent violent outbursts), Olivier just couldn't live with her anymore. Leigh found a new partner in actor John Merivale but Laurence Olivier remained the love of her life.

Here's a telegram from Vivien Leigh to Laurence Olivier which she sent in August 1943, three years after they got married.

Source: vivandlarry.com

Transcript:

LAURENCE OLIVIER OLD PRESTWICK GERRARDSCROSS BUCKS

O MY DARLING ARE YOU ALRIGHT NO NEWS SINCE YOU LEFT IRELAND DESPERATELY WORRIED YOUR BACK ARM SHOULDER KNEE LIP AND WHAT OH WHAT ELSE CABLE IMMEDIATELY BABA DO STOP I WORSHIP YOU DYING SEE YOU = VIVIEN OLIVIER