From Film Sets to Front Lines and Back Again_ Reinventing Star.pdf

As George Bailey sits at Nick’s bar completely distraught and trembling with fear, he

quietly prays, “Dear Father in heaven, I’m not a praying man, but if you’re up there and you can

hear me, show me the way. I’m at the end of my rope, show me the way God.”1 In this

postwar picture, James Stewart’s real tears exemplify all of the bottled-up feelings felt by

Hollywood talent.

Many famous actors served in World War II, but most of these men served as soldiers

unknown to the public before becoming celebrities in the 1950s and 60s. While these actors’

stories are respectable and important, they had quite different experiences from actors like

Hollywood actors who voluntarily chose to leave their lives of fame, wealth, and luxury to serve

and support the war effort, only to survive and come back home permanently affected by their

wartime experiences and forced to navigate a postwar Hollywood that necessitated a major shift

An abundance of research and scholarship has been published regarding World War II

and the film industry in general, mainly focusing on the films made during the war years, how

Hollywood’s economy was affected, and how filmmaking forged ahead in such uncertain times.3

In a similar vein, Hollywood directors who served have been highlighted in Mark Harris’s book,

Hollywood entered the services, but only a select few were A-list actors widely known by the

Hollywood. While these other areas of focus are important and crucial to the overall discourse on

Hollywood and the Second World War, this thesis contributes a new perspective to the field of

film studies that focuses on the stars themselves and the complex repercussions of their service.

As actors become increasingly prominent and famous within the film industry, they

acquire a certain star image with which Hollywood and the public associate them. According to

famed British academic, Richard Dyer, star image consists of “everything that is publicly

available about stars.”5 Furthermore, “stars embody social categories through which people

usual film roles, and audience input. As Dyer’s definition implies, one’s star image is partially

Loy have varied yet prominent service experiences, some of which merit further scholarly

during D-Day, Dietrich visited soldiers on the front lines, and Loy aided the U.S. war effort with

their star images upon their return.

shucks,” yet lovable leading young man. This image remained relatively intact throughout the

everything he does with a certain essence,” rather than disappearing into a role.7 However, in his

first postwar picture, It’s a Wonderful Life, his image darkened with age and the effects of PTSD.

is hardened by real war experience and a reservedness that is clear evidence of withheld feelings.

Each of these actors began with different star images and had to modify them in their

postwar careers. The author of the same 1945 WAC annual report wrote, “Your heroes of the

screen who dashed madly into make-believe battle, fought off rehearsed assailants, in film

shows, look the same after battle service for their country. They are not the same.”8 Their varied

experiences during the war and throughout their postwar careers will be explored in detail in this

thesis, with special attention given to the change in star image. Due to their war service, absence

from Hollywood, core issues that included trauma, silence, and ageism, and a world hardened by

war, these actors’ youthful and vibrant pre-war star images could no longer resonate in post-

This thesis will discuss each of the four actors in their own sections; within each section,

these individuals’ incredibly personal decisions to leave Hollywood and serve the war effort

“America’s Everyman” – James Stewart

In a 1973 interview with British talk show host Michael Parkinson, James Stewart

described what he believed his star image to be throughout his career; he said, “I’m the plodder,

I’m the inarticulate man […], I’m a pretty good example of true, human frailty. I don’t really

have all the answers, I have very few of the answers, but for some reason, somehow, I make it. I

get through. When I’m with the head of the wagon train, for some reason, we get across the

Stewart’s actual personality; the late actor John Saxon once spoke about Stewart’s genuineness,

saying, “He was one of the first to that kind of halting delivery that was so natural. Searching for

words and ‘um, um, um, well, you know’ kind of thing.”10 Stewart himself once said, “I couldn’t

mess around doing great characterizations. I play versions of myself.”11 For this reason, Stewart

was termed “America’s Everyman,” a name that can be found in countless fan magazines during

the 1930s-40s. He and his characters were unlikely heroes that the ordinary filmgoer could relate

to and root for. Stewart’s Oscar-nominated breakout role as Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to

luckily, Stewart was on the brink of a temporary new career. Biographer Gary Fishgall writes,

“[…] his military service was imminent, which, in a way, was fortunate, because the majority of

might have faded rather quickly if he’d stayed in Hollywood. In 1940 and 1941, there are

Gold (Marshall, 1941).12 Stewart’s “everyman” image would continue after the war, but with a

grittier, newfound depth.

A great amount of scholarship exists regarding Stewart’s military service, some of which

in the U.S. Army to fight in World War II. However, he was actually drafted on October 29,

1940, only to be rejected for being underweight. He received an appeal, and in February 1941,

requirement, he convinced the draft board to forge his weight and accept him anyway. Though

and altogether different from what I do for a living.”15 In just a few months, Stewart would thrust

himself into a new journey as a pilot; over the course of the war, he became a colonel in the

Army Air Corps, flying over twenty combat missions over Germany.

but ever the quiet, humble “everyman,” Stewart sent it home to his family rather than wearing it

proudly on his chest.16 Stewart came from a military family, with multiple generations serving in

various American wars, so his desire to serve was purely personal. In an Aviation History article

titled, “Hollywood Hero,” he was quoted, saying, “‘It might sound corny, but what’s wrong with

wanting to fight for your country? Why are people reluctant to use the word ‘patriotism?’”17

persona; he strongly disliked being filmed for propaganda purposes, he had to fight to be allowed

to go on bombing missions because the studios didn’t want to put him in real danger, and he

created a legal clause that didn’t allow any mentions of his war service in advertising or publicity

in planes just to get footage for propaganda films or war documentaries. Sportswriter Jim Murray

once wrote, “Movie stars didn’t have to go to war. He did. They sold bonds to build bombers. He

flew the bombers. They flew over USO camp shows. He flew over Schweinfurt. They supported

something he rarely spoke about but which heavily bled into his postwar career. Stewart refused

to make any films set in modern combat, but he “enacted the symptoms of combat fatigue—

restlessness, nightmares, irritability, sensitivity to noise, loss of appetite, insomnia, fits of crying,

and survivor’s guilt—over and over again in his roles after the war.”21 In fact, his postwar

characters were often war veterans, which was not a minor plot point, but rather a way for

Stewart to express his traumas and deliver an immensely naturalistic performance.

As is common with trauma, Stewart faced struggles that he chose to ignore, despite them

being prominent and recurrent in his mind. In a Screenland article from November 1945, he was

needed light-hearted comedies to escape the realities of the immediate postwar period, but they

Hollywood was challenging; Stewart quit MGM after his contract ended, he struggled to get

work, and temporarily debated leaving the film industry and working at the family hardware

store. He eventually signed a contract with Frank Capra’s new, independent production

company, Liberty Films, where he reignited his passion for acting.

After returning to Hollywood, Montgomery’s first postwar films oddly reflected his new,

sobering personality. Like Stewart, Montgomery had visually aged a great deal by the time he

returned to Hollywood. He was now in his early forties but looked much older, his large eyes

looked tired and melancholy, and his body was lanky and wiry. This is best seen in his first

postwar picture, a John Ford film about World War II PT boats called They Were Expendable

(1945), which he also helped to direct, and was filmed while Montgomery was still on active

the noir genre. The film revealed a new, more affirming perspective of Montgomery, still as a

experience captaining a PT boat, Montgomery was allowed to direct the scenes shot on the boat,

giving him his uncredited directing debut, which he would continue in future films.

After enjoying his experience helping to direct They Were Expendable, his full directorial

debut was Lady in the Lake (1947), which became the first of multiple noirs Montgomery starred

in. This film was innovative for its point-of-view shooting style but received mixed reviews for

With this in mind, audiences seemingly did not immediately connect with the darker side of

Montgomery or his directing style. Further misfortune occurred when his fourth term as

president of the Screen Actors Guild was eroded by a studio workers’ strike of which he didn’t

world and a prominent position in Republican politics and the House Un-American Activities

Committee. Despite his postwar sense of “earned macho authority,” his political stance did not

American public; the two men became close friends and his work was highly respected by

Eisenhower and his advisors, but Montgomery’s efforts were often publicly unrecognized,

leaving him on the periphery. He was seldom written about by reporters at the time and is only

mentioned once in Eisenhower’s 1400-page, two-volume memoir.49 His film and TV career

effectively ended after the 1950s, especially in the shadow of his daughter Elizabeth

Montgomery’s success with Bewitched (1964-1972).

As a result of being required by the military not to speak about his war service, his

political stance being strongly disliked by some members of the Hollywood community, and his

political work being important yet not recognized, silence was a constant theme in

Montgomery’s life and a strong reason for the shift in his postwar career. His star image

remained very much the same, but with a more honorable, macho element; however, his career

was unable to recover. Montgomery’s struggles were not for lack of trying; he was able to

magazine offers a strong sense of hope and solace; the author writes, “Whatever his next

Hollywood assignment, […] regardless of what his screen characterization may be, Robert

Montgomery has proved on the blood-drenched fields of France that, for the rest of his life, he

has earned the right to the label of hero.”50 There has not been any concrete reason given for the

lack of scholarship surrounding Montgomery’s war service or frequent dismissal by Hollywood

and politics alike. However, there is clear evidence that even though some actors and politicians

disagreed with, silenced, or failed to fully recognize Montgomery, his star image as a respectable

actor, director, politician, and human being was left intact and acquired a macho characteristic

“The World’s Most Glamorous Grandmother” – Marlene Dietrich

In addition to these male actors, female actors also aided the war effort, including major

star image of a glamorous, sexual, mysterious European woman was originally just that: an

image. She kept her personal life extremely private, often fabricating the truth. For example, she

once stated that she was discovered by Josef von Sternberg in the Max Reinhardt drama school;

During the 1920s, Dietrich’s career grew in Germany, but by 1930, she essentially erased

these films from her mind, as she no longer wanted to remember herself “as the plump, jazzy,

gemütlich figure” for which she had become known, and was much closer to her actual

be, Dietrich established a new screen personality that was different from other leading ladies of

seemingly soft but actually hard as nails. She symbolized the free urban woman who chose her

own men, earned her own living, and saw sex not as a consolation but as a challenge.”54 Her

“cool detachment, insolent wit, sexual frankness, and overtly erotic appeal” became legendary,

set her apart, and continued after World War II, but with some complications largely due to

ageism in Hollywood, as she was in her mid-40s at this time.55

Even before the war began, Dietrich strongly opposed Hitler and the Third Reich. In the

late 1930s, she mortgaged her home and created a fund to help Jews and other refugees escape

Germany, frequently recorded anti-Nazi albums and radio broadcasts, renounced her German

bonds, and also served troops at the Hollywood Canteen, which was a temporary wartime club

that offered food and entertainment for servicemen, founded by fellow powerful stars Bette

Davis and John Garfield.

In addition to this work, Dietrich was widely known for visiting injured soldiers in field

hospitals and troops on the front lines while she was in Europe. In fact, she was the first

granted her the Medal of Freedom in 1947, notably as the first woman to ever receive the award;

Walter Walezuk commented on his gratefulness for the Hollywood Victory Committee’s tours;

At an undisclosed port today, I saw an actor and his little troupe do their stuff…he made

us roar with laughter and still made me stop and think…giving up a job in Hollywood to

come out here to a place nobody that had any sense would come to, just to put a little

horrible! I kept saying, ‘Miss Dietrich, where are you taking us?’ Sergeants came up to us

Marlene. I can do anything I like.’ She didn’t mind. If she were captured she would have

that was introduced by her famous tuxedo in Morocco (von Sternberg, 1930); in fact, her image

and overall reputation arguably became even more solidified, as her no-nonsense attitude

After the war ended, Dietrich maintained her staunch anti-Nazi sentiments, even to the

degree of disowning her family members who had stayed in Germany. With a newfound depth of

range, she returned to the film industry, but her stardom never reached the magnitude it had

before the war. Even her first major prewar film, Billy Wilder’s 1948 romantic comedy-drama,

and his most personal film, A Foreign Affair, was largely forgotten amongst Wilder’s other

living up to a fabricated star image, Dietrich thrived as ex-Nazi Erika von Schlütow. While Erika

tries to hide her Nazi past, Dietrich strove to hide her aging, as she was now 47 years old in this

gets ready in the beginning of the film, and a visually evident sadness about the state of her

native country after the war. She was no longer the youthful, upbeat Lola Lola from The Blue

Despite the pure survivalist nature and subsequent redeeming quality of her character, Dietrich

still needed more convincing because other personal letters from Wilder said he wouldn’t take

‘no’ for an answer and that he would pay money out of his own pocket to get Dietrich for the

role. She ultimately complied after German composer Friedrich Holländer signed on to write a

banned from being shown to troops, but with this role, Dietrich provided audiences with a

glimpse into her past in the Berlin underground and future as a touring cabaret singer, which

would occupy the bulk of her postwar career.

Soon after A Foreign Affair, Dietrich struggled to find roles in Hollywood. This can

age after the war, but actresses like Dietrich returned to Hollywood in their forties, and were no

longer seen as the young romantic leads they once were. French actor Daniel Gélin once noted,

“Marlene looked tired after her war experiences, and was constantly having arguments with the

another example of how she tried to maintain her glamorous star image after the war. She pushed

herself on stage in her seventies to maintain the image, and wouldn’t let industry friends see her

without her hair, makeup, and glamorous dresses.63 However, according to a 1947 Photoplay

[…] back in Hollywood after her matchless work as an overseas entertainer for the armed

From now on it’s to be Marlene Dietrich, actress, and glamor can take a good long walk.

opportunities to act,’ she insists. ‘Myself, I’ve had enough of it. Now, before I sign up for

She enjoyed acting, and believed that being restricted to “glamor girl” parts kept her from

unknown, but as long as she was in Hollywood or the public eye in general, Dietrich evidently

Even as she entered her later years, Dietrich’s comments about glamor contradicted her

eternal glamor girl tendencies. In a 1969 interview, when asked if she begrudges growing older

any bit of intelligence. […] America has a youth complex. In particular with me, they

aging women at the time. Psychologist Simon Biggs writes, “[…] old age encompasses a double

absence, that of being ‘not male’ and of being ‘not young.’ From being only too-visible, one

becomes invisible, as the attention of a masculinized and youth-obsessed society ebbs away.”66

Dietrich was increasingly facing this ‘double absence,’ where she was effectively pushed out of

Hollywood onto the stage as a singer, and her comments reveal her truly dismissive feelings on

the issue of ageism. However, her continuous effort to remain glamorous and young even after

Dietrich’s war service had a pivotal effect on her, in that it broadened her perspective on

the film industry and her future within it. Her biggest realization was that she “despised movies

more than ever,” and that “her best future lay in solo entertainment, in becoming an abstraction

of the Feminine.”67 Dietrich viewed Hollywood as a machine, and she longed for individuality

and control, which was only possible on the stage in her one-woman show. For the next twenty

accusing, adoring—a reminder of what had been lost and a promise of what could be

Evidently, Dietrich was eternally tied to her glamorous star image. However, perhaps the most

Born in 1925, Maria Riva was a part of Dietrich’s career in Germany and during her

entry into Hollywood stardom. Dietrich was around thirty-years-old with a five-year-old child

Conclusion

Each of these four actors, James Stewart, Robert Montgomery, Marlene Dietrich, and

Myrna Loy, lived individual World War II experiences, yet they all felt a strong personal desire

to fight for their country and the values they strongly upheld. While many other Hollywood stars

stayed at home, and countless soldiers would become famous actors a couple of decades later,

these four individuals made the voluntary decision to leave their wealthy, luxurious lifestyles to

currency by which Hollywood sold their films to the general public, and by being almost

completely absent from the screen for nearly five years, they no longer occupied the same

economic and cultural role in the star system as they had before World War II. As a result,

younger stars filled these vacancies during the war and through the 1940s and 50s, including

Gregory Peck, Montgomery Clift, Ingrid Bergman, and Audrey Hepburn.

Upon their return, some actors, like Stewart and Loy were able to acclimate to a different,

postwar Hollywood, while others, like Montgomery and Dietrich, greatly struggled and

the double standard of not only being encouraged by Hollywood to embrace the war effort but

also being praised for their service while simultaneously being cast aside unless they could find

youthful, vibrant, and light-hearted star images could no longer remain the same in a postwar

Hollywood world. These actors’ service and subsequent absence from Hollywood did not

their personal lives.