American Cinematographer - October 1996 - 91

Jett Rink

episode kicked off the antagonistic asso¬
ciation between Stevens and Dean. Friction between
the two escalated in the ensuing weeks due to Stevens'
method of filming. To provide good coverage for ed¬
iting, the director liked to shoot each scene from many
different angles. Dean quickly became exasperated
That

contemplates
seemingly

his

barron but oil-

rich property,
"Little Reata."

time-consuming approach, which he deri¬
sively called "Stevens' around-the-clock method."
Relations between Stevens and his star continued to
deteriorate, with Dean often arriving late and, on one
occasion, staying away for an entire day. Eventually,
Dean's only remaining friendly relationships were
with Elizabeth Taylor, Mercedes McCambridge and

with this

Bob Hinkle.

"Jimmy was never a courteous actor," wrote
Stories article. "If he had a big
scene, he would do his best to throw the actors play¬
ing with him. This was not because of a desire to star.
It was because he felt that the scene belonged to his
character. Jimmy would also seduce the other actors
in a scene into playing their characters the way he
played his. If Jett Rink were supposed to loll and sway
and shamble and the other actors were supposed to be
prim and dignified and upright, pretty soon the other
actors would begin to loll and sway and shamble too,
and the scene would have to be done over again.
"Jimmy had studied at the Actors Studio,

Stevens in the Screen

theory of acting is that each actor must lose
Sometimes, an actor with this phi¬
losophy loses himself so thoroughly that he forgets he
is playing a part. Instead of jumping over a couch and
picking up a can opener as the scene requires, he loses
himself tracing initials on a windowpane. This was not
true of Jimmy. He kept the best features of this kind
of acting, but he was also a calculating actor. If he had
to jump over a couch and pick up a can opener and

where the

himself in his part.

he would practice

open a can. . . you could be sure
until he knew exactly how many times he had
with the can opener. If the scene were then
11

to pry

rehearsed
times, you could count on Jimmy to do exactly the

business with exactly the same timing at each
rehearsal. At [the time of] his death he was not yet as
same

good an actor as he might have become, but he had
already managed to achieve performances that other
and more experienced performers would not
to be proud of."
Stevens' comments were kinder than

hesitate

those of
Rock Hudson when he was interviewed by Ray Loynd
for The Hollywood Reporter 13 years after Giant
wrapped (August 9, 1968): "Dean was hard to be
around. He hated George Stevens, didn't think he was
a
good director, and was always angry and full of con¬
tempt." Hudson also castigated Dean because the ac¬
tor "never smiled, he was always sulky and he had no
manners... And he was rough to do a scene with, for
reasons only an actor can appreciate. When doing a
scene, in the give-and-take, he was just a taker. He
would suck everything out and never give back."
Actress Jane Withers recalled that she had of¬
fered to buy Dean an extra shirt after noticing that he
had worn the same dirty sports shirt to dinner every
night for three weeks. "I like this shirt," he told her.
She volunteered to include it in her laundry, but Dean

October 1996

rebuffed her again with the line, "I like this shirt just
the way it is."
This tension-filled atmosphere didn't hinder

Taylor from maintaining a sense of regal poise, how¬
ever. Her demeanor was augmented by the fact that
actress was always clad as a lady of exquis¬
breeding. Moss Mabry, a native of Charlottesville,
had designed costumes for most of Warner Bros.' ac¬
tresses and worked exclusively on Taylor's wardrobe
for Giant, designing 41 costumes that represented
some three decades' worth of fashion. For the Virginia
scenes, Mabry adorned her in colorful organdy, chif¬
fon and dotted Swiss fabrics. As Leslie matures, she
is draped in brocades, velvet and wool dresses of
the young
ite

brown, green and gold. Outfits for the other leading
players were tailored by Marjorie Best, who had cre¬
ated the fanciful costumes for the 1954 historical spec¬
tacle The Silver Chalice.
Art director Boris Leven and set decorator

Ralph Hurst redressed "Old Reata" twice to reflect the
passage of time. There are no trees or flowers around
the gloomy house at the outset of the film. The equally
drab interiors are littered with mahogany woodwork
and heavy Victorian furniture that's been gathered by
two generations of Benedicts. After a few years, Leslie
has painted the house white and had trees and shrubs
planted in front. With a decor of Georgian period fur¬
niture, the home seems almost cheerful. In the Forties
scenes,

Reata sports a

in back.

swimming pool and tennis court

Empire and Louis XV furniture,
Venetian mirrors,
art. One

replete with
crystal chandeliers,

During this era, the inside is

Aubusson rugs, and contemporary

interior aspect

that remains constant through¬

painting in Bick's study of a cowboy roping
cattle; Stevens borrowed it from the lobby of the
Menger Hotel in San Antonio.

out is a

Mellor

American

photographed Giant in WarnerColor,

Cinematographer

89
American Cinematographer - October 1996

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