Damaged Beauty: Montgomery Clift, Tragedy and the Redefinition of a Star Image

Abstract

In January 1963 Montgomery Clift made an uncharacteristic appearance on television to be interviewed on New York Herald Tribune columnist Hy Gardner’s show. Gardner recalled the ‘rumours’ of Clift’s disfigurement following the car accident that occurred in May 1956 in the midst of filming for Raintree County (1957) as Clift drove away from a dinner party hosted by co-star Elizabeth Taylor. The star attempted to put the record straight, suggesting that, despite the immediate impact of the crash, he could now proclaim confidently: ‘I’m exactly the same as I was before.’ The evidence on screen, however, indicated otherwise. Clift’s ‘before’ was a remarkable portrait of movie star beauty that established his image as a screen idol. James Naremore’s description of Clift’s ‘ravaged face’ in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) aptly expresses the decline in the star’s appearance following the accident. Naremore discusses Clift’s performance in the film as one of a number of cinematic instances ‘where film exploits the decay of celebrity players’, making use of the physical evidence of a star’s biography and deterioration in its depiction of character and narrative (Naremore 1988: 20). Clift’s damaged appearance in his post-crash films becomes a consistent reference to his tragic physical decline, influencing characterization and shifting his image towards cult status.