Page 30 - atoday

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 29 december 2016
Wagner embraces great actresses in engaging Hollywood memoir

DOUGLASS K. DANIEL pline necessary to be an directness I’ve always liked.
Associated Press actor, not to mention a She was never a particular-
A love letter to actresses star.” “I Loved Her in the ly nuanced actress, but she
he admired on and off the Movies” is a delight in large was open to the camera in
screen, Robert J. Wagner’s part because Wagner a very touching way. Men
engaging memoir offers can also see Colbert and came and went with Joan,
a warm embrace for the other great female stars but her devotion to the
many women who helped from a fan’s perspective. camera never waned, be-
him establish a successful They were his colleagues cause the camera was her
career as a leading man or and friends — some were true love.” Barbara Stan-
inspired him professionally his lovers — but he never wyck: “She loved to work
and personally in their un- lost his admiration for the and emotionally she need-
forgiving business. women who could move ed to work. She had been
Take Claudette Colbert, an an audience to cheers and very poor as a child and
Oscar winner for “It Hap- tears, among them: bMari- young woman, so money
pened One Night.” Wag- lyn Monroe: “I thought she translated into security for
ner was a 20-year-old new- was a terrific woman and I her. Work always improved
bie when they made 1951’s liked her very much. When I her mood. ... Whether it
“Let’s Make It Legal.” He knew her, she was a warm, was a movie or TV show
flubbed his way through 49 fun girl. ... I never saw the didn’t seem to make much
takes of one scene. Marilyn of the nightmare difference to her; she just
“She could easily have had anecdotes — the terribly in- wanted to keep acting.”
me replaced by uttering a secure woman who need- What might be most surpris-
single sentence,” Wagner ed pills and champagne ing in the pages of “I Loved
recalls. “Not only did she to anesthetize her from life, Her in the Movies,” Wag-
not have me replaced, not and who reached a place ner’s third book with Scott
once did she roll her eyes, where she couldn’t get Eyman, is the streak of fem-
not once did she sigh, not out more than a couple of inism that runs through his
once did she betray any consecutive sentences in reflections on stardom, the
impatience or anger at my front of a camera.” Joan nature of talent and the This image provided by Penguin Random House shows the cov-
incompetence. It was an Crawford: “Joan had drive. demands of a Hollywood er of “I Loved Her in the Movies,” by Robert J. Wagner with Scott
object lesson in the disci- She also had a quality of career. q Eyman. Associated Press