Martha Hyer is not especially
famous or well-remembered, but from the late 1940s to the late
1960s she had a very successful film career. In a period
when other actresses were struggling because the studios were reducing the
amount of talent under contract and
the number of films being made, Martha worked consistently. She adapted herself to changing circumstances. At
the beginning of her career she was a brunette. For a time she was a red-head
and later she became a blonde. At
one stage Martha posed for pin-up photographs,
but when that culture evolved she confined herself to elegant dresses and
dignified postures. She was equally flexible about the movies she made. When
work in Hollywood was in short supply, Martha made films in Europe. She was
willing to play quite small parts in big budget movies, but she also played
leading roles in very modest co-feature movies that are no longer televised
and are unlikely to be issued on DVD. Consequently, Martha is in
danger of being forgotten. She deserves better than that.
Martha was born in Texas
in 1924 to a non-show business family, and seems to have enjoyed an idyllic
childhood. While a child, she fell in love with movies and secretly nursed
an ambition to be an actress.
After graduating from High
School, Martha enrolled as a summer student at the Pasadena Playhouse. There
she was drilled in the fundamentals of acting and stage life without being
given many opportunities to appear before a paying audience. When her term
at the Pasadena Playhouse ended, Martha remained in California. She found
a sales job in a store, and set about breaking into the movies. Martha was
lucky. She was spotted by Frank Orsatti, a very successful agent, who secured
for her a starlet's contract with RKO.
As an RKO contract player,
Martha received drama lessons, voice lessons and guidance in how to pose for
the camera. She was also given "bit" parts in a variety of movies.
Her first walk-on part was in "The Locket" which today is famous
for its heavy over-use of flashbacks. (There is even a flashback within a
flashback!). Another "bit" part was in "Born To Kill"
(a.k.a. "Lady Of Deceit")
which is now remembered for being relentlessly grim and unpleasant. (Director
Robert Wise and his team did their jobs a shade too well!) Gradually Martha
progressed to small parts with a line or two of dialogue, and then to leading
roles in "B" feature Westerns.
While at RKO Martha posed
for glamour pictures which revealed that she had well-shaped legs and a good
figure. She made several personal appearances on behalf of the studio but
her career made little progress and she was stuck in Westerns. After Howard
Hughes bought RKO, Martha's contract with the studio was not renewed in the
early 1950s.
For a time Martha struggled, and at one stage became a Conover model to make
ends meet.
In 1953 the tide suddenly
turned for Martha. Warner Brothers gave her a part in "So Big" to
be directed by Robert Wise, and then gave her a second role in "Lucky
Me", supporting Doris Day. From then on Martha was very busy, freelancing
both in films and in television.
Martha was signed to play
the latest fiancé of David Larabee in "Sabrina". Billy Wilder asked
Martha to dye her hair blond to avoid competing with Audrey Hepburn. Martha
agreed, and was also given a raised hair style which revealed that her head was shaped in such a way that - with raised
hair - Martha could easily give the impression of being haughty and
aristocratic, which was entirely appropriate for her role in "Sabrina".
Martha was delighted with this change in her appearance and screen persona.
Martha had a good part in "Sabrina". (The writers avoided
the cliché of making the romantic rival a stereotypical bitch merely to highlight how good-natured the heroine is.)
As photographed by Charles Lang, Martha personified elegance and social
confidence resulting from a privileged background. Crucially,
she was also substantially feminine, which gave plausibility to the ending
in which her fiancé cheerfully leaves Sabrina to his brother and returns to
his betrothed.
Martha's aristocratic screen
persona would occasionally be used again. Her best opportunity
to deploy it came with "Mister Cory", an early Blake Edwards movie
in Cinemascope. Martha played Abigail Vollard, an upper class beauty and the
object of Mister Cory's desire. Edwards and cinematographer Russell Metty
made Martha very glamorous in this well-written movie, and she responded with
a performance which brought out the polished good manners and the smooth manipulation of people by a ruthless woman who wants
both social respectability and an exciting love life. Like the writers
of "Sabrina", Blake Edwards did not create a one-dimensional character.
Abigail is sensible, socially agreeable and bears no-one ill-will;
but will deceive her fiancé with amorous afternoon trysts with another man. "Mister Cory" is a enjoyable
film and deserves to be better
known.
Although she was now in
her thirties, an age when most actresses in Hollywood have difficulty finding work, Martha was busy throughout the mid and late 1950s in a wide variety
of movies at various studios. She was also frequently on the covers of movie
magazines which, predictably, concentrated on her more prestigious movies
like "Paris Holiday" and paid little attention to her more humble
films. Some of Martha's less famous movies are worth thinking about. For
example, in "The Best Of Everything", an early feminist movie -
all the male characters are severely flawed, particularly in their attitude
to women - Martha's role as a seemingly repressed woman appears to have
been drastically cut. Yet neither Martha in her memoirs nor director Jean Negulesco is
his mentions this movie at all. Even more frustrating is the case of "The
Big Fisherman" which has been unavailable for viewing for several years.
Cinematographer Lee Garmes regarded this movie as a visual masterpiece and
believed it contained his best work. Martha's performance is admired by the
few who still remember the film.
Martha's aristocratic bearing
was used again in "Houseboat" and in "Some Came Running"
which many regard as her best role. Her part in "Houseboat" was
well-written and, as in "Mister Cory", presented a balanced view
of a well-bred woman, showing both innate goodwill and lapses into snobbery
when emotionally stressed. It was now clear that Martha was particularly good
at this kind of performance. Martha then moved into out and out villainy in
"Desire In The Dust", an almost forgotten melodrama in black and
white Cinemascope.
Martha continued making several
movies a year until the end of the 1960s when, as Mrs. Hal Wallis, she brought
her career to a close. Martha has since written a very slim
autobiography, "Finding My Way", which provides an unfashionably
positive assessment of Hollywood and an alternative view of some famous names.
(Martha is almost the only raconteur who has anything good to say about working
with Humphrey Bogart or anything bad to say about Rock Hudson.)
Most of Martha's bigger movies
have now been released on DVD, but these are films where she had small roles.
At present there is no sign of "Mister Cory", "The Big Fisherman"
or "Desire In The Dust"
on the DVD horizon.
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