Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1958)

Her eyes showed slight concern and she was more emphatic in this last statement than throughout the interview. Steve wondered if it had any personal overtones. Was it conceivable that Dorothy herself was one of those “misunderstood girls who get lost along the way,” he wondered. He had heal’d she was known for not returning messages when they might have meant a big chance, and for not accepting social invites. Uncommon behavior in filmdom. Yes, the rumor and the hearsay had it that Dorothy Malone was lonely in Hollywood. The guys who had dated her, Steve knew, all came up with a common answer: “I don’t get it.” There was supposedly the guy in Texas — a doctor — and there was Syd Chaplin, and there had been Scott Brady, and dates with more Hollywood eligibles than any star. Why was Dorothy who claims not to be a career girl, still single and lonely? She wants to be alone, but she’s just not the Garbo type. A devout Catholic, marriage for her would have to be as near perfect as humanly possible. Was Dorothy afraid of not being able to achieve that ideal? “Dorothy, as an actress, you’ve mentioned your interest in portraying Diana Barrymore, and other misunderstood, unhappy women. Could a reason be that in several respects, your own life has followed this pattern?” Dorothy flashed a cool, evasive stare, then lowered her eyes, but continued. “When I play such roles I always try to put reason behind their bad side and try to prove that no one is all bad — or all good. After all, there is good and evil in life and everyone’s life is different.” Steve knew then that Dorothy would not even give him an inkling of what really made her tick. It wasn’t that she was unpleasant about it, or uncooperative. But her personal life belonged to Dorothy Malone, and no one else. He could see she felt this deeply. But now Steve was interested in talking to the people who knew Dorothy best: They, of all people, could possibly help solve the mystery of the strange case of Dorothy Malone. Roger Corman, a date of Dorothy’s and a producer of several pictures in which she appeared, had this to say: “You can make up anything complimentary and say I said it. If it’s nice, it fits Dorothy. I think this girl is the best actress in Hollywood. Dorothy had the lead in the second pic ture I produced, ‘The Fast and Furious,’ two years ago, just before she hit big. She played opposite John Ireland. We did our initial shooting at the Pebble Beach Road races. In the first scene, Dorothy was to drive a high-powered Italian sports car around the race track. She’d never driven a sports car before in her life, but she got right in and drove that car on the track behind the camera car, doing eighty miles an hour on the turns and higher than that on the straightaway. At that time, I decided she was the most sporting and willing worker I’d ever seen, since most girls wouldn’t have touched a tough job like that. The second picture she did for me was a western, ‘Five Guns West,’ with John Lund. She played the lead and gave a wonderful performance. As an actress, she’s tops and as a girl she’s the nicest. I think she’s one of the finest people in Hollywood. “When we date, we frequently go to small parties. We play tennis and we go swimming a lot. Also play a little bridge. We go to a lot of movies, too. I think Dorothy is one of the most consistently happy and cheerful girls I’ve ever met. “We used to go to the beach a lot last summer. Visited some married friends of mine, other married couples would come over, bringing their children. The kids just loved this girl. Little guys around four or five years old would follow her around. They wouldn’t know she was a movie star. I remember one woman said her little boy was a terror, but he spent the whole day following Dorothy around on the beach. At the end of the day he jumped up and threw his arms around her and kissed her!” Mildred Baire Rouse, Dorothy’s good friend and stand-in for “Written on the Wind,” said: “I’ve known Dorothy since April, 1949, when we met at a picture at Columbia, “The Nevadan,” with Randy Scott. We kind of liked each other from the very beginning. We’ve gone riding quite a bit. She’s wonderful on a horse. We have our own little game of solitaire which we like very much. The first time I ever played canasta was with Dorothy. “She’s just great. Regular. Popularity may go to some people’s heads, but not to Dorothy’s. I’m married now and furnishing a home. She’s furnishing her house, too. We’ve had a lot of fun together picking out furniture. She loves to go through antique shops. “She comes out to the house now that I’m married and sometimes we take sunbaths in my backyard and sometimes in hers. She’s fanatical about having a deep tan. We both like pale lipstick and it looks so sensational with a deep tan, so all summer we’re working on our tans. We like to go to the beach, too.” Rock Hudson’s capsule comment on Dorothy was “I enjoy working with her because she really works with you in a scene. Besides, she laughs at my jokes.” Speaking of Dorothy’s development professionally, this is what Douglas Sirk, director of “Written on the Wind” and “The Tarnished Angels,” said: “Dorothy has always been one of my favorites. I wanted her for a picture in 1948, but I had to drop it because of the difficulties of making the picture in Germany. “Ever since that time. I’ve had my eyes on her,” he went on. “She has earthiness, strength and depth as an actress. She is very different in talent from the average Hollywood beauty. I made a couple of attempts to get Dorothy a part in a picture I was making but most of the producers felt her name meant nothing at the boxoffice because she’d always played second leads. Finally, the part of Marylee Hadley came along in ‘Written on the Wind.’ It was originally slated for another actress, but when negotiations didn’t work out for her, I persuaded the front office to let me use Dorothy. “T knew that Dorothy was giving a perX formance worthy of an Oscar while we were making ‘Wind.’ When the picture was over, I told her not to take any more wishy-washy parts. Then I went to Europe to make ‘Interlude,’ and when I returned I found she’d done two pictures which I didn’t feel would advance her career. When I asked her why she’d done them, she said, ‘Well, I wanted to keep busy.’ “I put Dorothy in ‘Angels,’ taken from William Faulkner’s ‘Pylon,’ in which she plays the lead opposite Rock Hudson. It’s the first big budget picture in which Dorothy has been the lead. “I think the reason it’s taken Dorothy so long to win recognition is partly because she is so sincere and is not given to a lot of ballyhoo and publicity, all of which helps a girl in a Hollywood career. It’s easier to become a star if you adorn a calendar undressed. Sometimes I’m shaking my old head. The crudest sort of publicity helps you. Being a good actress is not always enough. Dorothy never was properly advertised. Dorothy lacks only one talent — the talent to advertise herself. “She is a perfectionist. She surrounds herself with mirrors on the set so she’ll be able to see what others are seeing, and can properly criticize herself. I had to steal the mirrors away from her! “In many respects, I think Dorothy is like Garbo. She’s introverted and shy. She has great reluctance to appear at social functions as Garbo did. When Garbo became famous enough so that she didn’t have to, she just said no. She antagonized a lot of people who thought she was being snobbish, but she was just shy. I think Dorothy is very much this way herself. And she is at all times a proper lady.” Edna Benoit, assistant talent executive at Warner Brothers, had this to say: “I sat with Dorothy’s mother Academy Award night. Dorothy sat with her brother, Bob. We kept our fingers crossed and said little prayers. “Regardless of the fact that Dorothy is now what I call one of the top actresses, she is exactly the same girl she was when I first met her. She always has time for the little people. In fact, she goes overboard to be nice to them. I noticed that the night of the Academy Awards, some teenage boys in leather jackets, crowded Tune in Every Morning to “MY TRUE STORY” NOW ON NEC Check your local paper for time and station. A home without a heart marked this teen for trouble. Read “Just the Family Nuisance” in the current issue of TRUE STORY Magazine now at all newsstands.