Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1953)

Nobody Asked Him (Continued jrom page 52) thoroughly tired ties. They couldn’t be kin, the man and the myth. Small wonder his friends ask, “These legends about Monty — where do they come from?” They resent any necessity of championing or defending him or explaining him. Perhaps, too, they realize the futility of it, knowing there will always be two points of view about Montgomery Clift — that of those who know him and that of the many who in all probability will never understand him. But still those who do know him ask where the legends come from. So I asked Monty. “Maybe I’m too transparent,” Monty says. “So transparent people can’t see me. And let’s face it, what would they be missing? But most of the trouble, I believe, goes back to what has been written about me. I’ve always been under the impression you could be an artist and do your job sincerely and be yourself. But I may be wrong. The truth about me, apparently, just doesn’t make a story. “If I weren’t in motion pictures people wouldn’t look twice at me. I live the same sort of life the everyday person lives, and I enjoy the same things. So sometimes writers have felt impelled to add the ‘extras’ to the stories about me, to make it more interesting. If I stay home to read a book, I’m a hermit. If I like to swim in salt water, it must be a channel swim. For some time a favorite theme of stories about me was ‘The Man with Two Ties.’ On one occasion an interviewer and I were going out to dinner. When I opened the closet door to get a coat the writer could see I had twenty ties — and still the article came out, ‘The Man with Two Ties.’ ” Some writers have said that Monty has a low opinion of Hollywood because he doesn’t live there. But if you ask Monty, he explains just what he does believe. “If a contractor goes to Denver to do a job, it’s no reflection on Denver if he goes back home when the job is finished. It’s the same with me. New York is my home. I’ve lived there sixteen years and I’ve loved it. I do my job, I make a picture in Hollywood — and I go back home.” When a writer once insisted, “But wouldn’t you like to have a swimming pool?” Monty answered, “When I feel a swimming pool is important to me, I will have one.” So the writer accused Monty of saying Hollywood is hypocritical. “They ask you to describe the woman you want to marry,” Monty says. “How can you intelligently answer that? Marriage is a meeting of two people.” As for not talking to the press when he’s working on the set, Monty says, “I’m not the best actor in the world. I act emotionally. It’s impossible to stay in full concentration; my mind is on a thousand things. Not only would talking to writers be distracting to me, it would be unfair to interviewers.” His is an incisive mind, one that quickly separates the truth from the tripe. As Deborah Kerr observes, “He has a penetrating reasoning that sees right through to the core of things and seldom misses. Such intellectual purity, Monty’s. His mind is so clean and uncluttered— like a very pure flame inside him. He’s one of the purest people I know.” He’s also one of the most intense people. He lives ardently. And all he believes is in his eyes, those amazing blue-green eyes which seem to see straight to the soul. He has strength which belies his boyishness. A lyric strength compounded of a tough mind and an equally tender heart. He’s stubborn when provoked too far. And he’s It was fascinating to see the cha. HiejoJwi pw^ect "Never saw my skin look so clear!99 If your pores are looking large, your skin looking dull — skin doctors will tell you that you haven't been cleansing your skin properly. You must get out the dirt that works into pore-openings — and hardens and sticks. 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