Screenland Plus TV-Land (Jul 1955-May 1957)

I from her ordeal stronger, wiser stature compared "with the heroic one of the Maid of Orleans, but what probably draws her to Joan is her unflinching courage before a terrible fate. One word of compromise could have saved Joan from the flames. But Joan chose death rather than deny the voices she'd heard. She was willing to drink her cup to the dregs. Ingrid. on a humbler scale, seems to possess a similar awareness of a personal fate whose dictates she must follow to the end. How did it all start? "I don't know where it all began," she tried to explain the other day. "Who knows where anything really begins?" Ingrid was an only child whose mother died when she was two. Her father, a moderately successful photographer, passed away when she was 12. After that, she was brought up by relatives in her native Stockholm, surrounded by the conventional atmosphere of a middle-class Swedish family. She was a self-sufficient child, outwardly cool, disciplined and controlled, but inwardly seething with intense emotions which could only find an outlet in the free play of her imagination. Very early she started acting out scenes for herself ; very soon it became clear to her that the stage was to be her vocation. She achieved tremendous success in the theatre while still in her teens, and was a movie star of considerable standing throughout Europe by the time she was 20. In 1939. she came to Hollywood, attaining during the next decade recognition as one of the world's foremost actresses, and becoming — in addition — almost a symbol of wholesomeness. calm and self-possessed common sense. But when the volcano smoldering underneath the serene appearance finally erupted, it did so with such violence that it stunned the entire world. The volcano always was there, of course. No great artist can just conjure up emotions from the brain or through mechanical means. Without that inner turmoil, no artist can generate the drive, tension and forcefulness necessary for creative achievement. In Ingrid's case, she'd merely held a tight rein on her emotionalism for many years, permitting it to show only in her art. In retrospect, her marriage to Peter Lindstrom appears to be one example of how she deliberately tried to keep these forces in check. THE young medical student whom Ingrid married when she was 20 obviously was a very different person from herself. She probably was in love with him. but chances are that she also selected him instinctively for her mate because he could give her the stability she needed. Peter Lindstrom was an anchor for her. But the very qualities which originally attracted her — his steadiness, lack of emotionalism, soberness and conservatism— unavoidably began to pall on her at length. Ingrid. the artist, and Dr. Lindstrom, the surgeon, were too different from each other to remain t ruly happy together. Ingrid needed a certain amount of extravagance. She needed more than a rock of Gibraltar; more than just affection; more even than fame, security and wealth. She loneed to be fully alive again, to love and be loved, to laugh and cry, to rejoice — and. if necessary, even to suffer. Perhaps the crisis wouldn't have been quite so shattering if they had lived anywhere but in the tinsel atmosphere of Hollywood. "It's not that I disliked Hollywood."' she said recently. "I don't. It gave me a wonderful career and lots of money, and I'm grateful. But it was so dull! I often eot so continued on page 63 HER FILM career booming once more, Ingrid explains, "It never entered my head I'd encounter such bitterness and that I'd lose Pia." "'MY DECISION was a selfish one. I put my happiness first," candidly confesses Ingrid, here being assisted by director Jean Renoir.