‘Dashing to the End: The Ray Milland Story’
By Eric Monder
University Press of Mississippi, 391 Pages

Welsh-born Ray Milland (born Alfred Reginald Jones) was indeed dashing in the tradition of gentleman heroes that Ronald Colman exemplified and that actors of Milland’s generation sought to emulate. Milland distinguished himself as a sardonic character, which is perhaps why Billy Wilder chose him for the risky role of alcoholic Don Birnam in “The Lost Weekend.”

Milland had an aloof manner similar to Robert Mitchum’s, which is perhaps why Milland dared to play a role that many leading men (wanting audiences to admire them) would have passed by. Don Birnam is not easy to like, and as producer Darryl Zanuck said, Hollywood movies had to present stories and stars that excited a rooting interest.

John Wayne was perplexed when Kirk Douglas took on the role of the anxious Vincent Van Gogh. Why would a romantic leading man play a character so vulnerable? It just wasn’t done. Milland, a meticulous artist, studied alcoholics while preparing for “The Lost Weekend” even as studio executions dreaded the “major gamble” the film represented.

Milland, like any star, wanted to please audiences, but on his terms. Billy Wilder seems to have detected the independence that contributed to Milland’s singularity. Eric Monder drenches us in all the details of Milland’s preparation for “The Lost Weekend” and other films, such as “The Major and the Minor” (another Wilder film) and “The Last Tycoon,” in which he is teamed with Mitchum in scenes that had them exposing the corrupt inner workings of the Hollywood studio system.

One of the overriding themes of Mr. Monder’s book is the phenomenon of stardom and how actors cope with it. In Milland’s case, those dashing roles in his prime inevitably disappeared as he aged and his hair fell out. Milland carried on in a variety of projects, and in that sense never abandoned his dashing persona.

This is the first biography of Milland, yet it is likely to become the standard work because of its comprehensiveness. Appendices include lists of feature film appearances, major television appearances in made-for-TV movies, major radio appearances, major stage appearances, and films Milland directed.

Milland was a consummate professional who always had to keep working, even if that meant taking on roles that were minor in productions that were forgettable. Another kind of biographer might well have neglected some of this work, but Mr. Monder wants to explore every aspect of his subject.

Chapter titles trace the arc of Milland’s career: “False starts, True Romance (1930-1936), “In the Shadow of Cary Grant (1936-1940),” “A War Begins … A Star is Born (1940-1943),” “At Paramount’s Peak (1944-1945).” Later chapters focus on the less well-known side of “The Cold War Auteur (1955-1963),” and the concluding chapters reckon with the whole career.

Who could have foreseen decades later Ray Milland in “The Last Tycoon” as Mort Fleishacker, a New York lawyer for studio boss Pat Brady (Robert Mitchum), “a thinly veiled Louis B. Mayor,” MGM’s tyrannical mogul, Mr. Monder suggests, concluding: “it is refreshing to see these two old pros enact a bond of understated corporate arrogance.”

“The Last Tycoon” was fabled director Elia Kazan’s last film, and though it has been called a flop, watching not only Milland and Mitchum but Dana Andrews drop in for a scene make the film a must see for anyone intrigued with Hollywood history.

This biography is no hagiography. Mr. Monder is obliged to deal with Tony Curtis’s allegation that Milland was antisemitic. Mr. Monder evaluates the evidence, which is meager, and neither dismisses it nor accepts it, rightly implying that there is simply no way to reach a definitive judgment.

Most reviewers ignore blurbs, but it is hard not to be impressed by renowned film critic Molly Haskel’s endorsement of a book “we’ve been waiting for” of a star who “brought a dark shadow self to his matinee idol roles,” or that of a Tony award-winning playwright, David Rabe, who lauds an “engrossing biography” that portrays an “ambitious, serious, sometimes times turbulent” career, reflective of a “rebellious psyche behind a perhaps too placid veneer.”

Mr. Rabe’s comment captures the subtle, sometimes hidden drama of Milland’s roles and his off-screen life, which now have been conjoined in Eric Monder’s splendid achievement.

Mr. Rollyson is the author of “Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews” and “Ronald Colman: Hollywood’s Gentleman Hero.”