A Star Who Deserves To Be Reborn

‘James Mason: The Movie Star Hollywood Forgot’By Madeline King PorterUniversity Press of Mississippi, 272 pagesI first became aware of James Mason watching him in the late 1950s on a small black-and-white television screen. Mason’s riveting star-making performance in “Odd Man Out” (1947) haunted me. He plays Johnny McQueen, an Irish nationalist in harrowing scenes of a man on the run. The film eschews politics for the most part, concentrating on McQueen’s existential flight.Then on my tour of England in 1963 with an acting group, I met the man by happenstance in The Tower of London and announced to him: “I’m an actor too.” James Mason couldn’t have been more charming and curious about what this 15-year-old brash American was doing in England performing Shakespeare. He wanted to see for himself, and I was crestfallen, having to tell him we were leaving England the next day.My story would not be worth telling except that it confirms what Madeline King Porter has to say about a brilliant actor who opened himself up to the world and to an extraordinary variety of roles that his fellow stars were afraid to touch. Cary Grant turned down the role of Norman Main, a has-been actor who commits suicide in “A Star is Born.” Grant did not want to associate his persona with such a character. Not a problem for James Mason, who fearlessly shows Main as boorish and heartrending and fun: Watch the scene when he does a little dance with Judy Garland. Mason shows why Main is lovable but also beyond redemption.Several leading men turned down the unseemly role of Humbert Humbert obsessed with 12-year-old Lolita. Mason’s admission that it was “the part I had in fact longed to play since I read of Humbert’s strange fancies in Nabokov’s great novel.” Ms. Porter comments: “What actor in his right mind would take a chance playing a character who was, to put it bluntly, a child molester? That would be James Mason. Undaunted as usual, he didn’t fear putting himself—or his career—on the line.”Look, though, at Mason’s wording: “strange fancies.” Doesn’t that sound harmless, perhaps only a little eccentric? And isn’t that the key to how he played the role, investing his character with a humanity that is part of his perversity? Not only did Mason never reject taking risky parts, in a series of articles he attacked movie producers for their ineptitude and never worried that he might jeopardize his livelihood.James Mason pictured at New York in February 1982. Via Oscar Abolafia/TPLP/Getty ImagesMs. Porter shows how Mason deftly made the transition from leading man to character actor, deliberately, in one case, aging himself so as to get a role. Producers and critics were slow to appreciate his courage and genius, which accounts for this book’s subtitle. Many of Mason’s overlooked performances have been re-evaluated, she reports, as the understanding of his consummate acting has grown.Mason was married twice and both wives were excellent managers of his career, though perhaps sometimes taking too much credit for his success. Mason had his share of affairs, apparently, but was too much of a gentleman to say what they were, and Ms. Porter is just as circumspect, surveying the possibilities but never indulging in salacious speculation.The methodology of this biography is worth noticing. The first part is a swift and shrewd narrative of Mason’s life and key roles, followed by a comprehensive survey of his body of work, taking into account not merely what he was able to accomplish but also the critical reputation of the films and — when significant — a commentary on why certain films ignored at their release have become much admired and highly rated.Throughout this biography Mason’s decency, sensitivity, and ability to work with all sorts of directors and actors is truly impressive. Ms. Porter makes good use of his autobiography while noting the substantial gaps and reticence befitting an actor who never made himself the issue, never believed in anything but the role he was playing, so that he denied any of the James Masons on the screen bore much resemblance to the person he actually was.Aspects of James Mason eluded even his closest friends and wives. Ms. Porter does not pretend it could be otherwise for an actor who put everything he really had to say on the screen.Mr. Rollyson is the author of ‘Ronald Colman: Hollywood’s Gentleman Hero.‘

A Star Who Deserves To Be Reborn

A Star Who Deserves To Be Reborn

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