Hawks on Hawks

24. Walter Brennan

132 24 walter Brennan I firmly believe that the camera likes some people and the camera dislikes other people. Somebody that the camera likes has an awful time doing wrong. Somebody that the camera dislikes has not got a chance in the world. If you look at my career, you’ll find that I like actors less than I do personalities. Bogart was a great actor, but he was also a hell of a personality . Muni was a great actor but not a real personality; he interpreted things, he did them the way the writer wrote them. Eddie Robinson wasn’t half as good an actor as he was supposed to be, but he was a hell of a personality , and he could be egged into doing things. But I think Walter Brennan was the greatest example of a personality that I’ve ever used. Once you look at him you start to laugh. When I was casting Barbary Coast, a very smart production man said, “You know that character you were talking about the other day? I know somebody exactly like that.” I said, “Well, why don’t I see him?” “This fellow hasn’t done anything. I don’t think he’s ever spoken a line. He’s just an extra man, but, my God, he’s just what you described. I don’t know whether he can act or anything.” And I said, “Bring him in, but put him into costume, give him some lines. It’ll save some time. I won’t have to see him two or three times.” So he brought in Walter Brennan, and I looked at him and laughed. I said, “Mr. Brennan, did they give you some lines?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “Do you know them?” “Uh-huh.” “Do you want to read them?” And he said, “With or without?” I said, “With or without what?” He said, “Teeth.” He was in then. He didn’t have to read the lines. I laughed again and said, “Without.” He turned around, took his teeth out, turned back around, and started talking to me. He was supposed to work three days, and I kept him a month doing “Old Atrocity.” The next picture I put him in [Come and Get It], the writer described him as “the strongest man in the North woods.” Here was this little Brennan. He got an Academy Award for walter Brennan 133 playing in that. He worked in six pictures for me, and he had parts in only two of the pictures. The rest of the time I’d just call him up. He didn’t worry about it—he’d do anything you wanted him to do. I’d say, “Walter, I’ve got a picture.” “Fine,” he said, “I’ll be over tomorrow.” And he’d come over, and he’d say, “Where’s the contract?” I’d say, “I haven’t got a contract yet.” “Oh, I want to sign a contract.” I said, “OK,” and the next day he came in, signed the contract, and said, “Now tell me the story.” And I said, “Now, you so-and-so, I don’t have to tell you the story. I’ve got a contract with you.” He read the story, and he came in and said, “Gee, that’s a great story. What part do I play?” “Oh,” I said, “there’s one line in the script, it says, ‘The cook’s name is Groot.’ That’s the part you’re gonna play.” He said, “What do we do?” I said, “Remember how we met, that ‘with or without teeth’? Well, at the beginning of the cattle drive, you’re gonna lose your teeth in a poker game with an Indian. Then every time you want to eat, you’re gonna have to get ’em back from the Indian.” “Oh,” he said, “we can’t do that.” That was Red River. We just made up every scene that he was in. But those kind of people are very few and far between. There are some people who have a quality of going in where you need somebody. No matter what your story is, they make it better, and I try to use those people. In Twentieth Century, the little fellow [Etienne Girardot] ran around the train pasting slogans on the backs Walter Brennan as “Old Atrocity” in Barbary Coast, the first of his six roles for Hawks. [3.22.248.208] Project MUSE (2024...