The Bennetts: An Acting Family

Preface

Preface ix Preface When I was a student at Oregon State University, the English Department sponsored an every-Friday-night International Film Series . There I first encountered many marvelous foreign-language films of the period, including Bread and Chocolate, Spirit of the Beehive, Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000, and Seven Beauties . But occasionally the department’s interpretation of “international ” was opened up slightly, to include films of European-born directors working in Hollywood, such as Billy Wilder and Ernst Lubitsch. And one chilly Friday night in October 1978, the film shown was Fritz Lang’s The Woman in the Window. I became entranced with the movie on the spot, and ultimately it led me to many of the other glorious examples of 1940s film noir, including Lang’s startling Scarlet Street and Max Ophuls’s remarkable The Reckless Moment, both of which boasted the same leading lady, Joan Bennett. Ten years later, by this time launched on a career in journalism , I met Joan Bennett at her home in Scarsdale, New York. My encounter with her was memorable as well as slightly disappointing . She was courteous and charming, but fuzzy on details of her glamorous past, and she seemed apologetically conscious of this. Nevertheless, I was always aware that I was in the presence of a star: although she gave me very little information, her few deeptoned observations, mysterious silences, and long, slow drags on her Carltons somehow made a potent impression on me. I sensed that there was a great deal in what she wasn’t saying, and I decided to find out about it on my own. In the back of my mind was the vague notion that if what I discovered seemed interesting enough, I ⟈ Preface x might try to undertake a book about the entire family. As it turned out, it was, and I did. By the time I began my research in earnest in 1998, I had already read two books that were to be of the utmost importance to me. The first was The Bennett Playbill, Joan’s own history of her family, written with actress-author-director Lois Kibbee and published in 1970. It has proven a very useful guide to the Bennett family history. Matthew Bernstein’s admirable biography of Joan’s third husband, Walter Wanger: Hollywood Independent, surely one of the most painstakingly researched studies of exactly how films get made, was also a welcome anchor as I began work on my book. At numerous archives, my queries were placed in capable and trustworthy hands. For information on Richard Bennett’s early life, I am indebted to Martha Wright of the Indiana State Historical Society and Patricia Al-Wahaili of the Indiana State Library. I spent a fascinating week at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, where Walter Wanger’s papers are housed; there I received an enthusiastic reception from Maxine Ducey and her staff. I also owe deepest thanks to the staffs of the Film and Television Archives at the University of California at Los Angeles, the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, the Library of Congress, the Lilly Library at Indiana University, the Sterling Library at Yale University, and the motion picture department of The George Eastman House. Thanks also to Barbara Hall of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Annette Fern of the Harvard Theater Collection, Martin Jacobs of the Museum of the City of New York, Steve Wilson and the staff of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Collection at the University of Texas at Austin (in particular, my research proxy, Bill Fagelson), Sean D. Noel of the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University , Stephen Reynolds of the Duke of York’s Theatre, and Raymond Wemmlinger of the Hampden/Booth Theater Library of The Players . Special thanks to Ned Comstock of the University of Southern California Cinema and Television Archive. Ned did many special favors for me, including dredging up materials from USC’s Warner Preface xi Bros. archive and tracking down financial reports from Constance Bennett’s RKO years. I was unprepared for the generosity extended to me by many well-respected writers on film. Donald Spoto was among the first to encourage me to write about the Bennett family. I am also indebted to Jeanine Basinger, James Harvey, Roy Moseley, Robert Osborne, Barry Paris, Sam Staggs, James Watters, and most of all to Ronald L...