Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice

Introduction

 introduction roddy mcdowall was in awe of Claude Rains. Both were English actors transplanted to Hollywood, but somehow they had never met, socially or professionally. McDowall had started his American career as a juvenile performer for MGM, while Rains worked primarily for Warner Bros., and their paths had simply never crossed. McDowall was one of thousands of British children evacuated to America in 1940 during the Blitz. Rains had already been in the States for more than a decade, but at the height of World War II he had returned to London via military transport to give one of his signature screen roles in Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra. Their lives, careers, and screen personae couldn’t have been more different , though they did have a few things in common. One was an elegant former juvenile star; the other, an elegant and mature character actor, one of the most celebrated in the world, who had begun his own career as a juvenile stage manager and performer. One was gay, the other straight—having lived through six marriages by the early 1960s when they finally met. Offscreen, McDowall had become a noted photographer of Hollywood personalities, and he was especially eager for a portrait sitting with the man who had first electrified the world over thirty years earlier with his appearance (or disappearance) as The Invisible Man and who had gone on to act with distinction in a constellation of major films, including Anthony Adverse, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Casablanca, Now, Voyager, Mr. Skeffington, Notorious, Lawrence of Arabia, and dozens of others. If it was a classic film, there was a good chance Claude Rains had something to do with it. “He was perfect,” said McDowall. “There’s this very small group of actors who seemingly never made a mistake: Walter Huston, Spencer C l a u D e R a i n S  Tracy, Henry Fonda, and Claude Rains. And if the material was minor they elevated it with incredibly shrewd invention. And if the material was major they just illuminated the author’s intent right to the boundaries.” McDowall and Rains met at the home of their mutual friend, actor Richard Haydn. Haydn, an accomplished comedian, kept up a steady stream of amusing patter during the shoot. “It isn’t really difficult to photograph anybody on first encounter if you are engaged in conversation ,” McDowall said. “To photograph Claude was like a dream come true. He was like a little pixie. He was laughing, which seldom happens in photographs. It was one of the great faces ever in the movies. It was also the most volatile face. I mean, the lines were so terrific, just terrific. It was like Mount Rushmore.” About six months after their photo session, McDowall answered his doorbell in New York City. “And there was Claude Rains standing there. I said, come in, sit down, stay. Stay a decade if you want!” McDowall laughed. Rains had the photos McDowall had taken. Could he have some copies made? “I was thrilled. But, I asked, why didn’t you just call me up? He said he wanted to ask me this favor in person. It was so sweet. And we sat for a couple of hours and talked. I remember an essence about him. He was then a very sad man. We talked about his wife, who had just died. And I think the photos reveal a lot of his wit and melancholia and also this tremendous fierceness, like a lion, that Rains had. Everything else seemed to float on top of it. It was always capped. But you knew that if you poked him he could wipe you off the face of the earth.” Four decades earlier, Rains had another fervent acolyte in the person of John Gielgud, who was then a gangly, insecure acting student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where Rains was his “primary and most inspiring” instructor. Both men’s careers would gravitate from stage to screen. “Any actor who is very well trained in straight theatre can adapt very quickly to the movies if they have directors who are sympathetic ,” said Gielgud. “I was very self-conscious in all my early films and very ashamed of them. But as Claude was a very showy actor, it must have been quite difficult for him to temper it down to exactly the right tempo. But he obviously knew exactly how to do it and learned it more and more as he...