So Why Act?

Leslie Howard was one of the few actors in Hollywood during the "studio system" to refuse long-term contracts. He had a specific idea of the types of pictures he wanted to make and he didn't want to be forced to do films he thought were beneath the audience. Howard took on the roles that other actors refused--roles they said the audience wouldn't understand. But Howard thought the audience was smarter than previously believed and that they wanted something different.

Howard wanted to direct. He wanted to make pictures that challenged the audience. He had written, produced and directed plays in school and on the stage in London and New York. He thought that to be a successful movie director "one should either write the story or collaborate on it." He didn't see his acting performances as accomplishments at all. But the plotting of pictures "according to scenic effects and camera angles" and seeing this through to production, that was an accomplishment. Acting was just a means to an end.

[Leslie Howard directing Spitfire, aka
The First of the Few, 1942]

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Too Tall for Leslie

Rehearsals began for The Animal Kingdom in November 1931. The play was to appear at the Broadhurst Theatre beginning in January, 1932. Leslie, the co-producer, was set to play Tom Collier and Bill Gargan had secured the part of his butler friend, "Red" Regan.

Katharine Hepburn had been cast in the part of Daisy Sage, Tom Collier's bohemian girlfriend. Hepburn only lasted through six days of rehearsal, though. According to Hepburn's biography, Me: Stories of My Life, she blamed Howard for her demise stating that she was too tall for him and that he was afraid she would run away with the play. In fact, Hepburn was at least three inches shorter than Howard and anyone who has studied Howard would know that he wouldn't care who emerged as the bigger star. As a matter of fact, the play's co-producer, Gilbert Miller, and the playwright, Philip Barry, thought Hepburn all wrong for the part. Even Bill Gargan noted that she was too inexperienced for the role which called for a passive femininity. A year later her performance in The Lake was panned by all the New York critics. Dorothy Parker wrote in The New Yorker that "she ran the gamut of emotions from A to B." [from Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor by Estel Eforgan]

Katharine didn't seem to hold a grudge though, as seen in the photo below.

[Leslie Howard and Katharine Hepburn
leaving a private screening at Jessie Lasky's
beach home in Santa Monica, May 12, 1933]

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Adoring Leslie Howard

Leslie Howard and Ingrid Bergman in Intermezzo: A Love Story, 1939.

Ok, I just had to add this one because it strikes me that I would look at him just like that if he was sitting next to me.

[Leslie Howard and Ingrid Bergman in
Intermezzo: A Love Story, 1939]

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Beginnings and Endings

Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Edna Best, Ann E. Todd, Cecil Kellaway and John Halliday in Intermezzo: A Love Story, 1939.

This was Ingrid Bergman's introduction to Hollywood and except for Gone With The Wind released later the same year, Leslie Howard's last. The plane in which he was a passenger would be shot down by a Luftwaffe fighter pilot over the Bay of Biscay on June 1, 1943, before he could return to the United States.

Intermezzo: A Love Story, 1939

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Al Sack, Violinist

Leslie Howard, Ann E. Todd and Ingrid Bergman in Intermezzo: A Love Story, Produced by David O. Selznick, 1939.

In this scene where you see Leslie Howard playing the violin you are actually seeing the left hand of Al Sack, a violinist who bore a striking resemblance to Leslie Howard, from a distance. It is hard to imagine that Mr. Sack could kneel in back of Leslie Howard, reach his arm around him, and still look authentic. Sack did teach Mr. Howard the proper posture and bowing technique, but the finger movements are all his. Al Sack also appears in the long shots where it seems that Leslie Howard is playing the violin from a standing position.

Intermezzo: A Love Story, 1939

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Intermezzo and Gone With The Wind

Leslie Howard and Ann E. Todd in Intermezzo: A Love Story, 1939. Howard only agreed to play Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind because David O. Selznick gave him an Associate Producer credit for Intermezzo.

[Leslie Howard and Ann E. Todd in Intermezzo: A Love Story, 1939]

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You Call That Praise?

Leslie Howard's performance as Hamlet was not favored by The Lewiston Daily Sun, November 17, 1936. Although the crowds appeared for opening night, the play only lasted through thirty-nine performances.

Howard said of his performance, “There is a terrible penalty attached to acting Hamlet. Comparisons are unavoidable, not only with the present but with memories of the past. Worst of all is the conception which each person has placed upon the character. There is something in Hamlet which each of us could use. Hamlet belongs to all men and therefore nobody will receive 100% approval.”

Leslie Howard's Hamlet Praised

[Leslie Howard in Hamlet, 1936]

Hamlet - Producer, Director, Actor
Imperial Theatre
November 10, 1936 thru December 1936
Performances: 39

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Leslie Howard vs. John Gielgud

Leslie Howard produced, directed and starred as Hamlet which only ran at the Imperial Theatre, New York, for 39 performances between November 10 through December, 1936. Why? Because Howard set it up five blocks away from the theatre that had been housing John Gielgud's Hamlet for a month and because Howard had the jitters opening night and received some not so favorable reviews. If only the critics had come back on the second night. Howard received very favorable reviews in the out-of-town run up in Boston and afterwards on tour.

[Leslie Howard in Hamlet, 1936]

Hamlet - Producer, Director, Actor
Imperial Theatre
November 10, 1936 thru December 1936
Performances: 39

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Bookworms

Leslie Howard publicity photo for Bookworms, a silent movie written by A.A. Milne, directed by Howard's friend, Adrian Brunel, and produced by Leslie Howard and his British Comedy Films (later Minerva Films) in 1920.

Watch the film here: Bookworms, 1920.

[Leslie Howard in Bookworms, 1920]

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Leslie Howard, Director

Leslie Howard directing Spitfire (released in the US as The First of the Few), 1942

[Leslie Howard directing Spitfire, 1942]

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