How could Tyrone Power . . .

Unfortunately, Power often expressed dissatisfaction about his career. He felt the roles he was usually given at Fox, where he spent most of his professional life, relied too much on his looks and charm and didn't give him room to really stretch as an actor. This is why he began taking time off to do stage work from the early 50s, because the theatre gave him better, more diverse roles and much more leeway to explore his talent, and like most actors he enjoyed the immediacy of connecting with his audience through stage work. His preference for the theatre was so great that he withdrew from Fox's The Robe, even though it was clearly going to be a major film (and the first released in CinemaScope). Power's box office was down in those years and a big hit would have helped him, but his priority was finding work that interested him, which mostly meant the theatre.

One of his early stage roles in this period was in the lead in the London production of Mister Roberts. Critics who saw both this version and Henry Fonda's New York original thought that Power was actually better, though this very American play was not particularly successful with British audiences.

Still, Power was too hard on himself. In an interview he gave just before departing for Spain in 1958 to film Solomon and Sheba, Power said there were only four films in his entire career that he was "proud of": Blood and Sand, Nightmare Alley, Abandon Ship and Witness for the Prosecution. I think Power made the mistake many film people and critics made in that era, equating a film's quality with its supposed "importance". Most of the films Power was looking to do at the time of his death were rather weighty, self-important projects, to be produced by his own company, Copa. I think he and most people at that time underestimated the value and quality of supposed "entertainment" pictures, which may not have been considered the "important" films of their day but which are now recognized as solid works of art in their own right...many better than some of those films that were considered so "important" in the 30s or 40s or 50s. Surely many other of Power's films, including Lloyd's of London, In Old Chicago, Jesse James, The Mark of Zorro, The Black Swan, The Razor's Edge, The Long Gray Line, The Sun Also Rises and many others are generally viewed as extremely good films today.

King Vidor, who directed Solomon and Sheba, said long afterward, "With Power, it would have been a marvelous picture. Without him, it became just an unimporatnt, nothing sort of film." Vidor meant that Power understood the complexities of Solomon's character and was giving a nuanced performance, whereas his replacement, Yul Brynner, simply played him as a macho character. I don't know that under any circumstances S&S would have been a "marvelous" picture, but from the outtakes I've seen of Power's performance, he was indeed vastly better than Brynner. (Ironically, Power's father, Tyrone Sr., died of a heart attack on a movie set in 1931, the same fate that would befall his son 27 years later.)

I agree, Power merited at least an Oscar nomination for The Long Gray Line. It's fascinating to see how uncannily effective he is in portraying old age, an age he himself would never reach. Watch him in the final scene, just in long shot, as he briefly breaks ranks during the cadets' tribute to him to shake hands with the corps commander. His entire demeanor is that of an old man, done with amazing subtlety and skill. Power always believed his best film performance came in Nightmare Alley, a film he pressured a reluctant Darryl Zanuck to do, and which the studio dumped on the market and withdrew pretty quickly. Power probably deserved a nomination for that film too.

All this said, I'll close by admitting that, though I am a great fan of Power and student of his career, in truth, I don't think he was a truly great actor. A very good one, often capable of really excellent performances under the right circumstances, but overall a man whose success was as much a product of his hard work at bettering himself as an actor and his utter dedication to his profession as it was of his innate talent. He was serious about acting as a career in a way few actors are. But there were many actors of greater depth and skill. This is not to put him down in any way, for Power himself realized he needed to grow as an actor, to try to reach levels he hadn't before, and this self-awareness and effort to improve his talents were really quite remarkable. But one can be a fan and admirer while acknowledging certain shortcomings in the man's abilities.

By the way, I'm often chided because one of my favorite Power films -- certainly far from his best, just one I like -- is The Black Rose from 1950. It got only so-so reviews and isn't especially well rated today, but there's something remote and mysterious and of its time about it that I find quite appealing, and I think Power was very good in this underrated film as well.

If only he hadn't been such a heavy smoker and had taken better care of his heart. How ironic that Power only took the role in Solomon as part of a two-picture deal that enabled him to do Witness for the Prosecution and co-produce and share in the profits from Solomon, even though he hated costume epics and was trying to get away from them.