He was 41 (the same age at the time as Tyrone Power who died three years later) and I always wondered why he never got star billing. I watch this with sadness as John died of a heart attack (coronary thrombosis) less than two weeks after this film's release. Thank goodness his last film "On the Threshold of Space" was near completion that they didn't have to re-shoot his parts.
shareI like John Hodiak too but I don't think this is his best film, at least from the standpoint of his own role. In fact, he's pretty much wasted here in an innocuous part that any decent actor could handle. I think Metro cast him mainly because he still owed them a picture on his contract. Compared to the other performers here, his role, and performance, were pretty bland.
I think his best film and performance was in Lifeboat, the movie that more or less made him a star. He did get a few top billings, but these were either around the end of the war, or on lesser films later in his career (Mission Over Korea, for instance). For whatever reasons, he just never seemed like star material to most audiences or studio execs.
Hodiak portrayed Lt. Maryk on Broadway in "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" in 1953, opposite Henry Fonda as Barney Greenwald and Lloyd Nolan as Captain Queeg, and got good reviews. It would have been interesting to see how his career would have gone had he lived into the 60s, and even beyond.
He suffered from hypertension (which was why he was 4F during the war) and was a heavy smoker, not exactly good for his heart. I thought he died exactly one week after Trial premiered -- while shaving in the bathroom of his parents' house, where he was temporarily living, before going over to Fox to shoot On the Threshold of Space. I've often wondered how the cast and crew of that movie took the news of his sudden death that day, and how much of the film he had yet to complete. The finished movie doesn't give any obvious indication of having been significantly changed in any way due to his passing, so I suspect he had little left to shoot.
I always thought there was something a bit poignant in the fact that his last film had a somewhat prophetic-sounding title, summoning the dawn of a new era that Hodiak himself would never live to see. Not a bad film, and he was very good in it -- a much better and more unusual role than his one in Trial.
Smoking probably explains why he looked older than he was.
shareCertainly. That was true of a lot of actors from that era who smoked heavily, including Tyrone Power.
shareAnd Robert Taylor.
shareYou know, I almost mentioned Taylor, but he didn't go downhill quite as quickly as Hodiak and Power. Plus he was three years older and outlived them by over a decade. But you're right, smoking caught up with him soon enough.
John Hodiak didn't look too bad until his last year or so. In Trial he certainly looked haggard and drawn. Interestingly, I once saw one of those old MGM television programs from 1955 (hosted by George Murphy), which they always rerun at 5:30 in the morning on TCM, in which Hodiak dropped by to show a clip from Trial. He actually looked much better than he had in the movie, much more spry, healthy and frankly younger-looking, and this has to have been only a few weeks before his death.
In his final film, On the Threshold of Space, he was playing a character apparently slightly older than his actual age, so they grayed his hair a little and gave him wire-rim glasses to wear. Even with that make-up, he looked and sounded healthier there than he had in Trial. Color might have helped his appearance in his last film too.
"On the Threshold of Space" was completed a week after Hodiak's death according to one source. I agree his part could have been written better in "Trial". Too much was focused on Arthur Kennedy's part. Hodiak did look every bit of his 41 years.
shareYes, that sounds about right for On the Threshold of Space. He couldn't have had much left to do if they released the movie without any apparent, or at least significant, changes. There must have been some changes made since he did have some work left to do but overall the film gives no indication of suffering from his loss. And apparently there were no post-production issues that affected his part (having to loop in his lines, for example), at least nothing of any consequence.
Compare that situation with the death of Robert Walker just days before finishing My Son John in 1951. Director Leo McCarey had to re-write the entire ending and use very clumsy and obvious-looking insert shots of Walker from Strangers on a Train in order to avoid re-shooting the entire film -- which turned out to be a dreadful piece of junk anyway.
Arthur Kennedy's role in Trial was unavoidably the showy one, and Kennedy was excellent in it. The role of the D.A. was a necessary but ultimately bland one -- there's just nothing for that character to do. I'm glad it was a good and successful movie and it's one of my favorites, but no one could have made much out of the basically two-dimensional role of District Attorney Armstrong.
Hodiak did look at least 41, but back then most people tended to look what today we'd consider older than their years. Bad habits (mainly smoking), diet and other issues can and often do take their toll on people's appearances. Plus Hodiak obviously had to have some underlying heart issues to have died so swiftly and suddenly.
Incidentally, I forgot to mention it in my first reply to your original post, but Hodiak was not the same age as Tyrone Power was when he died in 1958. Power was 44. Both he and Hodiak were born the same year, 1914. In fact, Hodiak, born April 16, 1914, was just nineteen days older than Power, born on May 5. (This is their centennial year, if you can believe it.) Power also looked older than his age in his last year or so, as his health deteriorated.
I think Hodiak was intending to appear in a television production of "Caine Mutiny Court Martial" that aired in November 1955 and was directed by Charles Laughton, who had directed the Broadway production and also had Lloyd Nolan reprising his role as Queeg. At the end of the performance, Laughton appeared on camera to give a tribute to Hodiak.
shareNow that's interesting -- I never heard that. Back then studios and networks really hated making tributes to deceased actors. Better to pretend nothing was amiss. Do you know who wound up playing Maryk on the show? I know Hodiak was dismayed not to be asked to play the part in The Caine Mutiny -- not quite the same thing, of course, but the same character.
shareFrank Lovejoy played Maryk in the production while Barry Sullivan played Greenwald. The program aired on November 19, 1955 as part of the Ford Star Jubilee.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0581148/combined
One correction. Franklin J. Schaffner directed the broadcast but it was based on Laughton's stage production and Laughton did receive a screen credit for that in addition to appearing at the end with his tribute to Hodiak.
Thank you! I wonder if a kinescope or other recording of that show exists. Probably not. I would have also liked to have seen the stage production with Henry Fonda, Nolan and Hodiak. The era of the golden sunset that seemed a new dawn for Broadway's legitimate theater.
shareOh it exists. I wouldn't have known about the Laughton tribute if I hadn't seen it on my own copy. 😃
shareWell, you might have known about the Laughton tribute from reading about it...like I did!
Can this show be bought anywhere?
PM your address and you can have a copy of mine. I got it in a collectors trade over 20 years ago and then converted it to DVD.
The opening three minutes is on YT here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfPO2OQhSdo
Well, we'll discuss your terrific offer via PM in a while, E.
I looked at the YouTube clip. An interesting credit -- "As Directed for the Stage by Charles Laughton". It makes it sound as though Franklin J. Schaffner did nothing other than imitate Laughton, which given the differences in the medium isn't possible (camera vs. stage).
Also, the producer/presenter Paul Gregory was the man who produced The Night of the Hunter, directed by Laughton, as well as at least one stage play also directed by Laughton (it may have been John Brown's Body, staged in evening dress by the cast, which included Tyrone Power; but I may have the wrong play). I didn't know he also had his hand in television.
ADDENDUM: I checked out Gregory's credits here on IMDb. It seems this TV play is one of only four film or television productions he did. The only other film he made was The Naked and the Dead in 1958. He did 17 stage productions, however, five directed by Laughton, but IMDb only specifies The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. I was right, he did do John Brown's Body, with Power and Judith Anderson.
Gregory was also married to Lillian Gish -- hence her casting in The Night of the Hunter. I was surprised by that, since he was 27 years younger than Gish! I was also surprised to find out he's still alive, age 94 now. He was born August 27, 1920, which was four years to the day before my father, or Lyndon Johnson's 12th birthday if you prefer. I guess Lillian's longevity genes must have rubbed off, or something to that effect.
It could well be that the actors were all going by the blockings Laughton did for the stage production whereas Schaffner, being skilled at TV, would have known which camera set-ups to use for that. Just a bit of speculation there.
My pleasure to offer something this Christmas season! Look forward to hearing from you on that.
That clip certainly reminded me of how clunky and claustrophobic live TV could be. I was waiting for the traveling camera to bump into the walls or hit the actors on their noses!
Talk with you later.
Hobnob 53--oops I worded it wrong--John Hodiak and Tyrone Power were the same age by year of birth (1914) but yes Ty was 44 not 41 when he died. And when posted that people looked older back then, that is for sure. When someone hit 60 back then, they were considered elderly and many looked it but not so much now unless someone's lived a very hard or rough life. Show biz often falls under that category, LOL.
shareHi fbm -- No, I figured you meant they were the same age because they were born the same year, 1914, not the same age when they died. Hodiak was actually less than three weeks older than Ty Power -- he was born April 16 and Power May 5. Power survived him by just over three years: Hodiak died October 19, 1955, Power November 15, 1958.
Both men were heavy smokers which unquestionably must have made their heart conditions worse, but Hodiak seems to have been aware of at least some of his health issues more than Power, since Hodiak knew he suffered from hypertension, while Power had no particular symptoms of ill health until he suddenly collapsed while filming Solomon and Sheba (although an EKG he had had prior to filming SAS had indicated some heart irregularity, though it wasn't considered serious). But given the limitations of medical knowledge and treatment even in the 50s, and the fact that so many people smoked with no understanding of its effects on the heart (quite apart from cancer, emphysema and so on), it isn't surprising that 1958 is still the peak year for death from heart attacks in U.S. history.
The other coincidence is that both Hodiak and Power were in the midst of filming movies when they died. Hodiak at least had shot enough of On the Threshold of Space so that the movie could be released with him in it (although you can tell that final sequence probably had the other actors picking up lines that would have been Hodiak's, since he's rather oddly seen only in the background in a few shots). Unfortunately Power hadn't completed enough of Solomon and Sheba for that film to be released with him, so they re-shot it with Yul Brynner. The film's director, King Vidor, for one, felt that Power had been better in the part and that the film would have been more successful with him than it was with Brynner. I've seen a few clips from Power's work on that picture and definitely agree that he was better than Brynner.