MovieChat Forums > Wild River (1960) Discussion > @24 year old Remick

@24 year old Remick

posted 18 years ago by buck5134
18 replies | jump to latest

When a movie character evokes the kind of feelings and emotion thought only possible in real life you can’t help but wonder. Yet as a young man I literally fell in love with Carol Garth Baldwin in Eli Kazan’s Wild River. Obviously you can’t help but be attracted to the beautiful Lee Remick yet it is her portrayal of a 23 year old widowed mother of two and the backdrop of this obscure little Tennessee town that sets the stage for one of the true loves of my life. Jack Palance’s character in City Slickers refers to a women he saw only once at a distance as being the love of his life and to this I can relate.
Remick would go on and do some notable work in the years that followed this 1960 production and sadly died much to young of cancer at age 55. Yet what she and Kazan were able to do with this story and character will always hold a place in my heart.
See Wild River, look into Carol’s eyes and smell the cool damp October air in her hair.
For me it will always be hauntingly magical.

[–] myrealitybites 17 years ago

Remick was always underrated and never more so than in Wild River.

[–] phowell1 17 years ago

Remick claimed this was her favorite of all her films.

[–] InfernoJones 17 years ago

Right on, Buck.

I'm with you Brother, Lee is so, so...

You want to just take her in your arms.

The electricity between her and M.C. is an example of what is best about movies.

I love WILD RIVER.

**********************

[–] cowboydesperado-1 16 years ago

the young Lee Remick in Wild River, Baby The Rain Must Fall and A Face in the Crowd--tough to think of a more beautiful actress...

'We all dream of being a child again - even the worst of us. Perhaps the worst most of all...'

[–] bob-larrance 9 years ago

I agree, and please toss in Anatomy of a murder, another one in which she radiated.

[–] cowboydesperado-1 16 years ago

re. the Palance memory in City Slickers--it reminded me of Everett Sloane's 'Bernstein' character in 'Citizen Kane' talking about the girl he saw in passing on the ferry when he was a young man...'not a day goes by that I don't think of that girl...' (quote as remembered)

such a moment, pregnant with possibilities, a perfect image--unspoiled by conversation, or any other distraction...mmm

vaya con dios

'We all dream of being a child again - even the worst of us. Perhaps the worst most of all...'

[–] blukins 15 years ago

So beautifully stated, buck5134. Ms. Remick has always been one of my favorite actors.

[–] FANatic-10 14 years ago

Have to agree with you - such a beautiful woman and such a sensitive actress too. It was a tragedy to lose her so young.

[–] odo5435 14 years ago

Two examples of Lee Remick's fine acting in this film, while not from particularly noteworthy scenes, stood out for me.

. Throughout the marriage scene, without hearing one word from her, the audience fully understands the various emotions Carol is feeling; and the expression on her face as she is led out by Chuck is both priceless and timeless.

. Again, no words spoken, but the look of hurt, regret, relief and confusion she portrays far outshines Clift's eforts as Grandma's house is being demolished.

That wasn't very sporting, using real bullets.

[–] Goodbye_Ruby_Tuesday 13 years ago

Lee Remick's haunting eyes are a reason alone to shoot the film in TechniColor. There's just something so sensual about her, the way she could illuminate the room just by standing in it, or how she could so inhabit a picture and understand her character and the tone she needs to deliver to the table. It's indeed impossible for both Monty Clift and the audience not to fall in love with her, this is probably her most sexual performance of all her characters, so feminine and down-to-earth with a hint of naivite, playing a widow who hasn't been with a man, emotionally or sexually, for over 3 years and simply melts at the touch of Clift's government man. She matches Clift's intensity and with the exception of Jack Lemmon, she was never better complimented by a leading man. There's a poetry that charges Remick's performance, the haunting love and yearning in her eyes.

"Tell me you can't get enough of me."
"I can't get enough of you."

Wild River was Remick's favorite of all the films she ever made, and I have yet to see a performance of hers this devoted and almost tailor-made for her.

Beauty is in the moment, which is something we always find out too late

[–] buck5134 13 years ago

A small budget and a vague script, a "has been" and a "new comer" led by a controversial director to an obscure little Tennessee town in the fall of 1959. May be it was chemistry may be just luck but what comes together is true Hollywood magic. The colors of fall, the sound of the rain, you don't see Chuck Glover you hold on to what was Montgomery Clift. Lee Remick becomes Carroll Garth and would keep her in her heart for the rest of her life. After so many successes Elia Kazan could never explain why this little movie held such a special place in his heart. I think for all of them it was that moment in time when you know you're part of something special and when it's over you realize you can never go back again. I don't know if this film will ever truly be appreciated but for many of us it will always rank among the very best. You don't just see Wild River you taste it, you smell it and you touch it.

[–] jinchelsea 12 years ago

I am watching WILD RIVER, in a beautiful widescreen Cinemascope restoration in the Elia Kazan career box, as I write this, and it is even better than I remembered from childhood. Paul Osborn's insightful script, Kazan's masterful direction, and the performances of Montgomery Clift, Jo Van Fleet and especially the breathtaking Lee Remick, make this one hell of a powerful, deeply felt film. It has been unfairly forgotten, lost in the shadow of other great Kazan films (ON THE WATERFRONT), and because Fox has ignored the film for years and allowed it to languish in undeserved obscurity. See this film; it will remain with you for a long time. And Lee Remick, who never got enough credit for her many amazing performances (DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, LONG HOT SUMMER, JENNIE) was already the consummate actress whose talent and beauty would carry her for another 30 years through many films not worth her time.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] buck5134 12 years ago

In 2011 I traveled to Charleston, Tenn. where the movie Wild River was filmed. I guess it was a kind of pilgrimage for me. I rode the ferry across the river and stood in the doorway of Carol's little white house. Amazingly 50 years after this movie was released much of this small town remains the same. The gas station is still there and so is the building where the mayors barber shop was located. I met many of the local people who had appeared in the film and heard numerous stories about that incredible time when Hollywood came to Charleston. Walking the dirt roads and standing on that porch looking down on the river was like the movie itself has always been for me, hauntingly magical. buck5134

[–] InfernoJones 12 years ago

^^^ AWESOME! ^^^

That must have been some time, Buck! <*> Thanks for sharing!

________________

[–] Errington_92 12 years ago

She gave a tenderness to her character which made us emphasis with her as a woman who still hadn't moved on from her husband's death. The scenes where Chuck comes on to Carol and she tries to isolate herself from the atmosphere, nothing is overstated. Her mannerisms showed the subtleness of her mindset, not knowing if she really wants to submit herself to him.

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".

[–] onleft23 12 years ago

imho lee remick in 'sometimes a great notion' is the single most
beautiful woman ever caught on screen

and that said w/ all due respect to grace kelly and deborah kerr in any movie
they ever appeared in

course this is all intensely non-objective but so is life no?

[–] PoliticallyIncorrectone 8 years ago

I'm surprised Alfred Hitchcock, who was obsessed with blondes, never made a movie with Lee Remick. She would have made a better Marnie than Tippi Hedren.