They Had CHUTZPAH


You have to hand it to Rosalind Russell and Alec Guinness – these guys took chances. While neither was particularly suited to their roles in A MAJORITY OF ONE, they managed to pull it off with sheer star chutzpah, and actually make this film enjoyable, despite the fact that it’s often a talk-marathon. The two stars are great fun to watch as their characters are first wary of each other and then warm to each other. Russell says in her autobiography that she wanted to use “other [acting] muscles” after AUNTIE MAME, although she had reservations when Jack Warner offered her the part of Mrs. Jacoby:

My muscles were put to the test when Jack Warner asked me to play the lead in A MAJORITY OF ONE.

“You’ve been drinking,” I said. “What would I be doing playing this Jewish lady from Brooklyn? I’m a little Irish girl from Waterbury, Connecticut. Use Gertrude Berg, it’s her part---“

“We’ll never use Gertrude Berg,” said Warner. “She made a picture over at Paramount years ago, and it was a disaster.”

“But that has nothing to do with this, “I said. “You’d be crazy to put me in that part, and I’d be crazy to take it.”

Jack Warner knew how to make an offer irresistible. “Would you like to play it with Sir Alec Guinness?”

“Well, that’s another cup of chicken soup,” I said. I’ll think about that little item.”

I reached Guinness by telephone at the Haymarket Theatre in London. He was starring in a play about Lawrence of Arabia, called ROSS. I asked him if he might really be coming to America to play the Japanese gentleman, Mr. Asano. “I want the dollars,” he said, so if you’ll do it, I’ll do it.”

“I want to work with you,” I said, so if you’ll do it, I’ll do it.”

Warner Brothers gave Guinness a trip to Japan, where he stayed for ten days studying manners and mannerisms, and then he came to Hollywood and Wardrobe did him up in a Japanese outfit and Makeup pulled his eyes way back in a slant, and he still made a pretty funny-looking Japanese.

It was enthralling to see him in action. He worked like a precision watch. If he did a scene twenty times, he’d be the same twenty times. He admitted that he practiced in from of a mirror. His style, slightly peculiar, rather remote, totally cerebral, fascinated me.

Russell doesn’t go into her preparations for Mrs. Jacoby, but I recall reading somewhere that she spent some time in Brooklyn, mingling amongst the Jewish housewives there, picking up mannerisms and vocal inflections (I don’t think Russell should have attempted an accent, though – she comes off sounding like Maria Ouspenskaya, and more than once I expected her to launch into “Even a man who is pure at heart . . .”).

Although neither actor is particularly comfortable in their role, and both often seem awkward, they actually play very well together, with Russell’s warmth making up for some of Guinness’s stiffness and coldness.

The final scene, ending in a toast between Russell and Guinness, indicating that their friendship will indeed continue to blossom, is beautifully staged and played, and has always stayed with me (cinematography by Harry Stradling Sr., music by the venerable Max Steiner).

"Stone-cold sober I find myself absolutely fascinating!"---Katharine Hepburn

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Harold Robbins, thanks so much for your post, probably the best one on this board

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Very interesting. Thank you.

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Hey, I never realized Guiness had appeared in a play about T.E. Lawrence. I assume he played a role other than the one he played in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.

"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"

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