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Miss Miles

posted 11 years ago by pouncemo
5 replies | jump to latest

Confusion over the scene where Hitchcock asks Vera Miles why she left him. Two things:

1. Did he really think he could have made her as big a star as Grace Kelly? Does anyone else think that possible?

I'm a huge fan of Vera Miles, but I also see why Grace is an icon. She was a type, or stereotype, and Vera was not. The general audience responds to and embraces 'types'.

2. And, why did the camera linger on the name plate on the door of her dressing room?

I didn't get to really watch the film, but listened while copying it. Did the audience not really know who she was? Or was it to emphasize that 'Miss Miles' came that close to having Hitch make her as big a star as Grace Kelly?

Hoping to really watch this film, but will still have same questions.

[–] franzkabuki 7 years ago

As big as Grace Kelly? Probably not. On a related note though I've always wondered why did Hitch want to cast Miles so badly in Vertigo as it would seem she's not really the right type at all - she's too "warm" and ordinary in a way, lacking Kim Novak's iconic cool aloofness.

"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan

[–] pouncemo 7 years ago

Thanks for your reply. I totally get what you mean, that Kim seemed more unusual and therefore right for the role. I'm not a fan of Kim Novak's acting, but in terms of broad audience appeal, I think Kim was right for Vertigo.

I think Hitch was that much "in love" with Vera that he wanted her that badly for Vertigo.

Vera also had an unusual quality; at first blush, she could seem ordinary, but a volcano (forgive the cliche) underneath.

Also, I think Hitchcock wanted Vera because she was a much better actress than Kim, who seemed wooden and monotone. Vera had depth and subtlety. Warm or icy cool, Vera also had that air of class and sophistication - every inch the lady.

Kim was a bombshell more than a sophisticate and that helped the audience to instantly "get" the obsession James Stewart (or any man) would have for Kim.

[–] roger1 (2270) 2 months ago

Hitchcock made three films in a row with Grace Kelly -- Dial M for Murder(1953), Rear Window(1954) and To Catch a Thief(1955.)

All three were hits -- Rear Window was one of the greatest films Hitchcock ever made, and the biggest hit of the three, and the final of the Grace Kelly films(To Catch a Thief) paired her more appropriately with suave Cary Grant than folksy James Stewart.

It seems that Hitchcock was prepared to use Grace Kelly in EVERY movie -- he had her pencilled in for the female leads of both The Trouble With Harry and The Man Who Knew Too Much ---but she went and married the Prince of Monaco, became Princess Grace of Monaco , moved to Europe and left movies entirely.

One suspects that Hitchcock felt adrift immediately. The Trouble With Harry ended up with a non-blonde unknown(Shirley MacLaine) as the star(and Hitchcock thus created a VERY big star who was NOT a blonde.) Doris Day was fine as a wife and mother opposite James Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much, but Day wasn't really built for the "romantic single woman" roles that Kelly had played.

Hitch went searching -- in his mind at least -- for "the next Grace Kelly" and indeed thought he found her in Vera Miles, who he saw in a TV show one night while watching at home(watching TV -- a relaxing diversion for civilians -- was casting work for Hitch.) HItchcock moved fast on trying to make Vera Miles into a star. He directed her in the opening episode EVER of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." And he put her in a major role -- over the title and equal in size of billing -- with Henry Fonda in "The Wrong Man"(1956)

Indeed, it must be noted that even if she dropped out of Vertigo(and maybe she didn't, see below)...Hitchcock had ALREADY given Vera Miles star billing in a major Hitchocck picture -- but not a financially successful one, rather a downer, with her beauty soon swamped by the nervous breakdown of her character.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2270) 2 months ago

A combination of The Wrong Man AND Vertigo MIGHT have made Vera Miles another Grace Kelly, and opened her up to roles in such Hitchocck classics as North by Northwest and...hey, wait a minute, she is IN Psycho (just not in the historic victim role.)

That's the thing: having used Grace Kelly in "three in a row"(the second two of which were among his greatest and some folks think that about Dial M, too) Hitchocck might very well have used Vera Miles in NXNW, The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain....

...but as Hitchcock told Truffaut: "There is a rhythm to these things" and Vera Miles without Vertigo on the resume lost her momentum.

Hitchcock did tell Truffaut that Vera Miles actually had the female lead in Psycho but that the surprise was to put the bigger star(Janet Leigh) in the murder victim role.

I also believe that Hitchcock seriously considered Miles to play "Marnie." (Princess Grace DID accept that role for a comeback, but dropped out.)

Meanwhile:

"The story was" that Vera Miles had to drop out of Vertigo because she got pregnant(by a Tarzan actor husband! Hitch said "she should have taken a jungle pill.") Miles later said of Vertigo, "Hitchcock got his movie. I got a son."
Ouch.

But one of the biographies of Hitchock claimed that the "Vera Miles dropped out of Vertigo because she got pregnant" story is actually FALSE. Here's why:

James Stewart had a vacation he had to take and that delayed the start of Vertigo, and then Hitchcock got badly sick and needed TWO surgeries (gall bladder and hernia) which delayed the start of Vertigo even more. Across those many months, Vera Miles HAD HER CHILD and said she now COULD act in Vertigo.

But Hitchcock's MCA agent mentor Lew Wasserman had been against Miles in Vertigo from the start. He pushed a bigger star -- Kim Novak -- and got Novak's "owner," Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures, to loan Novak out. Miles was evidently on shaky ground(thanks to the poor box office of The Wrong Man) from the start.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2270) 2 months ago

Vera Miles got a few more movies to be in -- two with her lost Vertigo co-star James Stewart("The FBI Story" "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance") but "got with the program" in the 1960s and acted in TONS of TV series guest shots: Route 66, Mannix, My Three Sons, Bonanza...even more Hitchocck TV episodes.

It remains odd, given how Miles and Vertigo never happened, that he put her in Psycho anyway. The movie tries to continue the lore that Miles' role in Psycho was "a thankless role for a thankless actress," but all these years later, I would say that Vera Miles as Lila Crane is a part of movie history and the most historic part she ever played(SHE is the one down in the fruit cellar meeting "the two Mrs. Bateses" and it is unforgettable.)

And as I post this(March of 2024), Vera Miles is the sole surviving cast member of Psycho.