Today marks the birthday of Fred MacMurray. Writer Joe Elliott provides a fitting tribute to the late actor.
BY JOE ELLIOTT
Classic
Hollywood actor Fred MacMurray is probably best remembered today as the
easy-going father in the popular, long-running 1960s family sit-com “My Three
Sons.†As the head of the growing
Douglas clan, the pipe-smoking, sweater-clad MacMurray each week dispensed his
gentle blend of wisdom and humor to the delight of American television
audiences. One might have thought this was the kind of role MacMurray had
always played. Not so, a fact that was first brought home to me by my mother. I
recall as a kid hearing her say she didn’t much care for him. Not like Fred MacMurray???
“But why?†I asked. “Because of the jerks he played in the movies,†she told
me. It wasn’t until much later that I discovered what she meant. As many CinemaRetro
readers will know, MacMurray was a popular film star long before his days in TV.
Many still fondly recall him from his appearances in such Disney favorites as “The
Shaggy Dog†(1959) and “The Absent-Minded Professor†(1961). However, even before that, MacMurray starred in several
well-known roles, notably including ones where he played, to borrow my mom’s
word, a “jerk.â€
MacMurray,
a native Illinoian born in 1908, supported himself
in his early years as a singer and jazz saxophonist (he played a trumpeter in 1937’s
“Swing High, Swing Low†with Carole Lombard.) His first credited film role was
in the forgettable “Grand Old Girl†(1935). While the
movie didn’t go anywhere, MacMurray, on the other hand, was off and running.
That same year, he appeared in no fewer than six other films, including the
George Stevens’ masterpiece, “Alice Adams†with Katharine Hepburn. He quickly
became one of Hollywood’s busiest young actors, portraying everything from air
pilots to cowboys. In 1940, he appeared alongside rising star Barbara Stanwyck
in “Remember the Night.†Soon he was
being paired with many of Hollywood’s other leading ladies, including Alice
Faye, Jean Arthur, Roseland Russell, Marlene Dietrich, and the beautiful
British actress Madeleine Carroll.
MacMurray starred in “Dive Bomber†at the
start of World War Two and made several other routine dramas during the war
years. Routine, that is, all except for one. Near the end of the war, he was
again cast with Stanwyck in “Double Indemnity,†considered today a bona fide
noir classic. MacMurray plays insurance salesman Walter Neff in the film. Neff
becomes obsessed with the sexy wife of one of his clients, played by Stanwyck,
and is willing to do anything to have her. As a result, he allows himself to be
lured into a plot to brutally kill her well-meaning but naïve husband in order
to collect the life insurance money on him. Director and writer Billy Wilder is
said to have wanted MacMurray, who by then had a well-established good guy
image, for the role to surprise and shock movie audiences. It was probably this
film that started my mom thinking of him as a jerk.
Like his friend and frequent co-star Barbara Stanwyck, MacMurray
didn’t like to play the same role twice, and so the next year starred in the
zany black-comedy “Murder, He Says.†“Murder†is, without a doubt, my favorite “Fred
movie.†Peter Marshall (MacMurray) works for the Trotter Poll ("like the
Gallup Poll, but not as fast"). He is sent out to find a co-worker who has
mysteriously disappeared. In the process, he stumbles upon a backwoods family
of homicidal maniacs, including the bullwhip-wielding matriarch of the clan
(Marjorie Main) and her half-witted identical twin sons Mert and Bert (Peter Whitney),
one of whom has a crick in his neck. There is some stolen money everyone is
after, the location of which is hidden in the lyrics of a nonsense song. The
creaky old house where Peter is held hostage is full of weird people and secret
passageways. There are two girls, both claiming to be the same person. There is
a hilarious climactic scene where everyone is assembled around the family
dinner table. They keep turning the lights on and off while spinning around the
lazy-Susan to avoid eating the poison-laced food.
Anybody
who eats the food glows in the dark. “Murder, He Says†is a crazy, rambunctious
movie, full of broad slapstick humor and great one-liners. A classic screwball
comedy and one MacMurray is entirely at home in. Fred would go on to make more
than forty more films in his career. Arguably his two best post-war roles, “The
Caine Mutiny†(1954) and “The Apartment†(1960), once again featured him as
first-class cads.
Fred
MacMurray was one of the highest-paid film actors of his day. His shrewd
investments in real estate and stocks made him one of the richest men in
Hollywood. Perhaps one reason he was so rich, apart from his smart business
sense, was his frugality, some might say, stinginess with a buck. Actor Robert Vaughn, who co-starred
with him in “Good Day for a Hanging†(1959), told a revealing story about some
boots. Vaughn arrived on the set one morning wearing a pair of expensive new
leather boots he had recently purchased at a fashionable Hollywood boutique.
MacMurray was much taken with them and asked Vaughn where he got them. The next
day Fred appeared wearing a similar pair. When Vaughn asked him about them, he
said he had spent the previous afternoon visiting one local thrift shop after
another until he found just the pair he wanted! For all that, Fred MacMurray
was very much a family man in real-life who enjoyed spending his off-hours
playing golf, fishing, and working on his farm. "I take my movie parts as they
come," he once said when asked about his career. "I don't fly into an
emotional storm about them. I just do them. I guess I am an offhand comedian in
a natural way."
Actress
Tina Cole co-starred with Fred
MacMurray on “My Three Sons.†She was the real-life daughter-in-law of Beverly
Garland. Garland played Fred’s wife on the final four seasons of the show.
Here
are a few memories Tina Cole recently shared with me about working with Fred MacMurray:
“I
thought Fred was a gentle, very sincere man with a genuine love and
respect for the family. He was quiet and rather shy off the set, but
hysterical when he was on and he could say more with one lift of an
eyebrow than most actors could with their entire face!
Fred
was known for his ‘frugality’ and both cast and crew were very surprised
with the huge bouquet of flowers he, and his wife June, sent me on my
first day of shooting. He knew about fellow cast member Don Grady's and my
deep love for each other and was disappointed when we did not marry.
Thereafter, every time I saw him he would ask if I had fallen in love. He
wanted to see me happily married, which I thought was so sweet.
Here's a little story Fred once shared
with me: He had just finished the
movie ‘The Apartment’ (in-between filming ‘My Three Sons’), and he and his
family were vacationing at Disneyland. A woman who saw the ‘The Apartment’ went
up to him in front of his family and belted him with his purse. ‘Mr. MacMurray,’
she said indignantly, ‘I took my kids to see that awful movie and I will never
see anything you’re ever in again!’ After that, Fred only did
family-oriented films realizing as he did he had developed a different
reputation. He stopped doing ‘heavy’ parts because of the effect that woman had
on him. True story.â€