Studying Sir Alec
Forty years ago this summer, British stage and film star Sir Alec Guinness experienced one of the best and worst events of his career. The original “Star Wars” opened and almost overnight made the actor rich, famous to a young generation and, thanks to much unwanted adulation, sometimes miserable.
Starting Friday, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents an abundance of Guinness in his most admired — and pre-“Star Wars” — films and performances; one actor, eight movies, 15 characters. These movies from the 1940s and 1950s show why decades later young George Lucas was so confident that this quiet, aging British actor would breathe life into his “Star Wars” character.
It’s also a reminder that there was great in Guinness prior to becoming beloved as Obi-Wan Kenobi, sage Jedi Master. He had spent more than four decades quietly forging an honored stage and screen reputation as an actor who brilliantly disappeared into his roles, often becoming unrecognizable.
The museum’s four dramas and four comedies are all key films in Guinness’ esteemed career, from his first speaking role in David
Guinness was a big star before he took the role of a scholarly space knight
Lean’s marvelous production of Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” in 1946, to his best actor Oscar performance in Lean’s 1957 blockbuster, “The Bridge on the River Kwai.” In between is a virtual seminar on how an actor immerses himself in his roles.
“I think there’s always a little bit of me tucked into anything I play,” Guinness said in a BBC interview late in life, adding, “You can’t help it. I’d like it not to be there.”
In “Alec Guinness: The Authorized Biography,” Piers Paul Read quotes Guinness as once saying — to spy novelist John LeCarré — “My mother was a whore.” Read, a friend of Guinness, didn’t regard that as either a serious or true comment, but Guinness was illegitimate and never knew his father, though he thought he knew who he was.
It often has been speculated by film commentators that this background had an influence on his desire to be an actor, especially one who so subjugates his own personality to his roles. That seems a too convenient and easy explanation. Guinness usually dismissed such analysis.
In a 1973 BBC interview when asked why he had to be an actor, Guinness said with his characteristic shy smile, “I don’t want to know why. I guess, kind of lonelinesses and insecurity of personality and character, therefore latching on to make believe and pretending. For me, acting is ‘let’s pretend’ and anything beyond that becomes pretentious.”
Guinness’ later roles as a military officer were informed in part by his very active World War II service. He joined the Royal Navy in 1941, became an officer in 1942 and commanded landing craft in the invasions of Sicily, Elba and Normandy (DDay), as well as landing supplies for partisans in Yugoslavia.
He stayed very active and in high-demand in theater throughout his career, eventually knighted in 1959 for his work in theater and film..
Between “River Kwai” and “Star Wars”, Guinness made more than 20 films — including support roles in “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Doctor Zhivago” for Lean. He thought his best film performance was in 1973 as the titular character in “Hitler: The Last Ten Days.” Seven years later, the Academy awarded him an honorary Oscar for his lifetime of “advancing the art of screen acting.” Guinness gave a humorous, self-deprecating acceptance speech: “I feel very fraudulent taking this ... I’m grabbing this (Oscar) while the going is good.”
It’s a reminder of the charm that informed, and existed prior to, his turn as reclusive space knight.
Guinness often recounted — when inevitably asked about making “Star Wars” — how he almost ignored the offered script when he saw it was a science-fiction story. “That’s not for me,” he recalled thinking. But as he read, noting the terrible dialogue, he found he kept turning pages, interested to see what would happen.
He had seen Lucas’ “American Graffiti” and was impressed and met with the young filmmaker. Lucas offered him, in addition to salary, 2 percent of the profits. It would soon make Guinness independently wealthy, though at the time few people believed the movie would make money.
Right after the film’s gigantic success, Guinness often spoke of enjoying it and Lucas, though he always mentioned the “rubbish” dialogue. Eventually the shy and ever polite Guinness became so dismayed by the overwhelming clamor for his attention and loss of privacy that he began tossing out the piles of fan mail unread. He often told of requesting of one young fan that he promise never to watch “Star Wars” again.
Guinness continued doing theater and films, but also found new success and praise on television playing spymaster George Smiley in adaptions of LeCarre’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “Smiley’s People.” He also wrote several successful autobiographical books of ruminations and humor — “Blessings in Disguise,” “My Name Escapes Me” and “A Positively Final Appearance.”
Guinness died in 2000 at age 86, but his legacy has lived on, in large part because of that role he became tired of discussing. But there are other movies in his canon film buffs should view. Such as the ones screening at the MFAH.
The four comedies are all considered among the best of British film humor, although they are very much of their place and period. They all have some slapstick elements, particularly “The Man in the White Suit”, but these are nothing like Benny Hill or Hollywood comedies. They do have a distinct parody-kinship to Monty Python, but with far less anarchy.
Any list of the greatest English films would likely include three of the four dramas in this MFAH series, and not just because they were directed by Lean. Here’s a look at the set, and reminders why “Star Wars” isn’t the only Guinness film worth watching.
“Great Expectations” (1946) Director David Lean’s highly entertaining film of Dickens’ eternal classic follows a poor boy, Pip, who over a few days helps an escaped convict, “plays” for a sadly- twisted “old maid” and falls hard for a heartbreaker (Jean Simmons, at age 17). Each profoundly affects his adult destiny. John Mills plays adult Pip. In a relatively small role, Guinness, 32 but looking cherubically 22, plays Pip’s friend Herbert Pocket.
7 p.m. Friday
“Oliver Twist” (1948) Lean scored again with this fast, suspenseful Dickens adaptation. Guinness fought for the part of the physically-imposing villain Fagin; Lean reluctantly let him audition, and was won over. As Fagin, Guinness is unrecognizable in the tattered clothes and amazing makeup. The film has wonderful atmosphere, cinematography, sets and feel of early-Victorian London. We don’t quite see the story’s infamous murder, but it is made terrifying by the reaction of a canine actor.
7 p.m. Saturday
“The Man in the White Suit” (1951) For once Guinness looks like Guinness, as a young chemist who does the seemingly impossible; he unites labor and management — against himself — by inventing a white textile fabric that cannot be destroyed or soiled. Full of explosions and chases, this is sillier and more frenetic than the other comedies in the series. By 1951, Guinness was a film star in Britain, the most popular of that year in fact. At age 37 in this movie, he still looks like a sweet juvenile.
7 p.m. July 14
“Kind Hearts and Coronets” (1949) In the first of Guinness’ comedies for Ealing Studios, and only his third speaking role, he plays not one character, but all eight members of the ill-fated D’Ascoyne family. Dennis Price stars as Louis, whose mother was disowned by the family for marrying an Italian opera singer. Louis vows revenge, and decides to work his way up to Duke but dispensing with all the other family members. Young and old, male and female, Guinness brings the whole doomed family to life, however briefly.
7 p.m. July 15
“The Ladykillers” (1955) This later Ealing comedy, in color, is one of the studio’s most popular and amusing; it was remade as a Coen Brothers/Tom Hanks comedy in 2004. Five “musicians” rent a room from a seemingly helpless old lady to plan a heist. When the dear old gal gets wise, someone has to bump her off, but no one wants the job. Lethally comic complications follow. As the head of the gang, Guinness is an odd delight. His makeup looks like a live-action version of a Tim Burton animated character. The gang includes a pre-stardom Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom, Sellers’ boss in many Pink Panther movies.
7 p.m. July 21
“The Lavender Hill Mob” (1951) No one would suspect meek, innocent-looking Henry Holland (Guinness) of planning, much less pulling off, the theft of a fortune in gold. With the help of Stanley Holloway (Eliza’s dad in “My Fair Lady”) and some ingeniously recruited thieves, he makes it work. Or maybe not. There is some genuine suspense, plus many amusing scenes, highlighted by an insanely dizzying descent of the Eiffel Tower. The screenplay won an Oscar, and Guinness got his first best actor nomination. Watch for an appearance by a 22 year-old Audrey Hepburn.
7 p.m. July 22
“Tunes of Glory” (1960) A fine, tight psychological drama set in a Scottish army barracks after World War II, this film boasts the powerhouse pairing of John Mills, as Lt. Col. Barrow, a ramrod, by-by-book officer, and Guinness as everyone’s pal, Major Jock Sinclair. Originally the roles were reversed, but Guinness felt Barrow was too close to his “River Kwai” character. The old acting friends swapped, and Guinness was memorable in an entirely different role. The Oscar-nominated screenplay feels like it’s from a play but is not.
7 p.m. Aug. 4
“The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957) Watching the meek and mild Guinness in the Ealing films only makes his “River Kwai” performance more amazing. This was, and is, a huge production, masterfully scripted and filmed in the jungles of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Guinness steals the show as a rigid colonel. His inflexibility saves his men in a Japanese prison camp, but inadvertently threatens Allied strategy. Hunky William Holden — bait for American audiences — gets top billing and the action, romance and humor scenes. If you have seen this only on TV, catch it on the big screen. Lean was at the top of his game. The picture reaped eight Oscar nominations and won seven, including Guinness as best actor.
4 p.m. Aug. 5
Louis B. Parks is freelance writer based in Wimberley.