by Stephen Vagg
The talented star of Rope and Gun Crazy
The films of Alfred Hitchcock are littered with amazing performances, from Jimmy Stewart’s jittery necrophiliac in Vertigo to Janet Leigh’s hungry-for-love embezzler with a passion for cleanliness in Psycho. Ranking right alongside these would be the work of John Dall in 1948’s Rope as the murderous Brandon Call, who persuades his lover (Farley Granger) to kill a friend for fun, then invite guests over while serving canapes from a trunk containing the corpse. It is a marvellous part, admittedly, but Dall is wonderful – all evil sociopathic humour, toying with Granger and his guests, having such fun that at times you almost wish Brandon would get away with it.
For some reason, Dall’s performance in that film never seems to have gotten its due. But then, Dall never got his due, it would seem, despite a strong career that included Rope and at least two other classic movies and an Oscar nomination, as well as a colourful private life that one would think earns him at least a little more publicity/notoriety (early death, homosexuality, alcoholism).
Dall was born in 1920, the son of a civil engineer who committed suicide when Dall was nine. He started studying engineering himself, at Columbia, but got the theatre bug and dropped out, spending several years treading the boards at various stock companies around the country.
Dall benefited from the male actor drought caused by World War Two (he doesn’t appear to have served himself) and got his big break appearing on Broadway in the play The Eve of St Mark. He was spotted by someone from Warner Bros, who arranged a screen test that was successful and Dall was spirited off to Hollywood.
Dall’s movie career couldn’t have started any better, given the plumb role of a miner taught by Bette Davis in The Corn is Green (1945). The movie was a hit, and Dall earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars.
Under his contract with Warners, Dall was allowed to return to the stage, so while waiting for Corn to come out, he went back to Broadway to play the lead in Norman Krasna’s romantic comedy Dear Ruth, which was a blockbuster (you might recall the 1948 film with William Holden in Dall’s role).
Warners announced Dall would star in an adaptation of John Patrick’s guy cry play The Hasty Heart, but although Dall appeared in the play on stage, for whatever reason, the film project was delayed (it was shot several years later in Britain with Richard Todd in the role earmarked for Dall, launching Todd to stardom). Then, in March 1946, Warners dropped Dall from the studio’s books.
What happened? We’re not sure. Dall was gay – maybe that was it. Or he was pushy (Jack Warner could be vindictive). Or he got drunk at the wrong function, said the wrong thing, clashed with Warners. Or he simply didn’t want to be a movie star – some people don’t.
Dall signed with David O. Selznick, who announced that the actor would appear in a version of Little Women with Shirley Temple. That wasn’t made, and Dall found himself under contract at Universal, who made him Deanna Durbin’s leading man in Something in the Wind (1947); this is probably Durbin’s worst movie and Dall very uncomfortable in his role – it’s only worth seeing for Durbin completists and the performance of Donald O’Connor.
A classier credit was in Universal’s adaptation of Another Part of the Forest, from Lillian Hellman’s play – he played the love interest of Patricia Neal (whose character would turn into the one played by Bette Davis in The Little Foxes). The film was not widely liked, but it has its fans.
Dall then went into Rope, made by Hitchcock’s company, Transatlantic Pictures and released through Warners. Reviews were mixed, box office business so-so, and even now, the movie still hasn’t received its due, in part because of the miscasting of James Stewart. Having said that, Rope has never stopped playing somewhere and is probably one of Hitchcock’s best known films – much credit for this was given to its one-take gimmick, but a lot of it surely goes to Dall’s sensational performance (Granger is also excellent). We think the film’s a masterpiece by the way.
Dall’s work in Rope should have ensured him employment as villains for the rest of his life. Maybe he wasn’t interested, or his drinking made him less desirable to employ – we’re not sure. He may have been worried about typecasting: after Rope, Dall went to Broadway to appear in two short-lived productions: Red Gloves by Jean Paul Sartre and a revival of The Heiress.
Dall returned to movies in Gun Crazy, as part of a gun-toting crime duo with Peggy Cummins. This film was another masterpiece, a career highlight for director Joseph Lewis and the King Brothers who produced (and blacklisted Dalton Trumbo wrote the script). It wasn’t a huge hit at the time, but it became a deserved cult sensation and Dall’s chemistry with Cummins is electric.
Dall played a supporting role in film noir The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950), produced by Jack Warner’s son through Fox – so maybe Warners remembered him fondly.
But he didn’t make another movie for the rest of the decade. We’re not sure why that was – choice, temperament, health, something else. Dall kept busy with guest spots on television and acting on stage but stayed away from films until cast as an unsuccessful Roman officer in Spartacus (1960) and a villain in George Pal’s fun fantasy Atlantis the Lost Continent (1961). These were high profile projects, but they did not seem to spark Dall’s career. He had a few more television appearances, then faded out of public view until 1971, when it was reported that he died of a heart attack, aged just fifty.
Dall only appeared in eight feature films – three are classics that are constantly rewatched (Rope, Gun Crazy, Spartacus), four seem to have a bit of a fan base (Corn is Green, Another Part of the Forest, Atlantis, The Man Who Cheated Himself), one for Deanna Durbin completists (Something in the Wind).
That’s not a bad legacy. One can’t help but feel, however, that he could and should have done more. Because he was a hugely talented man.
