Not Quite Movie Stars: Paula Prentiss

The career of Paula Prentiss is an odd one for this series, because we don’t think that there’s any actor who more deserved to become a star – what’s more, this (a) was obvious from her first time, (b) everyone in Hollywood knew it, and (c) many filmmakers and executives tried to make it happen. But it didn’t. Now, don’t get us wrong, she’s had a long, rich career, and fabulous life – Paula Prentiss continues to go strong at 87 years of age, and has been married to Richard Benjamin since 1961 – but it’s still interesting why someone who was great, and recognised as being great, never became the star that everyone expected her to.

She was born in San Antonio Texas in 1938 and studied drama at Northwestern University in Illinois. While there, Prentiss met Richard Benjamin, and was discovered by an MGM talent scout looking for new faces to appear in a “four girls” movie that the studio was making, Where the Boys Are (1960). She did a bunch of screen tests and got the gig and wham – she was away. Her real name was Paula Ragusa, by the way – apparently producer Joe Pasternak gave her a new surname because he had discovered/championed Deanna Durbin and Doris Day and was a big believer in alliteration.

It was an amazingly rapid rise – no long stints in summer stock, or apprenticeship in New York and/or on television. But also, it’s not surprising because Paula Prentiss was so naturally awesome. Tall, gorgeous, funny, brilliant, eccentric, likeable, talented – she was, from inception it appears, the complete package as a screen comedienne, and what’s more, perfect for the role of Tuggle, the nerdier one in Where the Boys Are, whose character romances TV Thompson, as played by a slightly more experienced newcomer Jim Hutton.

Prentiss and Hutton had immense chemistry, playing the sort of couple who instantly click and feel like they’re married and were a big part of the movie’s success – and what’s more, were recognised as such by MGM and the critics. (There were even imitation Tuggles in other movies that tried to repeat the success of Where the Boys Are – the characters played by Zeme North in Palm Springs Weekend and Pamela Tiffin in Come Fly with Me).

A delighted MGM saw Prentiss and Hutton as a team, kind of their new version of Myrna Loy and Wiliam Powell, who made many screwball comedies together back in the day, particularly The Thin Man series. We would have loved to have seen Prentiss and Hutton in a modern day Thin Man – we’re sure it was discussed but the studio had just made a TV series reboot of that property with the far less fun Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk.

Instead, MGM put them in The Honeymoon Machine (1961), alongside Steve McQueen and Brigid Bazlen (little remembered now, but then coming off King of Kings). This was a bright service comedy farce, energetic and colourful. Prentiss is a stand-out as the short-sighted heiress determined to nab Hutton come what may (reminiscent of Alison Janney) – they do steal the film from McQueen and Bazlen, but those two are no slouches either. The movie turned into a neat hit.

MGM used them again on Bachelor in Paradise (1962), supporting Bob Hope and Lana Turner, a film with some lively lines and satire of suburban America, plus that glossy early ‘60s MGM look; it made some money but turned a loss, due to the high fees of its stars. Prentiss is great, Turner isn’t.

MGM gave Hutton and Prentiss the leads in a naval farce, The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962), where Hutton plays a bumbling officer in army intelligence who is shipped off to the islands and winds up capturing a Japanese soldier who refuses to surrender. That’s not a bad idea for a movie but the story goes all over the shop – Hutton keeps making mistakes and being saved by deux ex machinas, he becomes passive for much of the story which is taken over by his Japanese American mate, we never really got a fix on his character other than “bumbling”, no one seems to regard the Japanese as any sort of threat, Prentiss (who’s great as always) needed more to do, there should have been some life and death stakes. It simply wasn’t very good and basically flopped.

This was also the case for Follow the Boys (1963), which is kind of like Where the Boys Are with women following sailors around Europe – a fun idea, but doesn’t have the earlier film’s comedy, camaraderie, serious themes and romance. Making fluff is harder than it looks.

If MGM was mishandling Prentiss, others in Hollywood knew how good she was, including Howard Hawks, who gave her the lead alongside Rock Hudson in Man’s Favourite Sport?  Prentiss is, once more, fabulous, one of Hawks’ best female leads, which is saying something when you consider that he worked with people like Katherine Hepburn, Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, and Rosalind Russell. The film is maligned among some Hawks auterists and it’s not one of his top efforts but it’s bright and colourful with a sense of relaxed camaraderie that is very winning.

She was also wonderful in another film that was not a big hit, The World of Henry Orient (1964), as a married woman panting over Peter Sellers’ pianist. This is a charming fable that became a cult film (and was adapted into a musical).

Prentiss had support parts in two big box office successes – In Harm’s Way (1965), a war drama from Otto Preminger, and What’s New Pussycat? (1965) as a stripper who likes to attempt suicide after bad dates. She’s ravishing and hilarious in the latter and the movie’s popularity might have led to better offers but during the making of Pussycat, Prentiss had a mental breakdown.

She recovered and went into a sitcom with her husband, He and She (1967); despite strong reviews and devoted fans, it was unfortunately scheduled behind Green Acres and only lasted a season. By then, the winds of New Hollywood were starting to blow, and the roles for female stars – never that great – dwindled, and Prentiss’ chance at film stardom slipped away.

We can’t emphasise enough that Prentiss never stopped being in demand and giving excellent performances – she just had bad luck. This continued, with her rarely appearing in a hit, even while appearing in movies with male stars that were “hot” at the time: Elliot Gould in Move (1970), Alan Arkin in Catch 22 (1970) and Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1971), George Segal in Born to Win (1971), Peter Boyle in Crazy Joe (1974), Warren Beatty in The Parallax View (1974). We’re not saying that these films aren’t great – The Parallax View in particular is a masterpiece and Prentiss heartbreaking in her short appearance – but the public didn’t come. They didn’t come either for The Black Marble (1980), despite its then hot writer, Joseph Wambaugh, or Buddy Buddy (1981) despite Billy Wilder, although there was a hit in The Stepford Wives (1975) where she was called in to replace Joanna Cassidy, fired during filming.

Prentiss had some decent parts on TV (The Couple Takes a Wife, Packin It In, MADD) – and on stage (The Norman Conquests). She came to Australia with her husband to make No Room to Run (1977), a thriller that seems uncertain of its tone – the bones are light hearted Hitchcock, but it seems infused with ‘70s seriousness. Her acting career drifted away in the 1980s, but she still does the odd job.

Paula Prentiss was the heir to Carole Lombard and Kay Kendall, actresses who specialised in eccentric ditzes but were also capable of sensitive dramatic performances. Prentiss couldn’t get the top level material that Carole Lombard enjoyed (eg To Be Or Not to Be, Twentieth Century, Nothing Sacred); her career was more analogous to Kendall, who was always terrific in a lot of movies that flopped and/or were bad (and was also married to a film star, Rex Harrison).

What roles could she have played? Looking back, all the good Lombard/Kendall-style screwball comedy leads of the 1960s Hollywood went to Jane Fonda (Period of Adjustment, Sunday in New York, Cat Ballou, Barefoot in the Park, Any Wednesday) or Natalie Wood (The Great Race, Sex and the Single Girl, Penelope). Some of the above movies were made by MGM, incidentally, as was The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, which would have suited Prentiss, as would some of their Elvis films. She was never not in work – it’s just a shame that she was wasted in movies that weren’t that good (Bachelor in Paradise, Come Fly with Me, Horizontal Lieutenant) or didn’t get the audiences they deserved (World of Henry Orient).

We were lucky enough to meet Prentiss and Richard Benjamin at a screening of The World of Henry Orient in 2020. She seemed exactly as she did on screen – warm, funny, eccentric. We told her she was great – it was nice. She was and is.