Hilda Crane (1956)
By Jeremy Breneman and Eric Grigs | August 15, 2020
NEGLECTED FILM REDEMPTION
The first in a series of conversations about forgotten and under-the-radar cinema.
We begin with Philip Dunne’s 1956 film, which in some markets was titled The Many Loves of Hilda Crane. After Hilda’s second divorce, she returns to her small hometown Winona, hoping to overcome her scandalous reputation to find love and happiness, while still maintaining her independence.
Eric: First up, thanks for turning me on to this movie. I had never heard of it before you recommended it. I was glad I grabbed the Blu-ray from Twilight Time before they closed down. Do you remember where you first encountered it?
Jeremy: So the very first time I heard of this film was around 20 years ago. My partner at the time was older than me and very knowledgeable of films with a gay following.
Eric: I’m guessing it wasn’t popular, or at least a hit in its time, contributing to why many people don’t remember it well today. Or maybe it was just me who missed the boat on this one in the years that followed its release?
Jeremy: Hilda Crane, unlike her contemporaries, rather flew under the radar for a long time. But she lived in the hearts of the baby boomer gay community. I caught this on TV where it seemed to languish for decades sporadically. Upon its release it was not a box office hit.
Eric: I loved it—it just kept building and building, giving and giving. I want to start our kiki by finding out how you feel this fits into ’50s “women’s pictures.”
Jeremy: In Todd Haynes’ Far from Heaven—a loving homage to the genre, Hilda Crane is playing in the neighborhood theater during a pivotal moment in that film. Naturally, I had questions! I’ve always loved the mid-century “women’s pictures” as they seemed to represent the ideals of suburban life but with darker undertones lurking in the Lana Turner facade.
When talking about the resurgence of the women’s pictures of the 1950s, I think Hilda Crane is more of a footnote, which is a shame really. Unlike the Jane Wyman hits All That Heaven Allows and Magnificent Obsession from the same period, this film has a woman with a questionable “moral code” that guided viewers tastes at the time. Conversely, I think that’s what makes it even more interesting! Hilda is not a saint but how can you not relate to her on some level? I think this film falls squarely in the canon based on the style alone. I mean, look at all of those gorgeous Charles La Maire frocks Jean gets to wear.
Eric: Yes, let’s talk about the moral code. I think most gay people or kids who come from a small town can relate enormously—wanting to leave things behind and create a new life in the big city. These types of pictures are beloved because they also show someone straying from whatever was the norm, or acceptable, at the time—which certainly is why that Todd Haynes Far from Heaven nod is a sweet reference. And poor Hilda here comes home, tail between her legs, still wanting to live a bohemian life after two divorces (gasp!)—but knows she “must settle down” and begin thinking more traditionally. Do you think this, and other films of the time like it, where we have a strong female protagonist and a story centered on her point of view, daring to step outside the bounds of society and good taste, can really be called feminist? The let down is that (spoiler alert!...but can you really spoil a movie over a half century old?) she finds her happiness in a man, house, and marriage. (To her mother’s relief this movie is not called Hilda Crone.) But it all wraps up quickly, so I suspect that maybe female viewers are supposed to wink generously at that pesky moral code and sort of wave it away (I know I sure did), because that’s the ending Hollywood had to portray. Or is it more dangerous than that, and this picture is suburban propaganda? A kind of subtler Valley of the Dolls warning you of the dangers of drinking, pills, art, loose living, free love, and divorce?
Jeremy: As a young gay kid from a rural town in Virginia, these films didn’t speak to me, they screamed to me! While I might not be Lana Turner or Barbara Parkins, these films gave me hope. I have no doubt to some women of the period it had a similar effect.
I think that the film wraps up so quickly and puts the brakes on any further ambition pretty much answers that question. Like so many films of the period, the message to women is basically this: Don’t dare to dream outside the confines of the traditional home. You are doomed if you do! In other films of the era, and shortly thereafter, a woman who abandons the societal norm usually pay some sort of price if she dares to live without a man. I find it interesting Hilda Crane also shows things through the other lens. Here is a woman who marries and escapes that trap but then falls back into the trap of domestic suburbia. Will we ever know if Hilda is fulfilled the next time around? It’s pretty much left to the swell of the orchestra and the ending credits to speculate. I rather think the feminist movement was more of a response to this open-ended speculation.
Several years after this film, Fox released a film that explores this message further and hints toward a landscape of possibilities for women in The Best of Everything. That film probably deserves a conversation all its own! There is another Lana Turner film from the beginning of the next decade that’s goes a step further. Portrait in Black gives us a woman caught up in an adulterous affair...and the events that follow were probably enough to make even Betty Friedan take notice! In that film you find a woman in mortal danger for breaking from her traditional role. By these standards, Hilda Crane almost comes across almost as a bedtime story!
Eric: For me, it puts the double standard question right out there front and center when Hilda says “I want to live like a man and still be a woman!” This is probably why the poster for it said “not suitable for children.” God forbid they, or the men in the audience with their wives, get any ideas in their heads about being strong, independent, and sexually liberated.
And now that you mention it, I’m dying to know what does happen after the end credits music! We need to begin a Kickstarter or change.org petition for someone to make Hilda Crane 2: The Reckoning. (I think we should advance this idea of sequels that no one expects or asked for, since most of what we get now are franchises anyway, and what better place to start with our gal pal Hilda?)
First, we should scour the Fox vaults for the epilogue we didn’t see that the ’50s studio system must have left on the cutting room floor. If we’ve been paying attention throughout the whole movie, anyone who marries Hilda will probably find as soon after the honeymoon is over, she’ll be back at her big city “tramp” ways.
Jeremy: It’s almost like a battle cry, isn’t it? Jean Simmons made another under appreciated film in 1969 called The Happy Ending in which the central female character tries to come to grips with the dissolution of “domestic bliss.” Jean’s character in this film is grappling with the “what next?” and in many ways it almost answers the questions left behind 13 years earlier in Hilda Crane. Speaking of the Fox vaults, the history of their actual vault and care of its elements is a film lover’s nightmare. But I digress.
Jean Simmons was a contract player with Fox at the time. This was definitely an attempt to make her “the star” after languishing in mostly male-driven pictures during her Fox contract. I think it’s rather a shame it wasn’t a bigger hit. That status seemed to be reserved for the Lana Turners and the Doris Days of the same period.
Eric: One thought as I watched: Is Jean Simmons the underrated Audrey Hepburn? (And another: Did Jean Simmons ever meet Gene Simmons? That last one has nothing to do with the film, just an odd homonym curiosity that occurred to me as I typed her name.)
Jeremy: Audrey Hepburn! Well, Jean is absolutely stunning in this film. The argument could easily be made Simmons was the under-appreciated version. They were both the same age, and Simmons got her start in England as a teenager. Their careers seemed to be quite parallel. I’ve often thought there wasn’t a single role in the their films that couldn’t be interchangeable. Simmons in Sabrina? Sure! Hepburn in Spartacus? Why not? Both had husbands who guided their early careers. I think in Jean’s case, her roles were limited by her unfortunate marriage to the extremely envious Stewart Grainger. They pretty much lived A Star Is Born. I speculate that marriage rather hobbled Jean’s film prospects more than Hepburn’s marriage to Ferrer.
Eric: And can we talk about Hilda’s mother? I know most mother and daughter dynamics are fraught in some way but this is Olympic level sniping! I do think widowed Mrs. Stella Crane is only looking out for dear Hilda in the best way she knows how, but she sure lands some real jabs: “We have to keep up appearances even if you won’t try” and “you won’t get the chance to degrade us anymore.” My favorite, though, is: “As long as you are here we are going to pretend you’re a respectable woman!” These scathing reads make me feel like we’re finding an undiscovered classic for next-level gays and all lovers of movie melodrama.
Hilda doesn’t wilt under the heat though, and in case you hadn’t heard, lets everyone know the bitch is back! After her affair is uncovered: “In case you didn’t know, courtesan is a fancy word for tramp.” After drinking a bit too much: “I shouldn’t mix with respectable people—I should stick with my own kind.” If that doesn’t deserve it’s own entry in a gay version of Bartlett’s Book of Familiar Quotations, I don’t know what does.
Jeremy: Oh you’ve certainly picked out some plum zingers right there! One that really stands out for me is in the scene where the lecherous Jean-Pierre Aumont seduces Hilda in his study. They have this highly provocative discussion about the differences between “love” and “desire” (because don’t all letches have these discussions with their prey?). Aumont chastises Hilda’s view of love and desire as “school girl.” Jean so expertly quips back: “Then school girls have more courage than most women who settle for three meals a day and love once a month.” She delivers that line so cooly and precisely you can’t help but chuckle! But that is certainly not the intention here. I love that one of the central points of this drama is spelled out with such bravura! It makes me adore Jean Simmons’s acting chops more than ever. I really hope before she died she knew how much she was loved by our community. I had the chance to tell her years ago in written form.
Eric: And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the tour-de-force scene where she puts her harpy future mother-in-law in her place with a vicious takedown of words. Imagine a smack down so effective it gives someone a heart attack!
Jeremy: While we are on the subject of Evelyn Varden, might I add she was one of the great scene stealers in Hollywood’s Golden Age? She seemed ripe for it! I loved her so much in another camp classic The Bad Seed. I think Jean Simmons had her work cut out for her in Hilda Crane, matching wits with this grand dame of the stage! I mean, Evelyn Varden was on Broadway at the turn of century for heaven’s sake! She was such a pro and I’m so happy her talent is preserved here.
Eric: Your knowledge of movie history runs deep! I’m in awe. Any last words we should make sure to crow about on this forgotten gem?
Jeremy: Have we made the argument as to why this deserves a place in the Sirk conversation, especially stylistically? God, the use of those blues and russet colors are are so stark. They almost seem like their own character at times! From a technical standpoint those were standouts. Those leaves blowing into the abandoned frame of the house, the use of shadows...I could go on forever. Not to mention, can we have an entirely different discussion about the sumptuous cinematography by Joe MacDonald, who worked with Marilyn Monroe at Fox as well as other beautiful actresses under contract at Fox? He knew how to light a shot to convey the proper mood. It’s just stunning! The Art Director for this film was the same as Gone With the Wind and All About Eve for heaven’s sake! (Lyle R. Wheeler).
Eric: I’m lucky my first viewing was this gorgeous HD reissue which squeezes every drop out of its Technicolor and CinemaScope presentation. (It is still available on regular DVD from Fox Archives I see, so I’m glad it’s not completely out of print so that newer generations can discover it. And, for now, it seems there’s a full version uploaded to YouTube. Hopefully, though, some will track down the Twilight reissue.)
Jeremy: I think on a stylistic level this film readily belongs in the higher echelons of the greatest films of Douglas Sirk. Sirk’s films ooze with Technicolor glamour to move the story along. Films like Written on the Wind and Imitation of Life all utilize this to full effect. The sets and lighting of these films have an almost gothic quality to them with their stark lighting choices. Though not a Sirk film, clearly Hilda Crane is using the same techniques. These films of course have a queer aesthetic too, so I think that’s what endears them to us so many decades later. Had Hilda Crane been a massive hit I think it would have achieved a notoriety the other films have maintained with the mainstream. But like so many things in pop culture, the LGBTQ community (whether we like the role or not) tends to be the preservationists. Hilda Crane is a fine example of that.
We haven’t touched on the film’s male star, Guy Madison, who basically high tailed it overseas and had massive stardom there in action and Western films in Italy and Spain. He really seemed like an afterthought—and largely is! The decade before he was a reliable co-star to many up and coming actresses but as the ’50s progressed, he followed the popular trend of the fading American star who travels overseas to continue a career. He worked there for most of the 60s and 70s, carving out a career like Tarantino’s “Rick Dalton” character in the film Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood. Talk about pop culture redemption!
I hope we’ve made our case as to why this deserves more attention?
Eric: I think we’ve gilded Hilda.
Eric Grigs is a pop culture writer, artist, and co-host of the Pop Trash Podcast.
Jeremy Breneman has spent the last 50 years curating his own pop culture museum in his head. Popular in trivia playing circuits, Jeremy is often asked “How do you remember all this stuff?” The answer: “Soon to be a major motion picture, maybe.”