Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Dorothy McGuire – Part 8: TRIAL (1955) and FRIENDLY PERSUASION (1956)

We continue last week's theme of Hollywood's attitude toward the Soviet Union as our Dorothy McGuire Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode takes us beyond not only the Popular Front era but just a shade beyond the heyday of McCarthyism. We also find that we spoke too soon about McGuire entering her mom-roles era, as in this episode's movies she embodies an unmarried professional woman with a liberal attitude toward sex and a shady political past in Trial (1955, directed by Mark Robson, based on the novel by Don Mankiewicz), as well as a Quaker minister (and wife and mother) whose family's pacifist views are put to the test in William Wyler's Friendly Persuasion (1956). McGuire brings her particular mixture of the soothing and the astringent to not very committed Communism and very committed pacifism, proving that her range encompasses both the ultra-worldly and the otherworldly. 

Time Codes:

 0h 0m 45s:      TRIAL (1955) [dir. Mark Robson]

0h 30m 25s:      FRIENDLY PERSUASION (1956) [dir. Wiliam Wyler]

 

+++

* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!