It’s no surprise that most movie and television fans remember Maggie Smith’s dynamic roles in the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey. More recent and much more widely seen at the time, these are worthy examples of her outstanding work.
But even some of the most knowledgeable movie buffs know her two Oscar wins (Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brody and Best Supporting Actress for California Sweet) Most of his other film work before the 1980s is unknown. Her death at the age of 89 marked not only the role that informed her subsequent brilliance, but also, in some cases,Maggie Smith’s roles in later years show a wider range than what has become the norm, while always being nuanced and unique.
When looking back at her film career, at least until 2008, it’s important to remember that she was first and foremost a stage actor. She joined Laurence Olivier’s National Theater in the early 1960s and remained a prominent performer on the London stage for decades. At that point, her film work was ancillary to theater.
Not only did she make it a priority, but her travel to the United States was also restricted. Only two of her first 15 films were made outside Europe by 1973. And even though it was a significant industry, British films at the time (often financed by American studios, especially MGM, which produced five of these first films) were often assigned to more niche art markets at the time.
Her first credited role was in Nowhere to Go (1958), an underrated thriller late in the legendary Ealing studio’s history, playing the role of a sexy prison escapee (George Nader). This is a recent debut work about helping and accepting danger. The film was released in British theaters as the second half of a double-disc, but watching it today reveals a fully confident actress, even in her early 20s.
It took five years to make “The VIP,” but she worked with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton (right after “Cleopatra”), Margaret Rutherford, Orson Welles, Louis Jourdan, Elsa Martinelli, and Rod Taylor. She made her mark playing a modest secretary who plays a key role in saving her boss from ruin. Richard Burton said that in their scenes together, she brought more than her own. As a fellow crime scene thief, he said, “She commits grand theft.”
Olivier had Smith reprise her role of Desdemona, the object of Othello’s obsession, in the 1965 film of the play directed by Stuart Burge. None of the other female co-stars established themselves as well in Shakespeare’s adaptations as she did. It led to her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
That same year, John Ford selected her for a supporting role in Young Cassidy, based on the life of playwright Sean O’Casey. Ford became ill, but not until after Smith had filmed some scenes for him. She was one of the last living actors to work with him.
She returned to leading roles in the 1968 Peter Ustinov caper comedy Hot Millions. Her role as an incompetent secretary who somehow outsmarts the others in a cast that includes Ustinov, Karl Malden, Bob Newhart, Robert Morley, and Cesar Romero (all veterans and scene stealers) was outstanding. Although the film did not receive much release domestically, her reviews were among the best of her early work except for “Othello,” and the film demonstrated her comedic skills, which had not been evident before. did.
“Miss Jean Brody’s Prime” (1969) elevated her. This modest first-year hit earned her an upset win for Best Actress (over leading contenders Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, and Genevieve Bujold). But the stage remained her priority, and it was three years before she returned to the screen in George Cukor’s Travels with My Aunt.
In the film adaptation of Graham Greene’s adventure novel, she played an eccentric character with a wider range of idiosyncrasies than those incorporated in later works. Smith is a hedonistic older woman who sails around Europe and gets into trouble, accompanied by a lukewarm banker who may be her nephew. Although the film was a disappointing box office success, she received her second Best Actress nomination.
Two years after The Last Picture Show, the failure of Alan J. Pakula’s earlier film Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973) with Timothy Bottoms , all of Smith’s attempts to star in American films were over. The romance between an older woman and a younger man was filmed in Spain. In the same year, fellow London stage actress and Oscar winner Glenda Jackson won for the second time for “A Touch of Class.”
Unlike Jackson, who remained active in films throughout the 1980s (prior to his political career), Smith began transitioning to bit roles in bigger-budget studio films after his break. Starting with Neil Simon’s original comedy Murder (1976), and by 1978 with Death on the Nile and California Sweet, she had established herself as a top actress who could complement any film. . Although Smith starred in smaller films, he found success in higher-level character roles for more than 40 years.
Few actresses have achieved acting success at such an advanced age as Smith, and few have specialized in having the vitality that she conveys in later roles. Young Smith was more complex, more rounded, and not the grand dame she later became. Although she was superficially vulnerable and by no means a conventional beauty, she still usually displayed confidence and real charm, which gave substance to the character.
This is a group of movies that deserves more attention.
