Rock Hudson: The Gentle Giant

by David Bret

  The missed Oscar niggled at Rock and, according to his inner circle, exacerbated his arrogance which had been on the increase since Magnificent Obsession. There was compensation when he was voted Number One in Hollywood’s Name-Power Top Ten, a

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  position he would hold seven years running, though he was not initially thrilled with the accolade, as he told David Castell:

  I was earning money for the studio, that’s true, but I was hardly becoming a millionaire myself. I didn’t mind that so much. What I minded was that the studio always thought of me as a young newcomer. I had to fight and fight to get more worthwhile parts. They would say how difficult it was to get good material, but I’d say, “I know, but other studios manage!”

  On 9 November 1956, their first wedding anniversary, a huge party for the Hudsons was thrown at Henry Willson’s home—all hype, for the first thing Willson did once the arrangements had been made and the invitations dispatched was to inform the press how much he had spent, adding that $10,000 was but a “snip” to show how much his boy was appreciated. He even hired gossip columnists to write about the event, to reiterate to their readers that Rock and Phyllis were the most perfectly matched pair in Hollywood, as blissfully happy now as when they had first wed, which of course was not true.

  “Rock glided me over the dance floor amid the applause of the guests, and I found myself almost believing that miracles do happen,” Phyllis remembered.

  The press knew nothing of the “fuck-buddy bash” that Willson had organised, for the next evening at the same venue, to use up all the leftover food and drink. This time the guests of honour were some of the young men he had discovered, seduced and set on the pathway to fame—and a good many more who had failed to get past the initial hurdle but who were still on Willson’s books for stud and escort work, more than fifty in all.

  I957 got off to a good start, with Rock shooting his thirty-sixth

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  film. The Tarnished Angels reunited the Stack-Sirk-Malone trio that had helped make Written On The Wind so memorable, though Stack’s attitude towards Rock was even more hostile than before on account of Douglas Sirk’s over-the-top favouritism and his insistence that Rock go off and prepare for his role as any Method actor might have done. Rock jumped at the opportunity to emulate the likes of Brando and Clift. He told David Castell:

  That should have been a terrific part, that of a drunken-out shell of an alcoholic, a newspaperman who finds a story and a romance with a flying circus. I took it very seriously and bought clothes that looked like dishrags. Douglas Sirk was very happy with my approach to the role. In those days it took two days to see the rushes. When the studio heads saw them, they threw up their hands. They couldn’t have their star looking such a mess. We were ordered to re-shoot and my whole wardrobe was changed. I even had a hat with a press-ticket in the brim. After that, my heart wasn’t in it.

  Sirk’s defence of Rock resulted in him getting an ear-bashing from the Universal chiefs, who astonishingly accused him of deliberately trying to sabotage Rock’s career, and informed him that they would never work together again. They never did.

  The Tarnished Angels is a sombre, stream-of-consciousness tale set during the Depression, based on William Faulkner’s best-selling novel, Pylon. Faulkner, a master of the genre, regularly visited the set. Rock played Burke Devlin, a chain-smoking, no-nonsense reporter who stumbles upon a human interest story when renowned World War I ace Roger Schumann (Stack)— reduced to competing in carnival stunt races—breezes into town

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  with his parachutist wife (Malone) and their small son. Schumann is unscrupulous and will do anything to win his next big race—looping between the pylons that gave Faulkner’s book its title, mindless of the danger towards himself and others. He causes the death of a rival (Troy Donahue), then sets his sights on the young man’s wrecked plane, giving his mechanic insufficient time to repair it before the next big race. When this develops engine trouble and spirals out of control, fearful of crashing into the spectators he plunges into a lake and dies a hero. The film was shot in monochrome and its final image—Rock’s imposing, manly figure silhouetted against a cloudy sky—quite possibly remains his most classic pose.

  Troy Donahue, twenty when he appeared in the film, only did so because Rock had told Henry Willson that, if he could no longer go on the so-called prowl in search of lovers, henceforth he would have to supply him with a TBF—Token Blond Fuck—for the duration of every film he made, a “tradition” which would continue well into his career as a television icon. Uncannily resembling Massimo, Donahue had four marriages, the longest of which lasted three years. His first, to Rock’s friend Suzanne Pleshette lasted mere months. A year after working with Rock he appeared in television’s long-running 77 Sunset Strip and the film A Summer Place, but the star who sent millions of teenage hearts fluttering quickly faded as drink took over and the good roles stopped coming in and he died, virtually ignored, in September 2001 aged sixty-five.

  Though still contracted to Universal, the rushes for The Tarnished Angels and Battle Hymn led to Rock being courted by several of the major studios. MGM offered him the ultimate lead, in their remake of Ben Hur—the 1925 original had featured one of his idols, Ramon Novarro. Rock provisionally accepted the role, until Henry Willson reminded him that he had seen enough

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  of Rock in skirts at some of their boys-only parties without making a show of himself in a toga. Also, Willson added, there was a homosexual subplot, albeit subdued, where the second lead, Messala—played by Stephen Boyd, another actor forced into a lavender marriage—is clearly revealed to be carrying a torch for the hero. The role, of course, eventually went to fellow Illinoisan, Charlton Heston.

  Rock was next considered for Sayonara, until Willson gave this one a thumbs-down after perusing the script. There was a distinct difference, he said, between the surly, obnoxious racist in this film and the Mexican-hating Bick Benedict because in the end Bick had seen the error of his ways and reformed. The part went to Marlon Brando, and Willson elected that Rock’s next big role would be in Ernest Hemingway’s heavy-going saga of World War I, A Farewell To Arms, first filmed in 1932 with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes—a role which Willson boasted would turn Rock into a living legend and provide Twentieth Century Fox’s David O Selznick with his biggest blockbuster since Gone With The Wind.

  The production was certainly possessed of all the perfect ingredients. The screenplay was by Ben Hecht, the most versatile scriptwriter in Hollywood at the time. Vittorio De Sica would produce, John Huston would direct, and Rock’s co-stars would be Jennifer Jones (aka Mrs. Selznick), De Sica himself, and Mercedes McCambridge. It would also be the costliest enterprise thus far in Rock’s career but one which would not add contribute greatly to his wealth because, although Universal would rake in $450,000 for loaning him out to Selznick, his salary would amount to but a fraction of this. This mattered little to him and such was their confidence in the outcome of the film that he, Willson and Henry Ginsberg (a Giant co-producer) formed their own company—Seven Picture Corporation with Rock owning 36

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  percent of the shares and Willson and Ginsberg 24 per cent each. 5% per cent of the remaining shares, they agreed, should go to Phyllis—“to keep her on side” now that she had discovered that her husband was “up to tricks” again.

  Phyllis claimed at this time to have begun answering the phone to “young male voices” asking for Rock, that he had told her that these were just fans and not to worry. He even changed his number, she writes, but the calls kept coming in. On one occasion she followed up on one of these and had Rock trailed to a leather bar on Ocean Dive, where he and Troy Donahue were observed making a pick-up. Realising there would have to be a change of tactics, Rock asked Willson to begin supplying him with “dick fodder”—acting hopefuls whose reward for sleeping with him, besides huge payoffs providing they kept their mouths shut, and ruin if they did not, would be a promise of
stardom. Though Rock had condemned the practice in the past, declaring that it was more fun to go off in search of his own fun, cruising for sex whilst working in Hollywood was now totally out of the question. Therefore, to tide himself over until he left for Italy to film the locations for A Farewell To Arms—Phyllis would not be travelling with him—Rock made do with Willson’s escorts and, when his wife was not at home, seduced his hunky gardener.

  In February, Battle Hymn went on general release and Rock and Phyllis, still feigning wedded bliss, were asked to participate in a nationwide promotional tour. This kicked off in Chicago, where the “local boy made big” was made a tremendous fuss of. The couple then travelled to Dean Hess’ hometown of Marietta, Ohio, where the university awarded Rock an honorary Humanities degree.

  In New York, at the end of the month, thousands of screaming fans prevented the Hudsons from entering the Capitol Theater, and he and Phyllis had to be sneaked in, through a side emtrance.

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  According to Phyllis, Rock was incredibly shy and hated all the hero worship, and as had happened in Montevideo refused to sign autographs. Towards the end of the tour, Phyllis was taken ill with what was diagnosed at the time as ptomaine poisoning, and claimed that Rock was as indifferent towards her suffering as he had towards his fans, leaving her alone much of time when they returned home. In a seemingly mindless act of revenge, she took Rock’s favourite collection of Levi denims into the garden and incinerated them—something she later attributed to the effects of her illness, which was steadily getting worse.

  “Maybe I thought an extreme act would get his attention,” she recalled. “If so, it didn’t work.”

  A few days later, Rock for Italy, well aware that after just sixteen months his sham marriage was all but over, and that the public pretence would have to cease.

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  Rock, Phyllis and Lauren Bacall.

  Rock with Troy Donahue.

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  Homoerotic shots of Rock, sold under the counter in 1950s moral-minded America and cherished by his closeted gay fans.

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  5: Rome And Its Aftermath

  “That Gates intends to give the impression of naivety is strongly evident. Her story is a reworking of one of the staple plot lines of the Gothic novel: the heroine’s “dream” marriage gradually turns into a nightmare.” Richard Lippe, analyst, CineAction.

  Rock was advised not to do A Farewell to Arms by Monty Clift, who forecast that its production set-up would endanger his sanity. A few years earlier, David O Selznick had sweet-talked Monty into making Indiscretions of an American Housewife with the same team of actor-director Vittorio De Sica, Jennifer Jones, and extras and technicians now employed for the new film. Shot on location in Rome, the production had been a nightmare from start to finish. De Sica had spoken virtually no English at the time, making it obligatory for an interpreter to be on set at all times. Jennifer Jones had put in a poor performance and, because she had been the boss’s wife, her every demand had been met regardless of the anxiety this had caused everyone else. Courtesy of Monty, self-professed megalomaniac Selznick—respected by the bigwigs in industry, but reviled by just about everyone who worked with him—would bear the ignominious nickname “Interfering Fuckface” until the day of his death in 1965.

  Rock ignored his friend’s warning, but was pleased when Selznick informed him that Vittorio De Sica was to be replaced at the helm by John Huston, a director he admired and who, aware of his sexuality, granted his request that Massimo be given a bit part in the film. This he joked would compensate for his “distress” upon learning that Jennifer Jones’ actual first name was Phyllis! He was not in such affable spirits, however, when once the contract had been signed, Selznick informed him that the temperamental Italian would now be augmenting the cast, as third billing!

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  What Selznick did not reckon on was John Huston’s reverence of Ernest Hemingway and his hatred of the all too frequent “Hollywoodising” of the classics—in this instance making the on-screen romance between the two leads central to the plot, which was not what Hemingway had intended. Huston, not content with disobeying Selznick’s orders, threatened to “beat the crap” out him unless he started showing the author some respect—a threat which, with the director’s legendary reputation for brawling, was taken seriously. Selznick fired him.

  Selznick persisted in interfering after Huston had been replaced by Charles “King” Vidor. Rock had got away with keeping his own hairstyle—Selznick had wanted him to have a military-style, razor-cut short-back-and-sides in keeping with the period which Rock protested would make him look like Erich von Stroheim. Now, Selznick took an almost paranoid dislike to Rock’s Adam’s apple, which when he was filmed in profile or feeling nervous—most of the time during this picture—was prominent and wobbly.

  Unlike many of his big name contemporaries, Rock was always restrained on the set and never bawled anyone out, much preferring to slope off somewhere and sulk in the hope that this would get him his way. Selznick was an intensely unpleasant, stubborn man and for weeks, until the make-up department solved the problem by applying a camouflaging lotion, his bone of contention was not Rock’s persistent fluffing of his lines—this time through stress and not any lack of professionalism—but the offending Adam’s apple.

  A Farewell to Arms opens with Frederic Henry, a US lieutenant with the Ambulance Corps, returning to the “snow-capped mountains and muddy plains” of northern Italy just as the country is about to launch an offensive against Germany and Austria. Like many Hemingway’s characters, he hates the futility

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  of war and is agnostic, believing that no caring God would permit such horrors to take place. His medic friend Major Rinaldi (De Sica) is depressed because he is used to treating the old and infirm and cannot relate to the loss of so many young lives. At the local hospital, English nurse Catherine Barkley (Jones) is similarly disillusioned as her lover has recently been blown to bits by the enemy.

  This psychological cocktail of trauma and bewilderment causes Henry and Catherine to fall in love. They spend the night together, during which she fantasises she is with her deceased lover, and the next morning he leaves for the Alps with his division. During the ensuing battle he is wounded and taken to the American hospital in Milan, to which she is transferred. They want to marry, but wives are prohibited at the Front and if she becomes his wife she will be sent home, so they opt to live in sin. Then when he recovers he is sent to Caporetto, about to be besieged by the Germans.

  The segment of the film displaying the carnage vividly described by Hemingway is savage, bloody and unsparing on the eye, even by today’s standards. Men fight to the death for places on overcrowded trucks evacuating the battered town. Mothers lay at the roadside next to their dead babies. The hospital is reduced to rubble whilst the priest and those too sick to be moved are in prayer. Rinaldi loses his mind, and when Henry sticks up for him they are mistaken for enemy spies, but while Henry escapes and makes his way back to Catherine, the Italian is left to face the firing squad. The lovers are reunited, but from here it is downhill all the way, and as the credits roll yet another dispirited young man, touched by war, is seen walking towards a bleak and empty future.

  The fact that Rock was thousands of miles away from home, and would be for another five months, did not prevent his marital

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  strife from escalating. Ptomaine poisoning had not been the cause of his wife’s recent illness, and two days after Rock left Hollywood, Phyllis had been admitted to St John’s Hospital—where doctors had diagnosed hepatitis which she said had been passed on to her by him. For several days she was so ill that it was feared she might not survive. Rock was contacted at once, but chose to ignore the calls—thinking that Phyllis was only craving attention, as always happened whenever he had to spend time away from home. Louella Parsons—unrivalled at sniffing out scandals, even long-distance ones—launched a defiling attack on Rock for neglecting his
wife, dropping more than a few hints as to what he was getting up to once the set had closed down for the day.

  Henry Willson had attempted to defend Rock before Parsons had published her article, telling her that Rock adored Phyllis, and that he would be home by 25 March—a date he had plucked out of thin air. Now, he called Universal’s Italian publicists and asked them to issue a statement on Rock’s behalf. The gist of this was that Mr. Hudson would love nothing more than to be reunited with his wife, but his intense shooting schedule would render this far too costly, and such a delay might even prevent the film’s completion. The statement ended with Rock wishing his fans to know that away from his “beloved Bunting” he was feeling desperately miserable and dejected, but that his time in Italy would thankfully soon pass.

  Nothing could have been further from the truth. Jennifer Jones’ mother had by coincidence been admitted to the same hospital as Phyllis with a suspected heart attack, and David O Selznick gave her a week off to fly home and visit her, suggesting that Rock might travel with her. He was not interested. He and Massimo were having too much fun, alternating between Rome’s Grand Hotel and the Alps location with a succession of muscular extras,

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  models and rent boys. When Rock told a French journalist, “Without my wife, life really is a drag,” he was speaking literally for within the privacy of their hotel suite—two rooms with an interior connecting door—he, Massimo and their pick-ups loved nothing more than playing “Tarts and Romans”, camping it up in togas made out of bedsheets.

  Diana Dors and Tommy Yeardye were in Rome, where she was to make her first foreign language film, La Ragazza del Palio (UK: The Love Specialist), and when Rock saw their photograph in the paper, arriving at the airport he tracked them down. He, Massimo, Diana and Yeardye dined together, and when a reporter asked Rock if Diana was his “type” he replied that she was, whilst Massimo and Yeardye made eyes at each other across the table. Over the next few weeks whilst she was filming in Sienna, and upon her insistence, Yeardye spent much of his time with Rock and Massimo, and joined in with the fun. One shudders to think what the blonde bombshell—who was not too keen on homosexuals and who hated to see men in drag—would have had to say, had she been aware what her “Mr Muscles” might have been getting up to with a blond bombshell of another kind!