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Grace

Page 29

by Thilo Wydra


  On May 9, 1979, Alfred Hitchcock closed his large bungalow office on the Universal Studios lot. It was the end of an era. It was the conclusion of a unique, fifty-five-year directing career. It was also a self-admission of sorts. The work on The Short Night was stopped, although the screenplay would later be published.398 Alfred Hitchcock would not make any more films. Against his wishes, Family Plot became the conclusion to his body of work.

  Afterward, Hitchcock contacted Claude Chabrol and asked him if he was interested in turning The Short Night into a film. Sean Connery was the first choice for the leading male role, but because of the rape scene that occurs at the beginning of the film, he was not interested. Hitchcock wanted to cast Liv Ullmann in the leading female role, but she was unavailable because of a musical engagement in New York.

  Claude Chabrol recalled: “He sent me his last screenplay shortly before his death. And in it, there was a pretty bad scene: the hero raped this woman, but he truly raped her. The hero! How can this be? This is the hero of the film. You simply can’t do that. Neither could Sean Connery. The writing was truly, truly not good anymore . . .”399

  In August, shortly after Hitchcock’s eightieth birthday, Ingrid Bergman visited him at his home in Bel Air. What she saw there was a broken man who could no longer hide his age. Alfred Hitchcock was deeply sad at this point. The old director and the cancer-stricken actress, who like Grace had made three films under Hitchcock—Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), and Under Capricorn (1949)—talked about death. He was fearful of death. An absolutely morbid, very melancholy mood lay across this reunion, which would also be a final farewell for these two people.

  Two years later, Ingrid Bergman died on her sixty-seventh birthday, August 29, 1982, in London. Only two weeks later, on September 13, Grace was killed in an accident. Two of Hitchcock’s most important heroines, probably the two most important in his entire body of work, died within fourteen days of each other during the disastrous, dark year of 1982. This was also the year of Romy Schneider’s premature death at the age of forty-three, on April 29 in Paris.

  On December 31, 1979, Queen Elizabeth II named Hitchcock a Knight Commander of the British Empire. Since he could no longer travel to England, he was knighted in absentia by the British General Consul in Los Angeles. Janet Leigh, Cary Grant, and Lew Wasserman were in attendance. Now he was Sir Alfred Hitchcock, and even on this occasion, he made jokes. He called himself “The Short Knight,” playing on the title of his latest film project. And when a journalist asked him why this honorable recognition had taken so long, he replied laconically: “I guess she forgot.”400

  Alfred Hitchcock’s last public appearance took place on March 16, 1980, when he was again present for the honoring gala of the American Film Institute. It was the tradition that the previous year’s recipient would hand out the prize. This time, the honoree was James Stewart. Hitchcock’s speech was recorded at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and afterward, he was taken back home. He did not attend the evening gala. At this time, his condition and constitution were declining rapidly. His liver and kidneys no longer functioned, and his heart had stopped responding to the pacemaker that had been installed a few years before. The end was in sight.

  And this end was very still, very quiet. His kidneys failed, as had happened to his mother. On the morning of April 29, 1980, at 9:30 a.m., Alfred Hitchcock died at his home in Bel Air, in his own bed. His family was with him. It is said that he went peacefully.

  The funeral took place in the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, celebrated by the Jesuit priest Thomas Sullivan, a longtime acquaintance of Hitchcock. Then amazingly, the casket went missing! A final joke by the Master. Even at this point, he wished to control everything. Nothing could be left to chance. It was a Catholic service with a Jesuit priest—formal and correct—but the casket was missing. Previously Hitch had decided to be cremated. As he had stipulated, his ashes were to be scattered on the Pacific, along the California coast. On May 8, 1980, in London’s Westminster Cathedral, a funeral mass was held for the native Englishman.

  Two years later, Alma Reville, Hitchcock’s wife and lifelong companion and coworker, followed him. She died on July 6, 1982. Her funeral was held in St. Paul the Apostle Church in Westwood, and Alma’s ashes were also scattered on the waters of the Pacific. It is perfectly understandable that she wanted to follow her Hitch even into death.

  Two and a half years before her own death, Grace Kelly lost her directing master, friend, and mentor. More importantly, he had been a longtime companion, and was most likely the most important individual in her entire acting career.

  —Faith, Love, Hope:

  Catholicism, Astrology, Scorpio Parties

  Grace was always very drawn to spiritual matters. She wanted to be one with nature, with people, yes, even the whole universe. She felt a strong desire for harmony.

  —Judith Balaban Quine401

  “We were educated by nuns. We were very devout—Grace certainly more than I was. And she stayed that way. Our entire family was very religious, especially my father. Thus, it was also clear that my mother would convert to Catholicism when she married him,” Grace’s younger sister Lizanne related.402

  From her earliest years, Grace was inclined toward every form and expression of faith. This affinity for spirituality and astrology, paranormal and supernatural experiences, to everything immaterial and sacred, lasted her entire lifetime. This might also be one of the pillars that gave form to her character.

  It is telling that Grace maintained contact throughout her life with the nuns who had educated her at Ravenhill Academy in the Philadelphia East Falls neighborhood. She continued to exchange letters and phone calls with Sister Frances who said, “[Grace] had always prayed for her children, and she asked me again and again to pray for her. And she called me whenever Caroline had a test or she had to make a difficult decision. She trusted strongly in God, and prayer was our way of mutually supporting each other.”403

  When the head of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II, wanted to give her a medal, Grace turned it down. According to Robert Dornhelm, “She did not want to receive a medal from the pope indicating that she was a model mother. That was too much for her. Although she truly respected the pope, she did not want a medal. She said that she had not earned it. It implied too many things that were not justified. This really surprised me. She said that she would not feel right about it. She felt she still had to truly prove herself. She did not think that she had raised her children perfectly.”404

  Born on November 12, Grace’s astrological sign was Scorpio, with Scorpio rising—a double Scorpio.

  The twelve astrological signs are tied to the four elements: fire, earth, air, and water. As one of the three water signs, Scorpios are passionate, decisive, and intuitive. However, they are also prone to jealousy, strong mood swings, and a tendency toward depression.

  The realm of the abstract—“poetry and the stars”—were important to Grace. As Robert Dornhelm explained, “Astrology and horoscopes, as well as palm reading, were big topics for her. I don’t know how serious these all were, but they were there.” And again: “On Sundays, she frequently went to church. She did not drink alcohol for the month before Easter, or even longer. She fasted. Every year. And she would not let herself be dissuaded from this.”405

  Like a recurring theme, Grace’s piety was rooted in her Catholic upbringing, and it remained constant through her life. Already at an early age, she had distinguished herself from the rest of her family through her pronounced artistic and creative inclinations. While her parents and siblings were faithful Catholics, Grace expanded far beyond the close boundaries they respected.

  Grace was superstitious, and she believed in fate. Through her deep sensitivity and intuition, she believed greatly in the fated course of life.

  Books about astrology, horoscopes, and the Zodiac signs were scattered all around her New York apartment, and when she met someone new, regardless of gender, she often asked for his or
her Zodiac sign. Thus, Grace tried as much as possible to avoid associating with anyone who was a Virgo. She was convinced that under no circumstances could Virgos and Scorpios get along. And Scorpios could also not get along well with Geminis. In Grace’s opinion, these were two signs that could never be in harmony. Ironically, the man she married was a Gemini.

  Grace regularly requested that predictions be sent to her from the American astrologer Carroll Righter in California. Righter advised Ronald Reagan over a period of forty-five years, and as the most outstanding of all American astrologers, he was featured on the cover of the March 21, 1969, issue of Time magazine under the headline, “Astrology and the New Cult of the Occult.” His other prominent clients included Marlene Dietrich, Hildegard Knef, Natalie Wood, and Hitchcock heroine Joan Fontaine (Rebecca). Over a period of about twenty years, Grace had Righter send her predictions about the future, about what the coming days would bring for her. This correspondence was based on a mixture of naïveté, gullibility, dreaminess, and romanticism. In part, this mixture aligned well with one of Grace’s two sides: her dreamy side, the irrationality of which opened the door for everything tied to the occult and astrology.

  Together with her friends, including Carolyn Reybold (who was one of her bridesmaids) and her husband Malcolm Reybold, Grace read the astrology book The Pursuit of Destiny while living in New York.

  In addition, Grace engaged in Tarot card readings, and was interested in table-turning and Ouija boards.406 Once she even sought out a Gypsy woman to have her prophesy read. “Astrology was important to her. I was even with her one time when she visited a palm reader. Incognito. And the woman was very disquieted. She was an Irish woman, and she had a six- or seven-year-old son, called Red because of his red hair. The little boy was running around, and she said had him leave because she sensed that this was not a normal hand, although she had no idea who Grace was. It was totally incognito, and no one would have believed that Grace had gone into a little five-dollar palm reading tent. The fortune teller had a feeling, since these kinds of people can sense things. It was a little uncanny for her, and she had a hard time with it. She did not risk asking any direct questions, but she had noticed something. Grace was quite amused at how she had unsettled her,” recalled Robert Dornhelm.407

  And further: “Grace went to Lourdes twice (once in 1961, and again in 1979 with her son Albert). And she wanted to pilgrimage along the Santiago di Compostela road. She thought that the Catholic Church was very practical. You could do penance, and then everything was good again. That fit her world view. She had often joked that the good thing was that you could and should sin so that you could be forgiven.”408

  At one point, when Robert Dornhelm accompanied Grace Kelly to London where she was a guest at a flower arranging event, the following occurred: “Once, in London, I brought Grace some feathers, and I said: ‘At least take these pheasant feathers. They have such beautiful colors, and you can add them to the flowers.’ And she just froze—since she was superstitious. She later told me: ‘I wish you had not given me that.’ Because feathers—pheasant feathers—are bad luck, and are a sign of coming death.”409

  In 1969, Grace turned forty. Shortly before her birthday—an unpleasant occasion which she would have rather ignored—she decided to do something. Carroll Righter held monthly Zodiac parties for the pertinent signs and exclusively invited only those who fell under a particular sign; these parties also featured the appropriate Zodiac animal as a party surprise. Taking a nod from him, Grace decided to celebrate her fortieth birthday with a Scorpio party. She only invited Scorpios and those friends who were married to Scorpios. These people were invited on Saturday, November 15, 1969, to dinner and dancing. The guest count came to sixty, and this international group gathered in the grand Belle Époque hall of the Hotel Hermitage in Monte Carlo. The palatial ball and dining room was decorated ahead of time and Grace had portraits of famous individuals who were also Scorpios hung on the walls. Thus, Grace’s guests could view old portraits of the sculptor Auguste Rodin, Queen Marie Antoinette, and the author Edgar Allan Poe. The invitations were sent out in French and English, and on these, the French women and English ladies were asked to dress in the colors of Scorpio, predominantly red but also black and white. Other associated Zodiac signs would be tolerated. The paper invitations bore the inscription High Scorpia. In this context, Grace called herself “Her Scorpio Majesty,” a title she used again and again at other occasions when she invited her old friends from Hollywood to gather together.

  On the following day, at the agreeable time of 12:30 p.m., the guests of the Scorpio party were invited to have breakfast at the swimming pool of the neighboring, extremely expensive Hôtel de Paris, where the guests had also been lodged.

  Among those that Grace invited were the actor couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The Welsh Burton was the Scorpio, having been born two days before Grace on November 10, 1925. Born in late February, Liz Taylor was a Pisces. A highly explosive combination. Here in Monaco, a place where wealth and luxury had no bounds, Taylor displayed for the first time the legendary Krupp Diamond, a gift from her husband.

  Around the time of her fortieth birthday, Grace gave an interview to Look magazine, whose cover she had already graced in the 1950s. At that time, she had been Hollywood’s white swan, the cool, elegant lady. Select quotes from this conversation with journalist William B. Arthur, however, about growing old—a process that troubled and occupied her greatly—were marked by an astonishing candor. They revealed her despair: “For a woman, forty is torture, the end. I think turning forty is miserable.”410 And then she continued: “I constantly think of Shakespeare’s verse: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow / And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field / Thy youth’s proud livery, so gazed on now / Will be a tattered weed, of small worth held . . .”411

  Grace experienced this period around her birthday as another serious breaking point in her life. Her youth was now passed. She now saw herself as middle-aged, and she was the one who had the hardest time with this. The time of her Hollywood films, the time of her beloved New York, and the time of her flawless, transcendental beauty were irrevocably behind her. Neither the decade just behind her, nor the one in front of her, belonged only to herself. After her third and final miscarriage in 1967, the last-born Princess Stéphanie became the spoiled baby in the family. However, the older the three children grew and the busier they became with school, the more independent and less needy they became. Over time, there was more and more free time. Time that needed to be filled. Grace had always hated not having something to do, not having plans or goals to pursue. And thus, she filled the days with organizing things; she increased her number of obligations and appointments. As she took care of her children, she turned her attention to everyone and everything in the small principality. Attentively and lovingly, she tried to address the needs of the people and their interests. There was only one person she always considered last, and this was another motif that ran through her entire life: she failed to consider herself.

  In another interview that she gave around her fortieth birthday, Grace revealed that she had never found herself to be “a great beauty.” She confessed how horrible she thought it was that she was so recognized for her appearance—“I’d much rather be known for my achievements.” One of her biggest regrets was that she hadn’t had more time to develop as an actress. She feared being remembered as only a young, beautiful novice. “I can only hope that I have instead evolved as a person,” she said.412 As publicist Thomas Veszelits saw it, “The big problem arose at some point in the early 1970s. The catalyst was her recognition: ‘Now I am slowly getting older and older.’ Her inclination to the New Age mind-set and to the music of Georg Deuter, a New Age musician from Munich, must be connected with this. Looking in the mirror, she suddenly realized that her youth was slowly vanishing. And with some women, this is a problem. Starting in the 1970s, there was a complete shift. And then large difficulties arose with Caroline. At t
hat time, Grace went to Paris to function as a kind of chaperone for Caroline.”413

  There is another lesser known side to Grace: With her acute sensitivity and her intuitive perception of the thoughts and feelings of those around her—something that often happened without their knowledge—Grace came close to having extrasensory perception (ESP). This circumstance should not be considered completely absurd or simply dismissed. Cary Grant and William Holden expressed at various times that Grace could almost read their minds and seemed to have almost an unnatural understanding for the male psychology. Cary Grant once suggested that Grace had an extraordinary gift for reading his thoughts. Her friend Rita Gam agreed, “Grace had ESP.”414

  Princess Grace’s marked inclination toward various spiritual modes was the subject of a documentary film made in 1997, fifteen years after her tragic death. Secret Lives: Grace Kelly (1997) was originally a British documentary that aired on the television channel, Channel 4. Originally the British program (1997) was sixty minutes in length, but it was then edited and shortened to fifty-three minutes (2002) and then forty-two minutes (2007).

 

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