The Irene Dunne Site
Great Lady
By HELEN HOVER WELLER
As Mrs. Clarence Day in "Life With Father," Irene Dunne will just be herself
- a warm, dignified and gracious person.
Irene Dunne has an explosive temper and an explosive sense of humor. When the two come into conflict, however, the sense of humor nearly always triumphs.
Take, for instance, the time when Irene decided to go for a short drive, and found the small car which she particularly likes to drive missing from the garage. Reluctantly, she got into the large chaffeur-driven limousine. As she rode along she boiled with anger because her husband had taken the small car which she very much prefers.
Straight ahead in the next lane, she suddenly spied the small car and directed the chauffeur to drive up to it. When they got within speaking distance of the smaller car, she proceeded to give Dr. Griffin a piece of her mind.
"Why," she asked, "did you take the car you know I like? You know how I hate to use the limousine! Don't you trust me to drive a short distance? Is that, darling, your opinion of me as a driver?"
By the time the two cars had reached a red light, Irene got a good look at the occupant of the car for the first time. Her cheeks grew red. The man in the car was not her husband but a stranger. The car, so deceptively like her own, was actually just a similar model.
Irene's sense of humor came to the rescue. She laughed heartily and so did the occupant of the other car. Irene was not longer annoyed at having to ride in the limousine. In fact, the whole incident became a family joke.
On other occasion, when Irene was making "Anna and the King of Siam," she had to appear in certain scenes with an elephant. One day the elephant came over to Irene and began to use his trunk to explore underneath her voluminous skirt. Irene, instead of venting her temper on the animal trainer for being careless enough to let the pachyderm wander around loose, laughed gleefully.
"After all, what could I do?" she explained. "You can't very well slap an elephant's face for getting fresh!"
When Irene was making "Life With Father," her sense of humor rescued her once again from a situation which might have made any actress of her importance hit the ceiling. Warners' suggested that in order to save shooting time, it would be a great help if Irene, Bill Powell and the young boys in the picture would devote part of their Sunday to visiting the Westmore beauty shop to have their hair dyed.
They all agreed. After the henna had been applied, however, the operators discovered the water had been turned off. They had to wait until the plumbers arrived. By that time everyone's hair had turned a giddy shade of orange. This was not too serious an inconvenience for Bill or the youngsters, who could pass it off as a gag; but a woman with such a brilliant shade of red could look cheap and vulgar.
Irene could have berated the studio and the beauty operators for not making sure ahead of time that everything was ready, but instead she took one look at herself and burst out laughing.
"Just look at Mother," she cried. "If she'd gone out in the street with that shade of hair in the days of 'Life With Father,' wouldn't everyone been scandalized."
Irene likes making plays into pictures. After "Life With Father" with William Powell (above) she'll do "I Remember Mama."
What made the mistake particularly embarrasing was that the Griffins had a dinner date that evening with some friends in a restaurant. Irene trembled a little before she went for dinner, but she hates to break appointments, so she walked in with her head and chin high. Any other actress appearing in public with that shade of hair would have caused stares. But Irene has such innate poise and dignity that even the loud shade of red passed almost unnoticed that evening.
The one word that has been used most frequently for Irene is "lady" - a description which Irene has disliked from the beginning. I fact, right at the start of her career in Hollywood, a writer got a scoop from Irene by threatening to expose the truth - that she was a nice, normal and thorougly unsensational lady - unless Irene gave her a startling story. As though she had been threatened with a fate worth than death, Irene then gave in, and told the story which her studio at that time wanted her to keep a secret - her marriage to Dr. Griffin.
It is only in recent years that Irene has stopped arguing when anyone accused her of being a lady. A writer for a national magazine recently described her as "the lady Irene." Irene thought such a description would bore all her fans to tears; instead she got nice letters, expressing gratitude for the fact that there was one star who could always be depended upon to behave like a lady.
"Maybe the world needs women who behave like ladies," she said recently, startled at the idea.
She still thinks that writers describe her in much too laudatory terms. "I get so bored with writers who put me on a pedestal," she said. "They make me appear so aloof."
Mary Frances, Irene's eleven-year-old daughter, could tell them how far off the beat they were, if she were permitted to give interviews. She has led a happy, sheltered life because of the warmth and kindness of Irene and Dr. Francis Griffin.
From the beginning Irene protected her from the trappings of a movie star's daughter. She was never put on exhibition; never photographed for publicity purposes or even mentioned more than briefly in interviews.
It was Mary Frances who recently presented Irene with the necessity of making one of the most important decisions of her life. Mary is a talented pianist, and several music teachers have said that she could easily become a concert pianist with special training. Since Mary was too young to decide so momentous a question for herself, Irene had to decide for her. In the end, she ruled against any professional career for her daughter.
"It's such a hard life," she told me. "It would mean that Mary would have to make so many sacrifices. First of all, she would have to leave the Marymount school where she is so happy and study privately. Then she would have to spend at least four hours a day at the piano, practising. That doesn't seem to me the ideal life for a girl as young as Mary. At the president time she leads the life of a typical girl: she swims and rides, plays the piano when she wants to and has all the recreation and activity she needs. I think that kind of life is best."
Irene and Rex Harrison check film while waiting for broadcast. They were team in "Anna and the King of Siam."
Just the same Irene believes that every woman should have a hobby or try to cultivate a talent in addition to running a house.
Her home in Holmby Hills is a distinct reflection of her personality. French Provincial on the outside, it is formal and subdued within. The house isn't done in the current vogue of chintzes and brightly colored cottons. Instead, like Irene herself, it is conservative and has a quiet elegance.
The living room is done in pale grey with touches of rose. Irene didn't turn over her home to a decorator as so many stars do. Instead she and her husband, while spending time in France, bought each piece of furniture meticulously, selecting rare antiques, and shipped them back to this country, one by one. Irene is a perfectionist about her home, just as she is about her work and about every phase of her life.
When she knew that she would have to play a Norwegian woman in "I Remember Mama" she wasn't content to wait until the picture began before studying with a coach. Knowing that the Scandinavian accent is one of the most difficult of all and is usually burlesqued on the stage, she made up her mind that she would adsorb the accent. To do so, she went to Ojal Valley, where several Norwegians have settled, and became friendly with them. Before she left, she engaged a Norwegian companion to spend a few months with her. In order that this woman who had a baby, should have no distractions and should be able to devote all her time to conversing with Irene and improving her accent, Irene hired a nurse for the woman's baby, and moved them all into her home.
Even though she is a perfectionist about her work, Irene would give it up in a minute if it ever interfered with her marriage. Many actresses say that; Irene has proved it. When she was first offered the role in "Anna and the King of Siam," she turned it down because her husband was ill. The studio appealed to her again and again, but each time she refused until her husband told her, "Why don't you make the picture? I have a nurse to take care of me and I'll feel happier if I know you're working and aren't worrying so much about me."
It was only then that Irene finally gave in. She regards herself as Mrs. Griffin first, and Irene Dunne second. Even when she approves a story, which is part of her career, she signs it with the initials "I.D.G."
In certain respects Irene is very much like Mrs. Clarence Day of "Life With Father." Like Mrs. Day, she exercises a calming influence on those around her. Like her, she is dignified, deeply religious and very warm.
In only one respect is Irene different. As far as we can tell, Mrs. Day seldom lost her temper. But maybe they're not so different after all since Irene's tempers like Mrs. Day's are as swift and fleeting as summer storms.
The End
(Movieland, October 1947)