The Bennetts - On the Bedside Table

 

This is part of the 2021 Summer Reading Challenge hosted by Raquel Stecher over at her Out of the Past blog. This has been an annual event since 2013. One which I have never completed with success. Aiming for 2021 to be the year I read 6 books and actually blog about them. #classicfilmreading

Well, going slower than planned, or reading longer books. My office commuting is 3 days a week, interrupted by a couple of weeks self-quarantined after enjoying a weekend out in the world with visiting friends. Happily, no sign of COVID, hooray. Was back at the office last week and commuting fired me up to finish my second book for the Summer Reading Challenge. I have now done so.

When one thinks of famous American acting dynasties, people generally will come up with two names, Barrymore or Booth. Booth, not so much for Edwin, but, for his infamous little brother assassin John Wilkes. With Barrymore you get more names and a big legacy, primarily, Ethel, Lionel and John. The younger generation will add Drew Barrymore to the mix (who bears a striking resemblance to Great Aunt Ethel). There is also the Costello family subject of a recent book by Terry Chester Shulman.

Inexplicably, the Bennett dynasty is not a name that comes readily to mind, and I think that is a shame. Brian Kellow's 2004 book chronicling the family The Bennetts: An Acting Family is my second book for the Summer Reading Challenge and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I came to this book knowing very little of any of the Bennett family. Long a fan of Joan Bennett, my exploration of her filmography started backwards as a devoted viewer of the television gothic soap opera Dark Shadows growing up. It was the 1938 film Trade Winds on late night television that informed me that Joan Bennett was once young and a star in movies. 

Kellow's book begins, as it should with the patriarch Richard Bennett whose career is harder to judge since he was, primarily, a stage actor. Ephemeral, one can only review this career by the words of contemporary reviews and the dwindling number of eyewitnesses. He was a troubled man, and like so many of his ilk and generation of thespians, haunted by inner demons and the evils of drink. My main visage of Richard Bennett is one at the end of his life and career as Major Amberson in Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons.  

Richard Bennett painted by Norman Rockwell 
as Major Amberson

The eldest daughter Constance Bennett fled the family first and found fame plying the family trade in silent films. Reaching her zenith ins What Price Hollywood (quite her best performance in my opinion), her career continued on with a big hit as the ghostly Marion Kirby in Topper and gradually settled into character roles by the late 1940s. Her fluid love life and multiple marriages complicated things for her, as well as her not so pleasant demeanor on the set. Constance was not one to make friends among the crew. Constance, on screen played well the brittle type, and it seems her personality was on the brittle side, too. 

Middle sister Barbara Bennett is a tale of a troubled soul and it is heartbreaking. Ideally not suited to act, she got her start as a dancer. Several marriages, a fragile mental state and like her father, an alcoholic, Barbara was doomed to travel a rocky path. Many marriages, reliant on her sisters for support and the inability to stay sober for long, her sad demise leaves one feeling awful. She did not learn the lesson that ruled elder sister Constance who witnessing their father's lack of sobriety was a life-long abstainer.

Joan Bennett, epitome of chic

Finally we come to baby sister Joan, who I feel had more talent and more onscreen success than elder sister Constance. Described as more a placid type, Joan was the kind sister. Katharine Hepburn described her as a darling woman (they appeared in the 1933 Little Women together). Joan like her other sisters made the break from the family early, hers by marriage at a young (and foolish) age. She drifted into the family business more as necessity rather than love of it. That said, her work ethic and kindness endeared her to cast and crew alike. She, like her elder sisters had more than a few marriages under her belt and also endured the scandal of her jealous husband shooting her agent (currently the subject of a fascinating podcast Love is a Crime).

All of this and more is covered in Kellow's book. I found it to be a good read, though I confess I was less interested in the early career of father Richard. Once it got going with the intertwining tales of the three Bennett girls, I was all in and found it to be a real page turner. Particularly since I was pretty unfamiliar with any of their lives, travails and careers. Well, excepting Joan's career who has been by far my favorite Bennett sister. I think they are worth exploring, both in this book and on film.  The Bennett sisters may not be the Barrymore Family in terms of prestige, I still think they can and do more than hold their own in their best films.  Recommended read.

Now, if you want to learn more about Joan Bennett with a healthy dose of fun, look no further than the website Appreciating Joan Bennett.