Memories of O’Keefe
Marvin introduced me to writer, director James O’Keefe, son of actor Dennis O’Keefe, and I got a kick out of telling him, I’d watched his father, from the roof of our garage, chase Wallace Ford down the alley behind my parents’ apartment on Pier Avenue in Ocean Park. Ocean Park, the southern tip of Santa Monica, bordering Venice, was film noir heaven in the 1940s and ‘50s. Hardboiled gumshoes and gangsters like Dick Powell, Dennis O’Keefe and John Garfield tread those mean streets on the beach in films like "Nobody Lives Forever," "The Breaking Point," "Pitfall" and "Raw Deal." In 1957, Orson Welles turned the whole area into a corrupt Texas bordertown. I used to irritate my mother by pointing out that our family had stayed for a brief period in Marlene Dietrich’s whorehouse.
The main reason I came to the festival was to see a little B thriller called "The Madonna’s Secret." My old friend, the late Edward Ashley, had fourth billing in this poor man’s version of "Rebecca.” After Edward and his wife Rene had moved to Oceanside, he asked me to help him write a book about his life and times. He had told me a hilarious story about his stay at Republic Pictures where this film was shot.
The Ashley Roots
Born Edward Ashley-Cooper in Sydney, Australia, in August, 1906, he appeared on the stage and screen in Australia and England before coing to California and signing a personal contract by with L.B.Mayer himself.
After appearing in "Pride and Prejudice” with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson, he was put in a series of forgettable B pictures such as "Masie Was A Lady" and "Come Live With Me." After playing Maureen O’Hara’s foppish fiance in "The Black Swan," (a film he hated), Edward enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. He stayed for the duration of the war.
Ride ‘em, Cowboy
Herbert Yates owned the laboratory Consolidated Film Industries, and he took over a flock of poverty row production companies
that made mostly Westerns. He christened his company Republic Pictures. Gene Autry was his bread and butter until World War II when Autry joined the Army Air Corps. Then it was Roy Rogers who, during the war years, became "King of the Cowboys." The biggest star at Republic was John Wayne who was bailed out of starring in a series of 5 day oat-eaters by his friend John Ford who cast him as the Ringo Kid in "Stagecoach."
A Film That Fizzled
Yates wanted to upgrade his product. He put Edward Ashley under contract and starred him in a screwball comedy with Virginia Bruce (also a former contract player at Metro) called "Love Honor and Goodbye," directed by Al Rogel (a former MGM contract director). The film opened at Radio City Music Hall and was held over for a second week. But the film played poorly in small towns and the Midwest. After World War II, screwball comedy was out of vogue. Drawing room comedies, with heroines sauntering down long winding staircases and butlers carrying trays of drinks to people sitting around a swimming pool the size of Lake Mead, didn’t cut it anymore. Not after Americans had seen the results of Hitler’s rampage in Europe and the Japanese rape of China.
Film directors like John Huston, John Ford, Frank Capra, and William Wyler had seen the horrors of war. They were changed by their experiences. They groped around uncertainly in those times for themes and stories. They wanted o make films that would interest them and reflect how they felt about the human condition after a conflict that had destroyed the old world order forever.
Put the Accent on America
Ashley told me that after the opening of "Love, Honor and Goodbye," he was invited to lunch by Herbert Yates himself. Having just starred in a picture that was now playing at Radio City Music Hall, Edward went to the lunch thinking this would be his big moment. After the small talk, according to Edward, Yates looked him in the eye. In his thick Hungarian accent, he exclaimed, "Look, I can’t sell your pictures; not with that accent! People don’t want to see actors with British accents. You know, the next war is going to be with England."
What’s Left to Say?
The wind had been completely taken out of Edward’s sails when Yates told him that he would pay for him to go to language school to lose his British accent. Edward calmly declined. He informed Yates that he wasn’t interested in changing his accent. "My accent is as natural to me as yours is to you,” Edward told him. At the end of the meal, Ashley went home and called his agent, asking him to get him out of his contract.
"The Madonna’s Secret" was made right after "Love, Honor and Goodbye," and it’s a curious piece. The film opens with Edward standing in a midtown Manhattan museum looking at the portrait of a beautiful woman who had been murdered in Paris sometime before. He tracks down and confronts the artist played moodily by Francis Lederer whom he believes killed the woman. After dominating several scenes in the film, Edward totally disappears from the picture.
Postscript
Edward told me that after his ill-fated meeting with Yates, he was written out of the script. Edward only appeared in one other film at Republic, a silly little comedy about ice hockey that has totally disappeared.
Edward then left films for a period. He toured with the play "Kind Lady," which co-starred Sylvia Sydney.
