Late tonight, TCM plays the early seventies gangster classic, Get Carter, with Michael Caine in an absolutely brilliant performance as the cold, deadly Carter of the title. One of the reasons Michael Caine has long been a favorite of mine is his natural ability to play comedy and drama, light and heavy, with equal aptitude. Oh sure, there’s not an actor from the twenties on that didn’t work in both comedy and drama and, if the studio had their way, and they did, at least one musical. But that doesn’t mean they were so equally good at both that today we look back on a career almost evenly spaced between both types of roles. Cary Grant, for instance, was one of the best actors that Hollywood ever produced but despite his aptitude with drama, it was in playing light comedy or light adventure that he truly excelled. His performance in North by Northwest just may be the finest example of that kind of acting in existence, and evidence that he could take a character not terribly deep by anyone’s standards and turn him into a compelling presence. Of course, he didn’t get nominated or win anything for it but that’s just because Hollywood’s stupid far more than it’s not. Ingrid Bergman, on the other hand, could do lighthearted when she wanted to but from Casablanca and Gaslight to that movie with Cary, Notorious, she shined playing the deeper, heavier roles. And, to loop back to the beginning of this piece, some actors, like Michael Caine, really can play it both ways so well that you’d be hard pressed to think of them in one category or the other for very long.
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One of my all time favorites in this category is Spencer Tracy. When I watch Tracy in something like Bad Day at Black Rock, I’m not thinking anything except here’s a tough as nails veteran who wandered into the middle of a bad situation that’s just getting worse and he has to make his way out of it. There’s nothing about Tracy in that role that reminds me at all of the Tracy in Father of the Bride, which is the Tracy with impeccable comic timing and expert delivery. The Tracy in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is nothing like the Tracy in Libeled Lady. The Tracy in Woman of the Year is unrecognizable next to the Tracy from Fury. The Tracy from Northwest Passage is a different guy than the one in Pat and Mike. And we’re not talking some method actor here, changing his look and accent for each movie. Hell no, Spencer Tracy used his own damn voice for every role, spoke his lines with authority and made his marks. The thing is, he just happened to know exactly what to do just as well if the line called for a laugh from the audience or a gasp. He was a master of timing, dramatic and comedic, and that’s why, all these decades later, there still aren’t a lot of actors who rank higher.
If I had to come up with an actress that most reminds me of Spencer Tracy in this regard but, sadly, never got the lead roles that Spencer did, it would be Thelma Ritter. Like Tracy, she was equally adept at comedy or drama and, exactly like Tracy, it was because she was a master of timing, period. Whether she’s playing it tough in Pickup on South Street or wisecracking in Pillow Talk, she comes off as just right for the part. She never seems like she’s forcing the comedy or the drama, she just seems natural.
Moving on, you’ve probably seen Irene Dunne in Theodora Goes Wild and The Awful Truth. You’ve probably also seen her in Love Affair and I Remember Mama. And I probably don’t have to say much more than that. Whether it was Never a Dull Moment or Penny Serenade, Irene Dunne was never an actress anyone thought of as purely dramatic or purely comedic. She could move easily from one to the other. And she’s still, by far, the best thing (only good thing?) in Cimarron.
Of course, one of the all time giants for this kind of thing was Jimmy Stewart. He played lighthearted so many times in the forties that he could have easily been typecast as the romantic comedy hero for the entire decade, excelling in such films as The Shop Around the Corner, except that he was so good in movies like The Mortal Storm that his dramatic chops couldn’t be ignored. He could also play tough and grizzled in some of the best westerns of the classic era while playing late era light fare as well. Who else could do Bell, Book, and Candle, Vertigo, and Anatomy of a Murder all within 18 months of each other and work great in all three?
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Finally, I can’t help but end with the partner of the guy near the top of this list, Spencer Tracy. Acting with him in many a comedy, and the occasional drama, was one of the greatest actresses of the silver screen, Katharine Hepburn. Think about how many comedies she did in the thirties and forties and fifties, and then think about how many serious dramas she did, and it would be difficult if not damn near impossible to say she was one type or another. She was a great comedic actress and a great dramatic actress. Not once have I ever taken her less seriously in a drama, like Long Days Journey Into Night because I think about her serenading a leopard in Bringing Up Baby. Katharine Hepburn was never in danger of hurting herself as a comedic actress by playing too much drama or as a dramatic actress by playing too much comedy because she was so skilled at both that no one ever had time to think she was anything but a true talent on both sides of the acting coin all the way.
It’s fitting that the actor that started this discussion, Michael Caine, has two Oscars, one for a comedy/drama, Hannah and Her Sisters, and one for a drama, The Cider House Rules. He was one of the few that duel talents that got honored for both of his abilities (although he’s better in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels than in both of those combined, in my opinion) but there are many like him. They’re the actors who can play it both ways and while many try, only a few are so good at it that we never think of them as one type or the other. Just great. Period.