No Golden Age movie star projected vitality, vigor, and a lust for life more heartily than Burt Lancaster, born on this date in 1913. With his dazzling smile and handsome Irish looks, he was destined to be a movie star. The mere mention of his name conjures up his most iconic roles, such as the title characters in Elmer Gantry or The Birdman of Alcatraz. Movie lovers know that he began his career in film noir, playing the Swede in The Killers and Joe Collins in Brute Force. Reviewers took notice of the devilishly good-looking actor, referring to him as a “brawny Apollo.” Though he tried to play against this image by starring as the acid-tongued gossip columnist in Sweet Smell of Success or as a working-class brute in The Rose Tattoo, it was an image difficult for fans to forget. Lancaster can be seen this month on TCM in The Professionals (November 29, 8:00pm) and in Three Girls and a Sailor, in which he appears in a cameo as himself (November 19, 6:15pm).
In the 1980s and 1990s, his career took an interesting turn. He appeared in the films of young directors who cast the aging actor because of his status as a fabled movie star. In Phil Alden Robinson’s Field of Dreams, Lancaster costarred as Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, a baseball player who played only one game during his pro career before retiring to become a doctor. As an icon of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Lancaster was much like his character, who represented the glory days of baseball. In Daniel Petrie’s Rocket Gibraltar, Lancaster starred as the dying patriarch of a dysfunctional family who demands a Viking funeral. Who would be more deserving of a mythic funeral than a movie star from Hollywood’s most mythic era?
LANCASTER AND MALLE ON THE BOARDWALK
My favorite Lancaster film instigated this final phase of his career, when his status as a legend from another time colored his characters. In 1979, Louis Malle cast the still-handsome but aging star in Atlantic City, the French’s director’s look at an American city—and culture—in transition. Just three years earlier, residents of New Jersey had voted to approve casino gambling for Atlantic City. Before the ink was dry on the legislation, the owners of the old Chalfonte-Haddon Hall converted their hotel into Resorts International, which became the first legal casino in the East. Other casinos quickly popped up along the Boardwalk. As usual when politicians jump on board the gambling train, they claim the earnings will improve social services, fix schools, or otherwise serve the common good. In this case, the hope was to revitalize a run-down Atlantic City, suffering from poverty and urban decay. In 1979, when Malle and his crew shot for five weeks in Atlantic City, long shots captured a city in flux. Shiny new casinos shared the Boardwalk with run-down buildings from another era. Cranes, construction, and half-demolished buildings peppered the landscape.
LOU STROLLS ALONG THE OLD ATLANTIC CITY.
The characters reflected this shift from the old to the new. Lancaster starred as Lou Pascal, a former bag man for the big-time gangsters who ruled Atlantic City in its glory days of the 1920s and 1930s. Lou maintains the illusion that he is still an important underworld figure, though he has been reduced to running numbers and living off his girlfriend Grace, a former beauty queen. Grace has grown bitter and needy because her looks have faded, and she constantly belittles Lou, who is already emasculated from age and circumstances. Both live in a ramshackle apartment building that is part of old Atlantic City. Susan Sarandon costarred as Sally, a buffet hostess who is in training to be a croupier. Escaping a bad marriage, she hopes to rise above her working class roots by making something of herself in the classy casinos of Europe. Sally lives in the building across from Lou, who watches her through the window as she methodically washes the fish odor from her hands. Also representing the new order of Atlantic City is Sally’s drug-dealing ex-husband Dave, who has stolen heroin from the mob. He enlists Lou to help him distribute it, restoring the old man’s delusion that he is a flashy tough guy from the underworld. After Dave is killed by the new mob, Sally meets Lou, who regales her with romanticized stories of the old days when gangsters and their frails dressed to the nines and kept a high profile in the clubs along the Boardwalk. The cold, calculating new Atlantic City with its deadly drugs and ruthless violence contrasts mightily with Lou’s accounts of the old days when gangsters not only had decorum and style but shared a kind of underworld code of honor.
EACH NIGHT LOU WATCHES SALLY, PLAYED BY SUSAN SARANDON.
During shooting, Malle had difficulties preventing Lancaster from engaging in the mannerisms that had made him famous, including that wide grin and hearty laugh. Eventually, Lancaster listened to Malle and realized the value of underplaying. More interestingly, Malle exploited his image as a star from days long past to create an underpinning for the character. Just as Lou represents a time when glamour and sparkle defined Atlantic City so Lancaster was associated with the glamour and charisma of Hollywood’s Golden Age. In the beginning, Lou is a character who puts on the persona of an old-school mob insider. As he gets involved with both Dave and Sally, he regains a sense of identity, becoming in part the man he was pretending to be. It is a complex character involving layers of image and pretense that inform identity. As the film progresses, the silver-haired Lancaster is downright sexy in some of his scenes with Sarandon. I think this is my favorite Burt Lancaster film because I have a soft spot for old guys from back in the day who have held onto their swagger.
DAVID (Robert Joy) AND LOU REPRESENT ATLANTIC CITY’S CRIMINAL PRESENT AND SHADY PAST. THE CHARACTERS’ COSTUMES REPRESENT THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRESENT AND PAST.
Shot independently on a modest budget, Atlantic City was delivered to Paramount for distribution, but the studio sat on the film because it was difficult to market. When it was finally released, it won the Golden Lion at Venice, and it was named Best Film of the year by the National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics, and other associations. It garnered five Academy Award nominations, including a fourth Best Actor nod for Lancaster.
Taking advantage of TCM’s new wine club, I propose a toast to Burt Lancaster on the occasion of his 102nd birthday. The perfect wine for the occasion is a 2014 Pinot Noir called Le Champ des Etoiles, which translates as field of stars. As vibrant as Lancaster, this red wine bursts with flavor yet tastes silky and smooth, a description that echoes the character of Lou Pascal. To learn more about the TCM Wine Club please visit www.tcmwineclub.com and join us on social at #CinemaSips.