Ralph Bellamy was what many would call a “dependable” player: always there (nearly 100 movies), always capable, (almost) always losing the girl. Why Bellamy never became a major movie star is beyond me – especially considering that guys like James Stewart, Fred MacMurray, Dick Powell, Don Ameche, Joseph Cotten, etc. were top leading men of that era.
Perhaps Bellamy was just both too good-looking and too intelligent-looking to keep Ginger Rogers from Fred Astaire (Carefree), Irene Dunne and Rosalind Russell from Cary Grant (The Awful Truth and His Girl Friday, respectively), and Anna Sten from Gary Cooper (The Wedding Night). All four films – in addition to 11 other Ralph Bellamy movies – will be presented on Turner Classic Movies on Sunday, Aug. 14, as part of TCM’s “Summer Under the Stars” film series.
Unfortunately, there are no TCM premieres, but included are a few lesser-known titles, e.g., Otto Brower’s watchable mix of adventure, comedy, and romance, Headline Shooter (1933), with William Gargan and Frances Dee; Harry Beaumont’s West of Broadway (1931), starring a fast-fading John Gilbert and Lois Moran; and Alfred E. Green’s The Narrow Corner (1933), with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Though not a good movie, West of Broadway is well worth checking out as a historical curiosity: John Gilbert delivers a – for lack of a better word – strange performance; watching his newly married millionaire I felt like I was watching the actual, troubled John Gilbert in front of the camera. Also, West of Broadway turned out to be Lois Moran’s last appearance in a Hollywood feature. A popular leading woman in the late 1920s, Moran was the inspiration for the character of Rosemary in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night.
Vincent J. Donehue’s Sunrise in Campobello (1960) suffers from the same Broadway syndrome that plagued many other adaptations of stage hits of that period, e.g., The Bad Seed, Tea and Sympathy, A Hatful of Rain – excessive theatricality. Ralph Bellamy is quite grandiose as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but the scene-stealer in this drama is glamorous Greer Garson cast against type as plain jane Eleanor Roosevelt.
Bellamy must have been quite disappointed after being bypassed for that year’s Best Actor Oscar, as his performance is the very core of the film and the role had earned him a Tony ten years earlier. Garson, for her part, may have been a little surprised to have been shortlisted, as this was her first Best Actress nod in 15 years.
Bellamy did receive a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for The Awful Truth, one of the funniest screwball comedies of the late ’30s; he lost to Joseph Schildkraut in The Life of Emile Zola. Additionally, in 1987 Bellamy was given an Honorary Oscar “for his unique artistry and his distinguished service to the profession of acting.” A founding member of the Screen Actors Guild, Bellamy was later president of Broadway’s Actors’ Equity for twelve years (1952-1964), standing strong against the far-right opportunists of the McCarthy era.
For the record: The five Best Actor nominees of 1960 were Burt Lancaster, the eventual winner for Elmer Gantry; Trevor Howard for Sons and Lovers; Spencer Tracy for Inherit the Wind; Laurence Olivier for The Entertainer; and Jack Lemmon for The Apartment. The Best Actress winner that year was Elizabeth Taylor for surviving a tracheotomy/pneumonia and, to a lesser extent, for BUtterfield 8.
Ralph Bellamy movies: TCM schedule (ET)
6:00 AM CAREFREE (1938)
Director: Mark Sandrich.
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Luella Gear, Jack Carson, Clarence Kolb, Franklin Pangborn, Walter Kingsford, Kay Sutton, Hattie McDaniel.
83m7:30 AM THE SECRET SIX (1931)
Director: George Hill.
Cast: Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Ralph Bellamy.
84m9:00 AM HEADLINE SHOOTER (1933)
Director: Otto Brower.
Cast: William Gargan, Frances Dee, Ralph Bellamy.
61m10:15 AM PICTURE SNATCHER (1933)
Director: Lloyd Bacon.
Cast: James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Ellis.
77m11:45 AM THE WEDDING NIGHT (1935)
Director: King Vidor.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Anna Sten, Ralph Bellamy.
83m1:15 PM LET US LIVE (1939)
Director: John Brahm.
Cast: Maureen O’Sullivan, Henry Fonda, Ralph Bellamy.
68m2:30 PM DIVE BOMBER (1941)
Director: Michael Curtiz.
Cast: Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Alexis Smith.
133m4:45 PM THE PROFESSIONALS (1966)
Director: Richard Brooks.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Claudia Cardinale, Woody Strode, Ralph Bellamy.
118m6:45 PM THE WOLF MAN (1941)
Director: George Waggner.
Cast: Lon Chaney Jr., Claude Rains, Warren William, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Maria Ouspenskaya, Evelyn Ankers.
70m8:00 PM HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940)
Director: Howard Hawks.
Cast: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Porter Hall, Ernest Truex, Cliff Edwards, Roscoe Karns, Regis Toomey, John Qualen, Helen Mack, Alma Kruger.
92m9:45 PM THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937)
Director: Leo McCarey.
Cast: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D’Arcy, Cecil Cunningham, Molly Lamont, Esther Dale, Joyce Compton, Robert Allen, Robert Warwick, Mary Forbes.
91m11:30 PM SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO (1960)
Director: Vincent J. Donehue.
Cast: Ralph Bellamy, Greer Garson, Hume Cronyn, Jean Hagen, Ann Shoemaker, Tim Considine, Zina Bethune, Alan Bunce, Lyle Talbot, Herbert Anderson.
144m2:00 AM THE NARROW CORNER (1933)
Director: Alfred E. Green.
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Patricia Ellis, Ralph Bellamy, Dudley Digges, Arthur Hohl, Reginald Owen, Henry Kolker, William V. Mong, Willie Fung, Sidney Toler.
69m3:15 AM GIRLS’ SCHOOL (1938)
Director: John Brahm.
Cast: Anne Shirley, Nan Grey, Ralph Bellamy.
72m4:30 AM WEST OF BROADWAY (1931)
Director: Harry Beaumont.
Cast: John Gilbert, El Brendel, Lois Moran, Ralph Bellamy.
66m
“Ralph Bellamy Movies on TCM” notes
Ralph Bellamy movie schedule via the TCM website.