Original subtitles

ROBERT: This isn’t really \h\ha story about a man.

It’s about what his life \h\hwas allowed to mean.

Remember that.

[FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING]

I’m Montgomery Clift’s \h\h\hyoungest nephew.

If you’re like half the people who’ve learned this about me,

that statement doesn’t mean anything to you.

\h\hSo let’s get caught up before we go any further.

I must say, uh, it’s a pleasure \h\hto be here.

\hROBERT: For audiences of classic Hollywood,

\hMonty was one of the most famous, most beautiful faces \hof a new style of acting.

\h\h\h\hHe was nominated for four Academy Awards,

and starred opposite actors \h\h\h\hlike Elizabeth Taylor \h\h\h\hand Marilyn Monroe.

He’s frequently lumped in \h\h\h\hwith Marlon Brando \h\h\h\h\hand James Dean,

\h\h\h\hfor portraying a type of \h\h\h\hmasculinity Hollywood had never before put on the screen.

Vulnerable, sensitive, \h\h\h\hemotional men.

\h\h\h\hBut for all that, \h\h\h\hMonty’s not really remembered for his acting.

His name became synonymous \h\h\h\hwith gay tragedy.

The slowest suicide \hin show business.

The man who had everything, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand lost it,

because he was so tormented \h\hby his attraction to men

that he destroyed himself.

A beautiful loser.

\hThose two words have always struck me as an unfair summary \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto a life.

I saw where it came from.

I read and watched the same \h\hbooks and TV about Monty \h\h\h\h\h\has anybody else.

\h\hBut I also grew up with little anecdotes

\h\hthat suggested there was something more to his story.

What that was,

it’s complicated.

[SWITCH CLICKING]

[WHIRRING]

I never actually met Monty.

He died in 1966,

and I was born in 1974.

\h\h\hMy father Brooks was his older brother.

He died in 1986.

It’s always a little awkward \h\h\h\h\htalking about Monty \h\h\h\h\h\hwith my family.

\hAnd my father has a lot to do with it.

\hTV HOST: Back in the studio here with Montgomery Clift’s \h\h\hbrother, Brooks Clift.

Brooks, you’ve got a couple \h\hof artefacts I’m dying \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto ask about,

and I didn’t get to them, \h\h\hbut I want to, now. What have you got there?

Well, this is my brother’s flask.

-TV HOST: Oh, my God. \h\h\h\h\h\h-The MC.

\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd, uh, here is a very marvelous memorabilia,

which is the dark bag, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat, uh,

\hRobert E. Lee Prewitt \h\h\h\hcarried in, uh, From here to Eternity.

RADIO HOST: Oh, no.

ROBERT: My father kept everything.

\h\hMy family thought he was too focused on Monty, \h\h\hand I can see why.

There’s the normal stuff.

Clippings, scrap books, \h\h\h\h\h\hhome movies.

But then there’s also \h\hthese audio reels.

Where he recorded conversations of my grandmother Sunny...

\h-SUNNY: Hello? -BILL: Hi, dear.

SUNNY: Hello, dear.

\h\h-ROBERT: ...and Monty’s most prominent biographer. \h\h\h-[PHONE LINE RINGING]

\h\h\h\h-BOSWORTH: Hello? \h\h\h\h\h\h-MONTGOMERY: Is Patty Bosworth there?

BOSWORTH: Yes! Hi, how are you?

ROBERT: Monty himself.

MONTGOMERY: [WHISPERING] \h\h\h\h\hHello, puppy.

Hello. Hello.

ROBERT: And Lorenzo James.

JAMES: Hello, Larry.

LARRY: Hello, this is the first \hchance I’ve had to get back.

\h\h\hJAMES: Well, that’s all right.

ROBERT: Lorenzo is basically \h\hmy uncle, through Monty.

\hHe’s really my only living relative who knew him well.

But it’s hard for him \hto talk about Monty.

\hAnd he didn’t want to appear on camera.

JAMES: I won’t do it. I just cannot do it.

ROBERT: So, he pointed me \hto somebody whose role \h\h\h\hin Monty’s life

\h\h\h\hhadn’t really been acknowledged in the past.

Jack Larson.

Jack played Jimmy Olsen \h\h\h\h\hon the original \h\h\hSuperman TV series.

Who’s gonna bother me?

\h\h\hHe met Monty on the Warner Bros. lot,

where Monty was filming \hHitchcock’s I Confess.

\hLARSON: Merv Griffin took me and introduced \h\h\h\h\hme to Monty.

His next film was gonna be \h\hFrom Here to Eternity,

and he was looking \hfor a mouthpiece \h\hfor a trumpet.

[TRUMPET MUSIC PLAYING]

It was important to him

\h\h\h\hto have what James Jones described

-as a quartz mouthpiece \h\h\h\hon the trumpet. \h\h\h-ROBERT: Mmm-hmm.

LARSON: He said, "Would you go \h\h\h\hwith me one Saturday,

"and we will look around \h\h\h\h\hfor these, uh,

"and see these old \h\hmusic stores."

So I said, "Of course,"

and Merv heard this,

and he imposed himself,

said, "I will drive you both." \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h[CHUCKLES]

So, anyway, we didn’t find \h\hthe quartz mouthpiece.

\h\h\hBut Monty had a suite at the Hollywood Roosevelt,

and so we were there, back after this jaunt,

when Merv had to go \h\hto the bathroom,

and Monty came over and just

grabbed me by the back \h\h\h\h\h\hof my head,

\hand gave me this extraordinary kiss.

[CHUCKLING] And he just \hgrabbed me, and he...

It was like something from \h\h\hA Place in the Sun.

I was astonished.

I was just astonished.

ROBERT: Right, right.

\h\h\hLARSON: And it never occurred to me that he liked guys.

\hAnd then he said, can I see you later?

[LAUGHING]

Would... When you \hget rid of him.

\hMm, the thing about Monty was,

is that he wasn’t anything like people think he was.

He loved to have fun.

He was very, a clown himself.

Uh, he had a great \hsense of humor.

As a person, he was nearer to Jerry Lewis on screen,

[CHUCKLING] than he was \h\hto Montgomery Clift \h\h\h\h\h\hon screen.

\h\h\h\hROBERT: I don’t know what I was expecting to hear \hfrom Jack, but it wasn’t that

The idea that Monty could \h\h\hhave been funny felt \h\h\h\hdownright radical

compared to the Monty \h\hof public memory.

\h\h\h\h\hHis extraordinary talent earned the respect of \hmoviegoers and critics alike.

And his exceptional good looks \h\h\h\hcaptured the hearts of \h\h\h\h\h\hmillions of women.

I mean, even Elizabeth Taylor \h\h\h\hwas in love with him.

The guy had everything \h\h\h\h\hto live for.

So why did Monty Clift \h\h\h\h\h\h\hend up an emotionally tormented,

\h\hdrug-addicted alcoholic, living in self-imposed hell?

\hBecause Monty Clift \h\h\h\h\hhad a secret he couldn’t live with.

A secret that haunted him \h\h\huntil his dying day.

\h\hROBERT: When you put it that way, there’s not much room for a sense of humor.

And that’s just one of many biographies

\h\h\h\hdetailing Monty’s \h\h\h\h\h\hdownward spiral of closeted self-loathing.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-MAN: [ON TV] \h\h\hFame brought him... -Every script in Hollywood.

MAN: But he couldn’t control \h\h\h\hhis personal demons.

It all went to hell.

\h\h\h\h\h\hMAN 1: This guy was very self-destructive.

\h\h\h\hMAN 2: Friends had urged Clift to go into psychoanalysis

to confront his \hinner demons.

\h\hMAN 3: The drinking was fairly well-known,

and I think the origin \h\h\h\h\h\hof it was

the conflict over his \h\h\hsexual identity.

ROBERT: This narrative comes \h\h\h\hmainly from two major biographies from the 1970s.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThe first was Robert LaGuardia’s Monty.

Then came Patricia Bosworth’s \h\h\h\h\h\h\hMontgomery Clift: \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hA Biography.

LaGuardia framed Monty’s life \h\h\hthrough a distinctly pop \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hFreudian lens,

starting in childhood.

\hYou see, Monty, my father \h\h\h\h\h\h\hand my aunt had an unconventional upbringing.

\h\h\hThey spent a good deal of time in Europe,

traveling with their mother and being privately educated \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hby tutors.

For LaGuardia, Monty was too close to his mother

\h\h\h\hfor his own psychological good.

LAGUARDIA: There was nothing \h\h\hobvious about his life

\h\h\h\hexcept for the, uh, very obvious Oedipal complex \h\h\hthat I believe he had.

It can all be sort of \h\htraced back to his \h\h\h\h\hearly years,

and, and his close \hrelationship with \h\h\hhis mother.

\hHe didn’t really have a strong ego foundation, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know.

And when he tried to finally become a person of his own,

he wasn’t really \h\h\ha person.

ROBERT: Basically, LaGuardia argued that Sunny made Monty \h\h\h\h\ha gay non-person.

\h\h\h\h\hBut just Monty, not my father or my aunt.

LaGuardia thought Sunny \h\h\hpushed Monty toward \h\h\ha painful future.

\h\h\h\hLAGUARDIA: \hThat might have driven him to, uh,

\hto this kind of breakdown,

almost dysfunctional \h\h\h\h\hbreakdown.

\hThere was always a part of him that I think he wanted to kill.

[GLASS SHATTERING]

You know, that’s why someone, \h\h\hBobby Lewis, called him

"the slowest suicide \hin show business."

Because half of him \h\hwanted to live,

and half of him was so perfect,

and the other half of him \h\hreally wanted to die.

[SONG PLAYING]

♪ Somebody’s mother

♪ Is waiting

♪ For someone

♪ Each day

♪ Somebody’s mother

♪ Is working

♪ For someone

♪ Away, away ♪

ROBERT: As you might expect,

my grandmother wasn’t happy \h\h\h\h\h\hwith this book.

\h\hSUNNY: You have read this book, haven’t you?

BROOKS: Well, I haven’t \hread it, you know...

SUNNY: Well, you’ve read \h\hthe second chapter.

BROOKS: ...completely, thoroughly, you know.

SUNNY: Well, you’ve read it. \h\h\h\h\h\hI wanted to know \h\hwhat your reaction was.

\h\h\h\hBROOKS: Well, I... \hI don’t think it’s as bad as I thought it would be.

SUNNY: Oh, well, I think \h\h\h\h\hit’s worse than \h\h\h\hanybody thought.

\h\h\h\h\hI want to know, have you any inclinations

to write...

a contradiction of it?

Your writing is...

is superior to anything else,

\h\h\h\h\h\hbecause there, it is so full of untruths.

\h\hThere are accusations in that book that are so,

absolutely, flagrantly a lie.

If I hadn’t gone to the extreme in doing things for Monty,

I probably wouldn’t feel it \h\h\h\h\h\h\hquite so hard.

\hIt’s tough. [CLEARS THROAT]

BROOKS: I agree.

\h\h\hSUNNY: I gave everything I had.

BROOKS: Yeah, I know you did.

SUNNY: You see, Monty was a homosexual very early.

Oh, I think he was \habout 12 or 13.

\h\h-BROOKS: Well, he wasn’t homosexual, he was bisexual. -SUNNY: I mean, a homosexual.

BROOKS: You mean, \ha homosexual?

\h\h\h\h-SUNNY: Exactly. -BROOKS: But he wasn’t...

\h\h\h\h\h\h-SUNNY: Exactly. \h\h\h-BROOKS: ...homosexual because he also had women, so,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-those are not \h\h\h\h\h\hcalled homosexual. -SUNNY: Well, whatever he was.

\h\hBROOKS: Bisexual is what we call it.

SUNNY: [SIGHS] Anyway,

his book crucifies me \h\h\h\hfor all of it.

But, maybe sometime, \h\h\h\hyou will...

write something which \h\hwill answer that.

\h\h\hBROOKS: If you want to counteract this book,

\h\hI would do it \h\h\h\hin a letter to Patty Bosworth,

because her book \his going to be

a fabulous "Book of the Month" \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hclub thing.

This is your last chance, \hif you really want to do \h\h\hanything effective.

\h\h\hROBERT: My father didn’t trust LaGuardia \hfrom the beginning.

And the reviews of the book \h\hbore out his suspicions.

\hIt was considered to be largely salacious gossip.

Patricia Bosworth, on the other hand,

\h\h\hmade a much better impression on my father.

And he urged family and friends to talk to her for her book.

BOSWORTH: I think he wanted \h\h\h\h\hsomebody to write \h\h\h\h\h\h\ha biography

which treated Montgomery Clift \h\h\h\hseriously as an artist,

and tried to place him \hin the pantheon along \hwith Brando and Dean,

\h\hwho were already more famous in a way,

you know, more legendary.

\hAnd, uh, and he knew that he could do that.

BROOKS: Did you get the, \huh, copy from sermons

\h\hof Larry James’ letter to LaGuardia?

\h-BOSWORTH: Yes. -BROOKS: You did?

-BOSWORTH: Did you get it? Yes. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-BROOKS: Yes.

BOSWORTH: I thought it was \h\h\h\h\h\h\hreally good.

BROOKS: Uh, I think \hit is very good.

\h\h\h\h\h[CHUCKLES] I... I think it is the best,

\h\huh, review of LaGuardia’s book.

Because, I mean, in a nutshell, that is a review of the book.

[TYPEWRITER CLACKING]

\h\h\h\h\h\hBROOKS: I think it’s a very eloquent step.

BOSWORTH: He read it to me \h\h\h\h\h\hover the phone \h\h\h\hbefore he sent it,

\h-and I said, "Larry, nobody could have said it any better." \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-BROOKS: Yeah.

\h\h\h\h\hBOSWORTH: I said, \h\h\h\h"You really are... It’s a wonderful letter."

And by the way, there is \h\htremendous excitement about the book. My book.

\h\h\h\h-BROOKS: Mmm-hmm. -BOSWORTH: As opposed to \h\h\h\h\hthe other one.

It’s a very funny thing, \h\hit’s been a kind of,

\hit’s generated an enormous amount of interest in Monty,

-of course, the other one. \h\h\h-BROOKS: Yes. Right.

\hBOSWORTH: The interest, \h\h\h\h\h\hfor my book, because, still and all,

with all the publicity about the other book,

Brooks, he doesn’t answer \h\h\h\h\h\hany questions.

\h\h\h\h-He doesn’t solve \h\h\hthe mystery of Monty. -BROOKS: Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm.

-BOSWORTH: You know \hwhat I am saying? \h\h\h-BROOKS: Yes.

ROBERT: For my father, \h\h\hthe answers were \h\h\hin Monty’s work.

His approach to acting \hand his choices were \h\h\h\hwhat mattered.

\h\h\h\h-[PROJECTOR WHIRRING] \h\h-I find that it would be very difficult for me to...

separate, you know,

the, the actor and the man \h\h\h\h\hand the brother.

I think they’re all intertwined.

But... I, I think, \h\hyou could say,

mostly he was an actor.

And everything that he did

had to do with his craft.

ROBERT: Monty made his professional theatrical \h\h\h\hdebut in 1935,

at the age of 14.

He didn’t start making films \h\h\h\h\h\huntil he was 28.

He was in touring companies \h\h\h\h\h\hand on Broadway.

\hDuring rehearsals, Monty clicked away.

[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING]

He photographed co-stars in their dressing rooms,

and acting on stage.

\hThey went on tours of surrounding areas \hin their off-time.

\hMy favorite photos are the ones he took \h\h\h\hof himself.

A series of self-portraits

\hfrom long before his face became...

a bankable property.

One of the film canisters \hhas $300 stuffed in it.

I imagine a young Monty hiding his early earnings \h\h\h\h\h\hfrom Sunny.

Or maybe, more likely, \h\h\h\h\h\hmy father.

\hMonty’s photos also speak to his training as an actor.

\h\hHe learned from some of \h\hthe biggest names in the history of American theater.

Tallulah Bankhead, \h\hFredric March,

Thornton Wilder, \hLynn Fontaine

and Alfred Lunt.

\h\h\hLARSON: Monty and other people,

they’re lumped into this publicity thing

of the Actors Studio

and Strasberg.

Which is bull,

and he had quite a bit \h\h\h\h\h\hof contempt \hfor the Actors Studio

and Strasberg.

-ROBERT: Mm-hmm. -LARSON: And what they were doing.

MONTGOMERY: The method, as such,

I must say, I’m baffled myself. \h\hI don’t know what it means,

because any good actor

uses the principles \hof Stanislavski.

No matter what, they do, \hthey do it unwillingly, \h\h\h\h\hbut they do it.

I’ll never forget, a long while ago,

I was playing with Alfred Lunt \h\h\h\h\hand Lynn Fontanne in \h\h\hThere Shall Be No Night.

\h\h\hAnd, uh, someone else had a speech, about so long,

and she said to me,

while this person is talking,

you might answer \hat any point.

Well, you could call \h\h\h\hthat method.

I don’t care what \h\h\hyou call it.

But it’s absolutely truthful,

and every time you find \h\h\ha truthful actor,

you find someone

who bears out all the, \h\h\h\hnot theories,

but some of the realism

that Stanislavski bothered \h\h\h\h\hto put on paper.

But, but, yours is really, \h\h\h\huh, an instinctive \h\h\h\hand natural, uh...

\h\hMONTGOMERY: You mean, a naturally great talent?

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Yeah. -MONTGOMERY: Oh, thank you.

Remember, you said that.

I did not say that.

-Well, what I meant, \h\huh, Mr. Clift... \h\h\h\h\h-[CHUCKLES]

-Don’t call me "Mr. Clift." \h\h\h\h\h-And don’t leave!

-I was just going to go. \h\h\h\hHow did you know? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-[LAUGHS]

Hey, that’s what I meant. \h\hThat’s the instinct.

ROBERT: Monty’s talent \h\has an actor became \h\hwidely recognized.

And Hollywood took note.

As early as 1938,

\h\h\h\hthe studio saw him as a potential child star.

He was offered the lead role \h\h\h\h\hin The Adventures \h\h\h\h\h\h\hof Tom Sawyer.

He turned it down.

\h\h\h\hAnd that was just one of many risky choices.

MONTGOMERY: Well, \heach time I was offered a role,

\h\hI’d be offered a better contract.

I felt I was so young \h\h\h\hin those days,

\h\h\hI don’t know, let’ say they started when I was 16.

Then another offer, \h\hbetter one, 17.

Another offer, better one, \h\h\h\h\h\hwhen I was 18.

Another offer when I was 19.

And, uh, all of the offers,

\halthough the money was better each time \h\hI was in a play,

but, at that age,

\h\h\h\h\hI would have had to sign a contract

\hwhere they would tell me what I was \h\hgoing to play.

\h\h\h\h\hAnd I figured my career would be over.

\h\h\hWe wouldn’t be sitting here today.

\hMy family was saying, \h"You know, you can make money and salt it away."

\h\h\hYou can’t salt it away if you cut off your potential \h\h\h\hof income, can you?

\h\h\hAnd I’ve always trusted myself enough.

I must say, I’m willing to gamble on my own taste \h\hin selecting a role.

It’s one thing to get \h\h\ha good contract,

\hit’s another thing to do good picture.

[TYPEWRITER CLACKING]

ROBERT: Monty refused \h\h\h\hthe standard seven-year contract,

which would have put him \h\hat just one studio,

playing the roles \hassigned to him.

Saying no just wasn’t done.

The late Robert Osborne \h\h\h\hput that decision \h\h\hin context for me.

\h\hOSBORNE: By that era when everybody was under contract \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto a studio,

he didn’t go under contract \h\h\h\h\h\h\hto a studio.

He remained a freelancer.

You know, and the studio system \h\hkind of hated him for that.

And other actors, you know, \h\hI think, were thinking,

you know, "My God, you know, \h\hhow, how can he get away \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith this?"

But he could, ’cause he was \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat talented.

And people wanted him.

Montgomery Clift had been offered

the role of Greer Garson’s \h\h\hson in Mrs. Miniver, \h\h\h\h\hby William Wyler.

But he turned it down.

\h\hHe wanted a better part for his first part in films.

He so stood out from the crowd,

that I think everybody knew \h\h\h\hthat he was gonna be \h\h\h\himportant in films.

Either he already knew it \h\h\hor somebody gave him \h\h\h\h\h\h\hadvice that,

you know, you hold out \h\hfor the very best.

You have enough talent to get the very best.

\h\hROBERT: Monty turned down \h\h\h\hroles in films like The Bridge on the River Kwai,

East of Eden,

On the Waterfront.

Big roles.

\h\h\hOscar nominated roles \h\h\hfor some of the people who ended up taking his place.

\h\h\hROBERT: Did he ever express regret

in some of the parts that he turned down?

No, he expressed satisfaction,

\hin, in, uh, [CHUCKLING] that he turned them down.

So, he’d done these two great successes at Paramount

\h\h\h\hand they developed Sunset Boulevard for Monty.

The story was that Monty \hturned it down because \h\h\h\hof Libby Holman.

She was something else.

\hShe’d been the greatest star possible on Broadway.

Torch singer.

[LIBBY SINGING]

♪ When he holds me tight

♪ With all his might... ♪

\hLARSON: They were having definitely a relationship.

And, uh, I’m talking about \h\ha sexual relationship.

-Under the sheets. [CHUCKLES] \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-[LAUGHS]

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hLARSON: And Billy Wilder thought

this affair with Libby Holman,

\hit wouldn’t look good for Libby, an old star.

That wasn’t the case.

\h\h\hMonty didn’t think he’d be good in the part.

He said... And William Holden \hwas much better in the part

\h\hthan he would have been, than Monty would have been.

ROBERT: Monty’s choosiness \h\hfrustrated his agents.

Like when he turned down \h14 films in one year.

But for every Cal Trask \h\hevery Terry Malloy,

there were probably 20 roles \h\h\hthat could have sunken \h\h\hMonty into obscurity.

Monty waited ten years to transition into film \h\h\h\hfrom theater.

\h\h\h\hHis first contract was a single picture deal,

\h\h\h\hstarring opposite John Wayne, in Red River.

Hired men don’t run away.

\h\h\h\hWe can’t keep them. \h\h\h\h\hThis’ll wear out all the rest of the tribe.

ROBERT: I can’t stand \h\h\h\hJohn Wayne.

\h\h\h\hHe described my uncle as an arrogant little bastard.

\h\h\h\h...on anything make a man out of you.

ROBERT: But I’m with Monty.

\hJohn Wayne’s masculine posturing was so forced.

Well, they whip kids to teach ’em better.

ROBERT: And so unnecessary.

...sayin’ you can join \h\hyour friends here.

\h\hAll I want is... Where are you going?

I’m gonna sit down.

\h\h\hROBERT: When I watch Monty’s movies, I take sides.

Audiences did, too.

\h\h\hPeople were ready for an alternative to the typical \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmale lead.

Brutish and out of touch \h\h\hwith his emotions.

\h\h\hI am a perfectly normal man with perfectly normal instincts.

In Monty’s performances, there was something more \h\h\h\hto being a man.

\h\h\h\h\h-[BOY SOBBING] -Hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey.

Don’t, uh,

don’t cry.

-[SOBBING CONTINUES] -It’s all right, lad.

All right, cry.

\h\h\h\h\h-I won’t. \h\h\h-No, no, no. Don’t say anything.

I know.

\hROBERT: Monty’s arrival on screen marked a shift \h\h\h\hin movie acting.

He created characters that moved and mumbled \h\hlike real people.

They were willing \h\hto be tender.

And his characters were \h\h\h\hcomfortable with \h\h\h\h\htheir beauty.

With being looked at.

Soft-focused shots like this \h\hwere typically reserved

\h\honly for the women of classic Hollywood.

\hAnd then there was this scene.

\h\h\h\h\hWhich is about as Brokeback Mountain as it was \h\h\hgoing to get in 1948.

That’s a good looking gun \h\hyou were about to use back there. Can I see it?

If you’d like to see mine.

ROBERT: Off-screen, Monty was \halso expanding ideas about \h\hwhat an actor could be.

He leveraged his popularity \h\h\h\h\hto require script

and director approval \h\hon his contracts.

\h\hAs well as the ability to work at rival studios.

He fought resistant writers \h\h\hand producers to become \h\ha creative collaborator.

Like on his second film, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hThe Search.

BROOKS: Monty rewrote \hhalf that script.

If pictures did not get \hfinished in the time \h\h\hallotted to it...

INTERVIEWER: Contracts \h\hran out, didn’t it?

\h\hThe contract ran out, \h\hso Monty was able to blackmail them in effect,

\h\hinto, he said, "Well, \h\h\h\h\hI’m going home, my contract’s finished."

And, uh, then they had to agree to change it,

\h\h\h\h\hso that it was the, the lines were communication,

you know, instead of, \hkind of moralistic.

What good is a number to a tracing bureau?

Can’t you say anything except "I don’t know."

[SPEAKING GERMAN]

[IN ENGLISH] Can’t you... \hsay yes, no, anything?

\hThey must have taught you yes or no in some language.

[SPEAKING FRENCH]

Italian. Italiano! Huh?

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYou wouldn’t be holding out on me, would you?

ZINNEMANN: Monty fortunately \hhad a clause in his contract,

in which he had, uh, \h\h\hthe permission \hto change dialog,

which he did.

And Monty did rewrite \h\h\h\hhis own lines.

\h\hAnd to some extent, some of the boy’s lines.

Uh, otherwise, it would have \h\h\h\hbeen total disaster.

\h\hROBERT: The film ended up \h\h\hbeing nominated for two Academy Awards for writing.

And won one.

\hRichard Schweizer and David Wechsler \h\hfor The Search.

[CROWD APPLAUDING]

\hROBERT: Monty was not credited as a writer.

But he did receive his first \hof four Oscar nominations.

Montgomery Clift \hin The Search.

\h\h\hMontgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun, Paramoun

\h\hMontgomery Clift in From Here to Eternity.

\h\hMontgomery Clift in Judgment at Nuremberg.

ROBERT: Monty was, \hby all accounts, \h\ha movie star.

\h\h\hBut he wasn’t in films for the stardom or the fame.

\h\h\h\hOver and over, as fan magazines asked why he was so elusive,

why his clothes weren’t nicer,

\h\h\h\h\hwhy is apartment in New York was so small,

why he wasn’t dating,

he was remarkably consistent.

He cared about his work.

\hAnd I think part of \hwhat made his acting so interesting and new

is that he approached it kind of like a director.

Somehow, in working,

I see the scene \h\has a whole.

I’ll fight harder to have \h\h\h\ha line eliminated

for somebody who’s \hplaying with me, \h\hfor their sake.

Or to have it added to, \h\h\h\h\h\hor changed,

than I can fight for myself.

And, um, that’s what \h\hI think, my, uh,

\h\hyou know, as one gets into one’s later years...

\hThat’s, that’s pretty close, though, to what you were doing.

I mean, direction is...

\h\h\h\hMONTGOMERY: Yeah, one does direct oneself,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hlet’s face it, under certain circumstances.

[WARDEN AND PREW SPEAKING]

ROBERT: Monty’s commitment to craft was what my father wanted people to remember.

\h\hHis brother was independent.

And took stands \hto do the work he believed in.

\h\h\hWhen it was time to memorialize Monty,

my father chose to work \hwith Patricia Bosworth \h\hbecause he believed

they were on the same page \habout what was important \h\h\h\hto Monty’s story.

\hAnd his independence did make it in there.

It just didn’t end up being her main focus.

BOSWORTH: I mean, this was \h\h\h\ha new kind of hero \h\h\h\h\h\hin the movies.

The alienated guys, \h\h\h\hthe rebels,

the idealists who went \h\h\h\htheir own way.

And this is what he exemplified.

\h\hAnd that, that’s one \h\h\hof the things that I wanted to write about.

But of course, I also, \h\h\hI wanted to write \h\ha picture of him,

yes, uh, somebody who had \h\hto lead a double life, \h\h\hbecause he was gay.

\hSo, all these things \h\h\hI wanted to, uh, to get into the book.

I was really in love \h\h\hwith this guy.

I, that’s one of the reasons \h\h\h\h\h\hI did the book.

ROBERT: Tell me about that.

Oh, I met him when I was 15 years old.

He was in our house, \h\hmy father was his \h\hlawyer, briefly.

And he came to the house \h\h\h\h\hand I came home \h\hfrom school one day.

And there was Montgomery Clift, \hlying on the floor of the living room,

talking to my father,

\hand this was at the time of The Search, Red River.

He was just about to make \h\h\h\hA Place in the Sun.

He had been on the cover \h\h\h\hof Life magazine.

\h\hHe was very famous, and he was so gorgeous.

I practically fainted.

\hI went in, and you know, managed to control myself,

and shook his hand and, uh,

\h\h\huh, actually, I curtsied to him,

-and he curtsied back. \h\h\h\h\h\h[CHUCKLES] -ROBERT: That’s great.

\h\hBOSWORTH: Which is, \h\hof course, typical of what he used to do.

He was funny and full of life \h\h\hand as I say, absolutely, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hso beautiful.

Just so drop-dead gorgeous.

\h\h\h\hAnd I was just, \h\h\h\has I said, I fell madly in love with him.

\h\h\h\hI even saved his cigarette butt.

And I also decided that \h\h\h\hI would take him \h\h\hto a school dance.

Have I told you this story?

My fellow students at school \hdid not believe that I knew \h\h\h\h\hMontgomery Clift.

\h\h\h\hAnd I said, "Well, I’m gonna prove it to you

"because I am gonna bring him \h\h\h\hto the school dance."

\h\hAnd they said, "Oh, yeah, sure."

So, I decided that I would \h\h\h\h\h\hconvince Monty

to take me to this dance by doing the following.

I put falsies on and I made,

\h\h\hyou know, put a lot of make-up on. I was like 15 or 14.

And I came down, and I said,

"Monty, I want, I want to ask you something."

\hHe said, "What are you wearing?"

What, why are you wearing \h\h\h\h\hthose falsies?

And I said, "Well, I just am,"

[CHUCKLING] or something.

And he said,

"What do you want to ask me?"

And so I said, "I want \h\h\h\hyou to take me to the school dance."

\hAnd he said, "Take off those falsies, take off that make-up,

"then come back down \hand ask me again."

So I rushed upstairs, I took off the make-up, \htook off my falsies,

run, ran down the stairs again,

\hand said, "Now, now \h\h\hwill you take me to the school dance?"

And he said no.

I said, "Why not?"

\hHe said, "I am too old for you.

"I’m 28 years old."

I said, "Please, take me \h\hto the school dance."

He said, "Well, I’m gonna \h\h\htell you something.

"Don’t wear falsies anymore.

\h\h\h\h\h\h"Just be yourself. You look terrible in falsies."

So I never wore falsies again.

-But he didn’t take me \hto the school dance. \h\h-ROBERT: He didn’t?

BOSWORTH: No!

ROBERT: Meeting Patty \h\hwas complicated.

I liked her. She’s been our de facto family historia

And she’s had a tangential \hspot in all of our lives

since she turned her love for Monty into a best-seller.

Her book is on the shelf \h\h\hof every one of my \h\h\h\hfamily members.

But I’ve always been warned

\hthat her book is reliable only up to a certain point.

\h\hI’ve looked to her book for names, dates, anecdotes.

But the details \hgive me pause.

Take Judy Balaban, \h\hfor instance.

She dated Monty for a time, \h\hand we interviewed her.

\h\h\h\h\h-Hi. -WOMAN: Hello.

ROBERT: The story she told us \h\h\h\habout meeting Monty

and the story in the biography \h\hmatched for the most part.

But then took a turn.

[BOSWORTH SPEAKING]

BALABAN: My dad met Monty \h\hand he was very, very \h\h\h\htaken with him.

And it was unusual

because though my dad \h\hwas president of a large movie company

for almost 30 years,

\h\h\hhe really didn’t have any friend who were actors.

And then, because he liked \h\h\h\h\h\hMonty so much,

and never liked anybody \hI was going out with \hin my teenage years,

\h\h\h\hhe would always say, \h\h\h\h\h\h"Well, you know, why can’t you be like Monty?"

\hI didn’t what he was supposed to, you know,

he didn’t want me \hto be an actor.

I didn’t know what he wanted, \h\h\hwhat "like Monty" meant.

But it was very annoying to me.

I was going out \hwith somebody

\h\h\hwho was going to Nassau with two of his best friends,

\h\h\hand I thought, "Oh, well, if I could go at the same time, \h\hthis would be just great."

So, my parents said they wouldn’t let me go alone, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hat 18.

So, they would instead \hgo to Nassau with me, \h\h\h\h\hfor a week.

The day before we were \hto leave for Nassau,

my father came home \h\hfrom the office,

and he said, "Monty Clift came to the office today,

\h\h"and I invited him to go to Nassau with us tomorrow."

[BOSWORTH SPEAKING]

\h\h\h\hBALABAN: It was \h\hjust an automatic, immediate connection.

[BOSWORTH SPEAKING]

\hBALABAN: Jack Adler \hand his two friends were on the terrace.

\h\hMonty and I were on the terrace, some other people on the terrace.

I went off to the powder room.

And I came back and Monty and Jack Adler were having \h\h\h\h\h\h\ha fistfight.

I have no idea to this day, \h\h\h\hneither one of them \h\h\h\hwould ever tell me,

who said what or how it... \h\h\h\h\h\h\hI don’t know.

All I know is, I didn’t see \h\h\h\hmuch of Jack Adler \h\h\hafter that. [LAUGHS]

\h\h\hAnd Monty and I were sort of joined at the hip.

\h\h\h\hAnd went on for maybe, January?

And until probably \hthe next autumn.

[READING]

ROBERT: I should not here that Judy was 18, not 16, \h\hwhen she met Monty.

\h\h\hA small detail, but, an important one.

I was already so much younger \h\h\h\hthan he was when were \h\h\h\h\h\h\hgoing together.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hThat if I’m 16, I sort of sound like jailbait.

Sixteen would not \h\h\hsound good.

ROBERT: When I first read that, \h\h\h\hit did not sound good.

\h\h\hAnd it was all the more significant

\h\h\h\hbecause it was not an isolated creepy detail.

[BOSWORTH READING]

Hedda Hopper speaking.

[BOSWORTH SPEAKING]

\h\h\h\h\h"As soon as he hung up the phone,

"Citron phoned the police \h\h\h\h\hin New Orleans,

"and discovered Monty had been \h\h\hdetained briefly in jail

\h"for drunkenness and then released."

[BOSWORTH SPEAKING]

ROBERT: When I read that \has a young boy myself,

it felt wrong.

I couldn’t put my finger on it yet,

but that feeling was reignited

when I heard Patty describe that same incident differently

in a later interview.

\hAt one point, I think he was \h\h\harrested for cruising or arrested for picking up a man,

um, and this was all, \h\huh, hidden and kept \h\h\hfrom the press.

\hROBERT: And man versus a boy is a pretty important distinction.

\h\h\hI can’t help but think of the once widespread panic

that gay men were preying on the nation’s children.

NARRATOR: What Jimmy didn’t know was that \h\hRalph was sick.

The sickness that was not \h\hvisible like smallpox,

but no less dangerous \h\h\hand contagious.

A sickness of the mind.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYou see, Ralph was a homosexual.

\h\hA person who demands an intimate relationship

with members of \htheir own sex.

ROBERT: So, were we talking \habout pederasty or homophobi

I went back to Patty’s research notes at the New York Public \hLibrary to figure it out.

Her notes from interviewing \h\h\h\h\h\h\hMonty’s agent

include gossip Hedda Hopper \h\h\h\h\h\hheard about Monty \h\h\h\h\h\hmolesting boys.

Citron took that crude rumor \h\h\h\h\h\has it was meant.

As a question about \hMonty’s sexuality.

\h\hBut Hedda Hopper said "boys," right?

Sure. So did Monty’s \hother biographer,

Robert LaGuardia.

\h\h\h\hBut he was careful \h\h\h\hto explain himself to an unfamiliar audience.

Monty would go just so far \h\h\h\hin a relationship.

And then, he would bring \h\h\ha boy onto the set.

Um, when I say boy, I mean he would bring a young man \h\h\h\h\h\h\honto the set.

\h\hROBERT: That clarification didn’t happen in Patty’s book.

In draft form,

she took the mention of boys \h\h\h\hon its literal face,

in introducing pederasty.

And then by the time \hit went to print,

\h\h\h\hthe word became part of a direct quote attributed \h\h\h\h\h\hto Hedda Hopper.

So, when in the same paragraph, Patty says,

\h\h\h\h\hBOSWORTH: [READING] "Not long after that, he was \h\harrested on 42nd Street

"for trying to pick up \h\h\h\ha young boy."

ROBERT: Young boy can only \hbe read in one misleading wa

And that’s not to say \h\hMonty couldn’t have \h\h\h\hbeen arrested.

For picking up a man.

He could have been.

At that time, it was \ha criminal offense,

\h\h\hand you could be sent to prison. A lot of people’s \h\h\h\h\hlives were ruined.

I had a cousin who was on \h\h\h\h\hthe vice squad,

\h\h\hthree generations of LA cops in my family.

\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd I knew the police’s attitude

towards homosexual acts.

But the big movie stars \h\h\h\h\hwho ran afoul

of the Los Angeles \h\h\hVice Squad.

But Monty was not \hlike homophobic

\h\h\h\h\h\hor worried that anybody would...

He was very private.

\hBut I was very surprised by him.

He was one of the most \h\haffectionate people \h\h\hI’ve ever known.

And he was affectionate \h\h\h\h\h\h\hin public.

\hI was certainly more inhibited than he was.

ROBERT: Lorenzo told me \h\hsomething similar.

JAMES: Monty’s personal life didn’t bother him as much as \h\h\hpeople thought it did.

See, people felt that...

\hbecause of his moods and things like that,

that he couldn’t take the fact, but that’s not true.

\hThat I really want the people to know.

And he was really not that closeted.

\hYou know, with contracts, like a Brando, or like a...

You know, you get married.

Even Rock Hudson, \hyou get married.

Even though the marriage \h\h\hdoesn’t work out.

But, uh, he said,

"I refuse to sign a contract

\h\h\h\h"that would put me \h\h\h\h\h\hunder contract, because it wouldn’t work."

\hHe knew this. Monty knew that.

It was his own independence.

\hVery important that Monty be independent.

\hROBERT: Monty was able to maintain his artistic \h\h\hand sexual freedom

\h\hby navigating the studio system the way that he did.

\h\hInsisting on his privacy in public meant that he could \h\hlive out of the closet.

\h\h\hJAMES: He was much more assured

about his homosexuality.

\h\h\hToday, it would be his gayness. [CHUCKLES]

\hAnd yet, Monty had affairs with ladies.

He did have affairs \h\h\h\hwith ladies.

\h\hROBERT: I remember \h\hLorenzo mentioning some of those affairs

\h\hwhen my brothers and I were younger.

That question of who Monty \h\hmight have slept with

\h\h\h\h\hwas a point of adolescent fascination.

-Did you ever ask Lorenzo if... -EDDIE: I just asked \h\h\hhim one thing.

I said, "Did Monty ever \h\h\h\hsleep with..."

[LAUGHS]

I think, uh, Marilyn Monroe.

-ROBERT: And Elizabeth Taylor. \h-EDDIE: Or Elizabeth Taylor.

I can’t remember which one I, I cared about the most.

But I said, "Did you ever \hsleep with..." [LAUGHS]

Like, "Yeah!"

He said yes, so,

I think it was Elizabeth Taylor I must have asked about, yeah.

ROBERT: Why was that \hthe big question?

\h\h\hEDDIE: Just because I think she’s hot or...

[LAUGHS] I don’t know.

\h\h\h\hI don’t know. I just wanted to know, \h\h\hlike, you know,

because there was rumors, \hyou know, that she was \h\h\h\hin love with him,

and, you know, but he wasn’t \h\h\h\hready to settle down.

But was it Marilyn Monroe

or was it Elizabeth that \h\h\h\h\hI cared about?

ROBERT: I have to tell you, \h\hI thought it was both.

You told me, the next day, it was only the next day,

and it meant a lot to me.

Because I had just read a story in the New York Post

\h\h-uh, the guy who did the autopsy, on Monty... \h\h\h\h\h\h-EDDIE: Okay.

\h\hROBERT: ...told \hthe New York Post about the autopsy,

\h\h\h\h\h\hand his penis, and he wasn’t circumcised,

and he had a small penis, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hall right?

-I was just coming into my, \h\h\hit was just my puberty. \h\h\h-EDDIE: Yeah, exactly.

\hROBERT: And I was in a school where

-everybody was circumcised. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h-EDDIE: Yeah.

\hROBERT: All right? \h\hAnd I was worried about my penis size.

-[EDDIE LAUGHS] \h\h-You know?

And so, I’m like, "Oh, my God, \h\h\hthis runs in the family!"

[LAUGHS]

ROBERT: So, when I heard \h\h\hthat he slept with

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hnot just Elizabeth Taylor, but...

-EDDIE: But Marilyn Monroe! \h\h\h-ROBERT: And Marilyn!

EDDIE: Yeah, that’s pretty \h\h\hdarn good. Exactly! \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h[LAUGHS]

\h\hThat’s kind of when I wanted to know, too.

\h\h\hOkay. [LAUGHING] It was like, now I can \h\h\h\hbe a real man.

[PROJECTOR WHIRRING]

\h\h\h\h\hROBERT: It’s a little embarrassing to think about how \hmy young sense of masculinity

\h\h\hgot tied up with who Monty slept with.

And anyway, Lorenzo might have been telling us these stories

just to make us feel \h\hmore confident.

Or maybe he worried what \h\hwe might think about \h\hMonty without them.

My father talked about Monty’s relationships with women too.

I used to fear it was because \h\h\hhe hadn’t fully accepted \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhis brother.

But in hindsight, I think \hhe was rejecting the way \h\hthat Monty’s sexuality

\hhad been turned into some type of tragedy.

-As I understand it, \h\hhe was bisexual. \h\h\h\h-BROOKS: Yes.

\h\h\hAnd I’m wondering, \hBosworth mentions that he was extremely tortured

because of these \htwo identities.

-They gave him, he was... \h\h\h\h\h-BROOKS: Well, \h\hI think he figured...

I think that’s a marvelous \h\hthing to say in a book,

to try to sell the book, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou know.

I never found that \h\h\hto be true.

I’d say, I mean,

\h\hthis never seemed to bother him at all.

\hROBERT: So much of the mythology \h\haround Monty

is built on that conflict \h\h\hover his sexuality.

\hHe was confused, a friend recalls.

\h\hHe was tormented, says a co-star he never \hshared a scene with.

\h\hHe loves women, he has sex with men.

The Monty of Bosworth’s writing

\h\h\h\hnever gets to have a fulfilling relationship,

because there’s always \h\hsomething missing.

\h\h\h\hWhy all this dismantling of his meaningful relationships

with men and women?

-BROOKS: Sells books. -ROBERT: Sells books.

BROOKS: But... [LAUGHS]

Even with you, I can see

you digging in for something

that you don’t have \h\h\h\hto dig for.

ROBERT: What do you think \h\h\h\hI’m digging for?

BROOKS: It’s mostly about \h\h\h\h\hhim, sexually.

You’re digging, you’re still \h\h\h\hdigging like there is \h\hsomething that’s hidden.

And this, his approach

to sexuality and everything,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat you feel you’re not getting, you know.

ROBERT: And that’s the thing.

It’s important to talk \h\habout his acting.

\hBut his image is so tied \h\h\hto this self-hating, repressed homosexual idea.

\h\h\h\hBROOKS: [SCOFFS] \h\h\h\hThe self-hating? He didn’t hate himself!

\h\h\hIt’s amazing the words we grab in order to describe \h\h\h\h\h\h\han individual.

ROBERT: And all of that \h\h\h\hover everything \h\h\h\h\helse he did.

\hSo, the only way to re-remember him

is to throw that shit \h\h\hout the window.

\h\h\h\h-Like it has to be \h\h\h\h\h\hdeconstructed. -BROOKS: So, throw it out.

Tear it up.

I see your point. I do, believe me.

\h\hAnd I’m sympathetic and empathetic about it.

But... [LAUGHS]

No. Well, just leave it.

\hROBERT: That’s been my family’s attitude \hfor a generation.

Monty’s sexuality got framed as a destructive \h\hforce in his life,

instead of a mere \h\h\hfact of it.

And as far as anybody \h\h\h\h\hcould tell,

\h\h\h\hthat happened on my father’s watch.

He’d worked with Patty Bosworth

and urged everyone else \h\h\h\hto do the same.

You know, he was very much \h\h\h\ha part of the book, \h\h\h\h\h\h\has you know.

Brooks Clift really helped me \h\h\h\h\hmore than anybody.

\h\h\h\hHe was there all the time for me.

We talked constantly.

\h\hI mean, I really \h\h\h\hcouldn’t have done it without him.

ROBERT: But all through \hhis notes on the book \h\hare disagreements,

that my family didn’t see.

I think my father saw bias \h\hin this book he’d given \h\h\h\h\hso much time to.

In his taped calls with Patty,

I hear him struggle to explain \h\h\h\hthat this Monty wasn’t \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe man he knew.

\hThere are hours of him going over galley proofs \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith her.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hLine by line, \h\h\h\h\hmaking corrections and questioning conclusions.

Like when Sunny is once again \hcast as too close for Monty’s \h\h\h\h\hproper development.

BROOKS: [OVER RECORDER] \h\h\h\h\h\h\hPage 56.

[BROOKS READING]

\h\h\hAnd I don’t, I don’t understand that sentence.

BOSWORTH: You would not, \hyou don’t believe that \h\h\h\h\hhe had sort of

a private relationship \h\h\hwith his mother?

-Or a secret relationship? \h\h\h-BROOKS: No, I don’t!

BOSWORTH: No?

\h\h\h\hROBERT: My father also chastened the idea that Monty’s \hrelationship with their mother

\h\his somehow interfering with his ability to connect \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith others.

BROOKS: [OVER RECORDER] \h\hOn 106, you say...

[BROOKS READING]

And in the same paragraph, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou say,

-this is just semantics, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor you... \h\h\h\h-BOSWORTH: Yeah.

\hBROOKS: He says, "Oh, Ma, when I’m with Mira, I have \hto make Mira feel important.

Then, your next sentence is, \h\h\h"Already Monty was more \h\h\h\hloved than loving."

I think if he’s trying to make,

\hif he has this sensitivity to make Mira feel important,

it is a loving thing.

\h\h\h-BOSWORTH: Okay. -BROOKS: Being very...

I mean, this is just semantics, darling, uh, to you.

\h\hUm, I don’t... I just feel that,

when he is that considerate, \h\h\h\hwhen somebody is that \h\hconsiderate of someone,

they know their mother \h\h\h\h\hcan take it,

\hbecause she’s not gonna get offended.

But shy, little sweet Mira,

it is a very loving thing \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto me...

[RECORDER STOPS]

ROBERT: After we learn that \h\h\hMonty was more loved \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthan loving,

Bosworth continues that Monty \h\h\h\h\hfelt guilty about his \h\hextravagant charm and beauty,

and his inability to fulfil \h\h\hboth the men and women \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwho loved him.

To give back some of what he was taking.

He could not accept their love \h\h\hwithout paying a price.

Monty was so used to being \h\h\h\halternatively loved and punished by his mother

that he felt uncontrollable \hurges to be very, very good \h\hor very, very horrible.

In the span of two pages,

the stage is set for Monty to have a lifetime of conflic

rooted in his sexuality.

-And it all comes from taking \h\h\ha phone call at dinner. \h\h\h\h\h-[TELEPHONE RINGING]

MONTGOMERY: [ON PHONE] Are you making notes?

ROBERT: My father had a set of typed notes

\htucked into one copy of the book,

which he summed up \h\hin two lines.

[ROBERT READING]

He wanted changes.

\h\hBut it was too late for the first printing.

\hBROOKS: [OVER RECORDER] \h\h\h\h\hHave you got, on the second printing,

have you made the corrections \h\h\h\hthat we talked about?

BOSWORTH: I’ve made \h\has many as were \hable to be made.

BROOKS: Well, have you seen \h\h\hthe second printing?

BOSWORTH: No, I have not.

\h\h\h\h\hBROOKS: I mean, \huh, you’ve gotta change these things, you know.

You promised me that the second printing

would have the corrections \h\h\hthat we went over...

BOSWORTH: Brooks, I know. \h\h\hI did promise you, \h\h\h\hand I meant it.

BROOKS: And I also, you know, \hyou promised me credits on, \h\hon the pictures, and...

[BOSWORTH SIGHS]

-BROOKS: There are no credits. \h\h\h-BOSWORTH: I want to say, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hit was done.

I don’t understand this.

I would like you to talk \h\h\h\h\hto my editor.

\h\hBecause, uh, I feel that it’s his final responsibility \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin that,

I tell him the corrections, \h\h\h\h\hI show him when it \h\h\h\h\hshould go. Right?

\h\h\h\h\h-BROOKS: Mmm-hmm. -BOSWORTH: Then he works...

\h\h\hBROOKS: Yeah, but I mean, that’s passing the buck to me

-to talk to your editor. \h\h\h-BOSWORTH: I’m not \h\h\hpassing the buck.

- I’m telling you what... -BROOKS: I know, I know, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI know.

But it’s just impossible \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor me.

How can I talk to your editor \h\h\h\hand get anything done?

You know, get a lawyer \h\h\hto talk to him?

\h\h\h-What the hell am I \h\h\h\h\h\hsupposed to do? -BOSWORTH: I know. I know.

BROOKS: If you promised me something, I rely on you.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBOSWORTH: I know you rely on me.

BROOKS: I always \hrelied on you.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBOSWORTH: And I always relied on him \h\h\h\hto put it through.

BROOKS: That’s the end of that.

[TYPEWRITER CLACKING]

ROBERT: I’m not sure if anybody \hin my family really understood

\h\hwhat my father was going through.

The book was moving forward in a way that he hadn’t imagined.

His implicit stamp of approval \hwas going to be all over it.

This was going to be the story \h\hthat the family approved.

In a rare aside in his tapes,

\h\h\h\hI could hear his disappointment.

BROOKS: [OVER RECORDER] \h\h\h\hThe net result \hof all that was that

\h\hnothing was changed in the second printing,

\h\h\h\h\hand if anything, very little in the third.

So, by then I realized, \h\h\h\h\hI’d just been, \h\hbeen had, basically.

Nothing I could do.

And then she’s always saying,

"Well, that was just another \hone of my continuous fights \h\h\h\h\hwith my editors."

Not terribly honest.

I... Comments to her, \h\hI, I realized that \h\h\h\h\ha great deal

of what I said was just \h\h\h\hfeudal, and, uh,

I had a tough job \h\hcontaining my

frustrations and anger,

but I think I did pretty well.

Uh, I kind of tempered

my profanity by saying "dear" and "darling,"

instead of what I really \h\h\h\hwould have liked \h\h\h\h\hto have said.

ROBERT: Ultimately, Bosworth’s \h\h\h\hbook went into a number \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof printings,

\h\h\h\hand never incorporated much of my father’s feedback.

And my father found himself \h\h\h\h\h\h\hin the position \h\h\h\h\hof family pariah.

MAN: [OVER RECORDER] You have absolutely, \hfor your own gain,

\h\h\h\h\hbenefited yourself at the expense of everybody,

\h\hcollateral, direct \h\h\h\hand otherwise, in your whole family.

\h\h\hETHEL: [OVER RECORDER] Well, I read the first page \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin her book,

and she says, all so much, \hetcetera, etcetera, I got \h\h\h\hfrom Brooks Clift.

BROOKS: Well, that’s, that’s \h\hjust like, like LaGuardia \h\h\h\h\h\h\hacknowledging

he got all his help, \h\hinvaluable help, \h\h\h\h\hfrom you.

ETHEL: From me?

-BROOKS: He says that on his \h\h\hfirst page of his book. \h\h\h\h\h\h-ETHEL: From me?

I never told him anything!

BROOKS: All right, so that’s \h\h\h\hhow much that means

if you never told him anything.

I mean, you just have to realize,

what I said is not what \h\h\h\his in that book.

\h\h\hYou don’t know what wasn’t in that book also.

\hYou don’t know what power Grace Jankowitz’s \h\heditors exercised

\h\hand you don’t know \h\hall the corrections that I made or tried,

\h\hthat I tried to put in. I went to New York two times \hto have corrections made.

ETHEL: [STUTTERING] \hWell, that’s...

\h\h\h\hBut I hope you see what she is by now, dear.

So you don’t make any more mistakes.

\h\h\h\hBROOKS: Okay, now I’m not going to, dear.

\h\h\hROBERT: But my father wasn’t ready to leave it.

He spent time in his office \h\h\h\h\hon the third floor \h\h\h\h\h\h\hof our house,

continuing to field requests \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfrom writers and documentary filmmakers.

[SLOW FRENCH SONG PLAYING]

\h\h\hThose are some of my earliest memories of them.

Up there listening \h\hto Edith Piaf.

\h\h\h\h\hWhen I was five, a Washington Post reporter \h\h\h\hcame to the house

to write a profile on him.

\h\h\h\hIn what she ended up calling "His shrine to Monty."

\h\h\h\hELEANOR: She interviewed Brooks,

\hand wrote a major style section piece

\h\h\hon the shrine on the third floor.

And I came to work \h\h\hat Newsweek,

and my bureau chief Mel Elfin

\h\hasked if I wanted to take the day off. \h\h\h\h\h[CHUCKLES]

He saw that as something \h\h\h\h\hthat would be,

I don’t know, of major \h\h\h\hconcern to me?

\h\h\h\h-And... -ROBERT: Was it?

\h\h\hWell, I found it a little embarrassing.

Uh, she portrayed Brooks \h\has sort of living in

Monty’s shadow and it was \hnot a flattering portrait \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof Brooks.

\hEDDIE: I think my father was a little bit caught up

trying to define the image

when the popular reading

\hof Montgomery Clift had its own momentum.

You know, you’re one person

against the whole \h\hmedia machine.

There’s only so much \h\h\h\hyou can do.

I guess I always felt he was \ha little bit like Sisyphus,

battling the myth-making \h\h\h\h\h\h\happaratus.

\h\h\hROBERT: Still, my father persisted.

\hAfter my parents divorced, he moved out to California,

research in tow.

There he met writer \h\hMollie Gregory,

and told her about a new project he wanted to work on

MOLLIE: I met Brooks when a friend of mine \h\h\h\h\hcalled me,

\h\h\hand asked me if I would meet for lunch with some guy \h\h\h\hcalled Brooks Clift,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwho was Montgomery Clift’s brother.

\hBrooks wanted to write a book.

There had been several books, \h\h\h\hobviously, for years.

The latest one, I believe, \hwas Patricia Bosworth’s.

\h\hAt any rate, Brooks did not agree with almost all the books \h\h\h\h\hwritten about Monty.

So I agreed to meet.

Brooks’ portrait \hof Montgomery

as he described him to me \h\hin our conversations,

uh, was far more complex

than anybody else’s \hcould have been.

Because there’s so much more \h\h\h\hdetail if you grow up \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith somebody,

\h\h-and talk to everyday on the phone for 47 years. \h\h\h-[TELEPHONE RINGING]

It’s just bigger, \h\hmore livelier.

\h-More complicated. -[RINGING CONTINUES]

\h\h\h\h\h\h-BROOKS: [ON PHONE] \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHi, old man. -MONTGOMERY: [ON PHONE] Hello.

BROOKS: Hi, how are you?

-MONTGOMERY: All right. \h\h\h\h-BROOKS: Yeah?

\hMONTGOMERY: I called a couple of days ago.

\h\hROBERT: I’d been trying to understand my father’s impulse

to record for a long time.

I knew about the Monty tapes \hbefore any of the others.

\h\h\h\hAnd it would have been one thing if it was research.

But the tapes start at least \h20 years before he decided

to try writing a biography \h\h\h\habout his brother.

The obvious question is,

what was he planning to do \h\hwith all these tapes?

\h\h\h\h\h\hDid anybody know that he was recording them?

MONTGOMERY: I called Sunny

and she didn’t sound that she’d seen you.

\h\h\h\h-BROOKS: Yeah. -MONTGOMERY: Oh, okay.

\h\h\h\h\hBROOKS: But I got a fabulous cake from her. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h[CHUCKLES]

\h\h\hMONTGOMERY: Oh, really? [CHUCKLES] That’s astounding.

Jesus, it’s 2nd.

I must say, uh,

\h\hcall today and ask her, does she want to come over?

BROOKS: God, I wish I could \hrecord that conversation \h\hso you could hear her.

ROBERT: Part of me thinks, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hor hopes,

\hMonty might have known the tapes were running.

But maybe I’m just trying to let my father off the hook

This part of his life \h\h\his opaque to me.

\h\hI either wasn’t born yet or was very young when he was making all these recordings.

Did Brooks tell you \h\h\h\hhe was taping \hthe conversations?

\h\hDid Monty know he was taping the conversations?

\h\h\hELEANOR: Uh, he should have known, ’cause if he knew \h\h\h\hhis brother at all,

Brooks taped everything.

ROBERT: He did?

-Uh, he did, yeah. \h\h\h-ROBERT: Why?

I think he always just wanted to keep records.

That was kind of what he did.

\hBROOKS: Testing. One, two, testing.

Uh, this is Brooks Clift.

-[INDISTINCT DIALOG] \h-[MACHINE WHIRRING]

WOODY: So, in World War II,

he was part of the information \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hgathering team

\hthat maybe went in ahead and found out information

about where they were going.

He did say to me it was a torturing experience \h\h\h\hfor him to see

the prison camps in World War II.

And he had, he used to \h\h\h\h\hhave a knife

\h\h\h\h\h\hthat was, um, liberated from the Nazis.

\hUm, when they freed, I don’t know what camp.

He wouldn’t talk about it.

EDDIE: He did tell me a couple \h\hof stories, like one time,

\h\hhe drove a jeep up to some building,

and right when he was about \h\hto get out of his jeep,

or stop the jeep \h\hand walk in,

\h\h\hyou know, the building got bombed and he pretty much \hjust kept going. [LAUGHS]

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWOODY: You know, I was kind of, at the age of,

you had guns, and you were \h\h\hlike, the good guys,

and, he, he said,

I only used my gun once \h\hand I shot somebody,

and it was not something I was very happy about.

ELEANOR: And then after \h\hthe war was over,

\h\h\h\hBrooks stayed on in counter-intelligence.

The hunt was for where \hall the SS officers,

we gotta find, you know.

\h’Cause they were just bailing out everywhere.

And it was a tracking thing.

Brooks could be tenacious \h\h\h\h\h\h\has a badger.

He would have been \h\hgood at this.

But he gave me these \h\h\has an example,

so I could see.

ROBERT: So, this is someone \h\h\h\h\h\hthat... This is

someone that he arrested \h\h\hor this led to this \h\h\h\hperson’s arrest?

-ELEANOR: I have no idea, no. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h-ROBERT: Okay.

So, my father was a trained \h\h\hintelligence officer?

And maybe a Nazi hunter?

Old spy habits must die hard.

Because he was definitely \h\hrecording everything.

From random radio programs...

\hRADIO HOST: In 49 of the 50 states,

the law allows regrooved tires \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto be sold

without being labeled \h\h\h\h\h\h\has such.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hROBERT: ...to my parents’ divorce.

ELEANOR: [OVER RECORDER] \hI feel very reluctant \hto talk on the phone,

because I might as well say, \hI’ve discovered him taping \h\hmy phone conversations.

And I really don’t know \h\h\hwhether he’s got it \h\h\h\h\hon now or not.

ROBERT: To ambient noise.

\h\h\h\h-And apparently, me and my brothers too. \h\h\h\h\h\h-WOODY: Wow.

-ROBERT: "Woody and Rob." \h\h\h\h\h-WOODY: Really?

ROBERT: I want to say, it says, \h\h"Porn Discussion to Love."

WOODY: We talked about porn! \h\h\h\h\h\hHe recorded that?

\h\h\h\h\hI’ve been trying to figure out what he said.

I used to think I knew that.

He actually recorded that?

\h\h\h\h-I have no idea. -I feel totally violated.

[BOTH LAUGHING]

\h\h\hROBERT: I’m ambivalent about my father’s recordings.

Some are innocuous, \hlike home movies.

\h\hOf birthday parties and trips to the beach.

Some are decidedly less so.

But they are a wealth \h\h\hof information.

Even when they are \ha bit... shady.

\hIt was much later that I learned that recording \h\hwas a family trait.

Monty did it, too.

[RECORDER STARTS]

[MONTY AND ELEANOR SPEAKING]

-[ELEANOR LAUGHS] -[RECORDER STOPS]

\h\hROBERT: The main difference between my father’s recordings \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand Monty’s

\h\h\his that nobody knew about Monty’s.

They were at the bottom of a box of music reels.

Unopened for more \h\hthan 50 years.

My father never released \h\h\h\h\h\h\hhis tapes.

\h\h\hBut some of them found \h\htheir way to a television documentary after his death.

And the parts they released

made it sound like my father \h\h\h\h\hwas recording Monty \h\h\hto make him look bad.

\h\h\h\h\hTV NARRATOR: Just 42, Montgomery Clift seemed ravaged \h\h\h\h\h\hin body and spirit

\h\hby the accident and his addictions.

\h\h\h\hIn an addled late night rambling,

he confided to his brother

that perhaps all would be right in the world

\h\h\h\hif his portrayal of Sigmund Freud won him \h\h\han Academy Award.

MONTGOMERY: [OVER RECORDER] \hNo, I really would love \h\h\h\hto have this year.

BROOKS: More than \hanything else?

\h\h\h\h\hMONTGOMERY: I would love to have \hthe Academy award.

I’ve been nominated \h\h\h\hfour times,

so I must be very good, \h\h\hbut now I want it.

\hBecause I want to show them all

that... I don’t know what I’m up against.

\h\hI don’t think I’ll ever get it.

\h\h\h\hI mean, in my lifetime, I don’t think I’ll ever get it.

But, boy, it would sure be wonderful.

TV NARRATOR: That year, \hhe wasn’t nominated.

ROBERT: Now that I’ve heard \h\h\h\hthe tapes in full,

\hI realize how much context is missing.

Monty’s performance in Freud \h\h\h\h\h\hwas at the center \h\h\h\hof a legal dispute,

after the film’s release.

\h\h\hUniversal Pictures and director John Huston

\h\hwere blaming Monty for production delays,

\h\h\hsaying he failed to memorize his lines.

It all had serious professional

and financial implications \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor Monty.

So, when he talked to my father about the Oscar,

it wasn’t about recognition.

It was about leverage.

[RECORDER STARTS]

MONTGOMERY: [OVER RECORDER] \h\h\hI’d love it if I got \h\h\h\hthe Academy Award

and the jury had to rule \h\h\h\h\h\hon the fact

that I couldn’t memorize lines.

’Cause I can memorize lines \h\h\h\h\h\h\hin one second!

-If they’re valid! If I believed them! \h\h\h-BROOKS: Yes.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hMONTGOMERY: And the whole insurance peop

have said they’re gonna \h\h\hcut off my salary,

because they say, I wouldn’t \h\h\h\h\h\hmemorize lines.

In other words, I was sat back \h\h\h\hlike a naughty child,

and said, "I won’t \hmemorize lines!"

[MONTGOMERY AND BROOKS SPEAKING]

\h-MONTGOMERY: You know... -BROOKS: [CHUCKLING] Yeah.

MONTGOMERY: And I’ve got \h\h\h\hthe Academy Award \h\hfor the performance.

\hROBERT: If Monty caused delays during shooting,

he certainly wasn’t \hsolely responsible \h\h\h\h\hfor them.

\hJohn Huston racked up a good number of expensive production \h\h\h\hdelays all by himself.

He repeatedly changed \h\hcostumes and sets.

Hired hundreds of extras \h\hand never used them.

\hAnd he constantly rewrote the dialog.

Monty was being handed multiple new versions of the script \hwhile preparing for scenes.

MONTGOMERY: [OVER RECORDER] \hEverybody was the victim \h\hof last-minute things.

Five different changes \h\h\h\hto the script.

We get the white, and then \h\h\h\hwe get the yellow, \h\hthen we get the pink.

And then we get the blue, \h\hand then we get the... \h\h\h\h\h\h\h[INDISTINCT]

And then still would have \h\h\hto talk to John about \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe scene.

I mean, that scene between Susannah York and myself.

FREUD: Cecily.

\h\h\hMONTGOMERY: Do you know we were up until four o’clock \h\h\h\h\h\hin the morning?

\h\h\hI averaged four hours’ sleep at night.

\h\h\h-And you know... \h-BROOKS: You’re doing something on your time

\h\h\hwith no help from the director.

\h\h\h-MONTGOMERY: None! -BROOKS: Who you needed.

MONTGOMERY: And you have \h\hto face the camera,

and he can have bags \h\h\hunder his eyes

\h\h-’cause he’s out fucking and drinking. -BROOKS: Yeah, yeah.

MONTGOMERY: But one has to look well.

Well, how do you do that, \h\h\h\h\hstay up till 4:00 \h\h\h\h\hin the morning?

BROOKS: What is the matter \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith Huston?

Why is he such a nut?

MONTGOMERY: He’s a sadist.

He takes delight in needling.

[MONTGOMERY AND BROOKS SPEAKING]

MONTGOMERY: Fine. His problems \h\h\hwere Marilyn and Clark.

As far as he was concerned, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hI was a dream.

\h\hBROOKS: And you remembered all your lines and everything? \h\h\h\h\hYou were no problem?

MONTGOMERY: You remember \h\h\h\hthat first scene, \h\hin the phone booth?

\h\h-Hello, Ma? -BROOKS: Yeah.

MONTGOMERY: That was scheduled \h\h\h\hfor two days. We did it \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin two hours.

BROOKS: Well, now, isn’t this

part of your whole personality?

Why, if he liked you enough \h\h\h\h\hto use you again,

\hthen this can’t be true about you.

He must have known it \h\hwhen he hired you.

-MONTGOMERY: He knows it. \h-BROOKS: If you’re such \h\h\h\h\ha lousy actor.

MONTGOMERY: Why did he hire me? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe knows it.

ROBERT: Monty was rewriting \h\hlines and improvising, \h\h\hlike he always had.

So what changed between \hThe Misfits and Freud?

Huston’s biographer suggested something to do with the night

they both spent at Huston’s \h\h\h\h\hcastle in Ireland.

Huston had learned that \h\h\hMonty had engaged

in sexual congress \hwith another man \h\hin his house.

"I had my nose rubbed in it," \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHuston said.

He found Monty’s behavior \h\h\h"simply revolting."

And said that he didn’t want \hto touch anything his lips \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwere near.

Is it fair to pin Huston’s \h\hanimosity toward Monty \h\hon homophobia? Maybe.

\h\h\h\h\hMy father and Monty entertained another pos sibility.

[RECORDER STARTS]

\h\hBROOKS: [OVER RECORDER] \h\h\h\h\hStill, so insane that he can be doing this.

Which is damaging himself, but damaging the picture!

How does he expect to get box office, with this kind \h\h\h\h\hof an attitude?

MONTGOMERY: [OVER RECORDER] \h\h\h\h\h\hI don’t know. I don’t know. I really...

BROOKS: That’s more \h\h\hthan sadism.

That’s masochism.

[MONTGOMERY AND BROOKS SPEAKING]

\h\h\hMONTGOMERY: So he says, "Monty didn’t know his lines."

Boy, that’s something when you see the film.

He has to go...

\h\h\h\hApparently, he feels he has to go along with that.

ROBERT: I find it difficult \hto give Huston much of a pas

\h\hHe went right along \h\hin scapegoating Monty for the film’s problems,

\h\h\hand even though Monty won the lawsuit,

the accusations stuck.

\h\hHuston’s autobiography includes a litany of them.

He describes Monty as brain damaged,

petulant, obstinate.

The male equivalent \hof Marilyn Monroe,

\h\h\h\hwho put on a little boy act.

[MONTGOMERY GASPING]

ROBERT: Impossible, non compos mentis.

No longer able to contend.

You couldn’t talk to my father

about the problems Monty \h\h\hfaced late in life

without also talking \habout John Huston.

Probably what was \hthe major reason

that my brother died

was that John Huston brought

a very unfair lawsuit \h\h\h\h\hagainst him,

which Monty eventually won.

But he couldn’t get insurance \h\h\h\h\hto do another movie,

so he went for four years

without making a movie.

And, for Monty, not working was

terribly depressing.

ROBERT: My father saw \h\hthe Freud lawsuit

as an inciting incident \hfor Monty’s isolation,

despair and increased chemical dependencies.

\h\h\h\hBut reading Monty’s biographies,

one would think things started \h\hgoing south much earlier.

For Patty Bosworth, \hit all started one \h\h\hnight in 1956,

\hduring the filming of Raintree County.

After leaving a dinner party at Elizabeth Taylor’s house,

he fell asleep at the wheel \h\h\h\hand crashed his car.

\h\h\hShall I just read this then? The whole...

\hROBERT: Yeah, yeah, just the section on, \h\hon the accident.

\h\h\h\h\hBOSWORTH: "When Elizabeth and the others \h\hreached Monty’s car

"at the foot of the hill,

"they saw the automobile \h\h\h\h\hcrushed against \h\hthe telephone pole.

"There was broken glass \hand blood everywhere.

\h"Blood spurted onto Elizabeth’s silk dress

\h\h"as she crawled over the front seat

"and cradled Monty’s \h\hhead in her lap.

"She looked down \hinto his face,

"which was a bloody, unrecognizable pulp.

"He stirred in her arms \h\h\h\h\h\hand moaned.

\h\h\h\h\h"He was alive, but his nose was broken,

"his jaw shattered, his cheeks \h\h\h\h\hseverely lacerated,

"his upper lip split completely in half.

\h"Montgomery Clift survived that night,

"and lived for ten more years.

"But his real death occurred \h\h\h\h\has he lay bleeding \h\h\h\h\hand half conscious

"in Elizabeth Taylor’s arms.

\h\h\h\h"Nothing would ever be the same for him after that."

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hROBERT: It’s a compelling story,

\h\hso much so that it’s always been hard \h\hfor me to watch

his post-accident films.

But Monty didn’t die that night.

He made just as many films \h\h\h\hafter the accident \h\h\has he did before it.

And as for how the accident \h\h\h\hchanged his acting?

JAMES: He liked himself better.

I think that he was relieved.

\h\h\h\hHe liked his performances better.

When he did The Young Lions,

\h\hI mean, oh, my God, I never thought he’d look \h\h\h\hthat good again.

And he was looking wonderful.

And... then he did this thing

that actually threw \h\h\hhis face off.

\h\h\hHe put... He decided he wanted his ears to be...

He was a salesman at Macy’s \hor Gimbels or something.

And he decided he’d put gum \h\h\h\h\h\hbehind his ears.

\h\hBut he did that, and it pleased him,

and I think his performances \h\h\h\hpleased him more once

\h\h\hhe wasn’t just so extraordinarily handsome, \h\h\h\h\hwhich he was.

\h\h\hINTERVIEWER: How many pictures have you done now?

\h\h\h\h\hI don’t know, I’d have to count them.

INTERVIEWER: Any favorites?

\h\h-Well, you mean of my performances? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h-Hmm.

\h\hYeah, The Young Lions and Judgment at Nuremberg \h\h\h\h\h\h\hare my two.

\h\h\h\h\hROBERT: Both of \h\h\hthose performances were after the accident.

\h\h\h\h\hThe body is an actor’s instrument,

\h\h\hand Monty’s wasn’t destroyed.

It was different.

And that difference allowed him \h\hto stretch and expand into new kinds of roles.

JAMES: He once said to me, \hyou know, I don’t think

that I could have done \hJudgment at Nuremberg \h\has a young actor.

I said, with your acting ability, you could. Very wel

He said, "Oh, no, no, no. You have to have experience \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith life."

ROBERT: It is hard to imagine \h\h\h\h\h\h\hGeorge Eastman \h\h\h\has Rudolf Peterson,

but that was the part that \h\h\h\hMonty wanted now.

\h\h\hThis character with intellectual disabilities

who had been sterilized \h\h\h\h\hby the Nazis.

He was originally offered \h\h\hthe part of Lawson,

the American prosecutor,

for his usual $300,000 fee.

But he told his agent \h\hhe didn’t want it.

\h\h-[RECORDER STARTS] -[MONTGOMERY SPEAKING]

ROBERT: He wanted the cameo role.

But his agents wouldn’t let him do it for less than his \h\h\h\h\hminimum fee.

So he went around them,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand told director Stanley Kramer \hhe’d do it for free,

as long as they agreed on a couple of points.

\h\hNumber one, cut Monty’s first scene from the script.

\h\h-[RECORDER STARTS] -[MONTGOMERY SPEAKING]

KRAMER: Yeah.

[MONTGOMERY SPEAKING]

\hWould evidence on sterilization

be admissible if there \h\h\h\hwere a witness?

\h\hMONTGOMERY: The real shock value is the fact

none of them think that

anybody is gonna come up, \hthat some son of a bitch

is gonna say he was castrated.

\h\h\h-Yes. -Thank you.

[KRAMER SPEAKING]

[MONTGOMERY SPEAKING]

[KRAMER SPEAKING]

[MONTGOMERY SPEAKING]

[RECORDER STOPS]

ROBERT: Kramer was persuaded.

The scene was cut.

Point two, how to play \hthe sensitive part.

[RECORDER STARTS]

[MONTGOMERY SPEAKING]

\h\h\hMONTGOMERY: Because that’s a very sensitive poin

[MONTGOMERY SPEAKING]

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hMONTGOMERY: And he holds on to himself

\hin spite of himself, you know what I mean?

[KRAMER SPEAKING]

[MONTGOMERY SPEAKING]

ROBERT: Despite Monty’s \h\h\hcreative input,

despite his Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations,

the story that lived on \habout this performance

\h\hwas that it wasn’t a performance at all.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

\h\h\hThis was a man having an actual nervous breakdown.

They had already made up...

When I walked into the car, \hthey had already made up \h\h\h\h\h\h\htheir minds.

They had made up their minds!

They put me in the hospital!

\h\h\h\hLike a criminal. I could not say anything.

I could not do anything. I...

I had to lay there.

ROBERT: Bosworth described him \has panicked before shooting.

And fluffing take after take \h\h\h\h\hbecause he couldn’t \h\h\h\hremember his lines.

\h\h\h\hThe story goes that Spencer Tracy had to tell him,

\h"Fuck the lines. Just play to me."

Like the performance could \h\h\h\hjust then pour out \h\h\h\hof some reservoir

\hof Monty’s own terror and unhealed suffering.

But Monty’s script notes \h\h\hsuggest otherwise.

[GRUNTS] Here.

I want to show you, \h\h\h\hI have here

her picture.

I would like you looked at it.

I would like you to judge.

I want that you tell me,

was she feeble-minded?

My mother!

Was she feeble-minded?

Was she?

\h\h\h\hI feel it is my duty to point out to the tribunal

that the witness is not \h\h\hin control of his \h\h\hmental processes.

I know I’m not,

since that day.

I’ve been half I’ve ever been.

ROBERT: I hate that I spent \h\h\hso many years seeing \h\hthis pain as Monty’s.

That whatever theories people \hhad about his personal life

could obscure his work.

MAN 1: I wanted to start it \hwithout you knowing it.

[PIANO PLAYING]

\h\h\h\h\h\hMONTGOMERY: Sure, I see the thing \hgoing around. Great.

[DANCING IN THE DARK PLAYING]

♪ Dancing in the dark

♪ Till the tune ends

♪ We’re dancing in the dark

\h\h\h\h\h♪ And it soon ends We’re waltzing in the wonder

♪ Of why we’re here ♪

ROBERT: The idea of Monty’s \hbrokenness has persisted \h\h\h\h\hall these years.

\h\h\hAnd I don’t know if it can ever change.

Hollywood has threatened \h\hto do a Monty biopic

every few years since the 1980s.

And if they ever pull it off,

I’m afraid it’s just going to be the same old story.

EASTON: It is a tragic story.

But at the core of that is, \h\h\hnot the homosexuality \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat did him,

it was the fact that he had \h\h\h\hto hide that aspect \h\h\h\h\h\h\hof his life.

In his own personal life, \hhe had to live that lie.

So, just the torment \h\h\h\h\h\hin that.

I think the drugs and alcohol \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hjust become

a manifestation of those demons, they’re not the caus

They’re the effect of it.

\h\h\hAnd there’s no shying away from it.

There’s no being timid \h\h\h\h\h\habout it.

This is the life he had.

It has to do with what drama \hcomes through in the story,

and the character Monty \h\h\h\h\hon the page.

\h\h\hWhat makes it interesting is not even that it’s a biopic.

That just makes it challenging,

but what makes it interesting is that it has real conflict.

\h\h\h\hAnd it’s in an interesting world

that can take an audience \h\h\h\hto another place.

\h\hAnd then the fact that it’s all true adds another \h\h\h\h\h\hlayer of that,

to make it compelling.

EASTON: I never show him \h\h\h\h\hacting in it.

’Cause I don’t think that’s \hwhat made him who he was.

Rather than just doing \h\h\ha factual thing, I was able to, sort of,

get somewhere where I was \hreally comfortable with sort of an understanding,

\h\h\hand then draw in my own experiences of the business.

And how surreal and how perverse

and how incredibly \h\hlonely it is.

\hSo some nights, I would just go,

\hI want to feel like the loneliest person \h\h\h\hin the world.

So, I would maybe drink \h\ha little too much,

\h\hand then I would start \h\h\h\hwalking the streets of New York late at night.

And go, "I wonder if this \his how it felt for him."

\h\hI never tried to force anything.

I really want to believe \h\h\hwithout getting too \h\h\hexistential that...

it was him speaking,

\h\h\hand I just waited for the words to come.

Well, that’s one way.

When you can’t sit across from \h\h\h\h\h\hthe table and have \h\h\h\h\ha conversation with,

"What were you think when this happened?"

And, "How did it feel when \hthis happened?" And, um,

it’s your interpreting.

We’re all in a business,

so I think it’s frankly finding the entertainment value.

\h\hYou’re reading this source, and you’re reading that source,

and you’re looking at this interview

and you’re talking \hto this person,

and putting all those \h\h\hpieces together

in something that’s cohesive,

and inspiring and interesting \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\his difficult.

ROBERT: It is difficult.

\h\h\h\h\hEven a big name like \h\h\hSidney Lumet couldn’t get a Monty biopic off the ground.

BOSWORTH: Sidney optioned \h\hmy book the day after \h\h\hit was published.

\hI’d never forgotten it, ’cause it was a big deal.

Uh, and he wanted to make a movie,

like he said, "I wanna make it \hlike The Godfather I and II,

\h"I want to make Montgomery Clift I,

"Montgomery Clift \hand His Mother.

"And Montgomery Clift: \h\h\h\hTragic Beauty,

"you know, when after his face was destroyed \h\hin the car crash."

And the two Montgomery Clift \hmovies were supposed to be \h\h\h\h\hhugely expensive.

\hAnd Warner Brothers decided they didn’t want to do that.

So, the option was dropped.

\h\h\hAnd I had, I’ve had other options since then.

But movies... A movie has never been made.

I had many options.

\h-ROBERT: Why? -I don’t know!

I wrote, I wrote two \hscreenplays myself.

I even thought of writing \h\h\ha movie that would be \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\habout me,

not me literally, \hbut a character, like a young girl,

who, who has all these \h\h\hexperiences with \h\hMontgomery Clift,

and gets to know him \hand I was gonna use \hme as a character,

in either a play or a movie.

I haven’t gone beyond \hthat idea. I haven’t \h\h\h\h\hwritten it.

And then I have another \h\h\h\h\h\h\hidea, uh,

\h\h\hwhich I’m actually gonna \h\h\htalk to a producer about, but I don’t think it’ll happen,

of Montgomery Clift just \hat the end of his life,

in the brownstone, \h\hwith the black \h\hmale servant.

\h\h\h\hAnd just the end of his life, almost like \h\h\ha Sunset Boulevard,

and then flashbacks \h\hof earlier life.

But again, I don’t... It’s never happened!

\h\hI... I’ve talked to so many producers.

\hSo many people have liked the book and wanted to make \h\h\h\h\hit into a movie.

ROBERT: I can’t say I want \h\hthat movie to be made.

\h\hIt effaces someone important in my life.

That so-called black male \h\hservant Patty mentioned \h\h\h\h\h\h\his Lorenzo.

And if anybody knows how a few \hmisplaced creative liberties

can impact real life, it’s him.

MALE REPORTER: [ON TV] \hEarly on the morning \h\h\h\h\hof July 23,

Clift’s nurse found Monty \h\h\h\h\hdead in his bed.

\h\h\h\h\hBOSWORTH: There was, there was a rumor going around \h\hthat he had been murdered.

\h\h\hROBERT: And why do you think that is?

I don’t know.

\hAnd that they didn’t understand what was going on in that house,

and, you know, it was a black male servant,

a gay guy, I don’t know.

\h\h\hJAMES: I was supposed \h\h\hto have had something to do about Monty’s death.

-It was floating around. \h\h\h\h-ROBERT: Mmm-hmm.

JAMES: And I’ve even \h\hstopped being...

-ROBERT: People have stopped \h\h\h\h\hyou in the streets? \h-JAMES: And said that, uh,

that I had something to do \h\h\h\h\hwith his death.

[INDISTINCT DIALOG]

\h\h\hROBERT: Did people try to correct that? Did people...

\h\hJAMES: People don’t like to correct things like that.

\hAnd they did not want to put me in the position \hthat I had with Monty.

You understand?

\hAnd it all had to do with the racial thing.

There was this black man \hwith Montgomery Clift.

How dare he?

\h\h\hAnd I tell you, Arthur Mitchell said,

he was in this car, \hand he heard about \h\hMonty’s passing,

\h\h\h\hand he told the man, "Turn around, I’ve got to go \h\h\h\hsee about Lorenzo."

\h\h\h\h\hAnd so when he got to the house, he said to me,

"I know you’re in trouble.

"This black man in this house

"and Montgomery Clift."

-Yeah, ’cause he knew. \h\h\h-ROBERT: Mmm-hmm.

JAMES: He had met Monty.

ROBERT: Mm-hmm.

\hJAMES: But he said, \h\h\h"I know you’re gonna have trouble."

Psychologically, I haven’t \hgotten over all of this.

How would I kill a man,

you know, or have something \h\h\hto do with his death?

\hROBERT: Monty died from a heart attack,

at what my father called the ripe old age of 45.

He wasn’t murdered.

\h\h\hHe didn’t have some combustive inner conflict.

Monty was, ultimately, mortal.

And his heart stopped.

It’s not the death we crave for somebody of his stature.

But Monty’s death, \h\hlike his life,

\h\h\hdidn’t fit into what \h\h\hhe frequently called a neat little pigeonhole.

[MONTGOMERY SPEAKING]

[MICHAELS AND MONTGOMERY \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hSPEAKING]

\hJAMES: If I’m turning the Turner Classic on,

\h\h\hand I see Monty, I flip through another \hstation immediately.

Because Monty seems alive.

I just cannot do it.

[PROJECTOR WHIRRING]

Being with Monty was like,

standing in front \hof a fireplace,

in dead of winter.

And you get all this wonderful \h\h\h\h\h\hkind of sincerity.

It’s a pity that everybody,

and I would have shared \hMonty with everybody,

did not get some of the medicine

that Monty was brewing.

He’d give off a glow.

[PROJECTOR STOPS]

\h\hROBERT: The people in my life who loved Monty lost him twice.

In his death,

\hand then again when they \h\h\hcouldn’t find him in the stories that followed.

\h\h\h\hBut they held on to their missing pieces.

\hMaking this film, I’ve collected them.

\h\h\h\hAnd in doing so, I’ve thought a lot about \h\hMonty’s life’s work.

Giving us human characters.

Both unknowable and relatable \h\h\h\hin their complexities.

And mystery, dignity.

And I think we owe that \h\h\h\h\hback to Monty.

MONTGOMERY: [ON PHONE] \h\h\h\hWell, anyway,

I won’t keep you any longer,

but, uh, but listen, I would love to talk \h\h\hto you again.

\h\h\h\h-Okay? -BROOKS: Okay.

\h\h\h\h\hMONTGOMERY: All right, good sir,

I hope I haven’t kept you up.

BROOKS: No.

-MONTGOMERY: Okay. \h\h-BROOKS: Okay.

\h-MONTGOMERY: Okay. -BROOKS: Good night.

MONTGOMERY: Good night, dear.

[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]