Invisible Mask

Grace Kelly made just eleven films in her time as an actor.  A full handful were released in 1954.  Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, The Country Girl, Green Fire and The Bridges at Toko-Ri.  Kelly won an Oscar for her performance in The Country Girl, as Georgie Elgin.

II.

Seeing The Country Girl (George Seaton) almost sixty years on, the picture comes across stagey and static.  The dialogue too, based on Clifford Odets's play, is given to theatrical exaggeration. Indeed, it's very much the quality of the film's lead performances - by Kelly, Bing Crosby, and William Holden - that raises Country Girl from curiosity status.

Crosby and Holden would go on from the film to finish their careers in show business.  But fate held a very different conclusion for Grace Kelly.  In 1956, Kelly married into European royalty, and took on the title of Princess of Monaco.

The demands of her role as Georgie Elgin, however, asked Kelly to mask her real-life upbringing.  Kelly's couture dresses and jewellery were replaced by drab cardigan and skirt, the deglamourizing complete with a set of simple eyeglasses. It is Kelly's use of masking as metaphor, though, that makes for one of the intrigues of this film.

III.

Georgie's marriage to Frank Elgin (Crosby) has sunk to depressive levels.  Frank was once a successful singer-actor, and father to the couple's child, a son. A moment of carelessness on Frank's part, leading to the accidental death of their son, has set the Elgins in their miserable present.  Frank has become an alcoholic, his onstage confidence shaken.  By their circumstances, Georgie is now something of a nurse-mother to Frank, her love of her husband tested, but still loyal and steadfast.

Along comes Bernie Dodd (Holden), a director of stage musicals. Despite Frank's alcoholism, Dodd believes in him enough to give Elgin a chance to redeem himself, as a lead in the new musical he is directing.  Will Elgin stay sober enough to take advantage of what might be a last opportunity to save his career?  Is Dodd correct in unmasking Georgie, especially but not limited to, that she may be enabling Frank's self-destructive behaviour?

IV.

Throughout her performance in The Country Girl, we see glimpses of what Grace Kelly possibly has brought of her self to the role of Georgie Elgin.  But possible glimpses are what they remain, as looking into a mask, the ancient mask of the actor.