The star of Room At The Top, Laurence Harvey, is a guy who’s long fascinated me. I thought of saying some stuff about him in my review of the film, but I have so much to say that I created this separate post in my History section.
I first heard the name reading The Twilight Zone Companion book that I mentioned, as the writer revealed that in Rod Serling’s follow-up series Night Gallery Laurence Harvey starred in one of the most memorable stories.
I’ll go so far as to call it THE most memorable story on that entire show. I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way: when the Paley Center (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio) showed a bunch of scary TV show episodes in October of 2017 “The Caterpillar” was singled out from Night Gallery. It’s about an English visitor to a third-world country who decides to eliminate the husband of the woman he wants by planting, in his ear, an insect that will harrowingly crawl through to the other side of his head. I won’t say anymore, although the book’s telling everything to me didn’t ruin the experience for me at all. Just watch and enjoy, you horror lovers!
The second time I heard his name was when I learned he was the star of the original Manchurian Candidate. That later became one of my favorite thrillers; I just rewatched it last year. Soon afterwards I asked different friends “Can you think of a movie with two leads more diametrically opposed in charisma than Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey?”, elaborating that Frank Sinatra had the most charisma of anyone ever and Laurence Harvey had none.
Watching Room At The Top, I realized I was being a bit unfair. While he’s not Frank Sinatra – nobody is – Laurence Harvey showed in his other big starring role that he had some charisma in his own right. Also, I remembered that there was a classic anthology besides Night Gallery on which he guest starred. On the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode “Arthur”, Harvey played quite the charming sociopath! Apparently my thinking he had no charisma after watching The Manchurian Candidate is a reflection of how terrifically he played the dull, brainwashed Raymond Shaw.
Yet, after the two huge starring roles in magnificent films, Harvey didn’t have much of a career and he’s seldom mentioned today. Heck, even at the Room At The Top screening, when the guest speaker (one of the creative minds at KCRW) and the moderator (a theater employee) were gushing about Simone Signoret’s performance I asked if they had anything nice to say about Laurence Harvey and the answer was “Nope.”
Part of the reason Harvey doesn’t get celebrated more (and wasn’t given more reason to make audiences celebrate) is his premature death of a heart attack in 1973 at the age of 45. A bigger reason might be how disliked he was while alive.
I just happened to be looking at Jane Fonda’s IMDB page a decade ago and saw a scathing quote about her Walk on the Wild Side costar Laurence Harvey. Less than a week later I saw an equally scathing one when I just happened to be looking at the IMDB page of his The Running Man (not to be confused with the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie) costar Lee Remmick. I searched for what else I could find. Here are a total of four quotes in people’s IMDB bios:
Jane Fonda – “Acting with Laurence Harvey is like acting by yourself – only worse.”
Lee Remick – “The tales I can tell of working with Laurence Harvey are too horrendous to repeat.”
Robert Stephens -“Laurence Harvey is an appalling man and even more unforgivably, an appalling actor.”
Hermione Baddeley -“After you’ve lived with Laurence Harvey, nothing in life is ever really too awful again.”
I once sent all those to my then-boss, adding “I also found examples elsewhere of people who just didn’t like him but I’m baffled at the hatred towards Mr. Manchurian Candidate. He seemed to me the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being.”
If you didn’t get that reference at the end you’re missing out. Watch both of the most famous starring roles of this largely forgotten actor; you’ll be in for such a treat.
While you’re at it maybe you also wanna watch 2005’s Keira Knightley starring vehicle Domino, a biographical film about Laurence’s daughter Domino – a professional bounty hunter! I never watched it (many people didn’t – it was an absolute bomb critically and commercially) but I’m curious to hear people’s thoughts.
Anyway, I hope this has been interesting. You can look forward to my next series of posts very soon!
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