THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL

A friend's favorite movie is The Trip To Bountiful. I knew that the movie was adapted from a Broadway play, but I was surprised to learn of all of its iterations. The play originated on television and was brought to Broadway in 1953 with Lillian Gish as the star. The play was revived in 1954 and Jo Van Fleet received a Tony for her performance. Geraldine Page received the Academy Award as Best Actress for her performance in the 1985 movie version. The play was revived Off-Broadway in 2005 and Lois Smith received a Tony for her performance. In a 2013 Broadway revival, Cicely Tyson received a Tony for her portrayal. Horton Foote, the author, received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Recently, I watched a fascinating program with Eva Marie Saint being interviewed by Robert Osborne and I was pleased to learn that one of her first Broadway roles was in the 1953 version of The Trip To Bountiful. Eva Marie Saint is 88 years old and obviously has never had plastic surgery. She's witty and incisive and her talking about On The Waterfront, Raintree County, and Exodus, with her insights about the directors and her fellow actors was thrilling.

It was moving when she told about landing her first big part in the Broadway production of Mister Roberts starring Henry Fonda and the director Josh Logan told her she was being replaced. The actress who replaced her was Jocelyn Brando--Marlon's sister--and although she is undoubtedly a good actress, whom I've seen only a few times, I can verify she's NO EVA MARIE SAINT! Eva Marie said she did everything she could NOT to cry in front of Logan, but collapsed at home and she considered leaving acting and returning to college for a Master's Degree to teach. Soon Elia Kazan called her for On The Waterfront and she received the Academy Award and has been performing ever since.

Osborne asked her if the Academy Award changed her life and she said, drily, "Yes, I'll always have Academy Award winner before or after my name!" She also received a Tony, Emmy, and many other awards.

She has had a BOUNTIFUL life, married to the actor/director Jeffrey Hayden for 63 years, with two children. Her family was always her priority and she had it written in her contracts that her family would be with her on location. When filming Exodus, she was accompanied by her husband, two children, her parents, and her mother-in-law, and the filming was done in Israel and Cyprus. She explained that the grandparents were the babysitters!

My favorite of her movies is Hitchcock's North By Northwest. She told that Hitchcock didn't like the clothes the studio had provided for her for the movie; he went with her to Bergdorf-Goodman's and he helped her choose the wardrobe. Those clothes still look chic today!

She has continued to work in movies and plays and her most recent film Winter's Tale was released on Valentine's Day, 2014!