1938 – John Garfield
Four daughters
Ok, John Garfield was one handsome man! But what’s more, he could act. He knew how to use his posture, his facial expressions, his eyes, and his attitude to create a complex character. He wasn’t exactly a likable character, but I don’t think we were supposed to like him. Garfield took that one dimensional role and gave it another layer that made me question whether Mickey Borden was just a loser, or if he was really life’s victim, as he claimed. I mean, were his intentions good, or was he just a shiftless drifter who fell in love with a girl he couldn’t support.
But I guess that was the big question. If he was just a loser, would he really commit suicide so that his wife could have a better life? And was that the coward’s way out, or an act of love and bravery? I actually think it was both. He knew, or at least was convinced, that he wasn’t capable of making Ann happy, so he stepped aside in a grand and dramatic gesture. But a strong man would have done one of two things. Either he would have just divorced her, allowing her to return to the man she really loved, or he would have pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, become a better man, himself, and become worthy of Ann’s love.
Either way, Garfield did a fantastic job. He left me both despising and liking Mickey at the same time, so that when he died, I felt something and mourned his passing. I have a feeling that it was a little more than the script gave him to work with, and I think the actor elevated the role. But the whole thing worked because his ultimate sacrifice accomplished what it was supposed to. It allowed Ann to return to Felix, and that is what the movie wanted us all to want.
The two scenes that stood out to me as very well-acted were Mickey’s first scene, and then his second to last. In the first, he immediately showed us how he was a drifter with little concern for others or himself. He took things without asking, he was disrespectful to strangers who would welcome him into their home, and yet he proved himself to be a talented musician. In that second to last scene, there is a crazed look in his eyes as he determines to run his car off the road, in a successful attempt to kill himself. Well done, Garfield. Well done.