Steady as she goes
By Michael J. Roberts
“People say I'm a one-note actor, but the way I figure it, those other guys are just looking for that one right note.” ~ Joel McCrea
Sometimes an actor appears who is so natural and unaffected they just radiate an appealing screen presence no matter the setting, such an actor was Joel McCrea. A 6 ft 2 inch tall and handsome Californian who graduated from Hollywood High McCrea was a natural fit for the entertainment machine, signing in his early 20’s to MGM, an outlet for his training as an arts graduate experienced in drama, theatre and public speaking. MGM made use of him as a stunt double in westerns as he was an accomplished horseman, while he bided his time and worked hard. The studio cast him as third billed for The Jazz Age, an early talkie, and in a starring role in The Silver Horde, opposite Jean Arthur. That film also provided him a wife in Frances Dee via their meeting on the set.
In 1930 McCrea signed with RKO and remarkably was set for starring roles for the next four and a half decades. He made a hit with Bird of Paradise in 1932 opposite Dolores Del Rio and in The Most Dangerous Game opposite Fay Wray. His good looks and easy charm made him a natural for romantic dramas until Hollywood discovered that McCrea also had a fine comedic flair. Throughout the rest of the decade he made another 30 features, often matched with Constance Bennett (Born To Love, The Common Law, Rockabye, Bed of Roses), Miriam Hopkins (The Richest Girl in The World, Splendor, Barbary Coast, These Three, Woman Chases Man) and Barbara Stanwyck (Gambling Lady, Banjo On My Knee, Internes Can’t Take Money, Union Pacific). He even managed a Shirley Temple pic, surely the measure of 1930s superstardom.
Through that time McCrae rose through the ranks to work with A-List directors like George Cukor, John Cromwell, Howard Hawks, William Wyler and Cecil B. DeMille who tapped his presence and affability for his sprawling western Union Pacific. McCrea was a sportsman of the first rank and although westerns became increasingly more regular for him from the late 1930s, like Wells Fargo in 1937, it was not until 1946 when he essentially made the choice to make westerns exclusively, apart from two exceptions.
Joel McCrea hit his stride in the 1940s and made some huge hits for Alfred Hitchcock (Foreign Correspondent), William Wellman (Reaching For The Sun) and a trio of Preston Sturges confections (Sullivan’s Travels, The Palm Beach Story, The Great Moment) – the last four completing a run of comedies and affirming McCrea’s lightness of touch in that genre. A-lister George Stevens also employed that skillset with his excellent screwball comedy The More The Merrier and Jean Arthur proved the perfect, gorgeous foil. Wellman again tapped him for two westerns with The Great Man’s Lady (opposite Stanwyck) and the fine biopic Buffalo Bill. McCrea made an off-brand horror film for Lewis Allen with The Unseen, but after that it was westerns all the way except for a drama called The Hollywood Story in 1950 and a British thriller called Rough Shoot in 1953. He even managed to make a western with wife Frances Dee in 1948 called Four Faces West.
“I always felt so much more comfortable in the Western. The minute I got a horse and a hat and a pair of boots on, I felt easier. I didn't feel like I was an actor anymore. I felt like I was the guy out there doing it.” ~ Joel McCrea
From 1946 to 1976 McCrea made another 30 westerns (only 3 in the last decade) and a guide to the quality of those films probably relies on the ability of the directors and writers as McCrea delivered solid, reliable performances every time. The best of these in undoubtedly Colorado Territory, a great remake of Raoul Walsh’s crime thriller High Sierra, directed by... Raoul Walsh! Barely 8 years after the original film, McCrea brings a weary energy and subtle strength to the outlaw on the run yarn and it perfectly fits the western mode. The actor teamed with talented director Jacques Tourneur in Stars In My Crown, Stranger of Horseback and Wichita – all worthy entries. Charles Marquis Warren directed a couple of fine westerns with Cattle Empire and Trooper Hook, the latter reteamed McCrea with the always marvelous Barbara Stanwyck in an age appropriate tale of a woman ‘rescued’ from Indian captivity. The odd entry was his British adaptation of Geoffrey Household’s novel, Rough Shoot, wonderfully directed by Robert Parrish which makes one wish the older McCrea had done more modern crime thrillers.
Joel McCrea was more focused on his career as a real life rancher and the owner of a 3,000 acre property. Taking Will Roger’s advice in the early 1930s, he put half his income into real estate and became a multi-millionaire with a huge portfolio, including his prized ranch in Thousand Oaks. McCrea worked there and raised his 3 children from Frances Dee, a marriage that lasted 57 years until Joel’s death in 1990. He was not ambitious enough to look for projects outside his comfort zone by then, and his common sense told him what to avoid – he decried parts where an ageing actor won the heart of the young ingenue and he would not do war films because he didn’t serve. If he never found his Anthony Mann like Jimmy Stewart did, or a Budd Boettcher like Randolph Scott did, or make a stone cold masterpiece western like The Searchers for John Wayne or Man of The West for Gary Cooper, he did at least find a creative highpoint with Sam Peckinpah’s Ride The High Country, an elegiac western that teamed McRea with Randolph Scott and had them both ride into the sunset.
Joel McCrea was blessed with good looks, easy charm, a graceful masculinity and a great work ethic – he was also in the right place at the right time. His appeal lies somewhere between James Stewart’s folksy ease and Gary Cooper’s quiet intensity and McCrae made the most of it before he settled into a life that suited him. He was down to earth and unadventurous in his private life and politics and conservative to a fault - god-fearing and traditionalist in a quiet, respectful way. His family turned the ranch into a wildlife preserve in 1995, a fitting and lasting tribute to a decent American who made a lasting mark on the silver screen.