European Film Star Postcards: Zachary Scott

08 June 2024

Zachary Scott

American actor Zachary Scott (1914-1965) was known for his roles as sinister villains and well-dressed, suave 'mystery men'. Although his acclaimed performance in Mildred Pierce (1945) seemed to cement him as a star, it led to his typecasting and his subsequent films declined in prestige. He continued to work in films, including the Luis Buñuel classic La joven/The Young One (1960), but Scott never quite reclaimed the level of stardom that he'd achieved in the mid-1940s.

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit, no. 2338. Photo: Warner Bros.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 316. Photo: Warner Bros.

Vintage postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.

Third most promising star of tomorrow

Zachary Thomson Scott Jr. was born in Austin, Texas, in 1914. He was the son of Sallie Lee (Masterson) and Zachary Thomson Scott, a wealthy surgeon. Scott intended to follow his father into medicine and attended the University of Texas at Austin. At 19, he dropped out and worked as a seaman on an England-bound freighter. There he appeared in almost two dozen provincial repertory theatre productions in the next 18 months, gaining confidence and skill. When he returned to Texas, he married actress Elaine Anderson and he began to act in local theatre productions. He and his wife were spotted in a play in Austin by actor Alfred Lunt and his wife Lynn Fontanne, who recommended them to the producers of New York's Theatre Guild. Zachary Scott made his debut with a small role as a bartender in a 1941 revival of 'Ah, Wilderness!'. He was also in 'The Damask Cheek' (1942), 'The Rock' (1943), and 'Those Endearing Young Charms' (1943).

Jack L. Warner saw Scott perform in 'Those Endearing Young Charms' and signed him to his first film contract. Scott made his screen debut in the Film Noir The Mask of Dimitrios (Jean Negulesco, 1944) opposite Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Scott played the title role, of Dimitrios Makropoulos, an international intriguer and master criminal, whose body was just washed up on a local beach. Craig Butler at AllMovie: "The Mask of Dimitrios is an intricate little conspiracy thriller-cum-film noir that provides a great deal of entertainment value for fans of intrigue and betrayal, all cast in shadowy light that obscures as much as it illuminates". Scott seemed destined for a top-level career in Hollywood. He was one of the many Warners stars with a small role in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944).

Then he was loaned to United Artists to play the lead in the classic The Southerner (1945) directed by Jean Renoir. The film portrays the hardships of a poor family struggling to establish a cotton farm in Texas in the early 1940s. It received three Oscar nominations. Though he received great acclaim for his performance, Scott was not particularly well promoted by Warners. His profile was immediately reversed by his well-received performance as the cad in the dark melodrama Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945). Scott played the duplicitous lover of both Joan Crawford and her daughter. His mysterious murder forms the basis of the plot and frames the film's opening and closing. Variety noted that Scott "makes the most of his character" in "a talented performance". Scott co-starred with Faye Emerson, the daughter-in-law of President Franklin D. Roosevelt by her marriage to Elliott Roosevelt, in the Film Noir Danger Signal (Robert Florey, 1945). He then co-starred with Janis Paige and Dane Clark in another mediocre Film Noir Her Kind of Man (Frederick De Cordova, 1946). In 1946, exhibitors voted Zachary Scott the third most promising "star of tomorrow".

Although his performance in Mildred Pierce (1945) was acclaimed it also led to his typecasting as a portrayer of amoral characters. His subsequent films declined in prestige. Scott supported Ann Sheridan in the murder mystery The Unfaithful (Vincent Sherman, 1947) and Ronald Reagan and Alexis Smith in the Western Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947). MGM borrowed him to support Lana Turner and Spencer Tracy in the romantic drama Cass Timberlane (George Sidney, 1947). He had the lead in a Film Noir for Eagle Lion, Ruthless (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1948), and then returned to Warners for another Film Noir, Whiplash (Lewis Seiler, 1948). He supported Virginia Mayo in the Film Noir Flaxy Martin (Richard L. Bare, 1949) and Joel McCrea in the independent Western South of St. Louis (Ray Enright, 1949).

Scott was reunited with Joan Crawford in the Film Noir Flamingo Road (Michael Curtiz, 1949). Crawford played an ex-carnival dancer who marries a local businessman to seek revenge on a corrupt political boss who had her railroaded into prison. It was one of the top-grossers of 1949. Warners tried Scott in a comedy, One Last Fling (Peter Godfrey, 1949), with Alexis Smith. He starred in some films outside the studio: the crime drama Guilty Bystander (Joseph Lerner, 1950) and the psychological thriller Shadow on the Wall (Andrew Jackson, 1950) with Ann Sothern. At Warners, he supported Randolph Scott in the Western Colt .45 (Edwin L. Marin, 1950) and Besy Drake and Dennis Morgan in the comedy Pretty Baby (Bretaigne Windust, 1950). He co-starred with Joan Fontaine in Nicholas Ray's Film Noir Born to Be Bad (1950). At AllMovie, Craig Butler writes: "Although it's hardly a great movie, Born to Be Bad is a lot of fun – if one is in the mood for a bitchy, campy, over-the-top melodrama."

Vintage postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.

Mexican postcard by Edicion Gamboa, no. 121.

The Young One

In 1950, a divorce and a rafting accident, in which he was badly injured, sent Zachary Scott into a depression. After being dropped by Warners, he married actress Ruth Ford and began to focus on stage and television work. Scott appeared in various television series such as Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950) and Pulitzer Prize Playhouse (1951). In 1951 he was arrested in a bar in Louisiana for violating segregation laws. He was in a black establishment drinking alcohol with African Americans. He protested in court that he was invited to the bar by black men in uniform and that he was proud to drink with US soldiers. Scott's first film after he left Warners was the Western Stronghold (Steve Sekely, 1951) with Veronica Lake. It was financed by Filmadora Studios, a Mexican company.

He acted in the crime melodrama Lightning Strikes Twice (King Vidor, 1951) starring Ruth Roman and Richard Todd, and the Western The Secret of Convict Lake (Michael Gordon, 1951) starring Glenn Ford. The latter was a critical and commercial success. Scott followed it with Let's Make It Legal (Richard Sale, 1951) in which he played a millionaire chased by Marilyn Monroe. He was on TV in Tales of Tomorrow (1951) and Betty Crocker Star Matinee (1952) and went to England to make the crime film Wings of Danger (Terence Fisher, 1952) with Kay Kendall. In Hollywood, he was in Studio One in Hollywood (1953) and Medallion Theatre (1953) on TV, and in Appointment in Honduras (1953), directed by Jacques Tourneur.

Scott was on television in The Revlon Mirror Theater (1953), Chevron Theatre (1953), Suspense (1954), Schlitz Playhouse (1954), The Motorola Television Hour (1954), Campbell Summer Soundstage (1954), The United States Steel Hour (1954), Omnibus (1954), Climax! (1955) and General Electric Theater (1955). In Robert Montgomery Presents (1956), he played Philip Marlowe in a version of The Big Sleep. Other TV appearances were in Science Fiction Theatre (1955), The Star and the Story (1956), Celebrity Playhouse (1956), Theatre Night (1957) and Pursuit (1958). He made occasional films such as the Westerns Treasure of Ruby Hills (Frank MacDonald, 1955) and Shotgun (Lesley Selander, 1955) starring Sterling Hayden and Yvonne DeCarlo. DeCarlo was also his co-star in the Republic Film Noir Flame of the Islands (Edward Ludwig, 1956).

The following year, Scott appeared in the British crime films The Counterfeit Plan (Montgomery Tully, 1957) with Peggie Castle, and Man in the Shadow/Violent Stranger (Montgomery Tully, 1957) co-starring Faith Domergue. Scott returned to Broadway with 'Requiem for a Nun' (1959). A highlight in his later career was the English-language Mexican drama La joven/The Young One (1960), co-written and directed by Luis Buñuel. "Inspired by" the story 'Travelin' Man' by Peter Matthiessen, the film deals with issues such as racism and statutory rape by depicting the interactions between two men and a teenage girl on a private island game preserve. The film was co-written by Hugo Butler (under the pseudonym H. B. Addis) and produced by George Pepper (as George P. Werker), two Americans who had moved to Mexico after being blacklisted in Hollywood. The Young One was screened in competition at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and has received highly positive reviews since its release. Scott guest starred on The Chevy Mystery Show (1960), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960) and Diagnosis: Unknown (1960). In 1961, he portrayed White Eyes, a Native American Chief, in the Rawhide episode Incident Before Black Pass. He was in the now-lost film Natchez Trace (Alan Crosland Jr., 1960). The film takes place in the 1820s focusing on the exploits of John Murrell, a slave trader and bandit who worked the central part of the Natchez Trace in the 1820s and 1830s.

Zachary Scott played roles in such TV shows as The DuPont Show of the Month (1961), The New Breed (1961) and The Defenders (1961). Scott's last roles included the TV movie The Expendables (1962), and episodes of The Doctors and the Nurses (1962) and The Rogues (1965). His final film was the comedy It's Only Money (Frank Tashlin, 1962) with Jerry Lewis. Scott returned to Broadway for 'A Rainy Day in Newark' (1963) by Howard Teichmann. He then moved back to Austin. During his time at Warner's, Scott and his first wife Elaine socialised regularly with Angela Lansbury and her husband Richard Cromwell. Elaine Scott had met Zachary in Austin. She made a name for herself behind the scenes on Broadway as stage manager for the original production of 'Oklahoma!' The Scotts had one child, Waverly Scott. In 1950, Scott was involved in a rafting accident. Also during that year, he and Elaine divorced. She later married writer John Steinbeck. Scott married his second wife, actress Ruth Ford, in 1952. Scott adopted her daughter, Shelly, from Ford's previous marriage to Peter van Eyck. Scott died in 1965, from a malignant brain tumour at the home of his mother in Austin, Texas at the age of 51. In 1950, a star was dedicated to Scott at 6349 Hollywood Boulevard in the Motion Pictures section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.