Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. C-1. Photo: Warner Bros.
Vintage postcard. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
West German collector card by Druckerei Hanns Uhrig, Frankfurt a. M. Photo: Warner Bros Pictures, Inc.
Tarzan's love interest
Vera Miles was born Vera June Ralston in 1930 in Boise City, Oklahoma. Her parents were Thomas Albert Ralston and Bernice Goldie (Wyrick) Ralston. Vera grew up first in Pratt, Kansas, and later lived in Wichita, where she worked nights as a Western Union operator-typist and graduated from Wichita North High School in 1948. She was crowned Miss Kansas in 1948 and was placed third in the Miss America contest. Then she made the leap to Hollywood and moved to Los Angeles
Initially, Miles had a film contract with Republic Pictures. Republic's reigning queen was Vera Hruba Ralston, so she adopted the name of her then-husband, the stuntman Bob Miles, as her stage name. At first cast as a bland ingenue, she played a minor role as a chorus girl in Two Tickets to Broadway (James V. Kern, 1951), a musical starring Janet Leigh. Miles's first credited film appearance was in The Rose Bowl Story (William Beaudine, 1952), a romantic comedy in which she played a Tournament of Roses queen. She proved herself capable of conveying neurotic hysteria in the 3-D Western The Charge at Feather River (Gordon Douglas, 1953), playing a white girl kidnapped by Indians who was violently resistant to being returned to her real family.
Her film career was interrupted by the birth of two children. She played Tarzan's love interest in Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (Harold D. Schuster, 1954), starring actor and bodybuilder Gordon Scott in his first film as Tarzan, taking over the role from Lex Barker, who had in turn followed Johnny Weissmuller in the series. Tarzan's mate, Jane, does not appear in the film. Tarzan at first seems to show more than casual interest in Miles' character, Jill Hardy, but ultimately, there is no romance. In real life, Miles fell in love with her co-star, divorced Bob Miles and married Scott in 1956.
Miles then had the female lead in the CinemaScope Western Wichita (Jacques Tourneur, 1955) starring Joel McCrea as Wyatt Earp. The film won a Golden Globe Award for Best Outdoor Drama. Till then, Miles had mainly minor roles in rather insignificant films, but then John Ford cast her as Jeffrey Hunter's love interest in the John Wayne Western The Searchers (John Ford, 1956). The film was a critical and commercial success. It became her breakthrough role, and she graduated to big-budget productions.
Six years later, she starred once again under Ford’s direction as the waitress Hallie in another Western epic, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962), a role for which both John Wayne and James Stewart vie for her affections throughout the film. The film is one of Ford's best, and ranks with The Searchers and The Shootist as one of Wayne's best Westerns. Roger Ebert wrote that each of the 10 Ford/Wayne westerns is "... complete and self-contained in a way that approaches perfection", and singled out The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance as "the most pensive and thoughtful". Both The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance became classics and are masterpieces.
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. S 510. Photo: RKO Radio Films. Vera Miles and Zippy in Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (Harold D. Schuster, 1955). The German title was Tarzan und der schwarze Dämon.
West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, no. I 411. Photo: RKO. Gordon Scott in Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (Harold D. Schuster, 1955).
Grace Kelly's potential successor
From 1957 on, Vera Miles was under a five-year contract with Alfred Hitchcock, who was impressed by the 'still waters run deep' element of her performances. After Grace Kelly was no longer available for the film due to her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco, Hitchcock had been on the lookout for a new leading lady for his films. Hitchcock found her in Miles when she played the female lead as Ralph Meeker's emotionally troubled new bride and rape victim in Revenge (1955), the first episode of his TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962).
She subsequently played the female lead as Rose Balestrero, the fragile wife of Manny Balestrero (Henry Fonda), a musician falsely accused of a crime in Hitchcock’s drama The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956), based on real-life events. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Her final scene is a knockout!" Hitchcock had already firmly cast Miles in Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958), but this was prevented by a pregnancy. Kim Novak had to play the lead role in Vertigo, much to Hitchcock’s dissatisfaction. Hitchcock cast Vera Miles again in his thriller Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960), where, in the role of Lila Crane, she seeks to solve the mysterious disappearance of her sister, played by Janet Leigh. She teams up with Marion's boyfriend and a private investigator to find her. She later appeared in two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (in 1962 and 1965).
In 1960, she divorced Gordon Scott and married the actor Keith Larsen in the same year. In the 1960s and 1970s, she appeared in several Walt Disney films, including Follow Me, Boys! (Norman Tokar, 1966) with Fred MacMurray. TV producers regarded her as a 'good luck charm': if she guest-starred in the pilot episode of a potential series, chances were that the series would sell. Among those sold were Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Fugitive (1963) starring David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble, I Spy (1965) with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, Cannon (1971) and Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law (1971). In 1973, she again appeared alongside Peter Falk in the Columbo episode Lovely but Lethal (1973), playing a cosmetics queen who commits murder.
Miles continued to make occasional appearances on TV and in films, including the enjoyable action comedy Into the Night (John Landis, 1985), starring Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer. More than 20 years after Psycho, Miles reprised the role of Lila Crane in the sequel Psycho II (Richard Franklin, 1982), joining Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. Miles and Perkins were the only stars of the original film to appear in this second instalment. Although she refers to herself as Lila Loomis in the film, Lila mentions that her husband, Sam Loomis, played by John Gavin in the first film, has died. In 1995, Miles made her final film appearance in the psychological thriller Separate Lives (David Madden, 1995) alongside James Belushi, after which she retired from public life.
Vera Miles has been married four times. She divorced her third husband, actor Keith Larsen, in 1971. They had one son, Erik. Her fourth marriage, to filmmaker Robert Jones, was from 1973 to 1975. All her marriages ended in divorce. She is the mother of four children: Debra Miles, Kelley Miles, Michael Scott, and Erik Larsen. Miles is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has also been a frequent visitor to Salt Lake City, Utah, and was greatly involved in the Boy Scouts of America. Today, she lives a secluded life in Palm Desert, California, and avoids public appearances. In 2012, Jessica Biel portrayed Miles in the film Hitchcock (Sacha Gervasi, 2012). The film depicts the making of Psycho. In 2025, Vera Miles announced with the utmost regret that she would no longer be able to honour requests for autographs due in part to both her age and failing eyesight. She is the grandmother of actor Jordan Essoe and Joshua Essoe.
German postcard by Cinema. Henry Fonda and Vera Miles in The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956). The German film title was Der Falsche Mann.
Austrian flyer (front) by Neues Film-programm, no. 2073, October 1960. Photo: Afex. Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Janet Leigh in Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960).
Austrian flyer (back) by Neues Film-programm, no. 2073, October 1960. Photo: Afex. Alfred Hitchcock in the trailer for Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960). Caption: Pst ... Please don't reveal anything about the end of the film.
Sources: Roger Ebert (RogerEbert.com), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Film Reference, Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.
No comments:
Post a Comment