Oscar Profile #46: Mildred Natwick

Born June 19, 1905 in Baltimore, Maryland, Mildred Natwick was the grand-daughter of Ole Natwick, one of the earliest Norwegians settlers in the United States. She was the cousin of Myron “Grim” Natwick, the creator of the Betty Boop cartoon character and principal animator of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

A member of the University Players at Cape Cod, a troupe that included her contemporaries Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Henry Fonda, the plain looking Natwick never became a star of the same magnitude but her friendship with fellow player Joshua Logan paid off when he became one of Broadway’s most sought after directors, often casting her in his productions.

Natwick made her film debut as a cockney prostitute in John Ford’s 1940 classic, The Long Voyage Home, but didn’t make another film until 1945’s The Enchanted Cottage in which her moving portrayal of the landlady made audiences sit up and take notice.

Again working with John Ford, he cast her in two of his memorable late 40s westerns, as the dying mother in 3 Godfathers and as one of the command post wives in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Her best work for Ford, however, wouldn’t come until 1952 when she played the sheltered widow in his filmed in Ireland classic, The Quiet Man.

Working for Alfred Hitchcock, she had another memorable role playing an old maid opposite Edmund Gwenn in 1955’s The Trouble With Harry. She had an even more memorable role as the sorcerous in the following year’s The Court Jester.

1956 also saw Natwick recreate her Broadway role of Madame Arcati in a TV production of Blithe Spirit, for which she received an Emmy nomination in support of Lauren Bacall, Claudette Colbert and author-star Noel Coward. Natwick again assayed the role of a French woman in another comedy, 1957’s The Waltz of the Toreadors opposite Ralph Richardson, earning her first Tony nomination. She would earn a second in 1972 for her musical debut in Kander and Ebb’s 70, Girls, 70. She inexplicably failed to garner one for 1963’s Barefoot in the Park but her splendid performance in the film version brought the by now beloved actress her first and only Oscar nomination.

Returning to TV, Natwick had some of best roles in that medium in the 1970s, joining Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy and Sylvia Sidney for the highly successful TV mystery, Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate and following that up with The Snoop Sisters with Hayes and Paulette Goddard. The latter was so successful that it led to a one season, four episode series that alternated with three other mystery anthology series. It was liked so well that it garnered Emmy nominations for both Hayes and Natwick and a win for Natwick who in her acceptance speech thanked Hayes “without whom there would be no Snoop Sisters“.

Later in the same decade she made big impressions guest starring in two popular series. She played Rock Hudson’s mother in McMillan and Wife and the dying grandmother in Family.

Roles were getting smaller now and she bowed out as Madame de Rosemonde in 1988’s Dangerous Liaisons.

Mildred Natwick died in 1994 at 89.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE (1945), directed by John Cromwell

One of the best loved romantic tearjerkers of all time, Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young star as a plain looking young woman and an injured World War I flyer who meet and fall in love in a peaceful cottage in the English countryside. The owner of the cottage is a drab middle-aged woman who keeps McGuire and Young’s secrets from each other and from themselves. She’s played by Natwick in a lovely performance that takes center stage in the film’s moving climax.

THE QUIET MAN (1952), directed by John Ford

Ford’s lush tribute to the land of his parents’ birth has a lot of things going for it, not least of which is the casting of John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen and the rest of the cast. The standout among “the rest of the cast” is Natwick as the wealthiest widow in Innisfree, who sells Wayne the cottage of his birth in a bidding war with McLaglan as O’Hara’s loutish brother who has a yen both for the cottage and for Natwick.

THE COURT JESTER (1956), directed by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank

Natwick was at her comedic best jousting with no less a comic fast-talker than Danny Kaye. Their “pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle…” routine is the film’s highlight. The cast, which also includes Glynis Johns, Basil Rathobone and Angela Lansbury lampooned the Middle Ages long before Monty Python did. One of Natwick’s last roles was a murder victim in an episode of Lansbury’s Murder She Wrote, a show not unlike Natwick’s own Snoop Sisters. Lansbury later won a Tony for playing Natwick’s Emmy nominated role in the Broadway revival of Blithe Spirit.

BAREFOOT IN THE PARK (1967), directed by Gene Saks

Jane Fonda was still considered a lightweight, but popular, comedic actress when she took over Elizabeth Ashley’s role as the newly married young woman in the film version of one of Neil Simon’s brightest Broadway comedies. Robert Redford recreated his Broadway role of the young husband and best of all, Mildred Natwick recreated her role as the mother of the bride. Good-natured and accommodating, Natwick is a master of comic timing as she climbs the numerous flights of stairs to her daughter’s new apartment and just as good-naturedly goes on a date with Charles Boyer as the bohemian artist who lives above them. Her delightful performance brought her a well-deserved and overdue Oscar nomination.

THE SNOOP SISTERS (1972-74), created by Alan Shayne

Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy, Mildred Natwick and Sylvia Sidney had such a huge success with the TV mystery movie Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate in 1971, that Hayes and Natwick’s follow-up mystery movie The Snoop Sisters featuring Paulette Goddard couldn’t help but be a success. It was so successful that it was given a slot in the following year’s Wednesday Night Mystery Movie anthology series. Lasting just four episodes, the stories were not as compelling as those of, say, Columbo, but the two women had marvelous chemistry playing a mystery writer (Hayes) and her secretary-companion sister (Natwick). The fun was in watching the two of them. The guest stars included such luminaries as Art Carney, Geraldine Page, Walter Pidgeon, Joan Blondell and Vincent Price, but none of them could hold a candle to the redoubtable stars, both of whom were nominated for Emmys, with Natwick winning.