Ah those damsels in distress and madchens of melodrama have long been a hallmark of Hollywood and in some cases those traits would carry on after silver screen hours but nobody truly knew the trouble they've seen as was the story with Frances Farmer (1913-1970), one of the more tragic examples and dichotomies of the Hollywood machine. Despite her rejection from New York's Group Theatre, Farmer as an actress could not have had more gumption if she had it sewn on. An academe that was one of the few naturals at her craft - Paramount was all too enthralled to have her aboard for that overnight sensation factor of hers alone as box-office delighting was always a sure-fire way to keep Paramount firmly in your corner. But Paramount were certainly no advocates of unconditional love.
Farmer would sadly sabotage any chances of securing a long-haul career as a result of her petulance and backstage antics. The truth is she wasn't just any high-maintenance diva with an incurable case of PMS and entitlement issues - the girl couldn't help it given her malady suffered and all at a time when mental illness was purely anathema, a stigma that still shows signs of existence this day - but 1940s Hollywood just wasn't prepared to take on real-time nervous breakdowns, nosiree if you couldn't take two aspirins for it, nobody was calling you in the morning, the keep it inside and never cry out loud mantra was very much in order - so up to the attic Miss Farmer was sent.
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| Strange tablefellows Farmer with Cary Grant in The Toast of New York (1937) |
Farmer had to undergo and endure controversial therapies to the extreme of a lobotomy, but still somehow maintained her passion and will to create, there were even attempted comebacks after her life in institution, albeit by the time she resurfaced she was practically destitute and had to take on various menial jobs in local hotels. Farmer would never be able to quite get back to the place she once belonged and follow up her fine hour when she would illuminate as Lotta Morgan in William Wyler and Howard Hawks' award-winning Come and Get It (1936).