countrygirl

There was a time in entertainment when a singer could act. Doris Day was a great actress who
worked with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock. Then there was Frank Sinatra, and while I think he stinks
as an actor, he was in some highly critically acclaimed work. And last but not least in this short list
was Bing Crosby, Mr. White Christmas himself. Trust me, even if you’ve never seen his films, just
go to the mall at Christmas time and I guarantee you one of the anchor stores is playing his
Christmas album. Aside from singing, Crosby could also act and act very well. Step aside Jennifer
Lopez.

In “The Country Girl,” Crosby plays Frank Elgin, a stage performer and singer who used to be a hit
on Broadway. After his son was accidentally killed, Frank spiraled into a depression and became a
drunk. Only his wife, Georgie, played expertly by Grace Kelly, keeps Frank from going over the
edge. Enter William Holden, playing a stage director who wants Elgin in his latest new production.
The producer has no faith in Frank, thinks he’s a useless drunk, and protests including him as the
lead in the show. Holden fights tooth and nail to get him and allow Frank to make his comeback.

The problem is, Frank is not only a habitual drunk, but he’s also an insecure liar talking out of both
sides of his mouth. To Georgie, he says everything is going wrong and that the director and
producer are the problems. To Holden, he says it’s all Georgie’s fault. With Frank inexplicably
playing both sides and risking losing his job on the show, Holden tries to keep a crumbling man
together, all the while assuming that Georgie is the cause of all the duress.

If there was ever a film written for actors, this one is definitely it. The entire plot is an excruciating
character study of a tortured, pathetic man and the misery he causes the people in his life, while
like an unwitting Iago, he pits them against each other in their rabid quests to help him. Kelly won
an Oscar for her performance as his devoted wife and her work in this movie deserves the
accolade. Crosby and Kelly, an unlikely pairing, play off one another with haunting domestic
realism. Holden is the grounding force of the picture, as he so often is, and his stern but
passionate character is a captivating presence.

The film moves rather slowly unfortunately, although the plot and dialogue are very well crafted.
The story is a little bloated in places but nothing serious. The real drawback of the picture is the
contrived and sudden mini-romance between Holden and Kelly, which makes no sense because
these two characters almost certainly hate each other until the last twenty minutes of the film. It’s
the one wrong move in the story and while the film ends with a logical resolution, this illogical detour
in the plot costs the movie dearly. It’s the most forced romance on screen I’ve ever witnessed.

Were it not for that, “The Country Girl” would be a finely written, if slightly slow, drama with great
character development and pathos from Crosby and Kelly’s intricately interwoven performances.