Saturdays with the Stars: Julie Andrews

Each month of 2021 we will be taking a look at the leading ladies of some of Alfred Hitchcock's many celebrated classics; we'll be doing this series chronologically to when they first entered Hitchcock's filmography.  Last month we took a look at Shirley MacLaine, an actress who got her big break in a Hitchcock film, but was able to have such a successful career that he is rarely name-checked other than an in a "did she know she worked with X?" sort of way.  This month, we're going to cheat a bit by going out of chronology (as I want to give this actress five Saturdays rather than next month's), and profile a woman who I think almost no one would normally associate with Hitchcock, whose public persona is in fact the antithesis of Hitch's icy blonde, and who is the first actress we'll look at as we wind down this series who made a movie with Hitch after his most significant filmic period from 1940-63 (Rebecca to The Birds, and especially 1956-63).  This month, our star is Julie Andrews.

Andrews was born in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, England, to Ted and Barbara Wells, though she'd find out much later in her life that her father was not, in fact, her biological father-she was the offspring of an affair her mother had had with a family friend.  Her legal parents divorced when she was young, and she lived with her mother & stepfather, the latter of whom was abusive and attempted to molest Andrews when she was young (she had to fit a lock on the door to keep him out of her room).  A vocal instructor discovered Andrews' incredible range, which led to her becoming a touring star in theater companies (even performing for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1948), before success in the West End led her to Broadway, My Fair Lady, and then Hollywood.

Julie Andrews' story is legendary & very well known, and we'll get into some of the more famous chapters throughout the month.  It goes without saying that I have seen many Julie Andrews movies, so we will not be reviewing Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, Victor/Victoria, or The Princess Diaries this month as I want to watch new films from Andrews (though we'll discuss them for sure).  Instead, we're going to focus on some of the less-celebrated chapters of Andrews' career, particularly in the late-1960's and throughout the 1970's & 80's when she attempted to shed her squeaky clean demeanor with mixed results.

We will also focus on Torn Curtain, the only film Andrews made with Alfred Hitchcock.  As I mentioned above Andrews is probably the last person you'd expect to be cast in a Hitchcock film, and she wasn't the director's choice (he preferred either Eva Marie Saint or Samantha Eggar).  She also came after what is generally considered to be the most infamous years in terms of Hitchcock's complicated and frequently disgusting relationships with his leading ladies.  While he'd been known for berating his female leads prior to 1955 (Ruth Roman & Jane Wyman being two of the more well-known examples), after Grace Kelly, Hitchcock had ruthless & occasionally sexually inappropriate & cruel attitudes toward his leading ladies to get, what, in the end, would be some of his most brilliant pictures (not condoning, just pointing out the difficult conundrum for film fans here).  We're going to go back and look at one of the actresses who had a bad relationship with Hitchcock during these years in November, but it's worth noting that in the few public interviews Andrews has done about Hitchcock (Torn Curtain isn't a famous movie so she isn't often asked about it), she has stated she enjoyed the shoot & learned a lot about him.  The goal this month is for us to learn more about Julie Andrews, who had a long and frequently intriguing career between The Sound of Music and her 21st Century resurgence, including an unlikely detour with the Master of Suspense.