Constance Collier makes theatrical self-importance funny without making it contemptible. We like her best when a film gives those grand manners a purpose, as Stage Door does; the gestures can otherwise seem too large for the scene.
Fi1m perspective
In Stage Door (1937), Miss Luther is keen that nobody should forget how much acting she has done. Constance Collier plays this drama coach with a self-importance that fits Gregory La Cava's houseful of out-of-work actresses. We laughed at her need to advertise her experience; she makes the wish to be taken seriously recognisable, even when it is tiresome. La Cava lets the women talk over one another, which gives her grand manner something to compete with. It is the most rewarding use of Collier in the films we have reviewed.
Her screen manner owed plenty to a leading stage career, including Cleopatra opposite Herbert Beerbohm Tree in Antony and Cleopatra (1906). Silent film appearances followed from 1916, but sound gave her another use for that experience: she became a voice and drama coach in Hollywood. Her method could involve spending extended periods on a single word or line. Katharine Hepburn was both a coaching client and her Stage Door co-star. Miss Luther was apt casting, then, but Collier makes the part funny without requiring us to know her employment history.
Her rolled r's and expressive hands could suit an aristocrat as readily as an acting teacher. Kitty (1945) cast her as Lady Susan Dowitt, a drunken aristocrat, making straightforward comic use of that grandeur. There is a limit to our enthusiasm for the manner: the size of a gesture can make the acting seem overemphatic on screen. She is more persuasive when the character has a reason to perform for the people around her.
In Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948), she supplies comic support as Mrs Anita Atwater. The long takes sometimes distract from a tense, unsettling thriller, with John Dall and Farley Granger doing much to keep the people worth watching. Collier contributes to the company, but this is not the place to begin if her acting is the attraction. Give Stage Door that evening instead.
Biography
Constance Collier (born Laura Constance Hardie) was an English stage and film actress and acting coach. She was born on 22 January 1878 in Windsor, Berkshire, and died on 25 April 1955 in New York City. She made her stage debut at the age of three in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and later appeared in several Shakespearean plays. She married actor Julian L'Estrange in 1905; he died in 1918.
Collier appeared in silent films from 1916, including an uncredited role in Intolerance. Her later film roles included Miss Luther in Stage Door (1937), Mrs Anita Atwater in Rope (1948) and Tina Cosgrove in Whirlpool (1950). She also worked as a drama coach in Hollywood and had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
