The classic Marlon Brando movie Grace Kelly turned down for Alfred Hitchcock
Despite her status as one of the greatest film stars in Hollywood history, Grace Kelly didn’t appear in that many movies, choosing to retire from the profession when she was just 26. Rather, Kelly picked roles in movies that would become deeply acclaimed, from High Noon and Rear Window to The Country Girl and High Society.
Kelly seemed to understand what made a good director, choosing to work with filmmakers like John Ford, Fred Zinnemann, and, of course, Alfred Hitchcock. She collaborated with the latter three times, starting with 1954’s Dial M For Murder. The actor became known as a ‘Hitchcock blonde’, one of various leading ladies within the filmmaker’s work who sported blonde hair and possessed a sense of untouchableness.
Dial M For Murder was received well, and the pair reunited that same year for Rear Window – a movie that is often considered one of the filmmaker’s best. Kelly played the girlfriend of James Stewart’s Jeff, who is confined to his apartment with several broken bones. Spending lots of time looking out of his window, Jeff eventually gets Lisa to investigate the theories he comes to formulate as he watches his neighbours, becoming increasingly suspicious of them.
Kelly won a few awards for her performance, including one from the National Board of Review Awards, asserting herself as an unforgettable part of the story. Yet, before she accepted the part in Rear Window, Kelly was ready to appear in a different movie completely – and one that would also become a classic.
In an alternative universe, it could’ve been Kelly playing Marlon Brando’s love interest in On The Waterfront, the Oscar-winning movie by Elia Kazan; but instead, she turned it down so she could reunite with Hitchcock and work with Stewart. The movie was a hit, helping to turn Brando into an even greater star after his award-winning turn in A Streetcar Named Desire a few years before – also directed by Kazan.
Kelly would’ve played Edie, a role that went to Eva Marie Saint instead, who won the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ Oscar for her incredible performance. Luckily for Kelly, however, she also won an Academy Award in 1954, picking up ‘Best Actress’ for her role in The Country Girl.
Evidently, Kelly had loved working with Hitchcock so much that she chose to reunite with him for another film instead of working with Kazan and Brando. The actor would then go on to work with Hitchcock again a year later in To Catch A Thief, starring opposite Cary Grant as the daughter of a wealthy woman who Grant’s character attempts to protect from a jewel thief.
Meanwhile, Saint, who made her film debut in On The Waterfront, would work with Hitchcock five years later in North By Northwest, also starring Grant. Hitchcock clearly had a thing for working with blonde women, and while Saint gave a fantastic performance under the direction of the British filmmaker, it is widely agreed that Kelly was one of his finest collaborators.
