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John Garfield: Rebel With a Cause
Review Copyright Roger Zotti, 2003
John Garfield, whose real name was Jacob Julius Garfinkel, grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He admitted he was lucky not to have ended up in jail, like many of his boyhood friends.
Acting, he said, saved his life. As a member of the Group Theater in the 1930s, he appeared on Broadway as Joe Bonaparte in Golden Boy. It "was the quintessentially realistic role for Garfield, a role he would play with variations for years to come in the movies," Howard Gelman wrote.
Impressed with his performance, Warner Bros. signed him for the role of outcast Mickey Borden in Four Daughters (1938). Wrote Gelman: "Several months later when Four Daughters was released and the reviews were in, Warner Bros. was ready to pick up the seven-year contract option on their new star."
In Four Daughters, Garfield established his screen persona when he said, "The fates are against me. They tossed a coin. Heads I'm poor. Tails I'm rich. But they tossed a two-headed coin."
His performance earned him an Academy Award nomination as 1939's Best Supporting Actor.
After World War II he co-starred with Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice. That film was followed by Nobody Lives Forever and the critically panned but commercially successful Humoresque with Joan Crawford.
When his contract with Warner Bros. ended, Garfield formed his own company: Enterprise Productions. The powerful Body and Soul (1947) was the company's first film.
The New York Times critic wrote, that "John Garfield gives a rattling good performance as the steel-trap fighter ... [He] really acts like the fresh kid who thinks the whole world is an easy set-up."
His performance as Charlie Davis brought him an Oscar nomination as the year's Best Actor.
A year later came Force of Evil. David Thomson said Garfield's performance was "mesmerizing."
That same year he was offered a supporting role in Elia Kazan's Gentleman's Agreement. "I didn't have to act this one," he said. "I felt it."
Of his performance, Time magazine's film critic wrote, "Kazan's sure hand has bottled John Garfield's carbonated talent into a clear, constrained performance as [Gregory Peck's] Jewish friend."
Garfield wasn't debonair like Cary Grant. Nor was he heroic and handsome like Errol Flynn or Tyrone Power. He didn't project the warmth and sincerity of Gary Cooper and James Stewart. Instead, he was raw and rugged and belligerent. He seemed to have a chip on his shoulder. Quick tempered and defiant, his fists usually did his talking. One critic called him the Tension Kid.
In 1951, Garfield ran up against the House Un-American Activities Committee. He wasn't accused of anything. Rather, he was suspected of Left-Wing sympathies and blacklisted because he refused to name friends and associates who he knew were Communists. "When he died of a heart attack in 1952, those close to him said it was the blacklisting that really killed him," wrote Ephraim Katz.
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