Beloved Infidel (1959)

Director: Henry King

Cast: Gregory Peck, Deborah Kerr, Eddie Albert

Synopsis: Toward the end of his life F. Scott Fitzgerald is writing for Hollywood studios to be able to afford the cost of an asylum for his wife. He is also struggling against alcoholism. Into his life comes the famous gossip columnist, Sheila Graham.

Scott Fitzgerald was hailed as a literary genius even as his self-destructive alcoholism ensured that his would be a light that burnt only half as long as it should have. Henry King’s Beloved Infidel, a typically lush 20th Century Fox biopic based on the book by Sheila Graham (portrayed here by Deborah Kerr – Marriage on the Rocks, The Gypsy Moths), bears all the hallmarks of a Hollywood whitewash. The film takes place in Fitzgerald’s (Gregory Peck – Billy Two Hats, The Boys from Brazil) final years, during which he is toiling away in Hollywood in order to pay medical and college fees for his schizophrenic wife and daughter (whom we never see) respectively. He’s your typically insecure genius, driven to the bottle by every knock back, and sending the dubiously prim Graham into a right old tizzy each time he falls off the wagon.

Fitzgerald is played by Gregory Peck, an actor who has always been the definition of wooden.   Having seen him play MacArthur a few days before watching Beloved Infidel, it’s noticeable that,  apart from his drunken scenes in Beloved Infidel, Peck played both parts in exactly the same way, which was the way he seemed to play every part he ever had. Kerr was a better actor than Peck, but she doesn’t seem the type to whom someone like Fitzgerald would be attracted. Eddie Albert (Roman Holiday) is also in the film, but only pops in and out sporadically like someone who’s had a lot of his scenes cut.

On the plus side, the drunken scenes are as excruciatingly painful as they’re obviously intended to be, and will probably touch a nerve in anyone who has had to suffer the embarrassment and apprehension of having an alcoholic partner. Only in these scenes does Peck raise his game and provided a reasonably convincing performance. The final scenes are also effective – Fitzgerald’s death is one of the most convincing I’ve seen from a film of this era, and Kerr’s grief is undeniably touching. Overall though, the film fails to convince  us that it is either accurate or heartfelt.

(Reviewed 9th February 2012)