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MARLOWE, HUGH (Hugh Hipple 1911–1982). American actor.
It will be recalled that in his most convincing performance,
in The Day the Earth Stood Still, Marlowe portrayed a crass social
climber, Tom Stevens, somehow persuaded that ratting on the alien Klaatu will
make him rich and famous and convince the shrewd Helen Benson (Patricia NEAL),
who has wisely resisted his advances, to finally marry him; and an overview of
his career does suggest a parallel desire to appear in only the best sorts of
film. After performances at the Pasadena Playhouse led to minor roles in major
productions like Mrs. Parkington (1944) and Meet Me in St. Louis
(1945), he worked his way up to more noteworthy parts in Twelve O'Clock High
(1949), All about Eve (1950), and Monkey Business (1952), wherein
he served as a straight man to none other than Cary Grant himself. Enjoying
such company, he surely believed that he was finally making it as a star, and that
his encounter with flying saucers and robots in The Day the Earth Stood
Still would be remembered only as an aberration. However, it was at precisely this time that Marlowe's upward
progress stalled, so that he soon felt compelled to accept leading roles in two
low-budget science fiction films. In World without End, as the commander
of four astronauts who find themselves in a post-holocaust future, he did an
adequate job, though he was effortlessly upstaged by the more charismatic Rod
TAYLOR, who became the film's true
center of attention. His work in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is more
problematic, since here he was required to carry the entire film as its sole
protagonist; however, as if displeased to find himself in such déclassé
circumstances, he never quite seems to be really in love with his beautiful
wife, and he never quite seems to be really concerned about the impending
conquest of Earth by powerful aliens in flying saucers. And a bit of the creepy
Stevens persona comes out when his Dr. Marvin improperly defies orders and
decides to contact the aliens on his own, predictably with no good results.
Unsurprisingly not offered any more starring roles after Earth
vs. the Flying Saucers, Marlowe spent the next decade primarily as a
television guest star, usually in westerns or crime dramas, although former
television director John FRANKENHEIMER
did offer him and another hard-working journeymen, Whit
BISSELL, small but significant
roles in two prestigious movies, Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and Seven
Days in May. His bad memories of past humiliations were stirred only when
he found himself helping the crew of the Seaview battle a ridiculous monster
in an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. To avoid any further
incidents of this kind, Marlowe finally sought steady employment in the soap
opera Another World, with occasional parts in off-Broadway plays, which
kept him busy until his death in 1982; and one hopes that he found a sense of
peace in these more dignified surroundings, with no flying saucers around to
spoil his view.
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