It’s understandable that most movie and TV fans remember Maggie Smith for her dynamic work in the “Harry Potter” films and “Downton Abbey.” More recent and far more widely seen in their time, they are worthy examples of her outstanding work.
But unknown to even some of the most knowledgeable cinephiles is most of her screen work before the 1980s beyond her two Oscar wins (Best Actress for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and Supporting Actress for “California Suite”). Her passing at 89 represents a chance to look back at not only roles that conveyed her later brilliance but also, in some cases, present a broader range than what became the standard — though always with nuance and distinctiveness — Maggie Smith role of later years.
When reviewing her film career until at least 2008, it’s critical to remember that she was first and foremost a stage actor. She joined Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre in the early 1960s, then continued as a prominent player of the London stage for decades. At that point, her film work was supplemental to the theater.
Not only did she prioritize that, but it also limited her travel to the U.S. Only two of her first 15 films, and none before 1973, were made outside of Europe. And though it was a vital industry, British films at the time (often financed by American studios, particularly MGM, who produced five of these first films) were often assigned to the more niche art market at that point.
Her first credited role was in “Nowhere to Go” (1958), an undervalued thriller late in the history of fabled Ealing Studios, as a recent debutante who embraces danger when she helps a sexy prison escapee (George Nader). It was dumped into British theaters as the lower half of a double bill, though seeing the movie today, one sees a totally assured actress, even in her early 20s.
It took five years until “The V.I.P.s,” but she took the opportunity to show her ability to match a cast that included Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton (just after “Cleopatra”), Margaret Rutherford, Orson Welles, Louis Jourdan, Elsa Martinelli, and Rod Taylor. Playing a demure secretary who plays a key role in saving her boss from ruin, she made her mark. Of their scenes together, Richard Burton credited her with more than just holding her own. As a fellow scene stealer, he said, “She commits grand larceny.”
Olivier had Smith reprise her Desdemona, the object of Othello’s obsession in his 1965 film of the play directed by Stuart Burge. None held her own in a Shakespearean adaptation as she did among other female co-stars. It led to her first Oscar nomination (for supporting).
The same year, John Ford chose her for a supporting role in “Young Cassidy,” based on the life of playwright Sean O’Casey. Ford fell ill, but not before Smith filmed some scenes for him. She was one of the last actors alive who worked with him.
She returned to a leading role in Peter Ustinov’s 1968 caper comedy “Hot Millions.” In a cast that included Ustinov, Karl Malden, Bob Newhart, Robert Morley, and Cesar Romero (all seasoned veterans and scene-stealers), her role as an inept secretary who somehow outwits the rest stood out. The film only saw a modest domestic release, but her reviews were the best of her early work other than “Othello,” and the film demonstrated her comedy skills previously less evident.
“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1969) elevated her. In this modest early-year hit, she was the upset Best Actress winner (against Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, and Geneviève Bujold, all strong contenders). But with stage remaining her priority, it was three years before she returned to the screen in George Cukor’s “Travels with My Aunt.”
The adaptation of Graham Greene’s adventure novel saw her playing an eccentric character with idiosyncracies broader than what was incorporated into her later work. With Smith as a hedonistic older woman accompanied by a tepid banker who may be her nephew, they voyaged around Europe getting into trouble. It got her a second Best Actress nomination, though the film was a disappointing grosser.
The failure of 1973’s “Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing,” an early Alan J. Pakula film co-starring Timothy Bottoms two years after “The Last Picture Show,” ended any attempts for Smith at lead roles in American films. The older-woman/younger-man romance was filmed in Spain. The same year, Glenda Jackson, also a leading London stage actress and Oscar winner, scored her second win with “A Touch of Class.”
Unlike Jackson, who kept active in movies through the 1980s (prior to a political career), Smith after a break began transitioning to smaller roles in often bigger-budget studio movies. Starting with Neil Simon’s original comedy “Murder by Death” (1976), then “Death on the Nile” and “California Suite” by 1978, she established herself as a top go-to actress to elevate any film. Smith had lead roles in smaller films, but managed for more than 40 years to succeed at a heightened level of character roles.
Few actresses have thrived playing at an older age as well as Smith, and few specialized in having the vitality she conveyed in her later roles. The younger Smith was more complicated, more rounded, less the grande-dame she excelled at later. She often was vulnerable on the surface, never a conventional beauty, but still usually demonstrating a self-assurance and real appeal that gave her characters substance.
It’s a group of films that deserve more attention.
