The love affair between William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies is the stuff
legends are made and the legend is certainly preserved if not entirely accurately
in The Heart And Davies Affair.
William Randolph Heart, heir to a silver mine fortune could be considered America's first media mogul. He owned a chain of newspapers back when print
was the way you get the news and he used it to try and launch a political
career. He did make it to a couple of terms in the House of Representatives. but
that was it.
Unlike what this film says, Hearst had given up his own ambitions by the time
he spotted young Marion Davies in the Ziegfeld Follies chorus in 1916 and fell
instantly. If Hearst couldn't have a career in politics, as far as his personal life
he was going to have his cake and eat it too. He just had young Marion move
in with him and never divorced wife Millicent Hearst who kept her dignity
despite public humiliation. Caroline Yeager plays Millicent and she has one
telling scene with Robert Mitchum.
Robert Mitchum might not have been my first choice in casting William Randolph Hearst. But his portrayal does capture the ego of the man who lived
like a king, even to constructing his own palace in California called San Simeon.
Virginia Madsen plays Marion Davies and from all accounts Marion was a gracious and fun loving woman. Her best films in my opinion were some of
her sound features where in a few she showed a natural gift for comedy. A
gift that WR only reluctantly had her show. He wanted her to be an eternal
virginal little girl on screen like Mary Pickford. But Pickford and Davies both
grew up in their roles.
I also have to mention Doris Belack who played a young Louella Parsons, the
first and maybe the greatest of Hollywood gossip columnists. With the
Hearst chain behind her Parsons was a most powerful woman in Hollywood
and she could make or break careers. She was a big influence in making
Marion Davies the star she became. I only wish that the film had mentioned
her husband who was a doctor that specialized in social disease. In his hands
passed some of the most well known private parts in the country and therefore
he had an unimpeachable source for gossipy blind items for his wife. Belack's
Louella had a lot of bite.
The Hearst And Davies Affair is a quality bit of TV film making and not to be
missed by fans of Robert Mitchum or Virginia Madsen.
