UNDER MY SKIN featured Orley Lindgren as Julie’s son. This is the first of three posts on this film.
The female lead was French actress, Micheline Prelle (AKA Micheline Presle) shown below. It was based on “My Old Man”, a short story from Ernest Hemingway. Julie also did THE BREAKING POINT which was another Hemingway story and filmed next after this one.
Hemingway also influenced Julie’s movie before this one, WE WERE STRANGERS. In trivia from the IMdb: “One of the writers, Peter Viertel, wrote a chapter in his book Dangerous Friends about how he and John Huston wrote the screenplay for We Were Strangers, including two weeks in Cuba with Ernest Hemingway. According to Viertel, Hemingway suggested ending the film as it occurred in reality: with the death of the revolutionaries. Instead, an alternative ending was supplied by Ben Hecht.”
See UNDER MY SKIN, the full movie on YouTube and a recap from a movie buff here. And while I’m at it, here is a very odd and different film trailer.
As a Method actor, John Garfield was likely putting himself in a place that brought on these tears above. In UNDER MY SKIN, he sends his son back to the states because he is trying to give him a better life. Watch the scene.
Some photos from Julie’s antepenultimate film - third from last. Here is a link to his filmography.
He plays horse jockey, Dan Butler, who can’t seem to get a break. The film’s action takes place post WWII in Merano, Italy and Paris, France. So, it’s a chance to hear Julie break out his Italian and French dialogue.
This was one of only two movie performances playing a father. The other was THE BREAKING POINT. Although Mickey Borden’s (FOUR DAUGHTERS) daughter was born posthumously in FOUR WIVES, and Rims Rosson’s wife was expecting at the end of SATURDAY’S CHILDREN. So was Lana Turners character, Cora in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE. 😉
The actor was father to three children, Kathryn, David, and Julie.
From the film’s page at TCM: “Studio shooting began on September 12, 1949, but on 25 Sept, after a game of tennis, John Garfield suffered myocardial muscle strain, an early manifestation of the heart condition which would eventually cause his death, at age 39, on May 21, 1952.”
When my husband and I watched this recently, we were surprised. In the last scene, there were no efforts to revive a character (guess who) as they were dying!?!
