The Unusual Charm of Valentina Cortese

Valentina Cortese is an Italian actress who's been in countless movies in Italy and the U.S. I've only seen a few, but two stand out in their unusual roles for women in the classic Hollywood studio era (or perhaps, near its end): Thieves' Highway (1949), directed by Jules Dassin, and The House on Telegraph Hill (1951), directed by Robert Wise.

The first is an unusual and tough drama about a WWII veteran (played by Richard Conte) trying to breaking into the vegetable-trucking business in Northern California. It's great on its on merits, but the part that's relevant here is how Cortese, playing a 'bad girl' named Rica, is the sympathetic female lead, and Barbara Lawrence (as All-American blonde Polly Faber) turns out to be a shallow twerp. How refreshing, and probably attributable to the mature viewpoint of writer A.I. Bezzerides. I was relieved and surprised when Rica didn't have to take a sacrificial bullet or step aside nobly so Polly could take over.*In The House on Telegraph Hill, she plays a more conventional role as a new bride who's being mysteriously threatened (à la Gaslight or Rebecca) in post-war San Francisco (also a setting of the first movie). What makes it unusual is that she's a European concentration camp survivor who's stolen the identity of a dead friend so that she can get to the U.S. Richard Basehart (to whom she was married in real life, for nine years) plays the threatening husband. Again our protagonist is an unusual character for viewer identification: she's done something 'wrong', but who could blame her? In Thieves, she may be easy, but she's nice, and loyal (though fortunately not self-sacrificing, so she doesn't have to 'pay' for being who she is). Cortese is also unusual for actresses of the time--non-busty and unusual-featured, she's always interesting to look at, even if you can't decide whether she's actually attractive or not.

*I'm still annoyed at Gregory Peck for throwing Celeste Holm over in Gentleman's Agreement for lame Dorothy McGuire.