“We Are Family Blogathon”–Olivia de Havilland & Joan Fontaine

To say that sisters, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine, did not get along is putting it mildly. These two women were involved in a lifelong feud that only officially ended with Fontaine’s passing in 2013 at the age of 96. However, I’m sure it picked up again with de Havilland’s death in 2020 at age 104.

Olivia de Havilland was born in Tokyo, Japan on July 1, 1916. Her sister, Joan, was born only 15 months later, also in Tokyo, on October 22, 1917. Even as young children, the sisters were constantly bickering and torturing each other. In a 1978 interview with People magazine while promoting her memoir Bed of Roses, Joan claimed that Olivia would constantly try to scare her with dramatic readings of the crucifixion scene in the Bible. In retaliation, Joan would mimic and mock everything Olivia said. On another occasion, Joan tried to pull Olivia into a pool by her ankle, but Olivia put up a fight. This skirmish culminated with Joan breaking her collarbone against the ledge of the pool. Yikes.

In the same 1978 interview, Joan makes a comment about her and Olivia’s mother, Lillian Fontaine de Havilland, and her reaction to seeing daughter Joan in her film, Jane Eyre. According to Joan, Lillian’s response to her daughter’s performance was that “[Joan] was defeated by her beauty.” Joan then states that her mother could never express pride in either her or Olivia.

While I would not even attempt to pretend that I know about psychology or psychiatry, from what I know about the sisters is that both women seemed to be engaged in a lifelong rivalry and attempts to one-up each other. One has to wonder whether this was a subconscious response to their mother’s inability to be proud of either of her daughters. Joan was quoted as saying “Olivia has always said I was first at everything. I got married first, got an Academy Award first, had a child first. If I die [first], she’ll be furious, because again I’ll have got there first!” For the record, Joan did die first.

During the 1942 Oscars, Joan and Olivia were seated at the same table. Both sisters were nominated for Best Actress–Joan for Suspicion and Olivia for Hold Back the Dawn. Joan won. In her memoir, Joan wrote: “All the animus we’d felt toward each other as children, the hair-pullings, the savage wrestling matches, the time Olivia fractured my collarbone, all came rushing back in kaleidoscopic imagery. My paralysis was total.” At that moment, the sisters moved past mere sibling rivalry, to a full-fledged war.

The final nail in the coffin in Joan and Olivia’s relationship, according to Joan, came in 1975 when their mother passed. Olivia was executor of the estate. She also handled their mother’s remains, including cremation, without involving Joan in any of the decisions. Olivia didn’t even invite Joan to the memorial service! Joan attended anyway. In the 1978 interview with People, Joan states that she hadn’t seen Olivia recently and didn’t intend to.

While Joan seemed more than willing to discuss her feud with her sister, Olivia did not seem to want to discuss it. Very little information seems to exist telling Joan’s stories from Olivia’s perspective. In 2013 after Joan’s death, Olivia did say that her sister was a “was a brilliant, multi-talented person, but with an astigmatism in her perception of people and events which often caused her to react in an unfair and even injurious way.” Joan was also quoted as saying “I regret that I remember not one act of kindness from Olivia all through my childhood.” Olivia responded stating that “I loved her so much as a child.” She also made comments stating that her behavior was defensive and she didn’t instigate anything with Joan.

To their credit, it doesn’t appear that Joan and Olivia loathed each other to the point where they wished the other any ill will. During the 1960s, the sisters appeared to be moving towards an amicable reconciliation and perhaps even ::gasp!:: becoming friends. Joan spent Christmas 1961 with Olivia. The two attended an event together in 1967 and were actually seen laughing (!), and Joan came to Olivia’s home in Paris in 1969 to help her with some financial and marital issues. Their mother’s death in 1975 killed the relationship. It has been also said that despite their differences, Joan and Olivia respected each other and were proud of the each other’s careers and lives.

Personally, I could never pick one sister over the other, as I enjoy watching both women in their respective films. I don’t even feel that one is better than the other. I feel that their onscreen personas and the types of films they made are different enough that both ladies can stand on their own. In fact, I think today after I finish this article, I may do an Olivia and Joan double feature in honor of this article and Joan’s recent birthday.

My Top 5 Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine Performances:

Olivia de Havilland

1. The Heiress (1949). Olivia’s performance in this film is brilliant. At the beginning of the film, her character, Catherine Sloper, is meek, weak, quiet, mousy, and very unsure of herself and everything. However, once she is betrayed by Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), her entirely personality changes. Morris’ betrayal confirms Catherine’s father’s (Ralph Richardson) opinion that he is only after her money. After this climactic scene, Catherine’s entire demeanor changes. She is now bitter, cynical, angry, and confident that she will not let anyone close to her again. Her meek, mousy voice changes to a deeper, more angry and bitter tone. Mariah, lock the door, indeed.
   
2. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). In this classic action-adventure film, Olivia plays Maid Marian to frequent co-star Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood. She gives a beautiful performance as the ward of King Richard who falls in love with the former Saxon-turned outlaw. Sir Guy of Gisborne (Basil Rathbone) who is in love with Marian and is power-hungry with Prince John (Claude Rains). Marian bravely defies the Norman rulers to aid Robin Hood and the outlaws. She risks being put to death for treason, all because she believes in Robin Hood and his cause.
   
3. Hold Back the Dawn (1941). In this film, Olivia gives an amazing performance as Emmy Brown, a young teacher from California who meets Romanian immigrant (Charles Boyer), Georges Iscovescu, in Mexico. Just prior to meeting Emmy, Georges met up with former dancing partner, Anita Dixon (Paulette Goddard), who explains how she circumvented the American immigration rule which requires immigrants to obtain a quota number. These waiting periods can take up to eight years. Anita says she married an American and was admitted into the US right away. When Georges meets Emmy, he sees her as his ticket into the US. His ultimate plan is to immigrate to the US and reunite with Anita. Of course, when Emmy falls in love with him and later learns of his plan, it is pure heartache.
   
4. Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964). This film reunited Olivia with friend and former co-star, Bette Davis. Olivia was brought in to replace Joan Crawford, who memorably appeared and fought with Bette in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). (Can you imagine if Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine had appeared in ‘Baby Jane’ ?) Anyway, in ‘Charlotte,’ Bette takes on the role of the helpless protagonist whose married fiancé (!), John Mayhew, was murdered in 1927. He and Charlotte were attending a party and planned to elope. Charlotte’s father did not approve. For 37 years, the community has believed that Charlotte murdered John. She was never arrested or tried, due to lack of evidence. Olivia plays Charlotte’s cousin Miriam, who was also present at that party. Miriam comes to stay with Charlotte at the large family estate. During Miriam’s stay, strange things start happening to Charlotte which cause her (and other people) to start questioning her sanity.
   
5. Dodge City (1939). In another pairing with Errol Flynn, Olivia plays Abbie Irving, a young woman who has recently moved to Dodge City, Kansas. Her brother, Lee (William Lundigan), was supposed to move with her but was killed during the trip from the East Coast to Kansas. He was a drunk and incited a stampede and was crushed to death. Accompanying Abbie and the rest of the settlers is Wade Hatton (Flynn) and his gang Rusty (Alan Hale) and Tex (Guinn “Big Boy” Williams). In a classic Western trope, Wade is quickly appointed Sheriff of Dodge City to clean up the town. His main goal is to drive Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot) and his gang out of town. Soon after moving to Dodge City, Abbie gets a job at a newspaper operated by Joe Clemens (Frank McHugh). Her role at the newspaper ultimately puts her in the position of having a lot of information (and a venue to publish it) about Surrett and his gang. Of course, she and Wade are also romantically involved. This is a fun Olivia performance as she stands up to Wade’s attempts to put her in her place and she gets to play an atypical female role in a Western. No saloon singer for Olivia!

Joan Fontaine

1. Rebecca (1940). Despite having won the Oscar for Suspicion, Rebecca is the ultimate Joan Fontaine role. She should have won her Oscar for this part instead. In this film, Joan plays the second Mrs. de Winter who marries recent widower, Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) after a quick whirlwind relationship. The newlyweds return to Maxim’s estate, Manderley, where he previously resided with his deceased wife, Rebecca. The second Mrs. de Winter (whose first name is never mentioned), is constantly reminded of Rebecca’s presence throughout the home. Making matters worse is the incredibly creepy Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), who makes it her life’s work to remind the second Mrs. de Winter that she pales in comparison to Rebecca. Mrs. Danvers was seemingly in love with Rebecca and always looms in the background while the second Mrs. de Winter attempts to make Manderley her home. Joan Fontaine gives a fantastic performance as the mousy, nervous, anxious second Mrs. de Winter who seemingly is always on edge and feels in constant competition with a dead woman whose presence is felt throughout the entire film.
   
2. Ivy (1947). In this film, Joan plays the titular Ivy who is always scheming to get the finer things in life. Tired of her current husband Jervis’ (Richard Ney) inability to provide her with the things she wants, Ivy has her sights set on the wealthy Miles Rushworth (Herbert Marshall). She and Miles start going together, but he ultimately bails on the relationship when he learns she’s married. At the same time, she’s also having an affair with Dr. Roger Gretorex (Patric Knowles). Seeing that her marriage to Jervis is an obstacle in her quest for a better lifestyle, she decides to poison him and pin the murder on Roger. The plot ultimately succeeds, but then things start unraveling for Ivy. This is a great movie. Joan is able to use her typical quiet, somewhat mousy demeanor to her advantage to make Ivy seem unassuming at first. This makes her transformation into the greedy and murderous Ivy even more shocking.
   
3. Born to Be Bad (1950). In this film, Joan plays another schemer, much like Ivy, but without the murderous streak. She plays Christabel Carey, a young woman who comes to live with her uncle’s employee, Donna Foster (Joan Leslie) while she attends business school. However, from the beginning, Christabel is revealed to be a schemer. The most innocuous thing she does is arriving a day before she’s due to do so. Almost on day one, Christabel has flirted with Donna’s fiancé Curtis (Zachary Scott), painter Gabriel Broome (Mel Ferrer), and author Nick Bradley (Robert Ryan). Christabel initially has her sights set on Curtis and starts to plant seeds in Donna’s mind that he might not be the one. However, he is “the one” for Christabel. Much like Ivy, Joan Fontaine’s quiet, unassuming, somewhat timid demeanor works to her advantage. She’s able to move in on Donna’s man (and the other men) quickly and subtly, without being overt.
   
4. Suspicion (1941). While I hate that Cary Grant calls Joan Fontaine “monkeyface” throughout the entire film, I will say that Joan is very good. Again, she’s got the timid, scared woman role down to a tee. In this film, she suspects that new husband Cary Grant wants to kill her and spends much of the film on edge, thinking that everything he does is part of an overall plan to kill her. This role really is an extension of her part in Rebecca, except without Mrs. Danvers and without Rebecca. She is incredibly nervous and frightened, which is nicely juxtaposed by Cary Grant’s cool, calm, and collected demeanor.
   
5. Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948). This is such a fantastic film and an excellent part for Joan. In this film, Joan plays a woman, Lisa, who some years prior to the start of the film had fallen in love with Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan), a pianist. Lisa first saw Stefan when she was a teenager and spent many years pining after him from afar. When she’s an adult and working as a a dress model in Vienna, she stands outside Stefan’s window. While he doesn’t try to pursue anything with her, he finds himself strongly drawn to her. They eventually start dating and fall in love. The film uses a letter written by Lisa in the present as a framing device for the flashback sequences in the film. The events leading up to the beginning of the film are revealed throughout Lisa’s reading of her letter. Joan gives a brilliant, heartwarming and heartbreaking performance as the young woman desperately in love with a man. She gets to play a role outside her usual timid woman, and instead gets to play a romantic, passionate, optimistic woman.