Celebrating the many faces of Gregory Peck

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s film department is celebrating the life and career of the actor with a two week-retrospective, “Gregory Peck: An Actor and a Gentleman,” which kicks off tonight at the Leo S. Bing Theatre with two of his earliest films, “Spellbound” from 1945 and 1947’s “Gentleman’s Agreement.”

Peck, one of Hollywood’s favorite sons, died in June at 87. He was a rugged leading man who brought honesty, conviction and decency to his roles, especially in his Oscar-winning turn as the noble Southern attorney and loving father Atticus Finch in 1962’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” An adept romantic comedian, Peck also demonstrated that he could play flawed, difficult, even evil characters.

A good example of that surprising range is “Spellbound,” in which Alfred Hitchcock cast Peck in one of his most vulnerable, romantic roles -- John Ballantine, a paranoid amnesiac who may or may not have murdered the man he’s impersonating, a famous psychiatrist who has been hired to replace the retiring head of a mental institution. Ingrid Bergman plays a beautiful doctor at the asylum who falls in love with him. Back in 1945, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther said of Peck: “His performance, restrained and refined, is the proper counter to Miss Bergman’s exquisite role.”

By way of contrast, Peck brings a real earnestness to his role in “Gentleman’s Agreement” playing a journalist who poses as a Jew to write an undercover story on anti-Semitism. This social-conscious drama won several Oscars, including best film and best director (Elia Kazan). Though the film seems heavy-handed and simplistic these days, “Gentleman’s Agreement” was one of Hollywood’s early attempts at exploring anti-Semitism. The film brought Peck his third nomination for best actor. On Saturday, LACMA presents “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the hauntingly beautiful adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel set in the 1930s. It’s Peck’s best-known film, but Universal was originally thinking of Rock Hudson for the part of Finch, a soft-spoken man of moral fortitude and strong convictions, who defends a black man (Brock Peters) unjustly accused of raping a white woman (Colin Wilcox). Peck’s scenes in the courtroom are masterful; his moments with his children, Jem (Phillip Alford) and Scout (Mary Badham), are some of the most tender ever caught on screen. Adapted by Horton Foote and directed by Robert Mulligan, “Mockingbird” also features Robert Duvall in his film debut as the mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. Elmer Bernstein supplied the exquisite score.

Saturday’s second feature is a rarely seen British film, 1953’s “The Million Pound Note,” released here as “Man With a Million.” In this comedy based on a Mark Twain story, “The Million-Pound Bank Note,” Peck plays a penniless American stranded in London who is given a million-pound note he can’t cash. Ronald Neame directed.

The Oct. 24 double bill features two of Peck’s best romantic comedies from the 1950s: “Roman Holiday” and “Designing Woman,” though he takes a back seat to Audrey Hepburn’s luminous Oscar-winning turn in 1953’s “Roman Holiday.”

William Wyler’s magical comedy wouldn’t have worked without the presence of Peck as a story-hungry American reporter working in Rome who discovers that a visiting princess (Hepburn) has sneaked out of the palace to sightsee on her own. Peck decides to become Hepburn’s guide around the Eternal City. Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart were scheduled to reunite three years after “Rear Window” for the 1957 romance, “Designing Woman.” But Kelly left the business when she married Prince Rainier and Stewart decided not to do the film. Peck and Lauren Bacall make a perfect screen couple in this frothy Vincente Minnelli farce, sort of an updated “Woman of the Year.” Peck plays an unsophisticated sports reporter who marries a hoity-toity fashion designer (Bacall). George Wells won an Oscar for his sparkling screenplay.

Peck plays a bad guy, albeit a very sexy, charismatic bad guy, in the sprawling 1946 Western epic, “Duel in the Sun,” which screens Oct. 25. Produced by David O. Selznick -- it was to have been a western version of “Gone With the Wind” -- the extravagant Technicolor production was dubbed “Lust in the Dust” when it was released. Peck has a field day playing Lewt, the ill-tempered son of a land-grubbing rancher (Lionel Barrymore). Lewt has his eyes on Pearl (Jennifer Jones), a temptress who comes to live on the ranch. Joseph Cotten and Lillian Gish (in an Oscar-nominated performance) also star. King Vidor is the credited director, though many uncredited directors had their hands in the production.

In the evening’s second feature, Henry King’s classic 1950 western, “The Gunfighter,” Peck gives one of his best and most underrated performances. Despite its acclaim, “The Gunfighter” was not a big hit upon release; Fox, the studio that produced the film, felt that audiences stayed away because of Peck’s bushy mustache. Peck plays Jimmy Ringo, an aging gunslinger who is tired of his life of violence and wants to hang up his guns and reunite with his estranged wife. Though he is playing essentially a “bad guy,” Peck imbues Jimmy with a sense of morality that makes him heroic. The exciting 1961 action-adventure “The Guns of Navarone,” which screens on Oct. 31, gives Peck a chance to play a real man’s man, a mountain climber who reluctantly becomes the leader of a group of Allied soldiers on a perilous World War II mission.

The Peck tribute concludes Nov. 1 with two thrillers, 1962’s “Cape Fear” and 1965’s “Mirage.” Directed by J. Lee Thompson, “Cape Fear” is far superior to Martin Scorsese’s violent 1991 remake, which featured Peck in a cameo. In the original, Peck plays a loving husband and father with impeccable moral integrity, a prosecutor who finds himself and his family stalked by a sadistic ex-con (a delicious Robert Mitchum) he had sent to prison. Peck gives a multilayered performance as an upright citizen who turns into a vigilante to save his family.

The Peck retrospective that begins with the actor playing an amnesiac ends with his playing yet another in “Mirage.” Deftly directed by Edward Dmytryk, “Mirage” finds Peck playing a New York accountant who suffers from memory loss after the building he’s in has a power blackout.

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An Actor and a Gentleman’

Where: Leo S. Bing Theatre, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd.

When: Fridays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.

Ends: Nov. 1

Price: $8 for general admission; $6 for museum and AFI members, seniors 62 and over and students with valid ID

Contact: (323) 857-6010 or go to www.lacma.org

Schedule:

Tonight: “Spellbound,” “Gentleman’s Agreement”

Saturday: “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Million Pound Note”

Oct. 24: “Roman Holiday,” “Designing Woman”

Oct. 25: “Duel in the Sun,” “The Gunfighter”

Oct. 31: “The Guns of Navarone”

Nov. 1: “Cape Fear,” “Mirage”