Audrey Hepburn A-Z: E is for...

E is for...Early Movies!

via televandalist

Audrey Hepburn's ascent in Hollywood truly began with Roman Holiday, but her early films put her on a trajectory towards worldwide acclaim. Today, we're going to look at the handful of movies she made between 1951 and 1952 and how a chance meeting with a famed French writer launched her into stardom. 

In the two years before she reached international superstardom with Roman Holiday (for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and a slew of other awards), Audrey made bit appearances in mostly British films, stealing scenes here and there as she earned extra cash to support herself while she tried her hand at becoming a ballerina. 

In total, she made seven movies: One Wild Oat, Young Wives' Tale, Laughter in Paradise, The Lavender Hill Mob, Secret People, Monte Carlo Baby and the simultaneously-filmed French version of the same film, Nous irons à Monte Carlo (English: We Go to Monte Carlo). 

One Wild Oat (1951)

Audrey appears very, very briefly as a hotel receptionist in One Wild Oat, a comedy about a father trying to reveal his daughter's boyfriend's shady past. The film starred Stanley Holloway, who, 13 years later, would play Audrey's father in My Fair Lady (and earn an Oscar nomination). 

Also appearing as an extra was Roger Moore, who became a close friend of Audrey's, though they never starred in another film together. They did charity work together through UNICEF and he attended her funeral in 1993. In an interview in 2009, he said of Audrey, "She gave more of herself than you can ever imagine and touched our lives. It was awful to see her health decline and her body fail but I’m so very grateful that she changed the course of my life."

Young Wives' Tale (1951)

As a shy lodger moving into a house with two couples, Audrey yet again plays a minor role in this British comedy that received great reviews from film critics, though Audrey's experience was less than stellar, in her own remembrance. 

Audrey later said that Young Wives' Tale "was the only unhappy experience I ever had making a picture," and that the director, Henry Cass, found fault in everything she did. He didn't like her accent, or the way she played any scene, and even though the rest of the cast would stand up for her, he never relented. 

Laughter in Paradise (1951)

In Laughter in Paradise, a prankster millionaire who requires his heirs to carry out practical jokes in order to receive their inheritances. It was the fourth most popular movie of 1951 at the British box office. 

Audrey's brief appearance as a cigarette girl was the second part she was offered. She'd initially been offered a major role, but because she had committed to appearing in a stage play, she was unavailable and took the role as a cigarette girl instead. The film stars Hugh Griffith, who later played Audrey's eccentric father in How to Steal a Million. 

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

This 1951 British classic is considered one of the best British films of all time, and starred Sir Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway. The plot surrounds two men smuggling gold bars out of the country, and Audrey makes a brief appearance at the beginning of the film. 

Audrey again was meant to play a larger part in this film, but stage work prevented her from more than a glorified walk-on part as Chiquita, a love interest for Guinness. 

Secret People (1952)

As Nora Brentano, Audrey the dancer got a chance to shine with two ballet sequences. Audrey's appearance in Secret People was her biggest role to date, and helped lead her to Roman Holiday when one of its screenwriters did a screen test with Audrey and sent it to William Wyler, who said that Paramount executives were interested in casting her. 

Monte Carlo Baby // Nous irons à Monte Carlo (1951)

Audrey Hepburn was the only one from the English cast of Monte Carlo Baby to also appear in its French-language counterpart Nous irons à Monte Carlo, and it was during filming on the French Riviera that she had a fateful, unplanned run-in with French writer Colette that changed her life.

The two films were shot simultaneously, and when the cast and crew were filming a scene at the Hôtel de Paris, Colette wandered onto the set and saw a young woman she knew would be the perfect Gigi in an upcoming Broadway adaptation of her classic novel: Audrey. She set the ball rolling that would eventually lead to Audrey's Broadway debut, but before that, she had to convince Audrey that she could do it. 

Audrey met with Colette that same night in her hotel room and listed off all the reasons why she couldn't star in Gigi, but Colette shot every one of them down. They talked about anything and everything, and when the night ended, Colette gifted her with a signed portrait that read: "To Audrey Hepburn - the treasure I found on the beach." 

Audrey bounced from the filming of Monte Carlo Baby and Nous irons à Monte Carlo straight into pre-production on Gigi, and had signed on for Roman Holiday, which would be delayed while they waited for her Broadway contract to expire. Suddenly Audrey found herself in high demand!

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Have you seen any of Audrey's early films? Which one is your favourite? 

Come back soon for the letter F!