When people talk about child actors there is an unfortunate archetype that enters our mind. A precocious pre-pubescent, schooled only in being a star, possibly with pushy parents who slowly goes off the rails. Bobby Driscoll is almost a prototype of that image.
He first appeared in Hollywood at the tender age of 6 in a bit role in the Margaret O'Brien vehicle Lost Angel. From there his star ascended. In 1946 he appeared in the Disney's Song of the South with James Baskett, in '48 he was joined by Burl Ives and Beulah Bondi for So Dear to My Heart. In 1949 his crowning achievement was The Window, earning him an honorary Academy Award for a juvenile performance. This was followed by Treasure Island with Robert Newton; one of Disney's first all live action adventures.
Over the next 3 years Driscoll continued to make an impact in films such as When I grow Up, The Happy Time and the animated Peter Pan; then he began to age. A bad case of acne changed his face and he was no longer a cute little boy. Disney cut his contract and without work he faced torment at school for his failed movie career.
The rest of his life reads like a soap opera; elopement, drug abuse, imprisonment, Andy Warhol and finally an early death. His body found in a derelict tenement in New York in 1968, buried in a paupers grave and only identified late the following year. In this post I will review his performances in The Window and Treasure Island and see if there are any hints of why what happened to Bobby happened the way it did.
The Window
1949. Dir: Ted Tetzlaff. Starring: Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman. ●●●○○
Adapted from Cornell Woolrich's The Boy who Cried Murder this is a loose re-telling of Aesops Boy who cried wolf fable. Bobby plays a habitual liar, prone to making up stories involving bandits and Indians, who witnesses an actual murder. Only when he tries to tell his parents and the police is roundly ignored. Of course the killers find out that Bobby knows and the third act involves the killers chasing trapping and attempting to kill Bobby.
Set in a hot and sweaty New York Summer the action takes place over 48 hours, mostly at night. The supporting cast are dependable character types (Hale you probably recognise as Della Street from Perry Mason, Kennedy received 5 Oscar nominations during the 50s), but it's Bobby's movie.
There's a real naturalistic quality to his performance. In the early scenes he's an outsider compared to his peers - shooting toy guns at them whilst they play together. It's easy to see why they ostracise him, the first opportunity he has he spins a yarn about how his family are moving to his Dad's ranch. The other kids are sceptical but must believe it enough for the Landlord to hear about and bring round prospective tenants later that night. Bobby's face as he tells his stories and reacts to the landlord's visit is priceless and instantly recognisable.
All kids live in a fantasy world of sorts and we can relate to Bobby's discomfort that some of his more elaborate tales are actually believed. Whether he meant to foll the other kids scarcely matters because when he tells his Dad he didn't we can see he's being genuine.
Of course it's that night that he sees the murder. The fear on his face as he witnesses it is palpable. The scene that really gets me is when he realises the Catch 22. His parent's want him to tell the truth and to tell then he didn't see the murder. He wants to be honest and therefore can't lie and tell them it didn't happen which is all they want to hear. There's real pain in his knotted forehead as he realises there is no way out of that dilemma.
Does the Window offer any portents into the future of Bobby Driscoll. In retrospect we could say that Bobby playing dead in the deserted apartments at the beginning is an eerie foreshadowing of the circumstances of his death, that the way he is excluded by the other kids and by the police is equal to the way the Studios wouldn't touch him once he first got caught up with drugs and faced goal time. This is a fantasy though, we are making the future events fit with the evidence on screen not the other way round. The Window is purely a testament to Bobby's talent not his fall from grace.
Whet then about
Treasure Island
1950. Dir: Byron Haskin. Starring: Bobby Driscoll, Robert Newton, Basil Sydney, Walter Fitzgerald and Denis O'Dea. ●●○○○
Everyone knows the story of Treasure Island. And in 1950 there will have few boys who hadn't stayed up all night reading Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of pirates, buried treasure and derring-do.
In short Jim is passed a map of buried treasure by a dying pirate. Setting off with Squire Trelawney and the local doctor they charter a ship and set off to find the gold. A good proportion of the crew turn out to be pirates led by the seemingly friendly and definitely charismatic Long John Silver (one-legged and with a parrot - yes it's pirate stereotype heaven).
Interestingly Jim finds out and the Captain believes him when he tells him - proving he hasn't seen the Window - but it's too late. The crew mutiny, many secondary characters die. The ship, the treasure and the boy shop hands many times until at the end Silver rows off alone with a good proportion of the bounty. Safe but many miles from land.
The film is fun in a boy's own kind of way, and the time goes by quickly enough, but all the sails unfurling and "ah Jim Lad's" can't hide the fact that Bobby is a lacklustre lead.
As natural as he appeared in The Window Bobby seems to be uncomfortable as Jim. Of course the story is rooted not only in the past but also on a far less realistic basis. It's possible that Bobby just didn't understand what Jim was thinking and feeling. As a character he comes across all whiny and pathetic - not how I imagined Jim when I read the book. There's a lot to compete against too - Robert Newton (who allegedly spent most of the shoot drunk) takes every opportunity to chew the scenery, as does Walter Fitzgerald as the squire and a number of supporting pirates. Bobby just melts into the background against all this talent.
It is here we begin to see what fate may make of Bobby Driscoll and what his downfall may be. Tragically it's his limitations as an actor that will undo him. In upper working class New York Driscoll did well, in 18th century Britain he's completely lost. There were issues in the filming stages as well - Bobby didn't have a permit to work in the UK (where Treasure Island was filmed) so production was delayed and the costs grew whilst the picture was finished. In some exterior scenes other boys had to be used as doubles in order to complete the shoot. Through no fault of his own Bobby became known as trouble.
A few years later, with his looks gone and his lack of range showing it would have been easy for the studios, especially the penny pinching Disney, to cut up the contracts.
Of course the stereotype doesn't always hold. For every Bobby Driscoll there's a Mickey Rooney who successfully transfers to adult parts or a Shirley Temple who knows when it's time to move on to something else. However it's the tragedies that stick in our minds most, and surely Bobby's life is one of the biggest tragedies Hollywood has ever seen.
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